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Beware of greengeeks.com! here is my complaint against greengeeks.com
Com paints about greengeeks.com web hosting service. a warning: about greengeeks.com hosting service.
Don't make the mistake I made. this complaint against greengeeks.com is 100% accurate and truthful.
I placed my order with greengeeks.com yesterday and used the discount code boonex10 at checkout like they said to do for a $10 discount. greengeeks.com said if you pay with paypal they will refund the $10 discount after the account is charged. the refund never came and I sent and email to greengeeks.com billing dept. and received no response.
I have been a customer of geekhosting.com "no relation to greengeeks.com" for 12 years now and their tech support is the best & real 24/7 support. I was looking on boonex for a host because I am not having luck installing dolphin on my current host. I figured that I would try one of the boonex affiliates since they claim to be able to host dolphin without problems. I have tried switching hosts in the past with no luck. I compared all boonex affiliates and researched complaints online about each affiliate then choose greengeeks.com.
Greengeeks.com offers a free domain name and a 30 day refund guarantee when you sign up for a year. I usually use godaddy.com to buy my $7.20 domains but greengeeks.com said the domain was free and I had a 30 day money back guarantee so I had nothing to lose. right? very, very, very, wrong! more on this further down.
I first logged into my account on their linux server and into the linux control panel which I am very familiar with. I tried installing frontpage extensions on my account. an error message appeared and said it could not install the extensions. I have installed these extensions on over 300 websites in my lifetime and never had a problem until I switched to greengeeks.com.
Josh dargie at greengeeks.com customer service said for me to use a different approach to uploading my files as they could not find out a way to fix my problem. I said that was unacceptable because this is the way I work, and I like uploading using frontpage extensions. I have over 90 live websites to maintain. I won't change the way I operate my day to day business because they could not get a very, very basic key component of the control panel operating correctly.
I took a screen shot of the error message and sent it to them. they said that would help them out and they would get back to me a little later. that was the last I heard from josh. imagine a brand new customer being blown off by customer service on the very first day. I was told they would get right back to me because I had a lot of work to do and this was making my uploading take 4 times longer than normal. I waited until midnight and they never called or emailed back. what happened to the 24/7 customer service they offer? another huge lie. I don't think they even have a customer service dept. sounds like the company is being run out of a basement apartment.
I told them I wanted to take them up on their 30 day money back guarantee. after only one day of being their customer here is what they had to say about that free domain name & 30 money back guarantee.
I also told them that I would buy the domain name for the price I would have paid godaddy.com $7.50 so they don't lose any money on my account.
Here is the response I received from them:
James,
Thank you for your patience. we have canceled your account with green geeks and we have refunded your credit card, you should see that refund in the next 3-5 business days, if you do not please get back in touch with us and let us know. the refund was for the cost of the package ($95.40) less the cost of the domain name we registered for you which is ($24.95) so your total refund is $70.45.
This email they sent me says it all folks. this article is also being published on every single consumer complaint website on earth. people need to be aware of this poor hosting service and their deceptive guarantees and billing practices.
I warn all of you millions of people who read this posted online complaint at the hundreds of websites it resides on, beware of greengeeks.com
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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This is Trey Gardner CEO of Green Geeks.
I apologize for the delay in posting our reply to this complaint, I needed to take a couple of days to separate myself from the some of the emotional aspects I felt toward this former customer, their motivation regarding this complaint and the manner in which they have dealt with all of us at Green Geeks. I also apologize that my rebuttal to this complaint is a bit lengthy, I do think you will find postings from JR, the author of this complaint, toward the bottom, an interesting read.
In life you meet all types of people. Sometimes people you meet will make you marvel at the spectrum of personalities, attitudes and humanity that exist in our population.
I will explain a bit about our interaction with JR, however JR’s own postings to our ticket system, many of which you can find below, really are the reasons why I had to divest myself of this incident for a few days instead posting a reactionary reply and I think that his own words will vindicate us of his accusations.
JR is one of those special people. JR signed up for our service on September 11th, and had a frontpage extension issue for which we worked with him several times, got them working and somehow would then break on his end. We asked that he send us a screen shot of the error which he did not send us even though he states he did in his complaint.
By the next day we had fixed his issue and it had again broken on his end and he was ready to cancel his account, this was Saturday the 12th. He was informed that our billing department works on cancellations Monday through Friday and that he would be cancelled and refunded then, JR demanded his cancellation and refund right then and there. He also offered $7.50 for the domain we purchased for him and when he was told that the domain would cost $24.95, JR went into an unhappy place.
At Green Geeks we offer a free domain name with hosting accounts. If you purchase the domain and leave and want to take the domain with you we charge $24.95 for the domain, roughly expensed at $10 for the actual domain cost and $14.95 for administrative duties like changing the dns, adding privacy or helping you get the domain transferred to another registrar. This is a standard practice for web hosts that offer free domains with hosting.
Everything about the $24.95 domain charge can be found in our terms of service:
http://www.greengeeks.com/legal/tos.php
Section C under [Payment, Renewal, Cancellations]
And can be found in our knowledgebase section in the sales section regarding domains:
http://www.greengeeks.com/clients/knowledgebase/119/Free_Domain_For_Life__an_Explanation.html
Below you will read many of the email responses we received from JR. I was befuddled at first until I started to read more about JR. He indicates that he makes over $150k doing online blog marketing and can quickly syndicate his complaint to hundreds then thousands of web sites and get them to get listed high for our keywords. He also indicates that he purchased sites to make money off of our complaint, web hosting affiliate commissions from other companies who get listed as referral hosting companies next to the complaints about our company on his sites.
I started to suspect that perhaps that this wasn’t a coincidence having a major blowup over $24.95 where the other party is someone who owns over 30 web sites has a large income from blog marketing and then suddenly he is blogging his complaint all over the internet about our company and creating web sites to make money from those posts, a term he calls SLAMMING CASH, it would seem that he already knows what to do to make money off his complaints. And since he has been doing web sites and hosting for many years how would he not know that there would be a domain charge or look into possible charges if he decided to leave early? I have never been a conspiracy theorist but this did seem odd.
In any case conspiracy or just meeting the wrong person in the wrong frame of mind, I am proud of what we do at Green Geeks, we are a profitable, stable web hosting company with great service and support. JR was cancelled, refunded and notified by our staff on Saturday at 7:34 pm and was notified that the payment was less the $24.95 domain charge as per our terms.
For the rest of this complaint I will let some of JR’s own words speak for himself. These are clips of his postings to our email ticket (AKL-604733) in our system. To validate that these responses by JR are actually what he wrote please go ahead and email us at sales@greengeeks.com with the subject line “JR complaint PDF” and we’ll send you a pdf of our correspondence with JR to see that he actually did write all this.
HERE ARE JR’S OWN WORDS TO US IN BACKWARD CRONOLOGICAL ORDER:
FROM PAYPAL.COM REGARDING THE DISPUTE:
this is an absolute lie. This person stole my money. I want it refunded OR ELSE!
From Buyer - James R 9/14/2009 09:51 PDT
Cancel this claim. I have instituted a youtube campaign against this company letting people know how they operate. How their deceptive guarantees rip people off.
From Buyer - James R 9/14/2009 09:52 PDT
PayPal Note: Buyer confirmed that buyer and seller reached an amicable resolution on this Dispute and buyer closed the Dispute. 9/14/2009 09:52 PDT
FROM THE GREEN GEEKS TICKETS PROGRAM TICKET ID AKL-604733
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 10:30 PM
Wow that was fast! Your already number one on Google.
http://www.google.com/cse?q=complaints%20greengeeks.com&sa=Search&ie=UTF-8&%63x=%70a%72t%6ee%72%2d%70u%62%2d8%33922%352%3166%36604%319%3ah%78ws%360%2dss%73j#cx=partner-pub-1738801454840319%9C
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 10:05 PM
You guys just lit a fire under my ###. I just bought a bunch of domains
to be used as complaint forums against web hosting services. These ten
websites will be used as forums for consumers to make online complaints
against web hosting services.
My complaint will be the first on each website forum. I will market
other affiliate Green Hosting Ad Banners on the website to generate a
nice income right beside your complaint.
I think this could make me some slamming cash and get the word out about
your deceptive advertising tactics and guarantees as well as complaints
against other companies.
Thanks to http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?a_aid=XfXwX2UJ
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:32 PM
Time for a BBB complaint
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:26 PM
If you doubt my marketing abilities I am an expert advisor
here.http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?a_aid=XfXwX2UJ
Here is where I learned to make over $200k a year bum/article marketing
online. This money is just made in Ebook sales alone.
I am SEO Certified as well.
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:22 PM
You ripped me off for $24.95. Each article I publish will is worth one
cent in GreenGeeks.com money.
What this means is I will be publishing 2495 complaints online against
you. Then we will be even.
Spend that $24.95 wisely now!
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:16 PM
welcome to http://www.complaintsboard.com/
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:15 PM
$24.95 the hard way
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:07 PM
welcome to complaints.com
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 9:01 PM
Welcome to /link removed/
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 8:36 PM
First 50 articles have been published
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 8:21 PM
I asked for a refund as stated on your home page and you have not
provided that. I just finished the first article and am posting on
Boonex now! I offered to pay you what I pay Godaddy.com and you refused.
I would have bought it from them had i known that you were going to rip
me off. I have over 1300 registered domain names on Godaddy.com, most
sell ebooks. I will point 100 of these domains to this article online. I
gave you the chance to make it right with a full refund. Unfortunately
your time has run out. My article posting software is ready to go to
work online publishing my story on every Complaint website and others.
You had the chance to make it right. I tried to make it right by
offering fair market value for the domain name and you refused.
To Little To Late.
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 7:43 PM
Do you realize what you just did to your company? You cannot fathom the
negativity this SEO optimized complaint is going to cost you.
You really are stupid geeks!
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 7:41 PM
I have instituted a massive online article and forum complaint against
your company on over 200 websites including Boonex. Good luck with your
bad service, These complaints I am logging will cost you tens of
thousands of dallos in lost income. I will see to it! Boonex is my
first place to list this complaint. I am a master at SEO and will have
my article way up on Google. Before people can find your website they
will see hundreds of online complaints against your company. All from
me. Nice job. You charge me $24.99 for a domain your sell for $10 on
your website. More ammo!
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 7:08 PM
I think I will hit about 200 website with my article. I will be sure to
mention your name in every one as you represent the company on this issue
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 7:06 PM
You are out of time
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 7:00 PM
You have 5 minutes before I write this article and 1 hour before it is
published to over 100 websites. Many of them complaint websites. I can
publish to over 1600 web sites at one time.
Your website has just been scan for the top SEO keywords for the article.
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 6:55 PM
8 MINUTES LEFT. MY ARTICLE POSTING SOFTWARE POSTS TO OVER 100 WEBSITES
IN LESS THAN AN HOUR are you ready?
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 6:53 PM
NINE MINUTES LEFT
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 6:52 PM
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO ISSUE MY REFUND OR I BEGIN A NATIONAL COMPLAINT
AGAINST YOU.
I AM A BUM / ARTICLE MARKETER WHO EARNS MORE THAN 150K A YEAR ON TOP OF
MY TICKET INCOME SO WATCH MY WORK BEGIN IN EXACTLY TEN MINUTES
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 6:50 PM
i WILL ALSO US YOUR NAME IN EVERY BLOG!
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 6:48 PM
I am not paying $24.99 for the domain name. You never disclosed this to
me before signup. You never mentioned that anywhere. You have just
created any enemy who will blog you right out of business,
You will lose ten of thousands of dollars when I get done blogging about
your deceit and fraud. Just watch! Boonex is my first stop and then onto
50 complaint blog sites.
I will get more than my $25 BACK.
Posted on: 12 Sep 2009 6:35 PM
I can offer you $7.50 for the domain name that was associated with this
account so you don't have to eat it. That is what i pay at godaddy.
Let me know if this works for you. I would need it transferred to godaddy.
Thanks,
Jim
This posting at 6:35PM was the start of JR & GreenGeeks dispute. After he offered us $7.50 we informed him our price was $24.95, we charge roughly $10 for the domain and $14.95 for the administrative costs for changing the domain's dns, putting up privacy protection and transferring a domain elsewhere, we believe that the administrative costs are exorbitant and we also informed JR that his refund would be taken care of on Monday, as it worked out one of our senior staff stepped in and he was refunded by on that Saturday but obviously this did not contend JR.. We offered several times to have myself Trey Gardner, the owner of Green Geeks call JR but we received no replies from JR other then threats.
I take a personal interest in any complaints about our service whether they come in from emails or are posted on web sites like this one. We run a tight ship and I want to make sure that all of our customers are 100% satisfied. I don’t think JR’s issue is justified for this reaction or this posting and I am glad that there was a method for us to communicate back to anyone who saw JR’s complaint to provide our perspective on this matter.
Thank You and good luck with your web site projects,
Trey Gardner
CEO
Green Geeks
I actually agree with the complaint against GreenGeeks. I just had to cancel my account after a few too many reliability and performance issues. My request was that the prorated amount of my remaining service be refunded back to me and that we both part ways satisfied. Josh Dargie fielded my issue and maintained a 100% robotic standpoint, spouting text from their FAQ and terms as opposed to handling my situation on a case-by-case. He also put the entire blame of my issue on me, attributing it to being a target for hacker attacks. I admit that this did happen, once. But well after other performance related tickets were submitted and I did quickly remedy the issue once notified as it was a security issue with WordPress.
GreenGeeks is one of those companies where they will patch the problem for you and move on, but when you are completely dissatisfied, they fall back on their policy text to "divest" themselves of you. There are so many other cost effective options out there to choose from.
99.9% uptime is a fabrication by GreenGeeks.
I was just checking out Green Geeks and noted their address on their "contact page" is not correct so I did a whois to find out ( if not obscured ) if the address matched.. it did not. So I started checking the whois snail address and did a google maps and street view of their facility. It looks like a home run business to me. In the course of looking for a true snail addy I happened onto this complaint.
If I wanted I could find the place they are buying web hosting/server service from... but it's not worth it. Also note, their domain Green Geeks was brought and paid for via godaddy and assume thats where the "domain" for the person who appears "ripped off" above was probably purchased. His mistake (the initial poster) was not going to consumer protection at the State AG's office where the business resides ( be it a house or an home office ) and filing a complaint. 2 days and a cancellation for cause does not merit any charges. Now they have unjustly enriched themselves at greengeeks, there may also be standing for a small claims suit.
I am so glad for sites like this. And individuals like Trey Gardner will, as they are in this instant, end up the looser. I am looking for a home for 5 vet oriented groups.. and he sure as hell isn't going to get the business.
Joe Oliver
Houston, TX
69.175.12.61 - IP resolves to:
ecosys.websitehostserver.net [69.175.12.61] ( Their Host - also a godaddy registered domain -- 69.175.12.58)
and their info is protected -- I could find out but I wasted enough time ...:
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Registrant City: Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province: Arizona
Registrant Postal Code: 85260
Registrant Country: United States
Their domains:
Domain Name
1 GREENGEEKS.COM.
2 GREENGEEKS.NET.
3 SITECLOUD.COM
Administrative Contact:
Registered through: eNom, Inc.
Domain name: sitecloud.com
Green Geeks LLC
Joseph Gardner ()
+1.[protected]
5699 Kanan Rd Suite 300
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
US.
ns1.greengeeks.com
ns2.greengeeks.com
Their IP is owned by
Note ARIN has attempted to validate the data for this POC, but has received no response from the POC since 2010-12-03
Name Boca, Zachary D
Handle ZDB1-ARIN
Company midPhase, Inc
Street 223 West Jackson Suite 600
City Chicago
State/Province IL
Postal Code 60606
Country US
Registration Date 2006-10-10
Last Updated 2009-12-03
Comments
Phone +[protected] (Office)
Email zboca@singlehop.com
NetRange: 69.175.0.0 - 69.175.127.255
CIDR: 69.175.0.0/17
OriginAS: AS32475
NetName: SINGLEHOP
NetHandle: NET-[protected]
Parent: NET-[protected]
NetType: Direct Allocation
RegDate: 2009-05-04
Updated: 2012-03-02
== Additional Information From rwhois://rwhois.singlehop.net:4321 ==
%rwhois V-1.5:003eff:00 rwhois.singlehop.com (by Network Solutions, Inc. V-1.5.9.5)
network:Class-Name:network
network:ID:ORG-SINGL-8.[protected]/29
network:Auth-Area:69.175.0.0/17
network:IP-Network:69.175.12.56/29
network:Organization:GreenGeeks, LLC
network:Street-Address:1158 26th Street #446
network:City:Santa Monica
network:State:CA
network:Postal-Code:90403
network:Country-Code:CA
network:Tech-Contact;I:NETWO1546-ARIN
network:Admin-Contact;I:NETWO1546-ARIN
network:Abuse-Contact;I:ABUSE2492-ARIN
network:Created:[protected]
network:Updated:[protected]
I have just had a similar experience with green geeks, DO NOT USE THEM! They keep money back after a refund and do not explain their procedures fully, all a bit of a con really. Also, I was just reading green geeks response to this original complaint on this thread, surely customers should be protected via confidentiality and data protection, I have NEVER experienced a business posting correspondence between a customer and a client on a discussion board. UNBELIEVABLE.
I've spent the last few hours trying to buy a new domain via PayPal, but Green Geeks just keeps giving me the round around. As a result, I will not renew my membership. I'm not sure if Green Geeks will shut down my websites for speaking my mind or not, but if they do, that's their lost.
This company is a scammer. I bought hosting, I paid for it, but they did not deliver the server, they say they canceled the order, they say they did not receive the money, it was automatically refunded. But money was taken from my credit card, they are deceiving by lying, definitely do not shop from this company