Comments closed on this thread. I've been made aware that GreenGeeks will be responding to problems on our forums, but we ask that you create a new thread. ~silverwing

Green Geeks web hosting located at (greengeeks.com greengeeks.ca) has misleading hosting packages. They are now advertising that they are the official host for drupla for dummies. sseriously, stay away from their “free domain for life” package, it is a money grabbing extortion scheme. You will end up paying through your nose or lose your domain name altogether. When it comes time for hosting or domain name renewals is when they hook you. Here is how the scam or extortion scheme by green geeks works.

Green Geeks has a “Free domain for life” promotion, in which they claim that if a customer signs for a hosting plan they get a free domain for life. The truth is that it is a ‘domain name stealing exercise’, or a ‘force customer to host with green geeks for ever’ scam.

Here is the green geeks scam. When a customer signs up for website hosting with green geeks, and they get a new domain name or transfer their domain to green geeks, their domain name fee is deducted from the hosting plan. Inevitably it appears that the domain name was for free. However the scam is that, the customer is never ever given the domain account information to manage their own domain name. Such that the customer can not independently renew their domain name or even transfer their domain name to another host without going through green geeks.

Basically a domain name belongs to the entity or person that has the domain name account information. In essence when you choose the green geeks "free domain name for life", grren geeks actually is is owning your domain name under the pretext that they have provided you with a domain name for life. When the domain name expires, if the the customer chooses not to renew their hosting plan with Green Geeks, but wants to transfer it to another host. Green Geeks employees then becomes rude. The customer is then asked to pay an ambiguous amount of money even upwards of $250 to transfer their domain name. Refusal to renew your domain name with Green Geeks, will practically result in the customer losing their domain name unless they pay the asked amount of money to green geeks. Depending on who you are, they can ask from 24.95 to even $250 depending on how desrerate you seem for your domain name, or how popular the domain name is.

So if a customer has a premium domain name and does not want to renew with green geeks or does not want to lose it, they are forced to pay what ever amount of money that green geeks asks them to pay for domain name renewal or hosting plan renewal. Because the customer does not have their domain account information, they are at the mercy of green geeks. They cannot choose to host elsewhere. Note that at the time of Domain renewal, the customer’s hosting fees may have increased from what they paid previously at time of sign up. So this exercise can go on indefinitely as long as you host with Green geeks. In essence the customer does not own their domain name.

If you request for your domain name account information and want to transfer your domain name, you will be expected to pay an amount of money, which is not fair market market value for domain names. They will claim that they are getting a refund since they gave you initially for Free the domain name. They then charge you what ever they want. This is extortion!

So if you have held your domain for at least a year, you will have already obtained some form of internet notoriety, in the form of google page rank, or even dedicated website traffic, so it is also in green geeks interest that they keep your domain, They will make it as hard as possible for you to transfer your domain name, such that they themselves set up one of those advert based directed websites on your domain.

The best advice is to register your domain name elsewhere with other hosting companies like netfirms that gives you the full ability to control your domain name. Then point your domain name DNS to green geeks. In that way you will never be a extorted by green geeks. Most of these companies that offer free domain names are scam artists loooking to extort you at the end of the hosting period. Because you will never own your domain name. So make sure that before you sign up for any unlimited free hosting companies, make sure that you have full contriol of your domain name. The key is never to host your website on the same host that registered your domain name.

Angel Ebony

Comments

silverwing’s picture

First, adding this complaint to any more posts will be considered spam and all the comments (plus this thread) will be deleted.

Second, http://drupalfordummies.com/ is hosted by Green Geeks (according to the little ad on the bottom of their site.)

Third, let the word out that people should never host their website and register their domains with the same company. Ever. Most people don't know that there can be problems. (They're usually the same people that believe the word 'unlimited' in the hosting ads.)

And extortion may be harsh. (Was this in their TOS that you agreed to?) Unfortunately, it may just be a standard practice.

~silverwing

cog.rusty’s picture

Heh, "300% Wind Powered Green Hosting", "100% Carbon Neutral Friendly".

Nothing about "perpetual motion zero point energy generators", but those are pink.

What were you thinking?

nevets’s picture

Actually there are other web hosts with the same or similar practices, I personally take care of my own domain name registration to avoid this particular problem.

TreyGardner’s picture

Edited by silverwing - removed personal information

This is Trey Gardner, CEO of Green Geeks rebutting these comments from Angel Ebony.

I would like first to say that we are very happy to be working with the Drupal Community. We have worked hard to be an exceptional Drupal host, making sure our servers are properly configured for the latest and next versions of Drupal and we are in fact the Official Drupal For Dummies web hosting provider, mentioned in the book and hosting the DrupalForDummies.com web site.

We feel that it is unfortunate that this client wished to address their issues in this public forum, however we do have a response (sorry it is a little lengthy) which will bring to light our dealings with this individual and where the matter stands as of today.

This post is not the first by "Angel Ebony" which we have had to deal with in the past 2 weeks. Last week at a web hosting review site this person posted 2 consecutive negative reviews about us (on the same day) each alleging domain fraud with the same complaints he is alledging here. The first review was posted by a Fred Hudson whose email he put in as ebonyleg[at]yahoo[dot]com and the second post was from a Fred Ebony (he used a different email as Fred Ebony) and of course here in this post he is Angel Ebony.

We do not have on our records any current or past clients whose names Match either Fred Hudson, Fred Ebony, nor Angel Ebony. In addition this person posted on DrupalForDummies.com today the same post as he did here which is how we learned of whom this client is, Lynn the author of Drupal For Dummies emailed me about this matter this morning. His domain name is DogTrader.net and his name in our billing system is ebonyleg C. (we will withhold his last name for his privacy).

ebonyleg is a client who signed up for an account with us last year and received a free domain name with his account. ebonyleg then declined to renew his hosting account but wanted to continue to have his domain name free through us. Per our terms of service:
http://www.greengeeks.com/legal/tos.php

As well as our FAQ's regarding the free domain for life:
http://www.greengeeks.com/kb/idx.php/0/001/article/Free-Domain-for-Life-...

We explain in very clear terms that the Free Domain For Life is for the life time of someone's hosting account with us and that if a client decides to leave within our 30 day money back guarantee time table that we do charge $24.95 for the domain name. In addition clients who wish to cancel after the 30 day money back guarantee may do so with no refund and no cost to transfer the domain name to another registrar.

Real quickly here is how as a company we came up with the $24.95 charge for domains:
We have estimated the cost of the domain name at $24.95 for these expenses:
1. The cost of the domain at $10
2. The cost of having our staff change the DNS, assist in the domain transfer and other domain management at $14.95

We feel these charges are fair for the value of the domain name and the work done by our staff to assist the client.

In addition we let the clients know that they must transfer the domain to another registrar prior to the renewal of that domain name otherwise they will have to sign up for a 1yr or 2 yr hosting account to again receive the free domain or they can have us renew the domain for the cost of $24.95 and then move the domain name to another provider.

THIS is what is at the crux of ebonyleg's complaint. ebonyleg declined to renew his hosting service with us which made the domain ineligible for us to renew it for free. The domain name expired per our terms since the hosting account was not renewed. ebonyleg was informed by our team through the ticket ID (NBT-768248) that he would need to renew the domain name through us for $24.95 if he wished to renew the domain name prior to the redemption period. ebonyleg claimed that ICANN rules allowed him to login to our Enom account (he asked for that access which we denied - we do not allow any non Green Geeks employee access to that registrar) and ebonyleg became agitated when we told him the only way to do this was to renew the domain through us because a domain name could not be transferred once it expired, it had to be renewed first.

Here is our conversation with ebonyleg about this:
Posted on: 21 May 2010 6:14 PM
________________________________________
Hello,

We are fully aware of the ICANN rules, it is evident that you are not. The domain name was registered FREE as part of the web hosting service. You received a 15-day renewal notice to renew your hosting account, in which the domain name would be renewed on your behalf. This was not done, therefore the account/domain name have expired. As it stands right now, your account is in DEFAULT.

You have two options:

#1. Renew your hosting account for $95.40 to receive the hosting account for an additional year and the domain renewed as part of the free domain name offer.

#2. If you do not wish to renew the hosting account, you will be required to pay $24.95 as stated in our terms of service to have the domain name released to you.

The domain name is expired and MUST be renewed either with option #1 or option #2. Once either of the above are done, you will be free to move/transfer that domain name where ever you wish.

Let us know how you wish to proceed so that we can get your issue taken care of in a timely manner.

_____

In terms of ebonyleg's claims that we threatened ebonyleg that the cost would be $250, we informed ebonyleg that the way that domain renewals works like this. First there is a short "grace" period where after the domain name has expired, the registrant of the domain name can renew it for the regular rate (which to ebonyleg is $24.95 through Green Geeks), this period lasts roughly 30 days. After this grace period the domain name goes into a redemption period from the registrar (in this case it is Enom as that is who we partner with for domain names), and the Registrar may add additional fees (up to $160) to charge the registering agent, which is in this case Green Geeks, the additional charges if the domain name is renewed during the redemption period.

Obviously we would try to work with the client, and we have in ebonyleg's case, to try to get the domain renewed for them before the redemption period, otherwise the domain would lapse into the redemption period, which can last 90 days, after which time the domain name will be available again for anyone to re-register.

Today I have left ebonyleg a voice mail message again informing him of his rights and I have also emailed him through the email ticket; here is my email to him:
Posted on: 27 May 2010 4:25 PM
________________________________________
ebonyleg,

This is Trey Gardner using Joe's login to the ticket system. I am writing tio you to once again let you know your options with regards to your domain name, I have also just left you a voice mail message with this same information.

Per our terms of service your free domain for life is only free when you continue to host with us. If you do not and you want your domain name you will have to pay the $24.95 for it and if you do not renew it before the redemption period then to renew it after the redemption period (which usually lasts 90 days) Enom the registrar where we registered the domain name will add on a redemption charge for the renewal of as high as $160. These are Enom's redemption fees, not ours, and you can avoid these redemption fees by having us renew the domain name for you for the cost of $24.95, before the redemption period begins in the next 2 weeks.

Please reply to this email or call us and contact our billing department to have your domain name renewed, please hurry if you wish to avoid the redemption period costs.

______________

I hope that this clears the matter for anyone viewing this thread. If anyone viewing this thread has any additional questions regarding our free domain for life policy or any other policies at Green Geeks please feel free to call us and ask one of our service agents about any policy you have a question about.

Thank you,
Trey Gardner

ebonyleg’s picture

Mr Trey Gardner, first of all I would like to thank you for responding personally to my posting which advises people to stay away from the Green Geeks "free domain for life package". However your response is untrue, misleading and simply a public relations stunt.

I have documented email proof to show that your response is untrue and misleading. I will post these proof at the bottom of this message.

First point - I have never signed up with Green Geeks. But on 24/may/2009 I signed up with tigersites.com hosting. Green geeks only took over from tigersites. Tiger sites had given me my domain name user account. Meaning that I could access or transfer my domain name at any time. It was on 29/Sept/2009 when green geeks and tigersites servers merged, that I lost access to my domain name management.

Second point - it is not true that I did not contact green geeks before my domain expiry date of 15/may/2010. The truth is that on 20th April 2010, before my domain name expired, I contacted Green Geeks Requesting to transfer my domain name and asked for my domain management user name and password, instead green geeks sent me a hosting renewal link and a billing renewal user name and password. I have since sent over 7 messages, but all in vain.

Third point - on contacting green geeks again on 20th of may 2010, just 5 days after domain expiry, green geeks through their ace employee Josh Dargie Responded that, there was nothing green geeks could do, and that I had to wait for 30 to 90 days if i wanted to renew or transfer my domain. After calling Josh Dargie's Bluff, he again sends me another email telling me that because my domain name has expired, according to enom they want $250 to renew the domain. (see email below)

At this point I was not impressed, I knew that Green Geeks was trying to extort me, So I googled the name Josh Dargie. I found many postings which showed that Josh Dargie was a dishonest domain stealing individual. And this Guy is the Star Employee at Green Geeks. I told Josh Dargie to stop trying to bullshit me and that I was aware of Domain rules, and that I still had 30 days from expiry date to renew my domain name www.dogtrader.net And i told them that i would let the world know about the scheme if they dont release my domain name.

Josh Dargie (Green Geeks) then responded, telling me that my support ticket was closed and there is nothing they can do for me, they told me to go to ENOM directly and get my domain name. They asked me not to contact them again. Infact they sent me a rude email message telling me to go rant on my little blogs and not contact green geeks again. They closed the support ticket. (see email below) It was only after they seen my first negative posting on webhosting review that they again contacted me and now told me that I could renew the domain for $24.95

--------------------------EMAIL FROM GREEN GEEKS ON 20TH APRIL PROOF THAT I HAD CONTACTED THEM------------
Dear Solomon ,

You requested that you be reminded of your Billing Area Login Details. They are as follows:

Email Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Password: XXXXXXXX

You can login at http://www.greengeeks.com/login/ by entering the above information in the "Billing Area" section.

------------EMAIL FROM GREEN GEEKS SENT 2O/05/2010 - TELLING THAT I COULD NOT RENEW MY DOMAIN----------------
Hello,

The domain dogtrader.net has already expired due to invoices not being paid. I am afraid at this time you will need to wait for the domain to be available again to purchase, typically this process takes 30-90 days.

Please get back to us if you need any further assistance and let us know how else we can help.

Thank you and have a great day,

Josh Dargie
GreenGeeks Support
support@greengeeks.com

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: SVD-237249
Department: Level 2 Support
Priority: High
Status: Closed

-------------EMAIL FROM GREEN GEEKS TELLING ME IT WILL COST $250 TO RENEW MY DOMAIN NAME ---------------------

Hello,

Your domain was part of the free domain for life, which requires the hosting services to be paid for in order to renew the domain name. You cannot just renew the domain as we are not just a domain registrar. We are primarily a web-host which means hosting services must be active to purchase/use domain names. If you were looking to transfer this should have been requested before your domain expired on the 14th.

According to ENOM there is an $250 release fee to remove the domain from its redemption holding in order to then purchase a renewal. If you wish to arrange this you can contact ENOM support to obtain the domain address.

I am afraid there is nothing more we can do for you as the domain is already expired.

Please get back to us if you need any further assistance and let us know how else we can help.

Thank you and have a great day,

Josh Dargie
GreenGeeks Support
support@greengeeks.com

------EMAIL FROM GREEN GEEKS TELLING ME TO GO RANT AND BLOG MY COMPLAINTS ELSEWHERE--------

Hello Solomon,
Feel free to contact eNom directly, I'm sure with your expert word-smithing and super googling skills, you'll be able to talk them out of charging their fees.

Don't bother googling me, or replying with some long-winded rant about how I'm some sort of thief. Just go off to your little blog and cry about this and leave this ticket closed.

Please get back to us if you need any further assistance and let us know how else we can help.

Thank you and have a great day,

Jeffrey Spelman
GreenGeeks Support
support@greengeeks.com

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: SVD-237249
Department: Level 2 Support
Priority: High
Status: Closed
-------------------------------------------

So as you can see Mr Trey Gardner was either not properly informed or was knowingly not Telling the truth. Josh Dargie made every effort for me NOT to renew the domain name. And Guess what, if you go to Dogtrader.net you will see those pay per click advertisements, I do not know who owns them, but I guess it is green geeks.

MR Trey Gardner, The fact remains. I still do not have ownership for my domain name, for which I paid for. Green geeks lied that I could not renew my domain name even if the domain expiry was under thirty days. The Fact still remains that your "Free Domain for Life package is misleading. If The domain name was free, then the client should have the domain name management account.

Mr gardner. Even if a customer is so irate, especially when they are being cheated out of their domain name, it is not professional for your employees to be sending such an email as Josh Dargie sent to me. This can only means one thing. That You and your company tolerate or encourage this kind of lope sided tactics by your employees, so as to frustrate customers in losing their domain names or twisting them to paying unfair market values for domain names.

Why do I have to pay $24.95 or even $250 for a domain name, That I already own, and I already paid for and yet other companies like netfirms.com have it for $9.59, Godaddy have them for $4.99 etc.

However I still thank you for personally for responding to this post. I still do not have my domain name back.

Ebony.

TreyGardner’s picture

Edited by silverwing - removed personal information

This is Trey again responding to these accusations from ebonyleg / Ebony,

ebonyleg if you are reading this or have read the previous post you currently have time to have us renew your domain name for you for $24.95, which is our pricing and which pricing I justified before in the previous post as:

We have estimated the cost of the domain name at $24.95 for these expenses:
1. The cost of the domain at $10
2. The cost of having our staff change the DNS, assist in the domain transfer and other domain management at $14.95

If you would like to continue to run around posting to forums like this that we are a SCAM, EXTORTION AND PROBLEMS and not resolve the domain issue then most likely your domain will go into the redemption period for which there is an additional charge from Enom to renew the domain name during that period. If you would like to avoid this domain going into a redemption period then please contact our staff to renew your domain name.

Our office and staff are here today to work with you to get your domain name back to you and to point it to wherever you want for $24.95. You mention that you can get domain names from netfirms for $9.59 or $4.99 from Godaddy, which is probably true and that is because domain registration for Godaddy is their core competency and they upsell you on other things. Hosting is our core competency and the domain registration for our clients are done as a courtesy and as part of the package and if you want the domain name we have a particular rate that we charge and we believe the rate is justified. If you want to start your own business and charge $4.99 domains by all means. We do not give people outside our company access to our registrar's account and therefore we have to do the work to change the dns and help transfer the domains.

As far as ebonyleg's claims that we did not inform him he could get the domain before the redemption period he was told of this by Josh:

> To: [EMAIL REMOVED]
> Subject: [#SVD-237249]: I would like to make a domain name transfer: www.dogtrader.net
> Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 12:46:16 -0400
> CC:
> From: support@greengeeks.com
>
> Hello,
>
> You can login to your billing account with us to make payment for your services. If you do not require web hosting we can update your invoice for just the domain renewal at $24.95/yr. Please note that we cannot guarantee the domain can be renewed at this price, there may be the $250 redemption period costs as well, to confirm if this is going to be applied you wold need to contact eNom.
>
> Please confirm this is what your looking to do and I will insure its completed for you.
>
> Please get back to us if you need any further assistance and let us know how else we can help.
>
> Thank you and have a great day,
>
> Josh Dargie
> GreenGeeks Support
> support@greengeeks.com
>
> Ticket Details
> ===================
> Ticket ID: SVD-237249
> Department: Level 2 Support
> Priority: High
> Status: Closed

_________________________
Now addressing Jeffrey's email back to ebonyleg where Jeffrey wrote to ebonyleg:

"Hello ebonyleg,
Feel free to contact eNom directly, I'm sure with your expert word-smithing and super googling skills, you'll be able to talk them out of charging their fees.

Don't bother googling me, or replying with some long-winded rant about how I'm some sort of thief. Just go off to your little blog and cry about this and leave this ticket closed."

I do apologize to ebonyleg, this is not how Jeffrey should have responded to you and I have reprimanded him for communicating in such a way however I can see to some extent why he did it, it was a knee jerk reaction to ebonyleg's previous post in that ticket which was:
Posted on: 26 May 2010 3:29 AM

Josh Dargie, I should have done a background check of green geeks before I signed up. I just read various internet reviews about your company. You have false and misleading advertisements. Evidently your free domain for life is a scam. You lure people to sign up with your hosting company by providing so called 'free domain names...but you do not provide them with an ability to control their domain names so that you can have them sub servant to your hosting company. I have also googled your name out, Mr Josh Dargie. You are revealed as a scam artist who steals other people's domain names as well as a dishonest partner. Infact they call you "ubber thief" Your name is every where on the internet as a dishonest person. From the internet it appears that, You josh has had numerous failed internet ventures, and obviously you have finally settled at green geeks. You have also participated in domain name buying and selling as posted on the internet. To think that i was just about to pay green geeks to renew my domain name, thank God I read these internet reviews first. As a result, I have already contacted enom directly, I would rather pay the $35 dollars or evn $250 as you claim, directly to enom to renew my domain name than pay $24.95 to a dishonest hosting company like green geeks.

It is illegal for a hosting company to refuse to provide domain name magemenet information to a domain owner. And you know it. As such, I will file a complaint directly to enom and ICANN about green geeks refusal to provide me with access to my domain name management information. I now know that, I would also rather loose my domain name than even pay a penny more to a company like green geeks. I have requested my domain name management account information from you guys and you have dodged the issue, so as to force me to renew my domain name with your company. instead you keep sending me some outdated invoice renewal notices to cover your asses. I hope you are more than just an employee at green geeks, because Josh with time, fraudulently misleading hosting companies like yours will not last. And Mr Josh Dargie, these things will eventually catch up to you. I am the wrong type of person to try and intimidate and bully, i will not comply, instead I will become a formidable adversary.

Good Bye and Good riddance.

Solo.

_________________________________

In this posting ebonyleg references a Google lookup of Josh Dargie and some malicious accusations about him. This was due to a former business relationship of Josh's and I invite anyone to read how that accusation came about and how it was resolved. You can find that information at:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=930826&highlight=dargie

I will say this as I have said it in other forums addressing Josh Dargie, he is our best support rep and I stand by his honesty and trustworthiness 100%. Anyone who wants to debate me on this or ask me questions about Josh and his integrity please feel free to call me at 877-326-7483 dial ext 1 and ask for Trey Gardner.

As far as ebonyleg's claims against us, there would be no claims against us if he worked with us and within our business practices. ebonyleg this is a waste of both our time and energy. I have tried again to call you today to discuss working with you to resolve this. Please call us and ask for me personally at 877-326-7483 ext 1.

Happy Friday,
Trey Gardner

greta_drupal’s picture

I will say this as I have said it in other forums addressing Josh Dargie, he is our best support rep and I stand by his honesty and trustworthiness 100%.

If you consider Josh Dargie to be your best and brightest...that speaks volumes about your judgment and your company.

Anyone who wants to debate me on this or ask me questions about Josh and his integrity please feel free to call me at 877-326-7483 dial ext 1 and ask for Trey Gardner.

As for this: If you phone that number, ext 1 isn't for Trey Gardner, it is general support. Not likely that you will ever speak to the CEO. (When I would phone and simply try to speak with the acct manager Josh Dargie about my issue, my calls were diverted and/or ignored.) Furthermore, I am not confident that he truly cares about the complaints, and might even be complicit. Based on personal experience with my own issue with them.

theatereleven’s picture

Not sure what ebonleg's problem is, but I just found this post and I'm using these guys to host my drupal site. Haven't had any issues....setup was freaking easy....no complaints!

- kyler boudreau

drupl2’s picture

Source: http://www.talkarcades.com/webmastering/14704-use-green-geeks-hosting-re...

If you use Green Greeks, or otherwise host with a reseller of theirs, Your site can easily be hacked and compromised.

I will show you how:

Here is the issue- they will reset your password/username on your cpanel hosting account without verification that it is actually your account, and with your using an anonymous "chat" Username to boot.

transcript

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'David R.'
David R.: Hello, my name is David, welcome to Green Geeks, may I have your name and how may I help you today ?
you: Hi David, Sorry my browser window just crashed
David R.: Hello, How may I help you ?
you: Hi,
you: I need my cpanel password reset.
David R.: domain name please ?
you: *****.com
David R.: Just a moment please
David R.: I have made the changes and now your password is test123456
you: Thank you.


Username:
David R.: Hello, my name is David, welcome to Green Geeks, may I have your name and how may I help you today ?
you: Hi, I forgot my cpanel username
David R.: ****** is the username of your account
you: thankyou

its that easy for someone to gain access to your reseller cpanel account if it is through Green Geeks, you site is now compromised, and a hacker has full access.

They dont verify the account you want the password/username to is actually yours, and they dont email the login credentials to the email account on record.

Ayesh’s picture

I doubt they really reveal the password via live chat.
However, many hosts does not ask the username and they just send you your username via chat.

KayO-dupe’s picture

Thanks, I'll check them out. What sort of support do they have, i.e. cloud server maintenance?

humedia’s picture

I documented my experiences with Greengeeks at http://greengeeksindependentreview.blogspot.com/ Hope it will also gives some hints, how to cope with highly by webhosting providers manipulated information space.

theatereleven’s picture

Here is my complaint with GreenGeeks (I've changed my mind since my last post): My site went down one day so I called tech support to see what was going on. They answered, and had ZERO information about it. They didn't offer to find out, and they wanted me to email support instead.

I needed to know if the server crashed so I could repair my database if needed. They were completely useless, and my production sites cannot survive with that type of support.

Ayesh’s picture

Impressive conversation here!

First, if someone from GreenGeeks here, I'd like to say that your renewal system is unfair.
If I needed to transfer domain to somewhere else, I have to pay $ 25,($10for renewal and $15 for DNS). Then, you suggest people to transfer domains.
What a joke is this? If I need to change the registrar, why do I need to pay for DNS management ? Plus, I have never heard about a registrar who charge for DNS(hosting the zone itself. Not talking about standard registrar's job). So does this mean I have to pay standard hosting fees + $15 for BIND DNS stuff ?

Plus, according to ICANN, domain owner should be able to transfer domains even after expiring the domain(for 1 month). Not sure about regional domains but I have done similar thing, thanks to Godaddy.

Anyway, GreenGeeks definitely has very good environment to HOST drupal sites. I have used it and perfect. But as a best practice, I only use ICANN-Accredited registrars instead of eNom-powered hosts.

seanray’s picture

Another suggestion about domain name is that you could register it by yourself instead of using the free one they offer in the package. This is helpful to avoid domain transfer issue you might meet, especially when the domain is critical to you.

theatereleven’s picture

Everyone - if you want a serious Drupal site do a VPS! I've been using Linode, they are awesome. And I'm not even putting my referral link here because that is sales BS. I'm telling you they are awesome because they really are. I have consolidated from Godaddy, bluehost and green geeks.

Ayesh’s picture

Actually I have no domains registered through GreenGeeks and this is not my own problem. I just added my words about their domain registration and transfer method.

tomveo’s picture

I purchased on GreenGeeks web site hosting service, I sent a payment of $136.80 USD to Green Geeks LLC (Jul 22, 2011 23:53:18 PDT).

They refuse to provide services to me, but did not refund my money.

I sent email complaints to them and ask them to refund my money, so far they have not answered my request.

They got my money and rejected my order, but they did not refund my money.

seanray’s picture

Is there any reason they don't provide service to you? As I know, for a shared hosting company, create an account in a server almost means zero cost before exceeding its capacity.

greta_drupal’s picture

Same experience for me. I think that this is part of the scam. If they can jerk you around for 30 days, they will then likely say you are past your period of satisfaction guarantee. I'd be happy to be proven wrong...for the sake of others.

bart atlas’s picture

Regarding hosting and domain names, from my experience:
- If you want to own the domain name, go buy it yourself from a registrar. Not a comment on Green Geeks, just a general comment. This way you have full control over DNS settings... and ownership! Read the contract with the registrar, and be sure it says you own the domain name, instead of saying you are leasing the name from them.
- Once you have the domain name, get hosting, and set the appropriate DNS settings at the registrar.
- This also allows you to quickly switch to a new hosting company if need be, without wrangling over cancellation fees and domain ownership.

Regarding GreenGeeks, my company just started using them mid-2011, and they've been nothing but good. Service works! Support is great. Enough said.

dewolfe001’s picture

We suffered with them in the Summer and Fall of 2010. It was a white knuckle experience-- crashes, outrages, settings disappearing: the works. Midday on one day all of the services locked up (ie. impossibly long response times) and the excuse was that they were doing a back-up of the servers midday on a weekday so that kept our server's resources maxxed out and unavailable for page requests.
If they have straightened things out, that's great news. As a result of how bad they screwed up, I do much more vetting of a service provider and feedback from people individuals who use a given hosting service. That said, I have always done that sort of vetting before making a decision and GreenGeeks hosting went squirrely after all of that.

lallie’s picture

I have been with Green Geeks for three years now. I was previously with Homestead. Green Geeks was much more affordable and had many more options for building my websites. I transferred my original domain name from Homestead and also built another website for another company with another domain name at Green Geeks. At first I didn't know how to do the transfer. GREEN GEEKS CHAT was very helpful in teaching me how to do it. I had to request the transfer from Homestead. I'm assuming this is what must be done when leaving Green Geeks. Each year I am sent an email from WHOIS asking to verify all information concerning the domain name and to provide any changes. Again, I assume this would be the case if you wanted to leave Green Geeks and go to another hosting site. I personally LOVE GREEN GEEKS and, although there have been some days with "downtime", they are usually in the wee hours of the morning and with plenty of notice. The price is UNBEATABLE and the SERVICE, through chat anyway has been EXCELLENT. I will continue to use Green Geeks and I would recommend Green Geeks to anyone who is looking for an easily navigable, extremely affordable, customer service oriented Website Host.

grupalduru’s picture

If you were with Homestead, isnt Drupal a little too technical for you... just kidding :) No really, they dont even support php...

Shelly peacock’s picture

I have had the pleasure to work with GreenGeeks for the past few months. Being a new Media company, I am learning as I go, and they have been incredible with their help and "out of the way" customer service. I can't imagine hosting elsewhere.
I agree with the registrar "common sense", and, as I was handed a godaddy account full of URL's to develop, I see this point.
However, the guys at Green Geeks have been very quick, and very efficient at helping me get moving forward.
Good job Trey- you have created a dynamic team!

gtree28’s picture


!!!BE AWARE!!! IMPORTANT TO EVERY PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD!!!! http://greengeeks.com/ are scam!!! i had make a order for VPS hosting 512MB with monthly subscribe fee $39.95 on --, jan-, 2012 at --:-- PM
but until now i still NOT receive any information about my order(NOT confirm email giving, not tiket support response) , and i has live chat with the GreenGeeks support many times and they promise to me will rush and make refund ASAP but until now i still NOT receive any info... had open many tiket ID but not response!!!

My advice: NEVER do business with"http://greengeeks.com"!!!!!!! if you have alot of money, pls do for charity but NOT business with this company!!

GreenGeeks-Josh’s picture

Hello,

Firstly I do apologize for the frustration that may have been caused. GreenGeeks verifies all orders using numerous verification methods. These checks are done for the protection of our Customers, unfortunately in Gtree28's case an order for a VPS service was placed and after numerous attempts to reach the owner the order was rejected.

This order was rejected & refund instructions issued to PayPal on Februrary 10th 2012.

dqadri’s picture

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

-- Ice T

greta_drupal’s picture

Were you just looking for a reason to quote Ice T...because your comment is so off. The player is the problem...or don't you read.

justini’s picture

I agree with the complaint against GreenGeeks. I just had to cancel my account after a few too many reliability and performance issues. My request was that the prorated amount of my remaining service be refunded back to me and that we both part ways satisfied. Josh Dargie fielded my issue and maintained a 100% robotic standpoint, spouting text from their FAQ and terms as opposed to handling my situation on a case-by-case. He also put the entire blame of my issue on me, attributing it to being a target for hacker attacks. I admit that this did happen, once. But well after other performance related tickets were submitted and I did quickly remedy the issue once notified as it was a security issue with WordPress.

GreenGeeks is one of those companies where they will patch the problem for you and move on, but when you are completely dissatisfied, they fall back on their policy text to "divest" themselves of you. There are so many other cost effective options out there to choose from.

99.9% uptime is a fabrication by GreenGeeks. TERRIBLE performance and reliability. Though quite Green I hear.

cirenamlat’s picture

I started two years ago with GreenGeeks at a great promotional price. Renewal on the second year came at a 100% increase so I let them know via emai I wanted to transfer my domain name and cancel out my account (hosting). It took two weeks of daily emails to finally convince them to allow my domain to transfer to Godaddy. If your in this position keep pressing them. They are grabbing up the DrupalforDummies crowd they then they hold their "dummies" domains hostage for a ransom when they dont pay they overpriced hosting. Luckly for me my hard work and persistence payed off and now I have my domain! Horay!

I was so pleased about getting my domain and feeling that Green Geeks had more than sufficient requests to cancel my account after all we had been through I ignored the emails they were sending about a renewal invoice for the hosting ($100+).
That was until I see the charge on my credit card and figure out I have to go to GreenGeeks.com/cancel and that my multiple emails and phones calls expressing that I did not wish to continue my service does not fit their terms and conditions. So I cancel online and politely call in to request a refund (even partial) with Mark (nice guy). (this is something Godaddy would have done right then) He somewhat agrees that what I'm asking for seems fair yet transfers me to the infamous Josh whom informs me that a partial refund is not possiable because I FAILED to follow their instructions for canceling my account in addition to not owning up to my MANLY obligations. If you get transferred to this guy hang up, he will ruin your day and a make you question if there is really hope for mankind. And... Make you want to write reviews like this....

The summation of my experience comes to; Green Geeks is not a scam but their offers are misleading and they hide behind their terms and conditions (which who actually reads?) and when it comes to dealing with renewals, refunds or change of accounts their customer service is far away from what we know in the open-source community as polite and fair. I strongly suggest the Drupal community reconsiders GreenGeeks as the official host for dummies.

To the CEO of GreenGeeks Tray, I left you a message with Mark to call and discuss this with me as i would like to come to a fair resolution for both of us. However, i encourage you to listen to the phone call with Josh to hear how rude and disrespectful he was.
He would not let me finish speaking and he was very insulting regarding my inability to use your online cancel form.

Thannk You.

GreenGeeks-Josh’s picture

Hello,

I would first like to apologize for the frustration faced, however as Eric has mentioned the renewal notices that were sent were ignored. GreenGeeks issues two reminders, one 15 days & one seven (7) days prior to the renewal. Both of these notices indicate the pricing, services & instructions on how to proceed should the service no longer be required.

Unfortunately in Eric's case these alerts were ignored and on the renewal date the services renewed automatically as outlined in our Terms of Service as outlined at (http://greengeeks.com/legal/tos.php). Cancellations are accepted up until the day before renewal (ie the last day of their original hosting term) and only issue refunds during the initial thirty days of an account.

GreenGeeks does make special arrangements under unqiue circumstances such as Eric's case. A partial refund less one
month of hosting ($14.95), domain registration ($24.95) & deactivation fee ($15) was issued.

Lakeside’s picture

The 'free' domain is a ploy that has been used by various web hosting companies, which is why when I come across one of these low-ball introductory web hosting offers I sign up for the maximum time (usually 3-years) and get a junk domain name for the free domain registration.

Here are some of the other 'Gotchas' that virtual hosting companies employ.

Pink96’s picture

I stumbled upon this post today as I was Googling "Green Geeks".

Angel Ebony, I find your posting to be absurd, disturbing, and shows your lack of ability to fully understand the "Terms & Conditions" AND how domains and hosting works.

First of all, GreenGeeks shared hosting plan is reasonably affordable... and the "included" free domain is a bonus.

Secondly, please understand that their terms to have the "lifetime" free domain offer ONLY applies if you purchase their shared hosting package. (This is not new at all and lots of other companies do exactly the same thing)

Thirdly, you could have purchased your domain elsewhere and host it through GreenGeeks by using their nameservers (I do this ALL the time)

Fourthly, if your "hosting" term has expired AND you choose not to renew the package, then that is on you. Now as far as your domain attached to the hosting is concerned, you could have transferred that out LONG before the hosting service expired. If your plan was for a year, then you domain would expire too... as it normally would UNLESS you purchase it for many years.

Anyhow, it's been two years and I hope your issue with them has been resolved and that you are more well versed with domains and hosting prices and services.

My only concern applies to all hosting companies is this.... downtime. I am sure that there are legitimate "horror" stories out there than the ones I've read on here. I have a few with my several of my hosting companies, but I choose to pick my battles and I'm loyal to those who have treated me well..... EVEN if I experienced some lousy situations, they were there when I needed them.

The company has to really $uck for me to talk crap about them.

One last thing, I found GreenGeeks through an offer from "ThemeSnap". I'm considering to go the easy route of purchasing a fully-functional theme that I can just upload right away because of my awful experience in the last few days with "Fusion Core, Acquia Prosper, and Skinr". My head is about to explode!! I just need something simple and the ability to import my products.

Thanks in advance for listening/reading.

Ciao!

anareses’s picture

They promise a full refund in a month on their website.
And, my original invoice says there is no charge for domain registration.
So, I did cancel in a month, but they didnt refund $24.95 saying it is for domain registration.

I needed my domain to point to another site, so I called them to forward!
They cannot perform this very simple request, b/c they dont work with IP addresses.
They should be ashamed for their useless for technical support.

Please stay away from these guys!

GreenGeeks-Josh’s picture

Hello,

Firstly I am sorry to hear that you decided to Cancel with GreenGeeks. As mentioned GreenGeeks witholds the cost of Domain Registrations (valued at $24.95) from any refunds when the domain was registered/transfered as part of the Free Domain for Life program. More information on this policy can be reviewed on our Terms of Service at http://greengeeks.com/legal/tos.php

Unfortunately Anareses is correct, GreenGeeks is unable to redirect a domain to a IP Address without DNS Management services being purchased. However GreenGeeks provides the ability to transfer your domain (for free) to our eNom Partner Portal (http://greengeeksdomains.com). Well this portal is a self managed service, the functionality required is avaliable at no cost (less the cost to renew your domain yearly).

Should ou still be struggling with configuring your website, please contact our support department at support@greengeeks.com to complete these changes.

siteowner’s picture

I googled greengeeks to research whether I'd want to use them for hosting my many websites, and came upon this thread. Do you know what is more frightening than ebony's post? The fact that the CEO of greengeeks showed a total lack of ethics and discretion. It was entirely UNPROFESSIONAL for him to post a client's personal details, including domain name, as well as contents of emails and chats!

That alone convinced me I would NEVER do business with GreenGeeks. The fact that the rest of you weren't equally horrified by that kind of violation astounds me.

greta_drupal’s picture

My experience:

Having spoken with their sales department several times, I placed an online order; credit charge was sent through immediately. Within 30 minutes or so, I phoned to follow up to see how long that process would take. The rep told me that the order was considered "high risk" and that I was to EMAIL them a SCAN of the front and back of my credit card, along with scan of my driver's license. (NOTE: Normally, that credit card info passes directly onto someone like authorize.net, never being retained by the company. Green Geeks was asking me to provide that highly sensitive info to them directly, and in scanned form.)

I told them that was a suspicious request and that I would not comply (nor should anyone). Told them that I had no interest in doing business with them and to cancel the account immediately, and to immediately provide full refund (well within their 30-day satisfaction guarantee). Rep said that I needed to complete the online cancellation form. I did so with that rep on the phone, and noted that the cancellation went through.

Received this email:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Miller" <kmiller@greengeeks.com>
To: ***
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 7:55 PM
Subject: More information about your order at GreenGeeks.

Hello,
My name is Keith from GreenGeeks.com

We are requesting more information about your account, this is critical 
that we contact you as soon as possible, or your service could be suspended.

If you could please give me a e-mail or call at 1-877-326-7483 ext273

Thank you,
 
Keith Miller
GreenGeeks.com
1-877-326-7483

When I phoned (the next day?) to follow up about refund, they said that they had not received a cancellation from me. They later said that they could not cancel the account until I provided the requested scanned documentation. On June 5th, I even submitted a ticket, through ticketing system, to cancel the account.

Received this email:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GreenGeeks Billing" <billing@greengeeks.com>
To: ***
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 11:16 AM
Subject: [#IMW-880468]: CR: 

Hello,

I am afraid due to the high risk of this account, until the details requested are received we are unable to refund your account. This matter is currently being dealt with by our Risk Department in association with our credit card merchant. Please handle this in order to proceed with the opening of your account, at which time you can decide to cancel should you wish.

Thank you and have a great day, 

Josh Dargie
GreenGeeks Support Manager
support@greengeeks.com

Ticket Details

===================
Ticket ID: IMW-880468
Department: Billing-Cancellations
Priority: High
Status: Closed

Notice that they immediately CLOSED the ticket. And, they say they are investigating the "high risk" order. Yet, in 3 months, no one has ever contacted "cardholder" (me) or my credit card company. As for "Please handle this in order to proceed with the opening of your account, at which time you can decide to cancel should you wish.". #1. I cancelled the account; #2. why were they billing me for an account they considered to not be opened.

I phoned and spoke directly with this manager. He basically was defensive and claimed that I must provide the information, that they would not officially close the account. Their team would "investigate the high risk of the order". (Note: the order was placed in my name, with info that matched the credit card. Nothing unusual.) They had SUSPENDED the account (or rather not completed the activation); so were providing absolutely not service.

Phone my credit card company to ask why they were considering this charge "high risk" - never had that occur. Credit card company said that they didn't, and that I was right not to submit the suspicious requested info. Submitted a dispute with credit card company.

Note that they had suspended the account, so were providing NO SERVICE. Yet, come the next month, they billed my credit card again!! Again, I filed dispute with credit card company. They advised me to close the credit card account, or else the cycle of them charging and me disputing would go on forever. I closed credit card account, which in and of itself is a negative on credit reports. So, their damage goes beyond the amount not refunded.

On June 17th, I made yet again --another attempt to get refund.

Ticket ID: NZV-672211
Subject: 2nd Request for FULL REFUND
Department: Billing
Priority: High
Status: In Progress

They would just ignore these tickets and close them. Same with voice mail messages -- calls unreturned.

When, on August 4th, they sent me an invoice for the 3RD MONTH!, I emailed back to billing. Telling them to stop sending invoices and demanding refund for the 2 months billed to credit card, and noting that I had filed a complaint with Attorney General's office.

On August 6th, billing sent email stating that they had cancelled the account and refunded $19.95 to credit card. I immediately emailed back (same day) to ask about the refund for the 2nd charge. No reply.

Today, 15 August 2012, I phone billing to yet again demand the full refund for the full amount billed. The billing person put me on hold, then came back on the line to say that: she had talked with her manager, and that I had not responded to the cancellation something, blah, blah, blah.

I stopped her to say that was bullshit. She hung up on me.

This company is a total sham. Or, else, they are so grossly incompetent that no one should trust them with web hosting. (I believe the former.) Given this experience, I would be surprised if any of their web hosting (e.g., greenness) claims were true.

I filed a complaint with the California Attorney General's office. Hope others do the same.

Screenshot of my tickets alone: "http://americathegreen.org/scr_GreenGeeks-tickets.jpg"

Doesn't account for the many phone calls.

greta_drupal’s picture

P.S. -- I did not use them for site migration, nor did I register any domains (free or otherwise) with them. I elected to manage my own DNS for the hosting, rather than have that done on order. So, no loopholes about keeping my money.

GreenGeeks-Josh’s picture

Hello,

I am sorry to hear that you have faced these issues Greta_drupal. I've reviewed our records on this matter and would like to shed some light on what has occured, and confirm that all issues have been resolved on this issue.

"greta_drupal" placed an order with GreenGeeks on Jun 1st 2012, under the Customer name "- Tyme ". One of our newer agents had processed this order without correctly verifying the customers name (A practice done to insure the card holders protection). After noticing, our activation team reached out to the customer via telephone to obtain the correct contact information. The telephone number provided was disconnected and as such we then followed up with an email to request the appropriate contact details. With high risk orders GreenGeeks requires a photo identification scan along with a scan of the front & back of the credit card, showing only the first & last four digits. These checks are done for the protection of our customers and none of the data is stored on our network.

Unfortunately when "Tyme" responded back, they had refused to process any verification checks. At that time the customer demanded they be refunded, however based on the communications the customer requested they be refunded in an alternative method. This raised additional alarms and the profile was placed on hold until GreenGeeks was able to verify all information involved. GreenGeeks reached out to the Issuing Bank for the credit card & confirmed the credit card was not reported as stolen and that it was safe to proceed with a refund.

There were some delays in this process, which lead to the customers credit card receiving a second charge. Once all information with the issuing bank was confirmed, we proceeded to refund all invoiced charged and terminated the service. We certainly do apologize for the frustration and have taken steps to insure orders such as these are not processed initially preventing these kinds of problems.

diffy’s picture

Hi Drupal.org forums, it's been many years since I was here, good to be back :)
After reading the above posts, which I arrived at from a Google Search, I had to log in and write something.

Some history:
I had ben with Servage.net for 5 years. If you are wondering what a bad webhost is, they are it.
I had random "database server overloads" which would render websites inaccessible. Furthermore it could not run Drupal7 at all, and Drupal6 with some plugins would grind to a halt. Now that but that was not the worst.
The WORST was that the sysadmins deleted files off my account, at 4 different points in time, letting me know
after they had done it. They could have issued a warning of some sort, but no, they deleted many many files.
Including music I had produced myself, which they claimed was copyrighted files. Servage deleted my web forums attachment directory, which broke the forum somewhat, and users private message attachments. Terrible Terrible Terrible. They comitted the cardinal sin, time and again. Also, they don't have CPANEL or PLESK or anything remotely modern, so it's a very old-school way to work.
So that's Servage for you.

Why GreenGeeks?
I actually CHOSE GreenGeeks.com over everything else, and spent a year making this decision.
I agree that I was surprised I had to pay more than they actually advised on their front page, but only
about 100USD in transfer costs, which I thought was fair. They are still running a business, and I was taking up some of their time with all my transfers.

Their shared servers are great
I have SSH access
CPANEL X access which is a different dimension in awesomeness compared to the Servage.net control panel
They have a very very good account manager

Customer support is fantastic. I use it a lot.
If I ask dumb questions, they reply with robot voice through copy/paste from their FAQs which is OKAY.
(Sometimes I can't find the information in their tons of user documentation - and I ask these dumb questions)
If I ask good questions, they really go to great lenghts to explain and try to help. If it's a technical question, they
always "escalate the ticket to level 2 support" and I get help from a techie.

In rankings GreenGeeks are head to head with the best, and the best webhost according to a multitude of ranking sites is
INMOTION.com. INMOTION.COM also looks fantastic, but they only offer to host 5 domains and a limited amount of databases on their standard plan shared hosting plan (business package), which is not enough for me.

What I like about GreenGeeks is the powerful tools I get to work on developing websites as cheap as possible.
I can add as many domains as I like, I can register as many domains as I like, and I can have as many MySQL databases as I like.

I have signed up with them for 3 years, and I couldn't be happier.
10 domains and 15-20 websites increasing till I don't have any more CPU capacity left then I will migrate to a VPS...
I worry about their CPU capacity in general, as I can see in my ssh terminal that the load average on their servers areconstantly
between 4 and 5.5. That's A LOT. Here's the corrent load: "load average: 4.73, 4.72, 4.21".
As far as VPS goes, that's a different league and a different story, and I would probably chose the pros for VPS. These are according to my research Linode.com and Rackspace.com or some awesome Scandinavian company which hasn't emerged yet.

PS - I am a real person from Norway, a graduate student, not a marketing rep astroturfing.
You can see from my post history here, that I am a regular user, with many posts going way back, I am not a bot :-).

I am impressed by the GreenGeeks ECO SITE Offering [Shared hosting], and I would GLADLY recommend it to others, which I have.
Drupal6 and Drupal7 works great. I agree with advice from someone above, go and register your domains with a proper registrar. I use Dyn.com which are excellent, but a little more costly than the very cheapest.

greta_drupal’s picture

I think you got LUCKY.

GreenGeeks-Josh’s picture

Hello Diffy,

I would like to thank you for your kind comments. Well GreenGeeks tries extremely hard to insure all customers issues are resolved in a timely manner we unfortunately do find some complaints on sites such as this. It is nice to see some positive reviews of our service which speaks in volumes of the dedication we place in insuring our services meet & exceed the requirements of Drupal's core services.

I'd like to highlight some of our other reviews (raw & uneditied) which can be found at the following testimonial pages:
http://webhostinggeeks.com/user-reviews/green-geeks/
http://mymultihost.com/web-hosting/greengeeks-is-now-the-official-drupal...
http://www.greengeeks.com/why-us/testimonials.php

I'd also love to extend a $25 coupon, for those who are thinking of trying our hosting services. Please note the coupon is only valid on our 1,2,3 Year EcoSite Hosting Services. Coupon Code - "Drupal"

host user’s picture

I'm glad to see someone taking the risk to post the truth about a company online. I read both sides of the original post and do indeed feel GreenGeeks is wrong. Why is this a risk? Because on forums there are many hosts and resellers of hosts perusing the comments and seem to conveniently delete the ones that don't favor their company, even if its true. Also, the 'top ten' lists of best hosts, etc. are all rigged by the hosts themselves paying to have these 'best of' lists made. Occasionally these sites are independently owned but they sell the top 10 spots to whichever host pays the most money. It's very much based on false information (lies). So, it's difficult to find real, unbiased views from the users. So, I'm grateful to see this post.

And I have personal experience with GreenGeeks too. Basically, I believe they are a fraudulent company and I would never trust them with anything. I paid for hosting so I could finish a web project over a weekend, but they failed to give me any username/pw for accessing it. Days went by, nothing. They still had my money. I asked for immediate refund, they said I would get a refund within 24 hours. Never did. I went back and forth with them for weeks. Billing never responded.

After about a month, I realized this company was shady and had no intention on refunding my money, which was supposed to be for a service I never received. So, I started posting online on forums and social media. Then I was refunded. So, if I did not do this, one could assume they'd still have my money and I'd have nothing in return. The US doesn't need companies like this out to take advantage of people. So, I agree with other posters here- they need to get what they deserve.

It's also unethical for host companies to hold your domain hostage, or to start with a certain price level, but have it double the next year without notice. Basically anything that surprises people and takes advantage of them is unethical. So, a company that preys on its customers like this I hope will fail as a business.

snowy’s picture

ok, im shocked. Why would greengeeks post PRIVATE information of a customer ticket number, etc... online
I mean, I've never heard of stuff like that? Have you? -- just worried there.

Sorry to hear about all the issues you've face with them none the less... I would give one of the following guys
a shot when your looking for your next host:

- www.godaddy.com
- www.siteserving.com
- www.vps.net

However, be careful, the 2nd and 3rd guys are the only independent ones of EIG (who owns green geeks?)

greta_drupal’s picture

GoDaddy.com is a horrible web hosting suggestion, IMO. Very developer unfriendly. (Perhaps fine if you just need a blog from an installation profile.) And, they contract those services; so, if you have a problem, some level 1 support person has to put in a ticket with that company or possibly even GoDaddy level 2 support first. Then, you get 2nd or 3rd hand info, without the benefit of a two-way conversation with a knowledgeable source.

OMD’s picture

I recently tried Green Geeks and had an awful experience. The setup email was filled with broken links and erroneous information making what should have been a 30min set up time take half my day. After a few hours of frustration conversations with support staff that had completely the wrong attitude, and were not customer service oriented, I decided to call it as a waste of time and requested my account be cancelled and my guaranteed "full refund" be issued. The account never did get completely set up btw. That's when the bad attitude really came out from the staff. They informed me that I would not be getting a full refund. Keep in mind that service had been up and running for half a day and never fully configured. They told me they need to deduct a portion of my refund to pay for a cPanel licensing fee. No where in their Terms of Service does it mention this deduction.

This is poor business practice and in my opinion nothing but a way to scam approximately 25% of my initial fee. I will never deal with them again. They not only wasted my time with a poorly planned and thought out new account setup process, and inaccurate information from unhelpful staff with a foul attitude, but they also kept 25% of my "full refund" after I decided to save the rest of my day and cancel the service. No amount of talking to their various departments has yielded my "full refund" yet.

Green Geeks = wasted time, and wasted money.

JamesOakley’s picture

Was that a shared hosting package? Did you take advantage of free domain registration or did you transfer a domain into them?

Other than that, according to http://www.greengeeks.com/legal/tos.php,

30-Day Money Back Guarantee
GreenGeeks offers an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee that covers cancellations of a web hosting account made during the first 30 days of service, due to the inability to deliver satisfactory services. As a part of our strive to achieve industry leading customer satisfaction, the customer will be refunded all hosting charges made to their credit card minus any setup fees or domain name costs which are non-refundable.

If they didn't honour that, that would be very poor indeed. The only way I could see that being different is if you signed up for a VPS or dedicated server (as there may be license fees to pay = setup fees may not be $0), or if you took advantage of an offer that included a domain, as they say they don't refund the equivalent amount for that.


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greta_drupal’s picture

This was my experience too (posted previously): they refused to cancel the account (cancellation form submitted within an hour of ordering) and issue the refund, but also never activated the account...yet continued to charge my credit card month after month.

GreenGeeks-Josh’s picture

Hello,

Firstly, I am sorry to hear that you decided to cancel with GreenGeeks. In OMD's case, a VPS service was purchased in August, and shortly there after decided to cancel due to confusion with the VPS Platform (Numerous changes have been made in this area recently). As per our Terms of Service listed at (http://www.greengeeks.com/legal/tos.php) OMD's service was refunded in full less the cPanel license of $10. These fees are non refundable as they are expenses GreenGeeks aquires during the provisioning of the requested service.

kamdroop’s picture

I've been a customer of GreenGeeks for over 3 years now and I have purchased and cancelled several hosting accounts without issue. Even I had an issue with a domain expiring with one of my over a dozen domains with them... one simple support ticket fixed it. Looks to me like those that complain don't do any reading and are passing the blame for their own oversight. If my domain expired, I would know about it within 30 days for sure, if I didn't... I don't think the domain was that important anyway!

I've met them in person at the Drupal conferences. They aren't a fraud, scam or misleading. My opinion is to go with GreenGeeks if you're looking for a reliable and trustworthy web host. I use them, haven't been disappointed.

greta_drupal’s picture

How long have you worked for Green Geeks?

Ayesh’s picture

May be since 2009 ?
and probably he's impressed by their service so recommending GG as a good host. We don't know for sure :)