Complaint Review: Green Geeks Web Hosting - Internet

Just an update to my original post regarding my experience with Green Geeks web hosting. I did request a prorated refund of my prepaid yearly hosting fee one more time with a comment to the effect that I would let it be known on the internet what terrible service they have. I recieved an email with information that I would be receiving approximately $5.00 for my refunded hosting fee. I paid over $60.00 for 12 months and actually only used about 2 months of service. This doesnt make sense, and they did not offer an explanation for the reason it was only $5.00. I decided not to pursue it since its more hassle than its worth. This is just one more example of the poor customer service this company is known for. I would not reccomend this web hosting company to anyone, not only because they cannot transfer web sites as they advertise, but also because of the terrible lack of customer service and support.

I would recommend to never transfer your domain from your registrar unless absolutely necessary (ie they are going out of business or just someone you can't work with).  This will keep you in control of it all the time and should allow you to easily change the DNS to point over to another host if you need to.

I personally hate when web hosting companies get too involved with the functionality of a customer's site.  I don't think any hosting company should offer to transfer a website from one host to another.  There is just too many variables and things could go wrong.  Your scenario seems like a perfect example.  The new host did not create your site so they don't know minor things that may be done to it that require specific server settings or permissions.  Not all servers are the same.  Site transfers should always be the customer's responsibility.  Whether that be your or your web developer that is who should handle the transfer of the site content. 

I get the reasoning that some hosting companies offer this (money) but I can bet that 99% of their employees hate this.  It then puts the responsibility on them instead of the people that actually work on the site.

As for the refund, if their policy is a 30 day money back guarantee then you were outside of it.  You admitted yourself that you took over a month to initiate the process.  And while you argue that your site wasn't up they had your service started and available for you.  That is like trying to convince your cable company to not charge you for a month of service because you didn't watch TV.  The service was on and available for you and that's what you are paying for.  It's not up to them if you don't watch it.  Same goes for hosting.

Now I think you should be prorated the unused time for after you canceled.  If you pre-payed for one year of service and only used it for a month and a half then I think you deserve to be refunded for the 10 and a half months you are not getting service for after the cancellation.  The 30 day money back guarantee should be for the entire payment.  That is how hosting companies I've worked for in the past did it.  After 30 days you pay for what you actually have.  So I think they should refund you for the amount of time left on one year after the time you canceled.  I do not think you should get the whole thing back though.

Good luck.