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  1. #1

    Bluehost A review...Maybe they have something to hide.

    I switched to Bluehost last year, after a few years at Readyhosting.

    Bluehost was great, fast site, lots of features and quick customer service....

    Recently Bluehost has developed some issues. They installed a new piece of hardware, I don't remember what it was, but that's when the problems began. I am only going to speak from my own experience. Soon after that, my website started getting really slow(about 25% of the time). I started looking around, others seemed to be having problems as well, but it seems Bluehost always had a public solution for them...You need to buy more CPU was the common one.

    For me, it was a probelm with sendmail, which would prevent my shopping cart from working, as well as effect the forum. I contacted bluehost, and was told, that I was "probably" over my hourly email limit, which I didn't think I was close to. So I paid more to have the limit raised, and the problem was fixed. At least for that day, the next day the problem was back. It continues to come and go, randomly, and nobody at Bluehost knows why, or really seems to care. It now sometimes takes days to hear back on a support ticket.

    So recently the slowed site, seemed to get worse. It was so slow that it was timing out. Surely this must just be me and my connection....However, my forum admins in both Germany and the UK, were having the same problem.

    I decided to see if it was just my site. I went on the Bluehost forum and posted a thread, asking if others were experiencing similar problems. Turns out alot of people were. So it was indeed a problem with Bluehost.

    I sent an email to the sales department, asking if there was another account I could upgrade to, a VPS if possible, and if it would fix the problem.

    I was told that the problem was with Bluehost, and that they were working on it. Please to be patient and it would be fixed. Ok, I thought, it's been a few weeks, and I know I'm not the only one complaining about it, How much longer can it take?

    I returned to the Bluehost forum later, and found that my thread and all the replies had been deleted.....Assuming this was a mistake, I reposted. Mentioning the deleted thread and asking if there was a reason, or if it was a mistake. To my surprise, this thread was deleted as well. I've opened a 3rd thread on the subject, but I don't think it will last long either.

    The real problem I'm having, is that my original thread was completely topical and without any real criticism. Mostly just questions. There was absolutely no reason to delete it, unless they were trying to keep this information of slowing websites from their customers.

    My Opinions and Theories: Bluehost is having issues with overselling(which the CEO addressed on his blog) as well as hardware issues. They are trying to keep this problem from their cusomters and pass blame for slowing sites on their customers. Alot of people submit service tickets and get sold more CPU, even though they claim they are no where near the limit. Others get it blamed on scripts(which are installed by Bluehost). It seems that they are now more concerned with selling as much as they can and not with what got them to this point. Reliable, fast servers and good customer service.

    I just thought I'd post this so if anyone is curious about hosting with them, they may think twice. This is not the right time to signup over there.....

    As a sidenote...I'm not really an A**, I came to this board looking for recommendations on a new host, not to complain. However, while reading here, my 2nd thread was deleted from their board. I now know they are trying to censor the board, and hide their issues from their customers.

    I was very happy with them in the past, so much so that they still have a letter I wrote them on their reommendations page....

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
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    5,178
    Could you share the site you hosted with Bluehost? If you'd rather it not be public knowledge, click this link to report it. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/report.php?p=4171598. The moderators here will respect your privacy.
    If you have to operate your company behind the scenes or under a fake name, maybe it's time to leave the industry and start something fresh.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    Uk, Norwich
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    483
    Sounds like you got a good deal that went sour. If you are looking for another host why not have a look at the shared hosting offers forum, there are a great deal of web hosts available.
    redihot.com | low cost quality hosting
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    With our 99.95% Uptime Guarantee, 24/7 Monitoring, Friendly Support, Cpanel/Fantastico, Domains and much more, why wait?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike V
    Could you share the site you hosted with Bluehost? If you'd rather it not be public knowledge, click this link to report it. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/report.php?p=4171598. The moderators here will respect your privacy.
    URL received and confirmed

  5. #5
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    it seems on line ;)
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    "Maybe they have something to hide."

    They do! Thank you for your warning!
    Gonzalo
    "To venture is to risk one's life; not to venture is to lose one's reason to live"

  6. #6
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    Jun 2006
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    Wow, another thread on their overselling problems. Thats actually pretty disappointing

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
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    647
    Your new thread got deleted too... I've watched many threads disappear there over the last few months, by far most of them have been since the recent CPU restrictions were put into place and people couldnt even back up their wordpress database without exceeding the limit. Apparently there are enough people not having trouble to keep them in business, but there are some serious screamers too, and so far most of them have looked pretty reasonable to me. I raise a spockish brow at the whole deal... matter of fact all the complaints popping up and disappearing caused me to cancel two days into my trial with them.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
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    USA
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    OVERSELLING rings alot bells . If you want relibility, do not look for plans that promise you high disk space and bandwidth for just a few dollars, as when they offer it to you and others, they would have to make that money up somewhere, which results in overselling their server due to them being crowded.
    GS RichCopy 360 Enterprise - Voted #1 for data migration and replication in terms of performance and features. Replicate data across between servers in the same network, WAN, or even across the internet - Many customer call it RSync for Windows

  9. #9
    I'd never have any contacts with the hosting that offers much disk space and bandwidth for a low price. It's an overselling. It's quite obvious. You know you must get what you've paid for. If you pay little money you get low-qualified service.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    45
    They sucks. If you ask pre-sales question they will answer you politely. But when it comes with website down, they're rude. Two thumbs down!

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by dwrunyon
    Your new thread got deleted too... I've watched many threads disappear there over the last few months, by far most of them have been since the recent CPU restrictions were put into place and people couldnt even back up their wordpress database without exceeding the limit. Apparently there are enough people not having trouble to keep them in business, but there are some serious screamers too, and so far most of them have looked pretty reasonable to me. I raise a spockish brow at the whole deal... matter of fact all the complaints popping up and disappearing caused me to cancel two days into my trial with them.
    It's true, thread #3 got deleted. At least it stayed up for almost 10hours. It got replies from others that have also had their posts about problems deleted from the forums. It's really sad, to see a company that runs itself that way. Especially one like Bluehost, which has always been perceived as a good company to host with.

    As for them being alot of package for very little money, that as well is a little deceptive. Once you add in all the other things I was paying for CPU, Emails etc... It wasn't really any less than a basic VPS. And paying for those resources was definitely not right, as I wasn't using even close to all the standard resources included in the package.

    I didn't sign up there because of their high storage and bandwidths, I did it because they offered everything I needed and had great customer support. I guess things can change very quickly. Now I just have to decide on a new host.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    East Coast // NYC
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    Well this time, make sure to find a host that doesn't offer space and bandwidth thats too good to be true.

    I wish you much luck with your new host.

  13. #13
    My friend from Asian area alway compain that bluehost is not stable and have vistior limmit what a bad hosting =(

  14. #14
    Thanks for the tip.
    I crossed them off my list.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
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    21,920
    From http://www.mattheaton.com

    If I wanted to have fun all day at work I would do system administration, and do perl programming for 25% of my time. Unfortunately for me I am a MUCH better marketing guy than I am a perl programmer.
    I like his style on the blog, it's quite to the point. It looks like the marketing side of the business faces reality these days, and the reality is that proper management (inclusing growth management) should take precedence. They went a bit overboard with their marketing efforts (inclusing new package specifications, and new brand). I'm not sure they have the necessary leverage to stop the growth and rapidly balance the staff/customer ratio. For example, their army of affiliates will still push their services like they always did. Twice as much really, since they now feature two brands (Bluehost and Hostmonster).

  16. #16
    Join Date
    May 2006
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    hmm, I guess just another company that has got too big and impersonal. I always looked at bluehost as one of the more respectable hosters in the market. But after this post and that bluevoda one it sure does not seem that way anymore.

  17. #17
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    I always looked at bluehost as one of the more respectable hosters in the market. But after this post and that bluevoda one it sure does not seem that way anymore.
    So far, I see no reason why after reading that Bluehost/Bluevoda thread, one would conclude that Bluehost is not worthy of respect.

  18. #18
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    May 2006
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    yes, I agree. They should take care of that affiliate, Im sure they probably will. What I really meant is, these threads being the first bad things ive actually seen about them that they perhaps may not be what they used to be but I agree now that they are.

    I have respect for them because I once had this customer, a photography gallery and this girl; did not know anything about running a site, using cpanel, and so on. I helped her all I could but it was constantly one thing after another so she went with bluehost and she told me they helped her about every step of the way even showing her how to use certain features, the easiest way to pubish her site, etc;

    Not many companys provide that type of support and knowing this girl it was a LOT of support.
    Last edited by jon-f; 10-23-2006 at 11:20 PM.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    771
    There have been issues recently with Bluehost, as Matt Heaton mentions in his blog. Equally, it needs to be remembered that it is a budget host and that most of its servers are working OK.

    Bluehost is one of the hosts I have an account with. A few months ago I switched a CMS based site with 1700+ members to it when there were issues with the dedicated it was on. For its membership, it is not a hugely active site (compared to some anyway) but I was uncertain that it would cope. As it is, I have had no problems, except slowing sometimes (mostly when trying to manage the site, access stats etc - the site has usually been unaffected) and one period of downtime (about a couple of hours). I've not felt any.
    need to move the site to another host. That said, I have experience of quite a number of hosts and a realistic appreciation of what it is reasonable to expect at each price level.

    I note the references to posts and threads being deleted on the Bluehost Forums. The Forums are a relatively recent innovation at Bluehost and I don't often visit them. I am disappointed to see that they delete threads (as many hosts seem to do). When I do visit, though, there seems to be the normal ratio of negative comments seen on most sites, so they obviously don't delete all negative comments. Any idea why they picked on you nothingleft?

  20. #20
    Deleting politely worded threads about legitimate issues is a very bad sign. It indicates the host is either not willing or not able to correct the problem.

    How is it possible to offer multiple domains, 50GB of disk space, and a terabyte of bandwidth, plus all the usual dynamic web goodies for only seven bucks a month? No, they're not overselling. They're using an exciting new technology called VaporHosting, originally developed by the Easter Bunny for Microsoft.
    Last edited by RiverDweller; 10-25-2006 at 09:01 AM.

  21. #21
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    They making lot money by this, Most i mean 90% customer does not know there is other alternative host from them. since they signup with them, some of them dont care paying extra to upgrade to VSP then finding another host.
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  22. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Deleting polite posts is not a good sign, but is all too common. Not possible to say exactly what it means though. Forum moderators are often not involved in support, but I don't know if that is the case with Bluehost.

    As has frequently been pointed out space and bandwidth are rarely the real limitation for web sites. Providing multiple domains is pretty cost free. Bluehost do have a system to manage CPU use and appear to be able to host some pretty busy forum & CMS based sites successfully. So it is certainly not VaporHosting.

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Dormouse
    I note the references to posts and threads being deleted on the Bluehost Forums. The Forums are a relatively recent innovation at Bluehost and I don't often visit them. I am disappointed to see that they delete threads (as many hosts seem to do). When I do visit, though, there seems to be the normal ratio of negative comments seen on most sites, so they obviously don't delete all negative comments. Any idea why they picked on you nothingleft?
    They are not picking on me, and they are not deleting all negative threads. They are deleting only those threads that try to address the issues of slow servers, and poor customer service.

    I've been watching the forums, in the last 2 days, I've seen 3 more threads deleted for the same subject. They get deleted quickly, usually within an hour or two of being posted, so I'm sure I'm missing alot.

    As of this morning there have already been two new threads about the issue, and both of them were deleted there is now a third thread on the board.

    http://www.bluehostforum.com/showthr...ed=1#post16659

    I doubt this thread will still be there by this afternoon, but if anyone does stay, it will be this one. It has a quote from an email sent to someone by Matt, the CEO.

    Here's the entire original opening post, nothing offensive at all in it....He had the box number in the subject line
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    It has been slowing down since Monday of this week.
    Recent ping was 300's and now today in the high 500's.
    I've testing it from my personal Charter Cable and Work with the same results.

    I tried calling to see if there was a network problem but kept getting disconnected from Bluehost support.

    Any information would be much appreciated.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    A reply contains part of an email from Matt.

    Originally Posted by Matt Heaton
    Most of the issues are bandwidth and upstream provider issues. It has taken MUCH longer than expected to resolve these because the bandwidth that we require literally doesn't exist in many parts of Utah. We are now the largest bandwidth consumer in Utah for both Integra Telecom and XO Communications. We have a new circuit going in on Wednesday night that should alleviate most of the latency issues by Thursday or Friday, then 4 weeks from now (Around Thanksgiving) XO will have a substantial upgrade in service allowing us to have an additional 900 Mbits of bandwidth. We will then have a buffer of at least 300 Mbit for our customers and we will remove most of the bandwidth constraints that we have on users now. This is of course my fault for not getting it done fast enough, but as you mentioned in your email we are growing at a tremendous rate. We are literally that 4th fastest growing hosting company in the world now adding almost 800 new domains daily. Still, this isn't going unnoticed and I care about it as if it was my own child. This is my baby and I will continue to spend the $$ required to make it great for me and our customers. I would understand if you left, but the bandwidth issues should be mostly resolved in the next week or so.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    So it seems that they are addressing the issue in private, but are making every effort to keep it from being public. They have been promising to fix it for over a month now.

    I do understand that it is a budget hosting company, but only 2 months ago, all sites were running great. Now it seems alot of customers are complaining, and BH is trying to keep them from even discussing the issue. If they have a problem, fine, that will happen. But at least acknowledge it to your customers and be honest with them.

  24. #24
    Ok, now I'm starting to find this quite funny actually.

    The thread I just referenced, had a reply to it from me in the thread as well as from another member.

    Very polite...

    "Valhalla, thanks for sharing the info from Matt with us, unfortunately I doubt that anyone will get to read it. Threads addressing this issue have been disappearing from the board lately. I'm sure it will be deleted in the next few minutes"

    A little critical, but totally honest. I thought with a quote from Matt in the thread, it might survive the delete button. I was half right.

    Mine as well as another semi-negative comment were deleted, and the thread was locked. Oh well, at least it was a step in the right direction for them. I'm assuming the mods were hesitant to delete anything that had Matt's name in it.

  25. #25
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    it seems on line ;)
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    Better posting positive and negative reviews here. Hosts' forums are prone to be biased
    Gonzalo
    "To venture is to risk one's life; not to venture is to lose one's reason to live"

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