A client of mine was dealing with family matters for the best part of June; her web site – hosted with GoDaddy – went offline with a “This web site has stepped out for a while” notice.
Not sure what was going on, she returned to it once her important matters with family were addressed. By that time, the web site was fully parked at GoDaddy’s homepage.
The web site was built on WordPress because she’s a photography professional; it contained blog entries of her “photo of the day” and various portfolio galleries.
Upon contacting GoDaddy on her behalf, I was told that the data is deleted upon the expiration of the hosting plan. All gone.
Simply renewing the GoDaddy hosting would not restore the data; but they could bring it back to life from backups, for $150.
At that point, my client opted not to pay GoDaddy this exorbitant fee and instead proceed with a redesign of her web site, something that I recommended regardless. In the process, not only did GoDaddy lose her as a web hosting customer, but her domains will now be moved to another registrar.
Keep that in mind when you consider using GoDaddy for hosting.
Why blame GoDaddy for your client’s mistake? She could have put the domain/hosting on autorenew, but didnt. She could have taken a few minutes to call Godaddy (you can reach a real person in a matter of minutes), but didnt. She could have saved a backup on her computer, but didnt. Three things she didn’t do and you go and slam GoDaddy. Can you imagine how long it will take them to locate her files and then reconstitute her web site? An hour or two at $100 per hour seems more than reasonable.
Well, I do feel like dealing with a big time company with godaddy. Their customer service has been excellent. Their interface is not as good. But its speed is flying fast. Since your client did not opt for auto renewal, I guess her site is not worth the $150 to get it restored.
The only time I expect the business to be on a last name basis with me and get all the accommodations it comes with it is when I paid thousands of dollars for a few days of paradise in a vacation resort. And, normally I don’t even get that. 🙂
They do offer auto renew.
There is a cost to keep files saved after someone has stopped paying to have them saved via hosting, so charging a fee for the backup upon expiration is a business expense that is pushed back to the customer.
Why would you expect someone to save your files for free for you at their own expense?
Poor Uncle – My client opted to not pay the $150 extortion fee, simply because the default answer was that the files were deleted. Had GoDaddy restored the files along with the hosting renewal, there would be less of a reaction. I’ve used hosting since 1997 and I’ve never seen complete and inadvertent deletion of files in 20 days of service suspension. Not to mention, GoDaddy conveniently parked her web site displaying its content, with a link to “Want to buy this domain? Let us help!” – all this on a domain that expires in 2 years!
GoDaddy sends dozens of spam-like notifications for products during the course of actual service, making it impossible to determine when a renewal is due. Regarding customer service: the times that my client contacted GoDaddy she was put on hold for 8+ minutes, all while the message stated that waiting time was going to be under 3 minutes. The performance of GoDaddy hosted web sites is overstated, and busy sites often get their DNS disconnected (google that).
Anticareer – The “auto renew” does not apply to hosting, which expired after a year. Again, read my response above regarding the keeping of files in suspended accounts. If you are remotely connected to the hosting industry, the cost of such maintenance is practically zero.
Acro – I agree with you totally. Although I haven’t websites hosted by Godaddy for a few years, I never feel secure with their hosting service. I feel like I am at their mercy. I only use one other hosting company – which is hostgator which I always feel secure. But for whatever reasons their speed is not as fast.