SS: Globat

[Vexille]

Beware of all the gimmicky pricing and advertising you have been seeing for Globat web hosting services..

I'm not sure who gives them such a high rating, but I'd have to guess it's a subsidiary owned by Globat :)

Based on repeated listings here on GotApex, we moved 4 domains over to Globat about 6 weeks ago. We have yet to go 1 solid week without some form of outage; web server, email, cannot post files, yadda yadda yadda.

Every time you contact their tech support, you get the same answer "our technicians are aware of the problem and are workingt to resolve it".

We've had periods of days (yes, days) where SMTP or FTP services are unavailable.

And guess what...

If you try to cancel before your term is up, they will charge you a $150 fee.

All in all this is a lesson learned (the hard way)...

[CornMonkey]

Beware of all the gimmicky pricing and advertising you have been seeing for Globat web hosting services..

I'm not sure who gives them such a high rating, but I'd have to guess it's a subsidiary owned by Globat :)

Based on repeated listings here on GotApex, we moved 4 domains over to Globat about 6 weeks ago. We have yet to go 1 solid week without some form of outage; web server, email, cannot post files, yadda yadda yadda.

Every time you contact their tech support, you get the same answer "our technicians are aware of the problem and are workingt to resolve it".

We've had periods of days (yes, days) where SMTP or FTP services are unavailable.

And guess what...

If you try to cancel before your term is up, they will charge you a $150 fee.

All in all this is a lesson learned (the hard way)...
:stupid:
i also got *inadvertantly* suckered into getting an account with globat. without any better way of saying it, they suck. i can't wait till my contract is up with them. i'm moving my domain to someone else...anyone else but globat.

[Jenny]

If you ordered through the GotApex link, send an email to [email protected] and let him know what's up.

[MrGreg]

I've had no problems with them, but I have a tiny site which nobody hits but me.

[Cubsfan]

I've had no problems with them, but I have a tiny site which nobody hits but me.
Same here, just some photos, nothing big. Haven't noticed anything in the three weeks I've been with them.

[Vexille]

I've sent numerous emails to the GotApex contact who was listed next to the last few Globat listings here.

Never got a reply....

[Jenny]

If it was to Apex, he has piles and piles of emails. Brian I'm not sure answers them. Send one to [email protected] and put PROBLEM WITH GLOBAT.COM in the subject line. I'll tell him to look out for it.

[ray]

I've been with Globat for over 2 years now. Sure, there's the occasional e-mail outage that lasts for a few hours, but that downtime typically doesn't last more than a couple hours.

Shrug. Recently, the only problems I've had is using up all my daily bandwidth! /me hides pr0n files now.

[lights]

whoa.... i haven't received an email.

please do send me an email if you wish... and like jenny mentioned, with the subject in nice big caps letters.

if you wish, you're more than welcomed to pm as well.

thanks.

[Brian]

Vexille, I've mainly been the person posting the Globat deals, but I just ran a search in my mailbox and I haven't received any emails from you. I usually try to respond to my emails pretty quickly too. Please email me again and we will try our best to solve the problem. I apologize for all the troubles you've been going through.

[Brian]

Ok guys, I am going to call them tomorrow and fight for you guys until they give up. Hopefully I will bring you guys good news afterwards or at least find you guys a GOOD contact that you guys can talk to. Very sorry for all the trouble and pleeeease be patient with me!

[nishantp]

I too got sucked into their free after rebate offer, and while the web hosting services aren't bad, even though it didn't meet my needs, their customer service sucked. I'm guessing they are understaffed for this kind of promotion.

In any case, if you need a refund, first go to their cancellation page and fill out a cancellation request, and get a cancellation ID. That ID is proof of your cancellation and if it within the first 30 days, you will get your refund. Now, if you don't hear back from them and don't see the refund applied, email billing and wait a week to see if you get any response. If not, email Brian and he'll try to get it sorted out.

You can also file a complaint against them through the LA Better Business Bureau (www.labbb.org). Within one week, I got a call from the globat finance manager and had my refund processed. All in all, my frustration was with the fact that I could not get any response from them on the status of my refund. All I wanted was a email or phone call stating my request had been received and would be processed in X days/weeks.

[Brian]

For those of you who have been experiencing problems with Globat, please send me an email ([email protected]). I spoke to Globat today and they are now fully aware of the problem, so please email me if you need help. Thanks guys!

[Vexille]

And still having issues.

Email accounts still not working as intended. I've emailed Brian with details, but at this point it's been 2+ months since my service initiated and I have yet to see it fully operational without some form of problem or downtime...

[Vexille]

Below is the transcript from my most recent chat with Globat's support.

It is presented as is, unedited.

I've included narrative comments in [] to give you an idea of time line.

As you'll see, yet another generic answer and vague timeline is given for the problem and its resolution...

*********************************************************

All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.

You are now chatting with 'james'
[Approximately 30 minutes has passed waiting for response]

james: Welcome to Globat Chat Support

James Resner: hello james
James Resner: I ma having problems with some of my email accounts

james: what type of error?

James Resner: emails sent to the account are not being received

James Resner: but other accounts on same domain are receiving email
[5+ minute pause with no reply]
James Resner: hello?

james: Please hold while I check ...
[5+ minute pause with no reply]

James Resner: Would you like to know the domain that I am having problems with?

james: yes please

James Resner: it is paximperium.net

james: what's the email address that you are having trouble with?

James Resner: [email protected]
[actual email address edited out]

[5+ minute pause with no reply]
James Resner: hello?

james: webmail seems to be temporarily inaccessible

James Resner: It's been this way for over a week
James Resner: Webmail is inaccessible buy @Mail works - just nothing coming in to account
James Resner: and no bounce backs either

james: We're sorry avout that
james: our mail servers are undergoing some upgrades

James Resner: any ETA on when this will be complete?

james: the major maintenance work will be done tomorrow
james: it should be finished romorrow night

James Resner: OK i'll check back if it's not working by then

james: ok

[cruelpupet]

And guess what...

If you try to cancel before your term is up, they will charge you a $150 fee.


I signed up to test them out...and they were much worse then my current host. So i called to cancel. Never could get through, got a recoding a few times and left all the pertinent information.

Now Im leaving the fight up to AMEX.

[jetblack]

Globat is decent if you are only hosting static or dynamic with no db access.

I tried running vBulletin on Globat and it was simply put, horrendous. Things may have changed since then (6 months ago), but at that time we had no choice but to move the server to another host and take the hit on the year's payment. Smooth sailing since.

[CornMonkey]

yup, if you plan on using sql or any other db queries, globat is as slow as molasses.

[Vexille]

Is Apex turning into just another ad site posing as an unbiased deal portal?

Over the weekend the email server on one of domains started acting up again.

Guess why?

At some point they modified the internal name server settings and mis-spelled the domain.

So another multi-day experience of mail failures...

I would like to see Apex redeem themselves by getting Globat to allow those of us who subscribed based on this site to cancel without penalty...

[Cubsfan]

Just got this from them today. Is this even legal? It's definately not what I want in a web host:


As one of our most valued customers and based on our customer feedback we are absolutely certain that you want to take advantage of this opportunity. For that reason we will automatically upgrade your current hosting package to our new and improved Terabyte Plus Hosting level and charge the $29.95 one-time upgrade fee to your account on file on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 unless you specifically tell us not to upgrade you by clicking on the link at the end of this email.

They shouldn't be so certain! In fact, I'm planning to move away from them when my year is up. In fact, I tried to call them to make sure they weren't going to automatically renew me, and I couldn't talk to a real person at all!

[lights]

cubsfan... gimme the details of your site and i can look into it.

they've revamped their entire system and hosting services,... and it was only until after i physically met with them and speak to them every week (with updates from them as to what they were doing and showing me) that i now feel comfortable promoting them, once more.

their packages are one of the better as pricing and value go, and they're one of the larger hosting companies out there. if there are any new issues that come up, i'm the guy you guys want to email.

as for vexille not receiving a response from us (granted, it was last year) i'm not sure why that was and apologize for it.

[email protected]

[Cubsfan]

Actually, I unfortunately didn't sign up through G|A (a friend pointed me to it, and then they had their "SIGN UP IN THE NEXT 23 seconds to get..").

Didn't mean to bring up old issues, just didn't want to start a new thread. I found that their "we'll automatically charge you money, so if you happen to be on vacation for two weeks, you're screwed!" model rubbed me the wrong way.

Definately thanks for the offer though!

[CornMonkey]

cubsfan... gimme the details of your site and i can look into it.

they've revamped their entire system and hosting services,... and it was only until after i physically met with them and speak to them every week (with updates from them as to what they were doing and showing me) that i now feel comfortable promoting them, once more.

their packages are one of the better as pricing and value go, and they're one of the larger hosting companies out there. if there are any new issues that come up, i'm the guy you guys want to email.

as for vexille not receiving a response from us (granted, it was last year) i'm not sure why that was and apologize for it.

[email protected]
i hope you talked them into fixing their ridiculously slow db queries. i've now moved on from globat and until i know they've fixed this problem, i'm telling people not to go with globat.

[MrGreg]

I had the same privelege of getting notified about this "automatic upgrade". I followed the instructions to opt-out, and they didn't charge me. They send me so many emails it talking about their "great new offers," you'd think they're selling V1AgrA or something.

[Maarchk]

hmm, this looks like a great deal but now i am nervous. can i just get a few quick posts if people are currently using them and are happy with what goes on? thanks.

Mark

[Cubsfan]

Yes and not particularly. My main concerns are:

1) I use 'gallery', and it's horribly slow.

2) The billing department seems pretty bad. When I first started, it was something like first year free after rebate. Something like a $30 fee to start, and then $60 for the first year, with a $60 rebate. It took several months, 3 phone calls, and two emails to actually get my rebate. Also, see above "auto upgrade" note.

[cruelpupet]

Funny that this thread should come up...the charge was successfully disputed when AMEX was unable to contact them as well. Now they are charging my card $30 again.

Time to call amex again.

[lights]

hey guys... a lot (if not all) of the issues you guys are bringing up here are from a year ago. that is why from last year till now, i pretty much told them that we would not be promoting them or their offers until they change some things around. well, they did. and i wasn't convinced. i met with them for lunch (cuz they're based here in la) and i still wasn't convinced. they sent me emails, called me, asked what they could do... and all of the issues that you guys are bringing up here and some of the others that some of you guys don't know about were mentioned again.

which is why i set out some rather ridiculous (and that is my opinion, not theirs) standards and rules for them to agree to be promoted on our front page.

after another month of them figuring out what and how to accommodate me, they agreed and have put all that i asked for in place. i don't need to go through and list it since it's useless to do so (it's an internal thing anyway)... but i can mention 1 thing. they're battling a reputation/perception issue.... they know it, we know it, everybody and their grandmother's dog knows it... and nobody will disagree that they rightfully deserve it for the mistakes that they made last year. but again, i set up those ridiculous standards and rules, and believe it or not, they've got it set up for us/me. so... it's a 2nd chance opportunity for them.

if anyone has any issue with them... even if it's from the past (before i was even in talks with them) they're willing to work with me and any reader to resolve the situation as best they can. the ONLY caveat is that you had to have set up your hosting using one of our links and not from somewhere else. if you originally set up the hosting through us, and then clicked on some link from some email that they sent, that's fine too. you just can't be contacting me if you set up the hosting through someone else, or from somewhere else.

hope this all makes sense. if you guys have any questions, i would actually prefer a new thread or for you to contact me directly via pm or email.

[ray]

I used to have two hosting accounts with them. I dropped one because they placed that account (a newer one) on one of their newer, unstable servers named "Staten." My personal website is still hosted by Globat and resides on their server named "St. Maarten."

I had submitted several tickets regarding the new account because the databases were loading incredibly slowly and since all my websites are driven by sql these days (Coppermine, wordpress, mambo, joomla) I finally put an end to it. I asked if i could have my new account migrated over to the St. Maarten server where my personal website has been up and running 99% since its inception, but according to them that wasn't an option.

I finally cancelled my account after a few weeks of waiting and submitting tickets.

I still love Globat for the service and prices they have given me since I opened a hosting account with them back in 2003, but after my experience with their new servers I don't think I would ever go back to them with a new account.

On a side note, I moved my cancelled account over to a company named Startlogic.com. Their prices and packages are comparable and their servers are blazing fast. I've only had a total of 15 minutes of downtime in the past 8 months. Two thumbs up from me.

[Vexille]

and we're moving all our domains off as soon as we can.

Not only did we continue to have spotty service throughout the year, but wait until you try to move to another host...

make sure you read all the fine print and start way ahead of the 30 day notice they require before they zap you fro another year.

Oh, and Globat actually had the nerve to charge us for an "upgrade" package we did not authorize, because we did not contact them to "decline" the offer!

That took even more hassle to get corrected.

All in all, a bad year but thank heavens it's almost up.

I stick with my advice: avoid globat like the plague and go for a more reputable, stable provider.

It may cost you a few $ more, but if I counted all the hours of down time and time wasted contacting them for support and unauthorized billings, it's made it a very expensive solution.

[Cubsfan]

make sure you read all the fine print and start way ahead of the 30 day notice they require before they zap you fro another year.

I'm looking at cancelling here soon. Anything I should know? Who did you talk to to cancel?

[lights]

there should be an option within your user menu for you to cancel.

[Vexille]

Make notes of every call, every chat session.

Follow up, follow up, follow up...

Their S.O.P. is to slow roll you, so be very persistent.

The webchat support will always try to get you to call the "Billing Department", which is an endless hold/voicemail hell...

I submitted my cancellation 5 days ago; it's still "pending"...

[Vexille]

This is a transcript of the chat session I just completed. The only edits I made were to insert the time frames in [ ] and I edited out my last name.



Thank you for contacting Globat Chat Support. You are now chatting with Technical Specialist 'sarrah'

sarrah: Hi and thank you for contacting Globat Signature Support! We have received your question (s) from the pre-chat survey and will answer you momentarily. Thank you for your patience.

James: thank you

sarrah: One moment please, I will get back to you shortly.
sarrah: You may submit a cancellation request by clicking on the following link: Submit Cancellation Request.
sarrah: Resend a cancelation form to amke sure.

James: I have already done that
James: I have a confirmation number
James: and the page where that option is at says cancellation pending

sarrah: You just have to wait

sarrah: Or call the billing dept to folow up
sarrah: It's 877-245-6228

James: I would like a confirmation that states I submitted the cancellation more than 30 days in advance
James: so I will not be billed

sarrah: Yeah

James: Can you confirm the date I submitted the cancellation?

[5 Minute Wait]

James: Hello?

[5 Minute Wait]

James: Hello?

[5 Minute Wait]

sarrah: Let me check
sarrah: PLease hold on

[10 Minute Wait]

sarrah: Cancel Status: PendingCancel (ticket ID CXS7ODXD for domain paximperium.net)

James : Do you show the date the cancellation was submitted?

sarrah: I'm sorry that is a on the billig system
sarrah: *billing

James : ok thank you

sarrah: This is a tech support!
sarrah: Thank you for visiting and appreciate your patience.
[Chat Ended]