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By moretti on
I have found a lot of value in the forums, so I wanted to share my personal experience with Hostican:
For over a year I hosted my websites with Hostican. On 12/7/09, at approx. 12pm I realized that my websites had been turned off and were not available. I immediately tried to contact Hostican to resolve the problem by calling their phone line, but only received an answering message and a message that they “We’re Experiencing High Call Volume”. When I went to their website I realized I was unable to login into my account. I continued to call them and sent them inquiries via the contact form on their website.
Please note that on their website they clearly advertise and market that they Guarantee: “24/7/365 Phone & Email Support”.
Despite numerous attempts to contact Hostican throughout 12/7/09 by calling them and emailing them, I was never able to speak to someone. I literally called about 20 times during the course of the night, including 11pm PST and 1am PST. Every time, I received the same “We’re Experiencing High Call Volume”. At the same time, I was trying to figure out why my hosting was not working, I ended up referring to an old email address account I had. In that account I found that Hostican had sent me a messages, first one received 11/24, saying my credit card on file was not up to date and my account could not be renewed, thus they had terminated my account. To my own fault, I should have had my current email address on file with Hostican to receive these messages.
Finally on 12/8/09 at exactly 5:32am PST (note that their website states their office hours for Sales & Billing are 8:30-630pm EST), I was finally able to get a hold of a employee named Chris. Chris was able to confirm that my site had been terminated and said he would investigate and get back to me within a few hours. I explained to Chris I would do whatever necessary to get my account restored.
Over the course of the next few days I continued to request information regarding the restoration of my account and I was advised by Hostican employees that they just “moved offices and are shorthanded”, that the handling of my account “did not follow standard procedures and the account should not have been terminated”, and that “we have two departments, customer support and then the guys that handle the infrastructure and backend. I can only request they try and restore your account”.
Basically, I was told my account should have been suspended first (whereas I would have realized something was wrong) before it was completely terminated. On one conversation with a customer service employee I asked to speak to a manager, and I was told “Mike” would contact me. He never did.
In addition, I tracked down via their BBB account and on the web the name of a gentleman called Denis Motova. Who is listed as the “Principal” on the BBB account, but also seemed to use the title of “Affiliate Manager” online (such as his profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/denis-motova/2/bab/a2a). I was able to find Mr. Motova’s email address online, so I emailed him on 12/7/09 pleading for his help in the restoration of my account. He said in his email response “Yes, we've had some issues with the phone network today. I apologize for that, I will give you a ring personally on Monday and assist you as much as I can.” Despite emailing Mr. Motova back, I never heard from him again.
On both 12/8/09 and 12/9/09 I continued to check with Hostican on the status of restoring my account. The few times I spoke with an employee, I was told numerous times certain people would follow up with me, but they did not. All status updates were received by my reaching out to Hostican, including numerous calls where I continued to receive the “We’re Experiencing High Call Volume” message.
Approx. 48 hours has now passed since my initial attempt to contact Hostican and they have been unable to restore my account. Thus, I will have to put forth significant time and expense to setup my hosting and websites with another provider. As I write this at 12:10am on 12/9/09, I sent an email to their support dept. one last time at 10:47am to get a status on whether or not they will be able to restore my account, and I have received no response.
I readily admit that I should have had the proper email account on file with Hostican to receive their renewal messages, and I should have my own proper backups of my files, but Hostican failed as a good hosting provider on numerous fronts:
a) At no time did they attempt to contact me via phone prior to terminating my account.
b) They admitted to me that my account should not have been terminated, but rather suspended.
c) Within 48 hours of my first contact they were unable to restore my account (which certainly puts into question their internal backup and data recovery capabilities), and as I write this they still are unable to restore my account.
d) Based on my experience in trying to contact them well over 50 times within that 48 hour period, they definitely do not maintain “24 Hours per Day – 365 Days per year” technical support and customer service. I was only able to actually speak to someone 3 times, and they never followed up with me when they said they would. They clearly are false advertising their support commitments on their website.
A good hosting provider should be able to do all of the above. I hope this info is helpful for those considering a hosting provider...
Comments
Hostican service
Hi!
I actually just joined your forum to add to this thread. We've been using Hostican for over 2 years, and they used to be great. At the time we signed up with them, Startlogic had been the favorite, but they were starting to get many bad reviews because they never answered their phone and had bad support and service. In comparison, Hostican was there at 1 am to help us set up our sites, just 3 days before New Year's. Given their pricing on VPS with unlimited bandwidth and other features, I was very happy.
However, recently, it is impossible to get someone to answer the phone at any time of the night or day. They don't return phone calls, their live chat is closed, and I am getting a 'not-so-healthy' vibe from the company. As someone who has much data sitting on their servers, I feel uneasy, thinking that they may not have the money or manpower to maintain their commitments to their clients. I'm not sure that's the case, but I cannot understand why a company won't even answer phone calls and inquiries from prospective clients. Hmmm.
It seems, sadly, that companies in this field have a limited lifespan, so we will be moving on. My bet will be a hosting company in Canada I've investigated, with very good 24 support and (hopefully) healthier finances.
GLTA!
Just a recommendation, for
Just a recommendation, for the sake of your business, you should consider to work with the companies who have been in business for more than 2 years, by which you can know how strong their business is, and can they deliver great service consistently.
Feeling really sorry for
Feeling really sorry for you..Hope you make good research next time when you choice your new host.
Sorry about what you had to
Sorry about what you had to go through.
I recently heard that HostICan has just gone through a massive move...new facility, new data center, new staff....This might explain your experience.
I have been hosting with them for a while and noticed what you said about the phones.....I recently have called them and their support is perfect!! Everyone I have talked to has been more than helpful!
They might have gone through a rough period when they were moving...but they are stronger than ever! I don't ever plan on switching...I have experienced nothing but greatness. Also, it really does pay to upgrade...their vps deals are awesome!!