In a previous, more general post on Domain Name Registration, I eluded to to a situation I was currently in with a web hosting company that had essentially hijacked my domain name. In a moment of lapsed judgment a few years ago i opted to register a domain and hosting account with a firm that I found on the internet that had ridiculously cheap prices, instead of paying what would amount to only a few dollars more with one of the more reputable hosting companies. At first our relationship was fine, signup was a breeze, they gave me all the tools i needed to operate my site and were always more than efficient when it came time to renew my account with them. This is where the happy story ends…

6 months ago i decided to migrate all my existing web hosting accounts under one roof for the sake of making site management a bit easier. Everything went smooth until it came time to migrate over the site in question and adding even more insult to injury, this was my VANITY site, www.crismitchell.com Ouch!

I repeatidly contacted PagesGarden.com, the hosting provider, about releasing my domain name which they had registered for me as part of my package agreement. Each time I was promptly greeted with a return email saying that this issue needed to be escalated to their billing department. I sent them email after email asking for this to be dealt with, including a few not so friendly emails, to which I was never returned a response. Through the midst of all this, they continued to bill me for service, even though i had asked for my account to be closed and my domain to be released, I eventually had to go straight to the merchant provider they used for their credit card processing and requested that my credit card stopped being billed, to which they obliged. Why should one have to go to these measures?

Ok so to make a very long and not so pleasant story short, today my domain has finally expired and they can no longer bill me, my sentence with them is finally over, sort of. My domain now sits in limbo or what is called a grace period which could take up to a month or longer depending on the hosting provider at which point it will be released again and made available to register. I’m just hoping I catch it before another Cris Mitchell out there gets it If there is another one of you reading this post… Back Off… It’s mine

All in all this was a very painful lesson learned, the cheapest is not always the most reputable solution. If you are currently looking for a new hosting provider to host your website, below is a list of companies that i’ve worked with over the years, ones that are great and others that i’d stay away from at all costs.

I hope my misfortune can save others from making the same mistake.

Reputable Hosting Companies
BlueHost.com
GoDaddy.com
DreamHost.com
1and1.com

Hosting Companies to Stay Away From
PagesGarden.com
iPowerWeb.com

Side Note: If you have success with a hosting company please comment and let us know who they are so I can create a master list of reputable hosting providers.