SiteGround - Stay AWAY

We had a worst experience with a hosting company ever. One of our developers found SiteGround hosting… unfortunately later we found out that this company was a total scam. They had some kind of promotion, so the hosting was really cheap.



When I was ordering a hosting package, there was a clear, huge label of 30 days money back guarantee… later I found out that they lie. One thing was really strange to me - I had a charge from Luxembourg on my card… that came from SiteGround.



Ok… after ordering account and paying for 2 years upfront we found out that we can host only one site under that hosting account. Each addon domain would cost us $30. Hidden fee, isn’t it. Therefore, we decided to use 30 Days money back guarantee.



When I contacted their support, response was as follows: “we can provide you with a refund but have to withhold $31 for setting you up and $10 for domain name you registered”. To me, $31 for setting up a customer with CPanel was ridiculous - there is no human power involved.



Next, I got even more fun with SiteGround. They refunded $42 out of my $83 but! in next week I found a new charge on my card from siteground for $43. I didn’t authorize any payments, didn’t request any service from them.



That drove me crazy… I called their phone number (which is a US number) but got to automated line. Tried to email them, but found that they closed my support account.



Next, I found that there are even more weird charges on my card.



Finally, I ended up calling Bank of America to cancel my card and claim disputes on those charges.



My opinion: SiteGround is a scam company registered in offshore zone that should never be chosen for hosting. I am really disappointed of the fact that CS-Cart supports those scammers and liars.



Mikita, Coding Staff

First:

You never pay upfront for 12 or 24months!



Second:

Pay with credit card only and ask your bank to help you.



Third:

Describe your experience with them by leaving as many reviews as possible on the Internet. Add your ref.no if you have one.



All 3 work perfectly. Some people {i.diot.s] running web businesses underestimate power of the Internet and review systems.



I feel sorry for you mate.

Strange, I have good experiences with Siteground…



I pay $ 9,95 for a .com domain and 12 months hosting. After a year this becomes the normal price (from $ 6,95 per month). What I do is run some test sites and cancel the site after 11 months if it’s no success.



If I cancel the hosting and want to keep the domain they charge me $ 14,95 for the domain.



I have one normal website running there for which I paid 214$ for three years hosting including the domain.



I like the fact that I can control everything from their website, and I get a warning when a contract is about to end so I can cancel it on time. I know plenty providers who just send you an invoice for another year without any warning.



So I think… just do everything yourself at the control panel (you can, so why not?)… and there won’t be any billing mistakes.



Good luck solving everything… just wanted to let you know it’s not all bad over there :slight_smile:

[quote name=‘Coding Staff’]We had a worst experience with a hosting company ever. One of our developers found SiteGround hosting… unfortunately later we found out that this company was a total scam. They had some kind of promotion, so the hosting was really cheap.



When I was ordering a hosting package, there was a clear, huge label of 30 days money back guarantee… later I found out that they lie. One thing was really strange to me - I had a charge from Luxembourg on my card… that came from SiteGround.



Ok… after ordering account and paying for 2 years upfront we found out that we can host only one site under that hosting account. Each addon domain would cost us $30. Hidden fee, isn’t it. Therefore, we decided to use 30 Days money back guarantee.



When I contacted their support, response was as follows: “we can provide you with a refund but have to withhold $31 for setting you up and $10 for domain name you registered”. To me, $31 for setting up a customer with CPanel was ridiculous - there is no human power involved.



Next, I got even more fun with SiteGround. They refunded $42 out of my $83 but! in next week I found a new charge on my card from siteground for $43. I didn’t authorize any payments, didn’t request any service from them.



That drove me crazy… I called their phone number (which is a US number) but got to automated line. Tried to email them, but found that they closed my support account.



Next, I found that there are even more weird charges on my card.



Finally, I ended up calling Bank of America to cancel my card and claim disputes on those charges.



My opinion: SiteGround is a scam company registered in offshore zone that should never be chosen for hosting. I am really disappointed of the fact that CS-Cart supports those scammers and liars.



Mikita, Coding Staff[/QUOTE]



ref number is +1-650-209-8389



I paid upfront for 24 months because trusted this company as they partner with CS-Cart.

[quote name=‘Flow’]Strange, I have good experiences with Siteground…



I pay $ 9,95 for a .com domain and 12 months hosting. After a year this becomes the normal price (from $ 6,95 per month). What I do is run some test sites and cancel the site after 11 months if it’s no success.



If I cancel the hosting and want to keep the domain they charge me $ 14,95 for the domain.



I have one normal website running there for which I paid 214$ for three years hosting including the domain.



I like the fact that I can control everything from their website, and I get a warning when a contract is about to end so I can cancel it on time. I know plenty providers who just send you an invoice for another year without any warning.



So I think… just do everything yourself at the control panel (you can, so why not?)… and there won’t be any billing mistakes.



Good luck solving everything… just wanted to let you know it’s not all bad over there :)[/QUOTE]



To me it is important to keep your promise. If you promise 30 days money back, then you have to keep that promise. Otherwise, it is not a fair business.

Yes, I totally agree with you…

Simple this one!



ALWAYS use a barge poll with SITEGROUND!!! :rolleyes:

I have been with Siteground for a year now. A few weeks ago they sent me a note asking me to upgrade my plan due to excessive activity. I upgraded my plan to a semi dedicated one. one week later, they sent me another note, asking to upgrade again. Since I don’t have that much of traffic that will justify upgrading, I asked them to wait for a few days until I optimize the system. However, yesterday they shut down my website, including ftp, cpanel and everything (even emails!) and said that if I don’t upgrade immediately (and pay them $180 per month) they cannot get my website live again!!!

And this is exactly when the hot season starts…

I decided that I do not participate in this mafia style extortion and moved to wiredtree…



This is a scam 100%. They attract you with their cheap one year plan ($9.95) and then they ask you to upgrade to an unnecessary expensive plan.



I never heard of such a thing before - shutting down a website like that…



Anyway, STAY AWAY!!!



Pay a bit more and don’t experience what I had to go through.

[quote name=‘guyrotberg’]They attract you with their cheap one year plan ([SIZE=“3”]$9.95[/SIZE]) and then they ask you to upgrade to an unnecessary expensive plan. [/QUOTE]



:wink:


[quote name=‘guyrotberg’]However, yesterday they shut down my website, including ftp, cpanel and everything (even emails!) and said that if I don’t upgrade immediately (and pay them [COLOR=“Red”][SIZE=“3”]$180[/SIZE][/COLOR] per month) they cannot get my website live again!!![/QUOTE]



Happy customer!





Lee Li Pop

I have a standard installation of CS-Cart, I have low traffic, absolutely no reason to require us to upgrade from standard service but they shut us down completely without giving us a chance to see what was causing the CPU spikes that they claimed. We upgraded to semi-dedicated to get the site back up. Months later they send another email stating the exact same thing and are requiring us to upgrade to a fully dedicated server! Unbelievable, they completely shut us down, yes, the site, the admin, email, everything!

Wow that’s really ridiculous… glad I moved my important sites to a local hosting provider!

[quote name=‘Coding Staff’]

My opinion: SiteGround is a scam company registered in offshore zone that should never be chosen for hosting. [/QUOTE]



Here the Whois of SiteGround:


[QUOTE]Registrant:

siteground.com Inc

[COLOR=“#ff0000”]Advanced Tower[/COLOR] Building, first floor

[COLOR=“#ff0000”]Ricardo Arias Street[/COLOR]

City Of Panama, Panama

PA[/QUOTE]

Source: [url]Whois Lookup Captcha



Panama is an offshore country, as many others:



[url]http://www.panama-offshore-services.com/[/url]



Here is a Law Firm specialized in the formation and management of offshore companies in Panama with same address:


[QUOTE]Lombardi, Cambra & Co. |[COLOR=“Red”] Ricardo Arias Street, Advanced Tower[/COLOR], 11th Floor, Suite B, Panama City, Panama | Tel:507 264 1444 | Fax: 507 264 7252[/QUOTE]

Source: [url]http://www.lowtax.net/offshore_service_providers_directory/jur/Panama__31.html[/url]



*****

[quote name=‘Coding Staff’]My opinion: SiteGround is a scam[/QUOTE]


[quote name=‘guyrotberg’]This is a scam 100%.[/QUOTE]



Their servers are at ThePlanet.com:



[url]What's that site running? | Netcraft



[SIZE=“3”]Can we say, a web hosting company hosted at ThePlanet.com is a potential scam?[/SIZE]





Lee Li Pop

I thought about using SiteGround for their “free” one year hosting with cs-cart.



But in order to get it, I had to sign up , which I did, then they wanted my cc number. I thought that weird for “free” hosting…but i did, then they wanted a copy of my passport and drivers license to verify the card…



I didnt send the passport but i did send a copy of my drivers license.



After I hit the send button on the email with the pdf with the data, I realized this is WAY TOO F**K’D up for “free” hosting.



So I sent them a written notice as per their terms of service and ordered them to immediately cancel my free hosting, and destroy all my personal data in their possession.



They told me that even though their T.O.S. said I was required to send them written notification, I needed to let the “free” hosting expire on its own. ( which means I cant “cancel” them!!!)



I sent them another letter informing them they are not authorized to ever make a charge against that cc.



I’m scared that this company housed in Panama now has my cc # and a copy of my id.



Now they spam the hell out of me with specials and wont stop harrassing me with product “specials”!!!



AVOID THESE GUYS LIKE THE BLACK PLAGUE!!!

Full disclosure, SiteGround warned me that they were seeing CPU usage spikes caused by a CS-Cart script. After the warning, I assumed it was due to the new Quick Search Add-On. I disabled the add-on and was in the process of recruiting some help to diagnose the CS-Cart installation. Seven days past and SiteGround shut down the site. Apparently, the CPU usage was not caused by the add-on. I did not reply to SiteGround during that seven day period because of my assumptions. SiteGround was reasonable in shutting down the site because it could have potentially effective the performance of the server and other sites hosted on it. I can understand this. Still, to restrict access to the c-panel, email, ftp, is draconian. This effectively cut all communication avenues with my online customers and was debilitating to my business. As a CS-Cart partner, SiteGround should have been taken an effort to assist in pin pointing the script and provide possible solutions other than switching to a dedicated server which would have no at all solved the issue.

[quote name=‘Rack01’]Full disclosure, SiteGround warned me that they were seeing CPU usage spikes caused by a CS-Cart script. After the warning, I assumed it was due to the new Quick Search Add-On. I disabled the add-on and was in the process of recruiting some help to diagnose the CS-Cart installation. Seven days past and SiteGround shut down the site. Apparently, the CPU usage was not caused by the add-on. I did not reply to SiteGround during that seven day period because of my assumptions. SiteGround was reasonable in shutting down the site because it could have potentially effective the performance of the server and other sites hosted on it. I can understand this. Still, to restrict access to the c-panel, email, ftp, is draconian. This effectively cut all communication avenues with my online customers and was debilitating to my business. As a CS-Cart partner, SiteGround should have been taken an effort to assist in pin pointing the script and provide possible solutions other than switching to a dedicated server which would have no at all solved the issue.[/quote]



Do you have any statistic records of your site (Google Analytics, Webalizer, Bandwidth usage…)? How long was your site online until they suspended your site?


[quote]SiteGround warned me that they were seeing CPU usage spikes caused by [COLOR=Red]a CS-Cart script[/COLOR].[/quote]I guessed, they know CS-Cart script as they are a very ‘special’ and high recommended web hosting company at CS-Cart site (unless it was a server attack).

[QUOTE]I guessed, they know CS-Cart script as they are a very ‘special’ and high recommended web hosting company at CS-Cart site (unless it was a server attack).[/QUOTE]



Huhm, I wonder what are the odds that all of the previous posters in the thread all had server attacks causing Siteground to shut down their sites! ?



I would not even waste another minute trying to determine why they shut down my business, I would focus entirely on finding a legitimate hosting provider to operate my business on! Shut me down for even a microminute and you are history! :smiley:

[quote name=‘Struck’]I would not even waste another minute trying to determine why they shut down my business, I would focus entirely on finding a legitimate hosting provider to operate my business on! Shut me down for even a microminute and you are history! :D[/quote]

If your site is hosted on a shared server, then I guess that will be the reaction of 99% of all hosting providers - your site will get suspended due CPU usage spikes.



Also I don’t think they would suspend your VPS or dedicated account… unless there is an another reason like unpaid invoices, breaking of TOS, etc.

I was with SiteGround for over a year, the site averaged 200-400 daily hits. The first time they took down the site it was online for three months, this latest episode was just last week.



I am fortunate enough to have sought out the help from Colin at SnoRocket, he’s helped me out of some situations that have come up over the past year when I’ve attempted to install an add-on or upgrade. He suggested moving the site to WiredTree and I’ve set the site up on a VPN/$49/Mo. After signing up an actual human calls to verify the account and welcomes you to their service, how refreshing! Here’s hoping 2011 gets off on the right foot.

[QUOTE]He suggested moving the site to WiredTree and I’ve set the site up on a VPN/$49/Mo. After signing up an actual human calls to verify the account and welcomes you to their service, how refreshing! Here’s hoping 2011 gets off on the right foot.[/QUOTE]



Sounds like you are on your way, good decision in switching away from those monkeys, happy holidays! :wink:

The ‘children’ have had their posts have been moved to Mod/Admin talks. If they decided to continue with their charades, they will be either banned permanently or for 31 days. Your call children, you’ve been forewarned MULTIPLE times.



Now, can we please continue with this thread? Thank you.