Brain Host My Creative Site Designs Deceptive, Misleading, Misrepresentative Promotion of Services & Sign-up Bait & Hook Internet
In early 2011, I signed up for an Internet business opportunity called Auto Coupon Cash/Coupon Masters Course. The course itself was advertised at $37 with a 60-day money-back guarantee. As is so typical of these programs, once you're drawn into the sign-up process, suddenly you're presented with additional costs needed to enhance your potential for making money. I received a 50% discount at sign-up, or $18.50, rather than $37.
Then you're encouraged to set up websites where you can post discount coupon ads to create income through affiliate marketing. There were add'l fees such as upgrading from weekly posts to daily posts for $297, auto updating blogs with unique content made and done for you for $97.00, etc. All these came with a 60-day unconditional money-back guarantee by Auto Coupon Cash.
Along the way during the sign-up process, an ad popped up for a service to provide and host the recommended website/blogs which you assumed was a part of the Auto Coupon Cash/Coupon Masters Course and covered under the 60-day money-back guarantee as well. There was a set-up fee and domain registration fee. Then came the upsell for a higher level package which, of course, they encourage you to purchase to enhance your business. So, I signed up for the website and accompanying costs including an upgrade. This company turned out to be a third-party, Brain Host, with the websites created through their subsidiary called My Creative Site Designs.
After a short period of time, I realized that this business was not a good fit for me. I actually found three pages of complaints relative to others who also signed up for this package and became disillusioned with the third-party web creation/hosting (Brain Host) as they were difficult to contact (which I confirm), didn't seem to be familiar with the Auto Coupon Cash program, and weren't even aware whether the website would be commerce ready.
I did obtain immediate refunds from Auto Coupon Cash through Clickbank; however, Brain Host was more difficult. Despite signees' assumption that the entire package was covered by the 60-day money-back guarantee, this was not the case. Brain Host offered only a 30-day money-back guarantee on their basic package, but no refund whatsoever on their upgrade package where they make their money. They did offer to rearrange their services somewhat but would not issue a refund for their $241.90 fee, which I am now disputing with my credit card company. They did refund me a small amount of money for their set-up fee and the first month's hosting fee.
So, now the website that was created for me has been taken down but I'm still expected to pay Brain Host $241.90. This is a ridiculous rip-off and exploitation by this company. I'm sure they are making quite a lot of money through the above tactics by riding on the coat tails of Auto Coupon Cash and taking advantage of people who are unwittingly led into the purchase of their products thinking they would be covered by the 60-day money-back guarantee provided by Auto Coupon Cash and not really realizing they were dealing with a whole separate entity outside of Auto Coupon Cash upon sign-up.
I will continue to dispute the $241.90 as I believe it is unjustified and was a deceptive tactic of Auto Coupon Cash and Brain Host to couch Brain Host's ad within the Auto Coupon Cash sign-up site and exploit that initial opportunity. When you realize the business is not appropriate for you, obtaining a refund from Auto Coupon Cash was easy. However, Brain Host is a different matter. Why would you want to retain the website when you have no further use for it? So, you're either stuck with it, or should you attempt to get a refund, you wind up with a suspended site and you're $241.90 poorer!
This is also to warn others not to get involved with the above "opportunity" unless you want to get involved in an eventual dispute with Brain Host. Please pass this information on to others as well.
15 Updates & Rebuttals
Affiliate Shadow
Fort Bragg,California,
United States of America
my experience,
#16Consumer Comment
Sat, February 23, 2013
i too bought an internet marketing course that teamed up with brain host to offer a FREE site
they charged me the normal fees that anyone would pay to build their own site. domain name and hosting.
the site was neither good nor bad.
came with unique articles, had some clickbank offers installed.
i kept the site for a few months and decided that it wasnt goign to work for me.
i contacted brain host and was quickly responded back to.
the hosting fees stopped. and teh domain was removed from the servers.
exactly like i would expect from hostgator or anyother hosting company.
Its what brain host does, thats their business model.
they offer free sites and host them for a fee.
are you going to be able to buy 10 domains from godaddy.com and then ask them for a refund? no!
what about buying hosting from a hosting provider? you dont get a refund. they allow your site to be hosted until the end of the term that you paid for, but they stop the auto rebill and when the money stops so does the hosting and your site/s disapear.
its not unethical in anyway.
Fact Brain Host is providing you with a real website, that you can change in anyway you wish once its done. the site belongs to you and again they did all the work for free.
try to get someone to build you a site for free.
they are goign to tell you that their is the cost of the domain name and hosting fees.
the OP wanted a refund on the hosting fees and domain name registration.
I have personal went through the brain host free site build presentation and purchased myself and can tell you that the fees are very clearly stated.
I can also tell you that if you that they are easy to contact and willing to work with you in any way.
Internet marketing is a tough road! people get used and lied to by so called gurus, but that shouldnt be misconstrued with a company that builds FREE websites and all you have to do to accept your free website is to pay for a domain name and pay to have it hosted.
Paul Moore
Halifax,Nova Scotia,
Canada
C-Panel and email
#16Consumer Comment
Wed, December 12, 2012
Hello: I understand that you are having an issue with setting up an email account with your c-panel that is on your Brainhost supported site. If you contact me via my site, click HERE to go to it and I will be willing to see if I can help you. It usually only takes about one minute or less to create an email account with your domain name. It was very frustrating for me when I first started my site, but I am willing to help you. Just email me from the contacts page. Thanks.
Jeff
Evans,Georgia,
United States of America
Brainhost
#16General Comment
Tue, December 11, 2012
I am a BrainHost customer. I have found the software very difficult to use.
I have had it a year, and still don't have the e-mail working. I have spent the entire last week e-mailing tech support in an attempt to get the e-mail working. The software should afford the user an easy way to have the e-mail work, and not take over a week going back and forth with tech support just to get the e-mail working.
If I cannot do something as easy as that with my site, I shudder to think what it would take to do anything else with it.
To top it all off, today I find that for no reason I would know about, my brainhost site returns a McAffee dangerous site warning!! What a great way to get web traffic!!
Paul Moore
Halifax,Nova Scotia,
Canada
Re: Best Buy 1000.00 gift card
#16Consumer Comment
Mon, March 26, 2012
Hello: Concerning your statement, 'I was the "winner" of a $1,000 Best Buy gift card (yeah, right!).' I find that hard to understand how you would get such a pop up on my site. After reading your comment I clicked on the link right away and when I clicked on 'contact us' it showed a picture on the contact page of me (the same picture in my previous post) and my email address for the site. I don't have any idea how you got that pop up. I check my pages (some more often than others) to update and add more content. I want to apologize to you for seeing that pop up, however, this is the first time I have heard of this and to date, I have now had over 305, 000 visits to the site since its inception.
I have worked very hard on this site by putting hundreds of hours into writing content and spent thousands of dollars in purchasing equipment: software, video, lighting, computers, etc. to have the site I need to get my information out to the masses.
I am sorry to hear that you got that pop up, but I am not sure how that could happen. I will monitor the situation to see if any of my friends who go regularly to the site have experienced the same problem.
I too would be concerned about such a pop up because that is not what my site is about. I don't offer anything on my site with a catch, nor do I advertise on it. Could the pop up have come from another source other than my site?
As I said I will be monitoring the situation and I encourage you to try to contact me if you have any other issues pertaining to my site or Brainhost. Currently I have four domains through BrainHost and two redirects and everything is working well.
I have never been contacted by BrainHost to say the things I said about them in any of these posts. I said these things because BrainHost was a company that helped me realize my dreams when it came to reaching out and helping people. They have been very kind to me and very helpful. To me that is just good business and I appreciate BrainHost for that. If I can help you in any way concerning this or any other issue please feel free to email me from the email address on the first post of my website, the welcome page.
foodstr2
Quinlan,Texas,
United States of America
You *almosr* convinced me...
#16Consumer Comment
Sun, March 25, 2012
Since you are one of the few positive reviewers, I decided to look at your website. It is very attractive.
BUT, I wanted to speak to you about it, so I clicked on the "Contact us" link at the bottom of your homepage. Instead of a contact form, or contact info, I was taken to a congratulations page. I was the "winner" of a $1,000 Best Buy gift card (yeah, right!).
So, there's no way to contact YOU which makes me suspicious of you and of Brain Host, the outfit you're promoting. I think I'll look elsewhere.
The naysayers won out.
Paul Moore
Halifax,Nova Scotia,
Canada
Thanks Again Brainhost
#16Consumer Comment
Tue, December 06, 2011
I just wanted to say that I am so pleased with my web-hosting company Brainhost. I average over a thousand hits a day and have had as many as 1988 hits per day and this is because of the influence of one of their products. Since the site's inception in April 2011 I have had over 155 000 hits.
I am not tech savvy and I found it hard to learn about blogging and all the details associated with it. I am thankful that Brainhost took the time to walk me through the steps to getting my site established on the internet.
They are the only company I have found on the internet who's staff are willing to help me with issues pertaining to my site. I have five domains with Brainhost one is a redirect and the other four are sites that Brainhost initially set up for me on wordpress.
Once in a while I need help with issues pertaining to my sites and the staff at Brainhost are always there to help me. I would definitely recommend Brainhost as a world class web-hosting company. Keep up the good work Brainhost. To see my main blog and how Brainhost has helped me, click here.
djhalflife
marysville,Washington,
United States of America
brainhost customer also
#16Consumer Comment
Mon, December 05, 2011
I am also a brainhost customer and I agree after you sign up they do show other adds before you get to the final page that you are actually waiting for. But if you know what you are doing, and read before you just give your money away things like that don't happen. I also got the free website built for me. w w w info for my auto. c o m so if you guys want to know the kind of work they do here you go. My overall experience with this company is great, just next time you want to buy something without reading about it first just throw the money my way it would be better...
Paul Moore
Halifax,Nova Scotia,
Canada
My Experience with BrainHost
#16Consumer Comment
Wed, October 05, 2011
I know that some people have had issues with BrainHost, and I did too, but I want to share with you how they resolved my issues.
The first thing I experienced with Brainhost was that their computer system cancelled my two domains when I had requested the purchase of a third domain name. I did not have much content on one site and none on the other. After admitting error they offered me a resolution to the problem by correcting their mistake and, at my request, adding a product at no charge. This product has been instrumental in driving traffic to my site.
I had other issues that did not need to be resolved like issues with c-panel with my sub-domains being attached to my main domain name. I thought that this was in error, but after looking into the matter BrainHost had done nothing wrong. My c-panel was set up correctly and working fine.
I had issues with not being able to view recent posts because of a recent plugin I had purchased and uploaded improperly. BrainHost resolved that issue for me as well. I am very pleased with the way BrainHost has resolved my issues.
Amy
Newport,Internet,
United Kingdom
Brain Host in Connection with 'The My Creative Site Design' offer
#16Consumer Comment
Thu, June 23, 2011
Hi there,
I just wanted to add something here regarding the offer that came up after you purchased the software.
I too purchased a similar product called Auto Wealth Maker, however I have a more positive experience. Even though yes, you could say it was slightly mis-leading how they sold the product that is hosted by Brain Host, i.e. the site building product, but that is marketing in a nutshell any way. My advice is to always think things through before buying and see what you're meant to be getting for your money. Ask questions before you sign up to be on the safe side.
So, I purchased AWM and then got an email with a link. I went ahead and looked at it and found out it was a welcome from 'The My Creative Site Design' website, saying that as a thank-you for purchasing the AWM software, they had teamed up with this Company to design a website for their customers, me in this instance, for FREE.
I was a little sceptical and thought omg what's this now... but then as I went further into it, picked the keywords, paid for the domain name and yearly hosting cost (only) and my site was built for me, like they said but even better not in 48 hours but in FOUR HOURS! I checked at midnight that day when I had ordered it at 7pm. I was really impressed to be honest.
The connection? Well, this Company works with Brain Host to offer this FREE site and I have to say not only did it look great but it was also indexed on Google within a matter of days.
Brain Host also offer unlimited domain hosting, I checked today by asking on the live chat. All you are paying for is the registration of each domain you have, per year. Which you would do for the domain when buying or renewing anyway.
So even though this lady has had a bad experience and I am sorry for that, so far I have found them really helpful and good value for money.
Fat Cow are also a good hosting Company (and they're a GREEN Company, powered by wind energy)
Hope that this has been helpful anyway :-)
Jenny M.
Brunswick,Ohio,
United States of America
From Customer Support...
#16UPDATE Employee
Fri, May 13, 2011
I'm sorry, I didn't reply on here because we looked you up using the number you gave us and had a representative contact you via email. Because this is a billing issue and regards private information, I thought it would be better to take the issue offline and respond to you privately rather than publicly. I just checked our records... We contacted you on May 4 and again on May 12. You responded back on May 12, and we responded again after that. If you still have questions or concerns, please contact use again.
Bette
Minneapolis,Minnesota,
USA
No Response from Brain Host to Credit Request
#16Author of original report
Mon, May 09, 2011
I am the author of this post regarding Brain Host. As you can see, I have been attempting to obtain a refund from Brain Host and they have responded indicating they would attempt to resolve this situation. I provided them with information to look up my account, but, as you can see, they have not responded back. So, obviously they have chosen to hide rather than deal with the issues. I am still disputing this with my credit card company as well. This is a good demonstration of how Brain Host handles customer issues - they turn their back on you!!! My advice to you would be to seek other web hosting companies who won't take your money and run if you have valid issues!!! Please pass this info on to your friends, family, and acquaintances NOT to do business with Brain Host!!!
Bette
Minneapolis,Minnesota,
USA
Requested Information
#16Author of original report
Wed, May 04, 2011
Here is my cancellation number, you can look me up using this info: #52951.
Jenny M.
Brunswick,Ohio,
United States of America
From Customer Support...
#16UPDATE Employee
Tue, May 03, 2011
Ok, if you let me know your website URL I'll be able to look you up and figure out what happened. Then we'll be able to move forward from there.
Bette
Minneapolis,Minnesota,
USA
SIMPLE SOLUTION - ISSUE A REFUND!
#16Author of original report
Mon, May 02, 2011
I've already contacted your company and had a lengthy conversation with your billing department. They had no solution for me and indicated that they refused to issue a refund of any kind. That's why I have had to resort to posting complaints all over the Internet to attract attention to my plight. The solution is simple - issue me a refund immediately. Otherwise, I'm not interested in going another round with your billing department. If you have something further to say, say it here where you will have to be accountable to the public. I'd like others to be informed as to how your company handles disputes.
Jenny M.
Brunswick,Ohio,
United States of America
From Customer Support...
#16UPDATE Employee
Mon, May 02, 2011
Hello, I work for Brain Host Customer Support. We are more than happy to help you with your situation, and provide several ways you can contact us, all of which are readily available on our website: http://www.brainhost.com. You can contact us at 1-877-586-4694, submit a help ticket at http://www.brainhost.com/help/, or email us at support [at] brainhost.com. Our Support staff is available 24/7.
Please feel free to contact us and we can work with you to resolve your situation.
Regards,
Jenny M.