HostwindsReviews of hostwinds.com

My overall experience with Hostwinds is very negative. First, there's the automatic renewal policy, that's fine-tuned to make money in a hurry, and - I'm sure - a lot of it. There's no way to turn it off; so you better remember when your subscription expires, and cancel at the very last moment! Second, I had a serious issue with their own dashboard a while ago. They offer a "fully automatic and safe!" update for WordPress sites. That's nice; but their junk crashed. I lost my entire website, one of them. No, I didn't have a backup. The website is a decade old, doesn't need updating at any time, and consequently the only backup had was a backup of all the files - minus the database. When I reported their own update app had caused this issue all they said was "we'll restore your backup, if you have one". No accountability for their own failures. Third, it's clear that there's a lot of unsavory emails and who knows what else activity that originates from their servers. Not by Hostwinds themselves; but some of their customers. I've been in this game long enough to know when I can't get email from point A to B, and get complaints from the big guys ("email rejected due to suspicious activity", etc.) that I need to find the source, so that "I" can get unblocked. In reality, the "complainants" simply block a wide swath of IP addresses to stop spam, etc. And since I use their servers too, for email, I get blocked as well, and my business emails get blocked, returned and refused or marked as spam. Then I have to contact Hostwinds, who then - after the facts - contacts the "complainant". If Hostwinds would monitor their outgoing traffic then I wouldn't have to do THEIR job! Fourth, I signed up years ago; but by now their prices are considerably higher than many competitors. Shop elsewhere. Fifth, they get you locked in for 3 years, easily; but this will be my last round with them. Sixth, they nickle and dime you for everything. Read the small print VERY carefully, or better yet: have a lawyer interpret it for you. Oh, and: their tech support is very quick to reply. With an automated answer. And then the next day saying: sorry, can't do that. Well, maybe... if you pay extra. Stay away.

I ordered. I gave my accurate personal data. I provided them with my correct Credit Card and CVC. And they deducted the money. THEN, after they deducted the money from the account they refused me service to verify unless I send them a Government ID, a picture of my Credit Card AND some weird form where I should sign that said card belongs to me (As if the GOVERNMENT ID matching the name on the CC wasn't enough). I wanted to start a project today and have no printer available. Thanks for wasting an hour of my time. I canceled obviously and will search one of the 5 Billion other hosters who DONT need these silly practices.

My money was not returned after cancellation. . very bad

First, people need to be aware that the only communication is through a ticket system. You will never be able to get ahold of an actual person by phone. Second, they set me up with the wrong hosting plan and when I needed to change it, they had me buy a new plan with a promise to credit my account from the unused old plan. They never canceled the old plan and never credited my account, which means I paid for 2 plans.

They ask for a credit card authorization form to use their service.

poor service

I read a number of reviews regarding white label web hosting services where Hostwinds ranked in the middle or near the end of the pack. Hostwinds was touted as having customer friendly pricing and excellent for beginning resellers. Since some of the reviewers are well known technology information sources, decided to give them a try. Signing up, was awkward or kludgy. A chat box aid helped, directing me to the ticketing system which was fairly responsive. After selecting the reseller plan, tech support offered to help me port my website over. This was surprising and not mentioned as a prerequisite for the reseller program, but I complied by dumping an html copy of my website to a specified directory. I was given some credentials and a url link for documentation. It was at this point that my frustration level began to increase. This effort was not intuitive and I am a website developer. The documentation seemed disjointed and never smoothly guided me through the next steps. Coming from Godaddy, where documentation and customer support is generally very good, the only thing I found good with Hostwinds is there response in the ticketing system. I would ask for assistance from individuals through the chat box but the frontline support often would direct me to the ticketing system along with another piece of documentation that did not fully address my issues. Finally at wits end, I began calling a support number. And although I called during their business hours, the phone service would pass me around through voice prompts and eventually hang up. After weeks of this, I finally found the instructions to cancel the service and ask for my money back. I had spent weeks and had not successfully set up the reseller features or product offerings. Hostwinds was one of the most disappointing undertakings I’ve experienced in some time. Great price but not worth the aggravation and time lost. One other thing, clicking whmcs link was terribly slow.

They did not activate my host and wanted me to wait a random amount of time (they wouldnt tell me in live chat) without ever stating this before i paid. My services were never activated despite them lying in their reply to this review