Thought on bluehost

[Janet]

I am considering switching my hosting to bluehost. Does anyone have any experience with this company, good or bad?

[John Scott]

BlueHost is not on my "good host" list.

I'd check reviews of hosts on www.hostdetective.net

[Janet]

Thanks, John. I will check it out.

[bwb]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

BlueHost is not on my "good host" list.

I'd check reviews of hosts on www.hostdetective.net

Cool, is that your site?

I would recommend searching for forums to find reviews usually as top 10 lists are just one persons opinion, if you read webhostingtalk and search there or here or sitepoint you can get a lot of people's opinions. Just remember someone is like 20 times more likely to post if they have a bad exp than a good one.

[John Scott]

Not mine, I believe it's owned by HostGator.

I used to own it.

[WireNine]

Do some search, you will find a lot of negative reviews on them.

[chai714]

Janet,

Granted I'm a newbie here, I have had an excellent experience with Bluehost.

Positives:
- Excellent support - I've called them several times configuring SQL database and php stuff and they solved my problems every time.
- They all speak English - Bluehost doesn't outsource their tech support to some building in India like so many other companies do. They all speak perfect English.
- User Friendly Control Panel - they have a pretty straight-foward control panel that I use almost daily. I think they have a demo of the control panel on their website too - that's what sold me.

Negatives:
- only 1 hosting plan. I inquired about hosting over 10 gig on my server, but was told I would have to purchase another duplicate plan and mirror everything.
- Don't offer 24/7 support. They close at I believe 10 p.m, PST. Ideally, I'd like to have 24/7 support.

Otherwise, it has been an excellent experience. They host my site, customdvdslideshow.com which has a decent loading time IMO.

Good luck and hope this helps!

[Kalina]

Here's a recent review, http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=477646

[chai714]

Colleen,

Thanks for the post.

The CEO of Bluehost started a blog just a few days ago, in which he addresses some issues. I have the link @ home, so when I get home I'll make another post.

Ok, Bluehost.com - one of my complaints was that their support isn't 24/7 and they close at 10 p.m, PST. Apparently, they're going to offer 24/6 support starting very soon. If I recall right, they're going to do that beginning this weekend. Anyhow, I'll post again when I can find his blog.

[chai714]

Bluehost.com CEO's blog: http://mattheaton.com/

BTW, today there was an outage for 45 minutes. This hasn't ever happened before, but he informs users and takes full blame.

[Kalina]

chai714, are you an employee or a customer of Bluehost?

[chai714]

I'm a customer. I'm new at being a webmaster, but it's my first host so I can't really compare it to much. I'll quit raving about them now, since they had a 45 minute outage yesterday . . .

[Kalina]

I wouldn't give a review until I've been with a host for at least 6 months to a year. I should go tell everyone how good Dreamhost is, but you have to use SSH with them and I am not that familiar with it, so it frustrates me in the end.

[coastside]

Originally Posted by Janet

I am considering switching my hosting to bluehost. Does anyone have any experience with this company, good or bad?

Here's my input on Bluehost.

I am a consultant and was hired by my client to handle problems the client was experiencing with the domain. The client was having problems with a high volume of spam mail arriving and had attempted to contact Bluehost regarding this matter, Bluehost was not the source of the spam,but Bluehost was no longer blocking spam to the client's mail box. After repeated and failed attempts to get a response from Bluehost, my client contacted me about it. I suggested moving the website and mail to another hosting service, GKG.net who has an excellent reputation for fast and personal customer support and provides spam filtering as a feature for their service. I called and emailed Bluehost's technical support over the course of about 2 weeks. The domain was coming up for renewal in August and we wanted to make sure we succeeded in tranferring the domain before the expiration date, as my client did not want to renew service with Bluehost. During that time I spoke or corresponded with various people and received very poor and often conflicting assistance regarding our subsequent transfer of the domain, website and mail to GKG.net.Some of the information, provided by Bluehost, as to their requirements to begin the transfer, was very misleading and lead to the domain being blocked from transferring. So that this is clear, the registrant email address on record was no longer valid. I asked Bluehost technical support if we should change that before attempting the transfer, knowing that if an email address on record is wrong, then the subsequent transfer notification email that is sent to the registrant or administrator would not be received and the required response from the registrant or administrator to authorize the transfer would never take place, causing the transfer to fail. The technician stated that we should definitely update the records for both the registrant and the administrator before attempting the transfer. The technician guided me step by step on Bluehost's Website control panel for these steps. In fact the technician also provided step by step advise for cancelling the webhosting on Bluehost and the steps required to release the domain for transfer. When I contacted the registrar, wildwestdomains.com (WWD) concerning the denied transfers, they informed me that bluehost blocked the transfer, stating that the domain had already been transferred in the last 60 days and would not be able to be transferred again for another 60 days. This would in fact have forced my client to have to renew with Bluehost for another year. I advised them that Bluehost was wrong, that no transfer had been made since the domain was original created with Bluehost and that we were wanting to transfer the domain away from Bluehost, because of their incompetent handling of this matter. WWD then advised us that Bluehost had wrongly advised us to change registrant information, and that by doing so ahd in fact locked the domain for 60 days. We would have to take the matter up with Bluehost. Now just so this is clear, Bluehost during the first week of this process, had already authorized the transfer and issued my client the code(s) necessary for WWD to release the domain to GKG.net. When I called Bluehost again regarding WWD's refusal to transfer, I was advised that we had made changes to the registrant information and that was the reason for the denial. I was told to speak with "Joseph" who could "possibly" arrange to fix the problem. I left 2 messages with "Joseph" to call me back. He never did. I then called WWD, and was advised to send an email to generalmanager@wildwestdomains.com regarding our grievance with Bluehost. This email address turned out be invalid. I called WWD again and this time was advised to send the email to president@wildwestdomains.com. This time I got a response that proved to be the nail in the coffin for Bluehost. WWD after reading our lengthy explanation of the problems experienced with Bluehost, agreed to release the domain to GKG. Did the problems stop there? NO! When we had GKG.net re-submit the transfer request, Bluehost again sent email to the client, expressing their concern as to whether the domain transfer should be done and asked the client to access the Bluhost side and go through a rediculous set of steps to process the transfer. My client sent me the email Bluehost sent and asked me to manage it. Believe me when I say, this company definitely does NOT have a well informed technical support staff. We did finally manage to get the transfer completed. The site is now transferred and is running on GKG's servers, email is working. I figured we could move on, knowing that Bluehost and WWD were out of the picture. 2 Days later I received an email from Joseph. Remember him? The person who was supposed to handle it? He informs us that we cannot transfer the domain until September 11th, because the domain is locked for the 60 days because of the change to the registrant information. Is this person an idiot? Does he not even bother to check on the domain's CURRENT status? Hello!, GKG has it already. So I fired off a simple response, something to the effect of, Try doing your job and research the problem BEFORE you send out inaccurate emails. I would like to say this is done, but no.. there's more. My client received another email yesterday. This one tops them all.

"From: BlueHost.Com [mailto:support@bluehost.com]
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 9:39 PM
To: (my clients email address)
Subject: (my client's domain name) Registrar Changes Detected


This is a courtesy note to inform you that (my client's domain name) is no longer
registered through BlueHost.Com.

It has been transfered to another Registrar.
If you wish to have it registered with us again, you'll have to transfer it
back.
And, just to let you know, your domain (my client's domain name) is totally
nonoperational at the moment.
I'm sorry that your new hosting provider isn't working out so well.

You may login to your Domain Manager here if you wish:

https://www.bluehost.com/dm/

You do not need to respond to this message, but if you feel there has been a
mistake, or if you have questions or concerns, please let us know.

Thank you,
Bluehost Support
http://www.BlueHost.Com
email: support@bluehost.com
Toll-Free: (88 401-HOST


Need I say more?

[coastside]

And here is the response I got from Bluehost's President and CEO, Matt Heaton.

"I read your entry and I am sorry for your problems. You never ever had to renew with bluehost for hosting. Your domain was with GoDaddy (WWD) and
THEY are the ones that do not allow it be transferred in the last 60 days, not us. THat is why THEY were able to do it and not us. I read your email and it
is clear that you are new to the domain transfer process and not familiar with the requirements. It is probably best that you moved on to a different host.
We can lead the horse to the water but we can't make it drink. In the end the domain responsibilities lie with you. Good luck with your new host although
I believe you will have problems in the future based on your past.


Matt / Bluehost.com"


Not what I would call an appropriate response, certainly made no attempt to correct the problem from beginning to end

[chai714]

Originally Posted by chai714

Colleen,

Thanks for the post.

The CEO of Bluehost started a blog just a few days ago, in which he addresses some issues. I have the link @ home, so when I get home I'll make another post.

Ok, Bluehost.com - one of my complaints was that their support isn't 24/7 and they close at 10 p.m, PST. Apparently, they're going to offer 24/6 support starting very soon. If I recall right, they're going to do that beginning this weekend. Anyhow, I'll post again when I can find his blog.

Bluehost has gone to 24/7 support now, which is a good thing. Last week, I was having problems FTPing files over to the server (wasn't letting me upload files) so I gave them a call. Turns out I didn't have FrontPage extensions installed. Long story short, we got them installed but now I'm switching to Dreamweaver since MSFT is dropping FrontPage altogether. As far as the support went, I was on hold for approximately 4 minutes before my call was taken. My problem was resolved and I was satisfied with the level of customer service.

[BinkyMelnik]

coastside:

here is the response I got from Bluehost's President and CEO, Matt Heaton

Wow; that's super-rude. I wouldn't expect that kinda behavior from BlueHost at all. That sucks ass.

I had to call BlueHost today because a registrar had me in tears (it's been a three-month battle). Recently, there've been long waits on hold ("You're the eleventh caller"), and lotsa times when I get up to first place, when someone picks up the line, they drop me and I hafta call back ("You're the ninth caller"), but at least when I got through, they dried my tears pretty fast. I usually enjoy talking to them, and since they're in Utah, I sometimes tease 'em a little bit, even. They're cool.

Matt Heaton musta been having his period, though.

[eron7]

Hi,

I've just moved to bluehost hosting last month and I have to say that their support is good

Control panel and fantastico is great! My rating for now is 4.5/5.0
Good choice: 30GB website hosting space, 750 GIGS bandwidth.

[Richie_Ni]

Hostings on Bulehost are very cheap.but haven't used their hosting..I am using HostGator now ...

[cimmeron]

I've used them for 1 site for about 3 months, no problems so far, but I rarely have problems anyway