You are absolutely right. Nowadays a blog lets us see the “soul” of a company.

Long Story Short: Bluehost sucks. As you can tell from the chat transcript I was trying to be as nice as possible for 2 reasons. I wanted a full refund, and the guy is just a peon in the company.

Richie: Welcome to our real-time support area, my name is Richie, how can I help you today? andrew: Hi Richie, I need to cancel my account and get a refund. I should be entitled to a full refund seeing as how I did not recieve the service advertised as 99.9% uptime, my domain is ********. andrew: Unfortunately it was much much lower than that. I’ve had serious downtime these past 2 and a half months and it just isn’t acceptable. Richie: i apologize for that. If your account is under 30 days then we do offer a full refund… after 30 days is a prorated refund andrew: What about the 99.9% uptime guarantee as advertised here: andrew: http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&root=15&id=234 andrew: I have been down for probably in the 40-50 hours since joining 2 months ago. You guaranteed only about 8 hours a year. andrew: That is a serious violation of the contract I entered. andrew: I am hoping we can resolve and give me my refund fully as good customer service so as not to sour this any more. Richie: Unfortunately you do not qualify for a full refund, I apologize… I would be happy to cancel your account and give you a prorated refund of $63.44 andrew: Please explain why I do not qualify based on the 99.9% uptime guarantee, it is right there in black and white on your help pages. andrew: Is it just a blatant lie that will force me to file complaints with the BBB and such. Richie: We do not offer a SLA (Service level agreement) where you would qualify for a full refund or credit Richie: I’m sorry. andrew: So how can you have a guarantee if it is not guaranteed? Richie: If you read the Terms of Service it makes that fact abundantly clear. andrew: Bluehost has been in violation of the 99.9% uptime guarantee every month since I joined. Richie: again, I apologize, and I can understand why you would want to cancel, however you only qualify for a refund of $63.44 andrew: Richie, can you honestly tell me that you would be happy if a company offered you a guarantee and didn’t follow through, then would not make good on it. Richie: I understand your frustration, however, $63.44 is the amount you would get if you canceled your account today. I truly am sorry. andrew: I was charged $95.40 for this. And $63.44 is just unacceptable based on the service I have recieved. You are customer service oriented and your company does wish to make good with their customers yes? Richie: I am sorry that it is unnacceptable for you, I truly am, however, it is what you would receive at this time, and unfortunately this is something that is non-negotiable andrew: Richie, could you please explain to me what the 99.9% uptime guarantee means if not that I will get 99.9% or you will refund me. Richie: we guarantee 99.9% or you can cancel your account and recieve a prorated refund Richie: or if you cancel within 30 days you can receive a full refund for web hosting andrew: But that was guaranteed elsewhere in the fact that I never entered into a binding contract with you to begin with. Richie: If you read out TOS you would know that we do not offer any additional compensation above the prorated refund if the uptime is not met andrew: So your telling me that you won’t show me the great customer service of giving me a full refund(minus the domain of course), instead, you wish to sour me forever to bluehost, forcing me to tell everyone I know and meet not to use you in real life and the internet, resulting in alot of negative publicity for bluehost over, what $25. andrew: I strongly urge you to check with your manager before deciding this. Richie: I have. The prorated refund does stand, I am sorry. *****At this point he cleared the chat transcript so as I couldn’t post it(they aren’t very smart though, at the end of the session it asks if you want it e-mailed to you******* Richie: I can take care of it for you now, I only need you to verify the last 4 digits of the CC on the account. andrew: Very well, that’s the beauty of it I suppose. Not your fault, but Bluehost. I’m sorry you have to work for such a company. I will unfortunately have to initiate a chargeback for the full amount, and post my experience to blogs all over the internet, and tell all my friends and acquaintances to steer clear of bluehost, all over $25. It’s sad really that a company would choose that. andrew: It’s too bad it will cost bluehost so much more than it will cost me. Richie: because of the planned chargeback, before we can delete the account you will need to speak with our billing department. They will need to confirm the chargeback before the account is deleted Richie: our Billing department is here during standard business hours, M-F 9am-5pm (MST) Richie: you can call 1-888-401-HOST to speak with the billing department andrew: Is there an e-mail address I should e-mail them at at. andrew: Or is it live chat. Richie: You can call, and speak with a billing representative andrew: No, I don’t believe I will be calling. Not worth the effort to talk to them, this was draining enough. :) Is there an e-mail address? Richie: billing@bluehost.com Richie: I am sorry it has been so draining for you… andrew: It’s ok Richie, not your fault. I did make sure I saved the chat script as we talked so as to post it elsewhere on the internet. Anyway, I honestly wish you have a good night. Like I said, I know companies have policies and all, not the fault of the employee if he does as he’s told. Richie: Well, I thank you for your understanding andrew: Good Night! And hey you got paid for 35 minutes without having to work too hard. ;) Richie: I wish, I get to take phone calls during this time as well. Busy night. Have a good night! :) andrew: hahaha bye.

Blue host Sucks. They are just fucken bustared. I had 8 hosting with them and one fine morning they have deleted all my account without noticing me. I have never seen such a worse hosting company.