Andrew Wirtanen is a usability specialist in Cary, NC More »

WebHostingBuzz: The Worst Web Host Money Can Buy

Looking for a web host? Don’t even consider WebHostingBuzz. I hosted with them for over a year, and I got used to the unusual amount of server downtime. They advertise 99.95% uptime, but in reality it is more like 60-70%. Looking back at my ticket log, I submitted over 28 tickets in one year informing them that the server was down. That number is in addition to the number of times I noticed it was down and didn’t submit and a ticket, and number of times that the server was down and noted on their server status website: http://whbstatus.com/

Now, here is my story about how WebHostingBuzz destroyed two of my websites:

Last week: I noticed that some of my images on my Andrewwirtanen.com blog were gone. I had used the Wordpress uploader to put them in my entries, and the files were nowhere to be found.

18 Apr 2006 06:48 PM: I noticed that a whole domain that I had created two months ago called Cape06.com was not working. In fact, the whole “Cape06″ directory did not even exist. My main blog Andrewwirtanen.com still worked. I remembered seeing a WebHostingBuzz success story about how they restored data, so I put in a ticket requesting them to restore it.

19 Apr 2006 03:39 AM: WebHostingBuzz replies and claims to have restored Cape06.com. The directory is back, but my main blog Andrewwirtanen.com now has an Internal Server Error.

19 Apr 2006 01:01 PM: My old ticket was not getting any attention, so I submitted a new ticket requesting to restore my main blog, Andrewwirtanen.com.

19 Apr 2006 01:09 PM: WebHostingBuzz replies with the following:

Hi,

The site andrewwirtanen.com is pointing to the server correctly. However, the index page of the site is not uploaded correctly. Please check the URL http://www.andrewwirtanen.com/test.html which shows the test page we have uploaded fine.

Regards
Ullas
WebHostingBuzz.com Support.

19 Apr 2006 05:17 PM: I reply and explain my situation further:

My site was working fine yesterday, and has been a Wordpress-based blog for over a year. I did not modify the index page by myself, and no one else works on the site.

When I try to go to the admin page of Wordpress (http://www.andrewwirtanen.com/wp-admin) it tries to redirect to the admin of Wordpress on my other domain, Cape06.com–which is also not working.

19 Apr 2006 08:24 PM: After receiving no response to that ticket, I submit another one:

I am submitting this ticket because my other tickets have gone unanswered. Please see JHD-549317 and QPJ-793111.

One of the sites I host (Cape06.com) dissapeared from my server the other day. I submitted a ticket to restore it, and the data appears to be restored, but the process of restoring the data apparently took down my main domain (andrewwirtanen.com). I also noticed missing images and files I had uploaded to andrewwirtanen.com, but that is no big deal.

Currently, both Cape06.com and andrewwirtanen.com do not work.

I have maintained a Wordpress blog on andrewwirtanen.com for over a year with WHB.

20 Apr 2006 03:37 AM: WebHostingBuzz replies:

Dear Andy,

We have fixed teh domain http://andrewwirtanen.com/ .

The domain Cape06.com is not set up in the server, please create the same from your CPanel.

Regards,
Jisha Ashok
http://webhostingbuzz.com

20 Apr 2006 10:03 AM: After checking frequently for a reply, I finally see the reply above from WHB. I check my site in a browser, and see that my blog (andrewwirtanen.com) has been replaced with my other one (cape06.com). Unbelievable. I reply quickly:

The domain is not fixed. Now andrewwirtanen.com goes to cape06.com!

I maintained an entire Wordpress blog at the root of andrewwirtanen.com for over a year.

How can Cape06.com not be configured? It has been working correctly for over 2 months, and dissapeared randomly a couple days ago.

20 Apr 2006 02:47 PM: After receiving no response to the message above, I leave them with this:

I’m switching to Dreamhost.

Thanks for screwing up my site!

In summary, don’t use WebHostingBuzz. $3/month looks like a great deal, but you’ll risk having your site deleted by an incompetent support team like mine was.

[...] This is the main reason why I use Dreamhost for my web hosting. Looks like Andy had to learn the hard way. [...]

We are a reseller of webhostingbuzz.com. Over 7-10 of our websites have been down for over 16 hours. We don’t even know what is going on even after visiting whbstatus.com I would switch to a different company for sure. Webhostingbuzz sucks.

Thanks for the info man. I was about to switch to Webhostingbuzz…

Which company’s hosting you are using right now ? How is it ?

I am using Dreamhost.com right now. Visit slickdeals.net, retailmenot.com or search Google to find a coupon code for their hosting services. My Dreamhost account name is “andwir” if you can enter in a referral ID.

Dreamhost isn’t perfect, but they are the best I have found. I certainly have a lot less downtime than I did on WebHostingBuzz. Some people also like iPowerWeb.

Do not even think to switch to ipowerweb! I am having same issues as Andrew but with ipowerweb. It must be some of their scripts that they are running ( the software on both companies could be purchased from same company). Anyway, my site has been down some many times, it is not even funny.
I was just about to switch to Webhostingbuzz…but I guess I will look some more.

I bought the monthly special on 08-05-07 and was deceived by sleazy business practices. It says 5 free domains so I thought wow awesome.

Thats when I found out that you had to upgrade to the one year plan for $110 more and then you get the extra year free.

So whatever on 08-20-07 I upgraded and paid the extra $110 and now I have registered a couple of domains. It is now 09-09-07 and yesterday I asked for a refund. Right out they said no because it has been over the 30 day money back guarantee. Which it hasn’t seeing as how I paid the $110 on the 20th. It has only been about 18 or 19 days. And even if they did count it from the 5th that is a month and 3 days…

Their support is horrible and email and cpanel are extremely slow.

I am very angry at them and I regret ever opening an account with them and referring them to a few of my friends. They draw you in with tricky business tactics then “play nice” the first couple of weeks, but it all goes downhill.

Hi Tim, sorry to hear that. I certainly feel your pain. Dreamhost is better, but it is still not the perfect host due to downtime. I am on Dreamhost now and considering switching. Let me know if you come across a better host.

I’m currently using Dreamhost. They are not quite perfect with some slow while accessing control panel and FTP, some downtime. However, they are much more reliable compared to other host such as 1&1. Their customer service is horrible than I ever encounter with.

I never use webhostingbuzz but for $3 monthly is too much cheap. You have got for what you paid. I think the average quality hosting should not less than $10 monthly or more and should not look for any cheaper.