Dreamhost gave neither hosting nor answers to email

  • I choose Dreamhost because WordPress recommends it so highly and I saw in the WordPress support forums that Dreamhost customers get special attention from a Dreamhost representative. I never dreamt that it would be so difficult to get support as a customer of Dreamhost.

    I tried to register for HOSTING eleven days ago. Dreamhost sent an invoice which shows that a one-time payment was billed and credited as paid in full, for the amount of $9.95, entered on May 31 for “1 year renewal, for service through 2014-05-30. This is not the amount I expected to be billed. No other notice was sent. The invoice does not say WHAT service was billed. My letters requesting clarification went unanswered.

    Before trying to register, I had no trouble getting responses from Dreamhost support. I corresponded with a sales representative named Dean who gave me a link to get a discount on registering for a package deal including hosting. When you click on that link, one sees, “Amazing Tax Time Savings Get Web Hosting for Just $3.95/mo! For a limited time, get 1 year of our award winning web hosting for just $3.95/month, plus your first domain registration is FREE! That’s 60% off of our regular price, plus you’ll receive a free domain registration for the duration of your hosting plan!” I expected to receive a bill only after a free two-week trial period, for $3.95 times twelve.

    It took a lot of effort to figure out that apparently Dreamhost registered only a domain name but not a hosting account. I have already written at least two letters about this to Customer Support Team <[email protected]>, which went unanswered.

    The fact that the invoice says “renewal” PROVES that Dreamhost made at least one error. This is a brand new domain name on the web, not a renewal of anything, nor had I ever been a customer of Dreamhost for any product in the past.

    Perhaps Dean was mistaken, and the link was no longer functional. If so, Dreamhost should have deleted the link, or program it to return an error message, or send an email explaining the mistake.

    I think it it substandard business practice not to send an itemized confirmation. The invoice did not state what services the amount billed covered. I figured out it must be for domain registration because I see that my password gets me into the Dreamhost customer site, but does not give me a control panel, and the domain I requested is no longer available.

    Having just a domain name is useless to me, especially since I was not given notice that I have it. It is essential that when I do get hosting, that the domain name doesn’t expire before the hosting. It’s not my fault that the domain was registered with neither hosting nor an announcment.

    Not only does Dreamhost not answer my letters, but I can’t even use the Dreamhost support forum. When I try to access the Dreamhost support forum from both Chrome and Firefox, I get security violation warnings that the site is unreliable.

    As I stated above, I choose Dreamhost because WordPress recommends it so highly and I saw in the WordPress support forums that Dreamhost customers get special attention from a Dreamhost representative. I presume that the WordPress official recommendation means that Dreamhost gives excellent hosting service even if they do have billing issues.

    Please flag this post for attention asap by the WordPress support forum’s Dreamhost representative.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • I’m sorry you’ve had such lousy service from Dreamhost. I recently switched from WordPress.com to www.remarpro.com and had HostGator take over my hosting. They have very good customer service. I have used the chat feature numerous times now as I have done various things to my account and needed help. I have always gotten the help I needed in a relatively fast manner. Sometimes the wait time to chat is a little while. Yesterday I waited 16 minutes, but it tells you how long the wait time is when you begin the chat and counts down until someone helps you.

    I was recommended to HostGator by someone who recently went with them and was very happy as well. I found a thread where many people raved about them for hosting. The thread asked about using GoDaddy or Hostgator and the everyone said to use GoDaddy for your registrar (to register your domain) and HostGator for hosting your site.

    Hope this helps. Take care.

    CKatzman,

    I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. I don’t see any information here that provides the domain you have registered. If you can provide me with the domain or ticket numbers, I’d be happy to look into it and pass this on to a supervisor.

    Regards,

    Dee J.
    [Signature moderated]

    Thread Starter CKatzman

    (@ckatzman)

    I just found out that Dreamhost does not provide a file manager page. I can’t manage without it. I have use multisite, which requires modifying wp-config and adding an .htaccess file. In addition, I have to put in two child themes and a child plugin. Whenever I had to use FTP, which is all that Dreamhost offers, I had great difficulty. My previous host had an easy-to-use file manager. The lack of a file manager at Dreamhost means that I need to get hosting elsewhere. How do I get the refund on the hosting I purchased, as was promised in your 97-day money back guarantee? I understand that the domain registration is non-refundable, and I’m entitled to get only the hosting fee refunded.

    Please contact Dreamhost directly to discuss this.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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