Recent experience with Dreamhost....

Hey all -

I just wanted to share the recent experience I had with trying to sign up for webhosting services from dreamhost.com...

I'd been looking at different webhosts over the last few months as I've gotten fed up with my current webhosts 'shortcomings' ... They advertise that I've got 300GB of disk space at my disposal, but don't tell you about the 50k file limit they have imposed. My site is composed of a Drupal CMS front end for blogging and whatnot, and a gallery2 photo library for static photos, and that it is. Between those two applications, and all the logs that their server maintains, I can only keep about 4500 pics online at any given time, as I keep hitting that 50k file count limit, but am only using about 1.5% of the supposed 300GB of disk space (4.5GB?)...

I looked long and hard at dreamhost, and attempted to sign up for their service last week. I was in Bucharest on business when I purchased a plan through Google checkout.

The checkout procedure went smoothly enough, and I got my account created at dreamhost. The problems started when, after 24+ hours, my account was still 'pending'. I emailed them and simply asked when I could expect my account to be fully activated, so that I could move my website to their service. Here's the email thread... I was apalled....

Dreamhost emails said:

Hello,

On Thu, 25 Oct 2007, you wrote:
> I was wondering if you could tell me when my account will be fully active so that I can begin to transfer my site to dreamhost?

Your account was disabled by our fraud detection system. Your payment has also been refunded.

We request that you take your business elsewhere and we apologize that we won't be able to host you at this time.

Thanks,

Brett
--
DreamHost Billing Team + [email protected]

Click to expand...

I replied to their email, stating that I was shocked and appalled at how this whole application for service was handled. There was no contact from them asking for any clarification, they basically have told me to go suck wind... I have yet to receive a reply, and I am not holding my breath.

***???? Thoughts? Comments?

Regards // NoVARaif

I've been with them for two years now and couldn't be happier.

Reading their blog, though, you'll find they are a bit eccentric and I've seen stuff like this in the past.

As for advice, no idea...

I think they way oversell their service and their control panel is horrendous. What broke the deal for me was not letting me use a promo code to sign up a new account. I am buying 2 domains that have been hosted by dreamhost before and I was going to use a promo code to get hosting, and they said I can't host those domains and use the promo code.

What they did with you is pretty insane, especially not giving any sort of explanation. After something like that happened, I wouldn't want to give them my money.

"Your account was disabled by our fraud detection system"

I would love to know how they came to this

Basically they are saying you are a fruadster simple as that,

I wouldnt be happy with this and i would keep at them for as long as possible demanding an explaination,

Maybe you could get a discount,but would you want to give these tossers your money now??

Best of luck-keep us posted

I managed a fair size web host for several years, and have seen many weird situations. There are good and bad hosts. One issue though. There is a huge fraud problem that affects the domain/web host industry. People who steal credit cards will purchase a domain name to test if the card still works and hasn't been cancelled, and then if its accepted, will go out and splurge.

I would personally recommend the host I worked for, NetNation. Been around since 1997, superior customer service, infrastructure. They are not the cheapest, but well worth it.

I was considering Dreamhost as well........ but......... changed my mind after a slightly unpleasant "post" I had asked in regards to service. Needless to say, the posts have been conveniently "deleted"............

I'll stay where I'm at (5 years now). ebizalive.net some minor probs but otherwise quick with responses and problems.

personally i recommend www.hostgator.com . Never had any issues with them, and they have 24/7 online chat support.

They basically told you that your information was false or fraudulent, yet they didn't tell you about any action they would be taking or complaints they might send to you cardholder? That's quite odd.

A company doesn't accuse a person of fraud, disable your account, and act passively as if nothing happened. This doesn't bode well with Dreamhost's reputation.