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Date Submitted :
September 15th, 2009
Length of time hosted by this company :
More than 3 years
Overall Rating :
5 out of 5
Reliability :
5 out of 5
Support :
5 out of 5
Pricing :
5 out of 5
Verdict :
Greetings from Ireland!
I host numerous websites with Globat.com and am very happy with the cost effectiveness and all other aspects of service being received.
In the early days, when I was new to hosting I found that some of Globat’s renewal practices were a little sharp and aggressively oriented from a marketing perspective. I found it was essential to keep a handle on all communications especially emails received. This should be normal practice anyway. No easy ways out – is there? This of course is one's business so it is important to address each and every communication if you are serious about what you do. I soon found out that if you run your business properly Globat are every bit as good as and better than most hosting companies out there.
I would not leave Globat.com for the world now and have renewed all my domain names and hosting accounts as far into the future as is possible. This gives me great peace of mind and cost effective satisfaction.
I rarely have any issues in which I find it necessary to contact Globat Support with. On that very odd occasion I find that service is excellent and many avenues of communication are available – chat, online form, email, fax, telephone etc.
One other major plus I have about my websites hosted with Globat is that I readily and consistently obtain relative premier positioning on the main search engines, especially Google Search.
In perusing all of the adverse reviews that have gone before mine I cannot help but think (from the language flow) that these are from people who do not keep their minds focused on their business as necessary. I do not doubt anyone and their comments but will advise that if you want to run a business online or expect to operate a successful website it is naturally important that you remain focused on the core issues and handle your communications expeditiously. Just become familiar with what Globat has to offer, read terms and conditions and familiarise yourself with the Control Panel and all peripheral additional facilities such as products, services, help, tutorials, support, etc and you will have no problems with Globat as you progress into the future with a successful web presence.
In conclusion please be aware that while I have no specific business to business financial commitment with Globat I must rate them very near to the top of the league in all areas of domain hosting and associated business.
This is my review and it’s for real!
Regards,
Arthur O Hara
Ireland
Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:03:35 GMT Daylight Time Wk 38
Globat.com has cost me more money than any company I have ever had to deal with. Signing up with Globat basically means they can take money from your account whenever they deem necessary.
I'll start with the "Automatic Upgrades" which if you're not consistently checking your email that you registered with, they have these automatic upgrades which you have to "opt-out" of or they will automatically charge your account for upwards of 50 dollars for upgrade, and they come constantly! I've asked several times to "opt-out" of the "opt-out" upgrades, and they never let me. And trying to get a refund is an even bigger hassle. At one point I threatened them, and the best they could do was a refund check in the mail several months later.
After much struggle with Globat... I finally decided to cancel my account, in which I called, asked them to cancel everything. They agreed. But two months later, I am still getting charged, and they are refusing refunds.
Now I have to report my credit card stolen, just to get away from this company!!!
I do not suggest Globat web hosting to anyone. If you try to part with them, it will be completely one way, meaning you leave their services but they continue to take your money!
My rating = E product, e service. Do not waste your time!
24 hours ago, globat closed out my hosting account and sent a nice little e-mail stating that I may have violated their policy? I'm thinking great, one of my guys uploaded a bit-torrent or something... I got into a nice heated debated with the techie and he basically told me that was a blanket e-mail from globat.. IT COVERS ALL BASES!!! WHAT TOTAL BS! I'm calling my lawyer in the morning to discuss what legal action I can take over this BS!
It get's better, they are claiming 'it's not there fault, but my fault!' I further chatted with them on that BS and they finally fessed up it was an 'accounting' error that killed my hosting service at which point I cried BULL!! And he eventually cracked and said that all of my files have been deleted due to the 'new' and improved' systems could not handle my files?!?!? NEW AND IMPROVED! More like downgraded! So now I've lost everything and I have presentation in the morning with nothing to present!
Aside from my rising blood pressure, all I can do now is sit back and wait until morning to rip into these guys.. a) get my money back.. b)take them down with me..
FOR ALL ABOUT TO CHOOSE GLOBAT:
AVOID IT! May be they were good at one time, but that was then... This is now..
I have been with Globat almost 3 years. From the begininng I discovered you had to work hard for the discounts you were told you would get when signing on. Their online system charged as though no discount was being received so you had to call and get credits back on your credit card account. Now they say add on domains after the first year will be $12 a year.
They advertise a rate that is good for only the first year. If you do not know how to ask the right questions you will find this out later the hard way.
They have tremendously improved the stability of their servers after experiencing major outages during early 2008.
Tech support is horrible. I waited 9 days for a response to my support ticket.
I decided to cancel early. Good thing I did. Somewhere when you sign on the fine print must state you must cancel your account 30 days before expiration or you can be charged again. This is what customer Globat chat live customer service explained to me.
The chat live is good. If you have to go deeper than this you may find yourself alone with your issue. I tried calling, but the message machines whether tech support or customer service said the system is being changed. So, there was no way to communicate other than online.
Globat used to be great a few years ago for both price and service. At one stage I had over 60 sites listed with them. Then about 15 months ago they steadily started going downhill..
Firstly, our websites started to get hacked regularly...like every 4 days. I spent hours having to either remove the malicious script or reload the whole site again, and then change the password..and then within a week it would be hacked again, so Globat obviously had a security issue. Their technical support on the matter was almost non-existent. I did manage to be contacted by Tom Cox, their CEO, who assured me they were working on it, however it never happened, and to this day, the few sites I still have on their servers still get hacked.
I have also requested that these sites not be auto-renewed, but they do still, so I have asked for a refund for a large number of the sites. They were to pay me by January this year. Still waiting, and they won't respond to my emails. I am now seeking my lawyer to contact them and hopefully can finalize the matter. So I do not recommend them of you are looking for good hosting!!!!
WORST SERVICE EVER!!!
Everyone I talk to lies! I was promised a domain for $4.44, and thats what it said in the shopping cart. Didn't mention anything per month, or set-up fees (I went back and checked).
Now I lost almost $60! Won't give me a refund, won't give me the service I paid for, won't give me my domain name. Not to mention not opened during weekends, and phone service is never available.
DO NOT USE!!!
I joined because of their good prices and deal they had for a year of service. The main thing that pissed me off the most was the fact that they try to include you in all of their stupid promotions that YOU HAVE TO OPT OUT OF NOT TO BE CHARGED! That is ridiculous, if you don't check your email regularly, you can get charged $100+ for some upgrade you don't even want. Sometimes they give you just a few days to cancel otherwise your credit card is charged.
Another thing that really bothered me is the way to cancel you account. To cancel I couldn't just click a button, I had to call a number. They have one click renewal, why can't they have one click cancel? The problem is that they don't have hold! You call them, they tell you a bunch of crap, then they say the line is busy and to call back later! So you must call back a thousand times and listen to that message until you get through. The reason they don't have a hold where you can just wait is because they don't want you to cancel your account so they make it as difficult as possible to do so.
Then once you do get to canceling your account, they ask for you password for verification. I refused to give them my password, they were still able to cancel, which was good.
I signed up for their website hosting last year. After the year, I did not plan to renew it. I also did not sign up for any renewal plan. After my contact was over after a year, they automatically renewed my account, upgraded it and charged me 120$ on my account.
I called their customer support several times but lines are always busy. Thank god I used my American Express and they reversed the charges :)
These people are crooks. Do not use their service even if they give you for free as you never know when and how much they would charge your credit card in future.
I wish i had seen this page before handing my cc info to those crooks.
Do not host with them, customer service is non existent, they took my money and never delivered my ordered domain. I filled a complaint with the BBB and will have my bank charge back.
STAY AWAY!
This company is incredibly terrible. Please don't waste your time or money with this company seriously they have terrible customer service and the hosting is quite slow. Whenever I visit my own site the load time is unacceptable especially considering I'm on a high speed connection.
Again please take your valuable money and time elsewhere; I sure wish I did!
THIS WEBSITE IS A SCAM TO GET YOU TO HOST WITH THEIR COMPANY. I've signed up for many domain names at known companies like yahoo, cheapdomainnames, etc but the pricing on this site $6.95 for 2 years) sounded great. When I went to pay, it didn't have a page with a summary charge. I then looked at my bank account and GLOBAT took out over $125 out of my account. They said it was for hosting 6.95 a month for 2 years billed at once) I didn't need my domain hosted so they said it would then by 14.95 a year x 2 so $28 to register name- WHAT A RIP-OFF. The customer service is an Indian call center (our out of country at a minimum) and when I got my refund email, it said I was to by refunded "sometime in second half of February" when I signed up Jan 20th?????. I've tried to call multiple times to customer service and each time it says all lines are busy. Even if I get my refund, this company in my opinion, should be avoided at all cost unless you are an IT masters level graduate and can read between the lines of a very misleading platform.
I will be re-registering and continuing to use DreamHost. I thought I'd save money on the registration by using Globat, but as it turns out, the domain I bought is parked indefinitely. I could host it, and DreamHost could install software for it, but could it be seen? No.
My first contacts with Globat involved them pawning all responsibility off on my web host and my ISP. Both of these parties spent an exhaustive amount of time on the phone with me, verifying that it was in fact a problem with Globat and their domain parking.
I have never in my life left an attempt at customer service so angry. Subsequent contact with Globat involved them asking - four times in a single conversation with a single person "please to do log on to another PC to trying." If his name was really Robert, I'll eat my shoe.
They've outsourced their tech support to wholly unreliable people who don't care one whit about the customers, or about being able to communicate effectively. How many times do I have to say I only own one computer?
Follow this with complete, stubborn, consistent refusal to deal with the problem, and aggressive finger-pointing at my web host, my ISP, and, later, ME - their customer.
Globat is the worst excuse for a company I have ever in my life seen, and I will be telling everyone who will listen that this company should be avoided at all costs.
I initially thought I was getting a really good deal with Globat when I signed up last year. I signed up because I wanted to start an ecommerce site with ShopSite software. Ever since that first week, it has gone downhill very consistently. Everything you have read here on this forum is completely true. The customer service is the worst part of all of this. They must either not know any english, or they must be sitting there playing video games while trying to help, or they must just not care enough to even read your response. Live help is ok ONLY when you hound them and message them over and over. They are not helpful in the least and you shouldn't have to pay them a penny because that's the amount of help you actually get from them. Furthermore, the domains take a LONNNNG time to load, that is completely ridiculous in this day in age, I don't care if the prices are cheaper than other websites. If someone tries going to a website and it takes longer than 5 seconds to connect to any given page on a high speed connection, something is seriously wrong. Globat is nothing but a deceptive company that made their own positive reviews and webpages with false reviews, and marketed their store deceptively this way. It is just completely unethical. These guys are cheats and scam artists, don't give them a penny of your money or you will hate your decision!
I am on the phone with them right now to cancel my account!! I have been with then for over 4 years and I can\'t really believe it took me this long to cancel my account. Having an account with them for this long should be no indication of how reliable or trustworthy they are. It\'s more of an indication of how ridiculous I am. I have had trouble having with them transferring domain names, payments, those stupid automatic upgrade payments, in the last week I found out my site was down for the last 2 weeks!!!
They told me I had a unpaid invoice of $0.00 and my site was taken down b/c of that. Once they fixed that it took them another 3 days to get me to login in again. The first guy told me that I would get a call back and a e-mail from the customer support. Which I got neither of. After waiting over 24 hours I called back and stayed on the phone for 1 1/2 hours and would not hang up until they were able to fix the issue.
Now that it is fixed, I am just backing up all my info and getting the hell out of there. I suggest everyone else do the same!!
Globat is a waste of money and time!
Their support is absolutely horrible. It is nothing but a run around. If reliability and good service matters, look elsewhere.
By the way, the credit card scam others have talked about in their reviews is absolutely true. Check out their BBB listing and see the hundreds of complaints.
Try to get to another level of support beyond the absolute basics, and you get stonewalled. You are told to wait 24 hours, in which time, you may or may not get some help. The owner of this company should be ashamed.
I wish I had read some these comments before I signed up with this company which was 3 days ago. However when they started asking that I email or fax them a copy of my ID & both sides of my credit card in order to activate my account, the alarm bells went off. This has scammers written all over it, and after reading the reviews I realize I'm not far from the truth. Already contacted my credit card company to cancel or not even fulfill the transaction. I called the Globat's customer service number and the connection was horrible, and the rep almost impossible to understand. Where is this company out of? Does anyone know?
Usually I consider myself a patient, calm, compassionate person. Globat has me pulling my hair out at the roots and wanting to slit my wrists! I am glad to see that I am not alone. It is amazing to see how many people have been scammed by Globat. We must be able to take some collective action here....
After I call customer service recently, the first time, the representative said that no money has been taken out of my account (a bold faced lie) when clearly money was removed, after that, my first site with them was hacked into, with beastiality and sex references. The second time I called them, 6 weeks later, my second site got hacked into again... at first I thought it was a coincidence, the second time I realised that is their way of getting back at their customers for standing up for their rights.
Stay away from them.... when I first signed up with them in 2003, I was ecstactic, NOT ANYMORE... I wanted to get reimbursed for all the money they took out without my consent over the last 3 years but they claim that they only issue 90 day return policies and I can only apply the money they took out as "credit" for the future.
First, I have been with quite a lot hosts including 1&1, GoDaddy.com and a few more but what I see at Globat.com after just a few days since I have opened an account with them is worth anything I saw before. Worth it may only be when you work with a no-host, like cheap websites that offer hosting, where I think they may be better than Globat.
Like a lot of persons I used a free year Terabyte hosting, first I saw Globat as I looked for larger webspace and than got the rebate when purchasing at a partner.
So I used the option but it is simply useless. The sign up was easy, quite fast but none real host delays the opening as to "ineligibility of instant activation" when one is from Germany.
When my account was opened I went through some things with the worst command console I ever used, where CPanel is great and GoDaddy.com accounts and the ones of others are easy and not build on auch a console type of application, this one does not even work.
I went to account and domain management, first, they used my sign up e-mail address for whois, okay acceptable, but than even added my phonenumber as faxnumber. Okay, not excuseable right now as it is not possible to change the whois, the javascript submit changes button does not work, at any time I tried to change it. IT is in the same manner not possible to unlock the domain from transferring right now, as I must move the domain away from them, but as the button does not work, I will see how to get that done.
Than I checked their "trademarked" 1-Click Applications, some work, some don't even only worked at one point of time. It was possible to install Mambo. Zen-Cart and other who use ftp did not und still do not, where Mambo installations now also do not work.
So, I read some reviews like those ones below and already saw what was going on.
I made the decisions to forward my new domain with Globat.com to my other hosts, where I have like 4 or 5 options available and all of those are working out all the time. Good that I made the decision but I can't do that with Globat.com. There is no option in the menu to forward a domain with redirect functions. Who does not know what this is, one can point a domain on another domain. When accessing a forwarded domain one is redirected to the domain target one specifies in the menu of all major and respectable hosts. This is not "Domain transfer" or "DNS Change" where one is transferring a domain on another host or changes the namesaver settings of a domain to point on another host to use the webspace there.
So I contacted the live support, the answer was fast but than slow, so I asked my question to the "tech specialist" how I can forward my domain on another domain via redirect with the command console. There I saw the tech specialist is a technolost and knows nothing about anything that Globat is not offering and is industry standard. I got the answer to go to the console and click 1-Click Upgrade for Domain Pointing. He explained and wanted me to literally point my domain with them and my domain with them. I said good bye, enough of that. As that is not domain forwarding, that is something different. In fact this option is for the nameserver settings, to point an external domain on my Globat webspace, not even a transfer with certain prices that are same a a domain reg, mostly. The worst thing about it, they charge people for that, where anyone who has a domain with any other major registrar can simply change the nameseeting there for free without having to pay $12 for nothing.
Than, as I could not forward my domain to not show the ad of Globat where it is said "will soon enjoy all the benefits of Globat" when one goes to that url, I wanted to add a index page on my webspace with a redirect code to manually redirect the domain to another one.
Nice thought but a dream when working with Globat.com as the integrated ftp application does not work, when hitting the button the page loads for more than ten minutes until stopping with nothing, until now I haven't seen the ftp application at all. So I used Filezilla to access my webspace, better said, I wanted to. the correct password is rejected by Globat. So I used another one, a ftp client they promote on their website, same thing, the ftp application I installed, super ftp tries for 10 minutes to get access without getting it as the password, the correct one, is rejected.
So, I have a domain and webspace with Globat and all are useless as when I now tried to install Mambo, a blog type site, in my main directory to not have the annoying ad of them there, also there the console tells me that the ftp login failed.
In general, the site is slow, the console loads very slow and there are reasons. Before I come to that, the note, that a host who promotes itself as always up, fast and reliable should be that in real and not in hypothesis. In fact, they state 99% uptime where Yahoo.com and others state 99,9%, so the 0,9% is a huge region is the reality.
Why is Globat slow? A suggestion or a "supposal" about that:
When looking at the status bar of the browser one sees that when using the console that at any pageload the server goes on "login.globat.com" where industry standard is to use that one for the exact login region of a server. That means particularly that all users using the console and login at the same time go over one subdomain, there is internal routing desaster happening. When you wonder why ebay is so fast with site loads, and is full of terabytes, they use a lot of subdomains and route traffic on a lot of places and "streets" of their severs. Here at Globat all goes over login.globat.com, all, there is the login and the use of the console area with all functions which should be hosted on something like "commandconsole.globat.com" that is beginner stuff and not geek knowledge. As bring all people of a huge hotel into the lobby and also the staff and the rooms are not used for any purpose, inhere subdomains etc., the room will collaps and people will get very slow from one point to another, it is a continous traffic jam like in Manhattan at rush-hour but all the time.
Plus that, the possible reason for having done this that way is Globat.com wanted to save money for SSL on their servers, although it is already a shared one, Globat.com uses a SSL cerificate by Equifax and who knows Equifax knows they are used by banks and other high security institutions but not by hosts. First, using alone such high-sec certtificate makes a website slow especially when everything goes over one subdomain and all users are slowed down by the higher sec SSL.
All that shows one the deal is a show off especially with such SSL that shall give the impression they have high sec standards but really only rip off people with such and the effects of simply being no real host with anything a real host knows and works with. Last but not last, the SSL certificate is not validated and no company information is directly accessible. Any host like GoDaddy.com uses the new EV SSL standard where one sees a the address bar becoming green in IE or the left part only in FF, click on that and will see a bunch of information including when issued and valif until.
You see even that is unprofessional by Globat to use Equifax for no real use where the standard is a EV SSL by any known provider.
PLUS THAT, They are not cheap, other hosts offer better rates, "unilimted" storage for less than the 5Terabyte Globat deal, $10 less a month. They are expensive for what they offer and also in general with all the competition.
I can only say, god bless the CEO of them who originally comes from Germany where I come from, look in his own blog, sees himself not more as a german since he came to America and built this company but as an American he became, as here in Germany one would never respect that behavour of business he does, he only saying that the over conservative germany was nothing for him as in the U.S.A. he could easiely rip of the stupid folks like it is known for.
There is no point making this an anonymous review, worst scam scammer scammiest ever! I just cant believe they are still operating! There is no better business bureau to take them on? Two times sent me upgrade notifications with none functional links, two times they promised I opted out, third time they merrily informed me I upgraded. Megascammers! http://tsiolakidis.com/Globat.Scam.html
Thank God for this website, it will protect some future victims, somebody please shut the company down!
Do not, I repeat do not even think of going with Globat. They will wear your patience thin. They did mine, I am without a doubt switching to another host. I mean they must have just about all their clients at wits end. I can see below , not one good reveiw here. Will Globat stay in business, not for long at that pace. Well they may attracted some noobies with those eye popping deals. But thats about it.
Let me start out by telling you the good part about their service. Not much to mention except the fact that I have not had problems with emails. And thats the only upside I can think of.Globat maybe should become a mailserver service. They might do better.
Now where do I begin with the rest ?
Lets see if you have a ecommerce site that uses php and mysql Globat is definitely not for you. I setup a php ecommerce site with them a year ago and it has never worked properly. I emailed and called their useless tech support many times about it but they where never able to resolve the issues (no surpeise there). All I got from them is that is was our fault and not theirs with emails to prove it. I cannot even upload a picture to the site, because of the problems with mysql, not to mention how slow the datebase runs. My customers complain about it everyday. So hosting for eccomerce with Globat is definitely not a goos idea. Funny thing is I am using OS Commerce from Globat. Do I think their lousy billing department will credit me for this. Absolutely not. What will they do ? Well I guess they will send another spam email telling me they will bill me another $49.99 for a great email server. It's like buying a new car, that you can barely drive down the block.And the dealer you bought it from will not let you exchange it, rather they just charge you to fix it with no regards for the warranty.
Downtime with Globat is a daily occurance now. When I first signed up they where ok no problems at all. Now they are my worst nightmare. All my sites experience the same problems even one that is just a simple one page html site ( how bad is that) well for reliabilty I must give them a -10 and that's going easy on them.
Not to mention that they told me PHP5 was available on their server, but failed to tell me that tech support had to upgrade it using a virtual one I think , something like that, which took about 1 week to tell me that little piece of crucial information.
Lets see customer support, well they used to have them in California. I'm pretty sure they got on the overseas customer support bandwagon to save a few bucks. But now they are just useless, and clueless. This might be another reason to tell Globat I am taking a hike and never coming back. Yup, certainly is when you have a business to run, instead of being on the phone with a person who has no business answering any thing for Globat whether it's by phone or live support. They even called me madam one time, I almost went and looked int he mirror to make sure I was still a gentleman, I didn't think my voice was that high pitched. Maybe a little rough after screaming to the brainless customer support service rep.
Yes, they tried to bill me many times over and over. But got them there ( HEHE) went down to my local Walmart and bought me one those great prepay Visa Cards.And I forgot to put more money on the card. Ha best thing I ever did. So they didn't get me. I suggest if you do dare to sign up with Globat. Do yourself a favor and do the same. They will get more money from your credit card even after you pay your full initial year. With all those fine upgrades they offer. Well the buck stops there. They are now going unlimited everything. But I am sure they will find some other way. Sneaky little greedy $$$$$$$. Fill in the blank where the $ are.
Those are my not so fond memories of Globat. Thats what soon they will be bad memories after my subscription ends very soon. I count the days and minutes when I can finally gain back my business and keep my sanity in check after Globat. What a celebration that will be then maybe I can finally have a ecommerce that works and can make some income . Just a few more days. WooHoo
So if all that excites you in a hosting plan. Then by all means join them all of us that got suckered by those cheap rates and high ended plans.
This is the worst hosting company I have ever used. The "opt out" upgrades are very deceptive. There is a lot of downtime, the support is clueless. Just horrible, run away from these folks as fast as you can.
Image it this way. Saw I, II, and III. Yea it was that horrible of a time. Hosting sucked, I paid for it it didnt work for two days. Everytime I called them they had a different reason for why it was not working. Two tech's work on a weekend shift when i called, one senior tech. I was on hold for more than an hour basically because i refused to hang up till i could access my ftp with them. They didn't know where the senior tech was, he was at lunch. I cannot believe the trouble i went through with them. I called godaddy on the second afternoon and switched to their hosting. It was working within 20 minutes. Their website says 24/7 online support. Yea right Mon-Friday online. That is even horrible. Sure submit a ticket you dont hear anything back from them.
I cannot believe that this hosting company still works.
Thank God for Godaddy.com, truly perfect hosting to me.
Save yourself the bloody torture. Go with Godaddy!
They are HORRIBLE!! I have moved my hostingplan away already and I'm going to move my domain registrations as well. They do not deserve business with the way they manage it.
Automatic upgrades and 'automatic domain registration renewals' that DO NOT happen... my sites have been unavailable many times because they do not do their job.
Customer/Tech Support is TERRIBLE. Nobody knows what they're talking about, and they all keep trying to refer you to someone else... who then tells you to call the first number that you called...it takes hours to get anything resolved. They canceled our account with less than 12 hours' notice, then nobody could figure out what to do to fix the billing and get the site back up and running. Our site is used for a non-profit organization, and we will be switching to a new hosting service as soon as our main event is over!
Working with Globat has been a nightmare for our company. We spent two weeks trying to work out the kinks and were treated horribly by customer service and tech support. We finally decided it was not worth the hassle so we cancelled within the 30 days to receive the promised refund.
The Billing dept is horrible. We were charged repeatedly and promised a refund but it did not go through. We canceled within the 30 days and somehow our original cancellation was lost. We recieved an "upgrade notice" from GLOBAT which made us worry that our cancellation had not gone through. When we called they told us we could not get a refund because it was now past 30 days!
I tried to speak to a manager but was told that no managers were on duty, or they were in a meeting. The team in the Philippines are not helpful or knowledgeable. They are just there to submit tickets but can not help with anything specific.
It was hours of frustration dealing with this company and I would never recommend GLOBAT.
I used to have a hosting account with globat and it was OK at the begining. When I installed php scripts though, it became a nightmare. There were server time outs all the time and my website was not even accessible most of the time.
What is more, they send you these automatic upgrades and you have to opt out. In theory, there is a choice for opting out, from all these. Nevertheless, even though I did opt out, they kept sending me these emails!!!
It gets worse... When I had my first account they said that they offered up to ten free account, sharing the same space/ bandwidth. They 'forget' to mention that these accounts are free for just a year! So, I was billed when they were renewed, without being asked!!!
I tried to cancel my accounts. I went to their live chat in 'Billing Department' and I admit that they did accept to cancel my accounts, without calling to the 'dedicated' line.
I just want this nightmare to end! They got my money without asking and the services they provide are really poor!
At first I thought Globat was a great hosting company with it's cheap prices and large packages, however having been with them for over 2 years, I've realized how they're just trying to suck money from me.
I have 3 domains with them and they have constant automatic upgrades regardless if I've check the opt-out box. I've been caught twice with them charging my account for upgrades I don't want. I'm still trying to fight for some of my money back on one occasion.
I constantly opt-out of their promotional emails and upgrade emails, but I've been spammed with their emails for the entire time i've been a client.
Also, if you're a business that's looking to do email marketing with an email service provider, Globat does not support authentication of having your provider send on your domain's behalf.
This company tries to lock you into paying for services that op OUT only. In other words, they tell you that they are "upgrading" your account and that they are going to charge you unless you tell them not to charge.
I tried to cancel my account with this company and they still are trying to bill my credit card which is no longer valid. Thank god it is not valid anymore. They make you call a number that is busy 100% of the time to cancel and tell you that you cannot cancel on line, only on the phone. I told them I could never get through, so they ended up sending me a email that I was in the que to be cancelled.
This company is crap. As far as what they do. It is fine. The billing is crap and borders on faud.
They might be cheap, but downtime this month has been around 10% - and that is not uncommon. It is impossible to run a website, when you can not rely on it being available.
The customer service is completely remote from the system administration, so they are unable to offer any support ever. A complete waste of money.
Customer Support: There is none. Globat offers 24/7 online chat support, but, if a person ever chats, they are not connected to Globat and rarely are able to answer your question. Usually they give you a globat number to call, or tell you to check on the FAQ (which does not have the answer). Phone hold times are rediculous. If I ever have to call them, I expect to wait at least an hour before talking to someone.
Pricing: semi-reasonable, or in line with others. But for what you get, way too high.
Reliability/Tech: I signed up for an independent free service that checks my site's downtime and sends me e-mails if it can't load my site. Several times a week downtime occurs for an hour or more. Very unreliable.
Technology: Globat boasts new technology that will never fail or have difficulties, but my server has "malfunctioned" resulting in days of downtime TWICE in the last year. After, we get a long e-mail explaining they are doing everything they can...not something I am excited about.
Globat is never fast at upgrading to new versions of server technology. They are still running PHP 4. I asked almost a year ago when they were going to upgrade to php5 and was told it was "in the works." That is still going on. Globat doesn't allow access to your databases apart from their servers--meaning you won't be able to use any of the features of a page design program like dreamweaver to aid in creating dynamic content. They have a lot of "pre-loads" you can have them install on your site, free open source things like coppermine and wordpress, but they are all old versions, and many of their installers don't work. When I asked if that was ever going to get fixed, I was told it was "on the back burner." They have sitestats, but don't allow you to install any custom scripts.
I would NOT recommend globat to anyone getting into any half-serious webdesign. If you happen to get in on a free-after-rebate deal and just want a place to host a personal website or something, it might be fine, but nothing where you need it to be running or reliable.
What a nightmare! You call and get a level-one person to agree to a price... then there are huge bills on your credit card! You can never actually talk to anyone higher than level-one. I have called and emailed and called with no result. They have charged me more than $700 since last December for a minimal service level account. By the way, you cannot quit Globat with an email. Rather you have to call a special number (I called over 40 times before I got through). Many promises of refunds, but none actually make it to the credit card. I am still getting about $60 a month charged to the credit card. My credit card company says I should cancel the card to get rid of these people!
Service is horrible, they talk down to you and they dont even know what they are talking about. Techs always have to 'contact' a higher up support person and the servers are running antiquated software and hardware..
Buyer beware. It takes days for them to respond to support tickets, and their servers are crashing. I.E. mysql keeps restarting and forum get corrupt with as many as 4, count them, 4 queries at once.. that is sad. I cant even backup a database becouse it crashes every 24 seconds.
and they wont address the issue
no ssh or other usable utilities
Be afraid, be very afraid. Terrible service, technical issues left unaddressed, unathorised charges to your credit card and then taking 1 to 2 months to refund your money.
It seems to me that most reviews on this site outline the same exact problems from one host to another. Point being - this is NO perfect web host because people and hardware are not perfect.
I have been with Globat for years, having hosted with several others prior and during that time - but have now switched all 12 websites I maintain to Globat. Yes, there have been times when the server has gone down. Yes, there have been times when the php database is slower than usual, and yes - the auto-renewal emails are a bit annoying. But I challenge anyone to recommend a host that NEVER has a problem, never experiences issues with server performance, and has absolutely perfect billing procedures. I personally have never had a single issue with billing, and I simply take 10 seconds to opt-out of any offered upgrades. I would prefer they not have this plan - but they do and it certainly does not negate all the other good features and services.
As for technical support and service, I have found the live chat guys to be great, the customer service dept. has always responded to my needs quickly and proficiently - and I have used them a lot with 12 websites, numerous databases, video delivery, and very high traffic.
I highly recommend Globat for price, reliability and customer support - but those of you looking for the perfect host might need to invest in your own equipment and see how perfect things might be.
That's my 2-cents worth - take it or leave it, and good luck finding that perfect web host!
The only thing I bought from globat is domain name for my website. Then I get web hosting with another company and parked my domain name there. That was like more than 2 year ago.
Then on November 2007, suddenly they just CHARGE me $95 for a web hosting. That time they cancelled it right away and I even told them I don't need two web hosting for one domain name.
THEN....On december 2007 and January 2008, they charged me again.
I was told to call "DEDICATED" line for cancellation. But they did not dedicate any people to manage that department. After calling several times, sending tickets, emailing, etc. Finally they responded to me by saying they will refund the money in MAY, due to their automated system.
Why would they depend on their automated system instead of focusing on good customer service. Hopefully I can get my $190 back in May!!!!
Conclusion:
1. Never ever ever give your credit card to this company.
2. Best yet, never have any contact with them.
3. My friend recommended filing any issues to BBB
Side note:
If possible, I would give a rating of 0 for this company instead of 1
Since day 1, I've had nothing but problems with Globat. I prepaid for a year, and they suspended by account on day 1 because they said I never paid my bill. After reviewing, they finally figured out that I did prepay for a year, and reactivated. After that, I get about 3 emails a month saying that they are going to automatically upgrade my account if I don't opt out by a certain date.
Now, globat.com is down, none of their phones are working, and I can't access my website or company email. As soon as it comes back up (if it ever does), I will be removing privacy protection - and transferring the domain to a new host.
If anyone wants to do the same, you can contact ENOM.com and they can help you. Globat is a reseller for them.
I have been with Globat since Spring 2005. In Spring 2007 due to an over aggressive clerical error on Globat's part, Globat canceled my domain name. My site was down for more than a week.
I have never experienced Globat's involuntary upgrade policy because I never keep a valid credit card number on file. I always use MBNA's "Shopsafe" product to limit charges by amount and date. Due to the well documented abuse by online vendors of customer's credit card numbers, I highly recommend this service.
I finally dropped Globat because of their clerical error and all that spam mail. Hosting services should be like an appliance - they just work, you shouldn't have to fuss with it all the time.
GOOD LORD IF ONLY THERE WAS A "HELL NO" OPTION ON THE DROPDOWN MENU THAT ASKED IF I WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND GLOBAT'S HOSTING SERVICES TO OTHERS !!
First off, there is no c-panel or anything like that. You can't even change the DNS servers on your domains yourself. EVERYTHING (and I repeat EVERYTHING) has to be done through Customer Service. Talk about time consuming and pointless! This alone should be enough to make you shun this hosting company.
Another thing that really ticked me off about Globat were their "tactics" they used to get more money out of you. Eve ry month they would send out at least one and sometimes more "special upgrade" e-mails (that usually got caught in my spam folder so I didn't see them) and if you didn't physically go in and check a link in the e-mail to opt-out you would automatically be charged an upgrade fee on your account. The fee was usually about $50. I had to file a complaint to get reimbursed for an upgrade I never ordered on 3 different occasions in a ONE YEAR PERIOD. I actually never made it through the full year. After about 7 months I switched to bluehost.com and of course had to contact Globat Customer Service (which is hell let me tell you) to change my DNS servers for me since there is no domain control panel when you host with them of course.
Last but not least, I see other reviewers on here claiming that they got charges on their cards 6 and 7 months after they no longer had an account with Globat. Wow, do I believe it! I got an e-mail from them the other day (which sparked my intuition to write this review) saying that my current credit card on file had been declined. THANK GOD I GOT A NEW CREDIT CARD JUST LAST MONTH. The one I had a year ago when I first signed up with Globat was canceled. They were trying to charge me a $49.95 upgrade fee on an account that hasn't been in existence since OCTOBER 2007. It's not almost March 2008. Go figure...
I think my own review and the other 100 bad reviews on here should be enough to convince you to STAY AWAY FROM GLOBAT if you want to maintain your insanity. If only someone had warned me...
(BTW... I now host with BlueHost incase anybody is looking for a decent hosting company! I have also read great reviews about GatorHost.)
Absolutely horrible company. Had two websites hosted with them. Did not renew due to their incompetency. Long after I was no longer a customer, my credit card was charged twice. That was in September 2007 and now it's February 2008. After hours of aggravating e-mails, conversations, etc., still no refund. They fraudulently charged me for services not rendered or authorized and I've begged them for six months not to return my money. The excuses that I've gotten are comical and too numerous for this forum. THIS IS A FRAUDULENT COMPANY THAT HAS A LONG TRACK RECORD OF UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES. STAY FAR AWAY FROM THEM!!!!!
Realy it's terible with www.globat.com hosting,i tryed it for one year,it's not fast,he dont support the VB forum,and if u aad some addon domain they will charge u even is not of golbat hosting i send email to ask them about stoping of billing but without result.so search for another hosting without globat and also bluehost; because the last he limited ur CPU qotta so i go to hostgator;till now i find it is good
They must be in financial trouble because I've been dealing
with their automated billing scamming system for almost
3 years. And this last incident is the final straw.
I'm a patient guy - sometimes way too much, always
giving the benefit of the doubt you know, however this
last issue DID IT! It's over!
I had a two domains hosted on Globat and due to their
limitations on sending email per month, and getting billed
every other month for NO REASON. I decided to cancel
one account and keep the other.
They kept sending me bills after bills and withdrawing money
from my paypal account for a hosting account ALREADY PAID
IN FULL.
I emailed, I chatted, I telephoned!
Finally it got canceled, and now only hosting one account.
BUT... Get this... THE IDIOTS withdrew $94.50 from my
paypal account in NOVEMBER 2007 for the old domain
I canceled in MARCH 2007.
I emailed, I chatted, I telephone.
I emailed again, I chatted again, I telephoned again.
And they went on and on and on and on IN CIRCLES.
I emailed some more, I chatted some more, I called some
more, I FINALLY just today they admit their error. BUT get
this... Can you believe their nerves?
It's TOO OLD now to give the refund!!!!!!!
This was their most recent email sent to me.
Their business etiquette is polite but fraudulent.
If you DARE do business with GLOBAT - LOOK - OUT!
They will play you and simply take your money.
I would not recommend Globat as a place to host your website. I have used them for almost a year and since have received 3 e-mails notifying me that if I do not respond and opt out they will charge me $50 to upgrade my account automatically. That is just ridiculous.
I saw they were running a promotion for $4.44 a month for 12 months so I tried to use the coupon code which I got from THEIR site and when I entered it and clicked to submit it, the coupon did not go through and instead of a confirmation screen it automatically billed me about $100 for 12 months. NOT what I expected. VERY DECEPTIVE!
I tried live chat and calling and the only way to get to the billing department is by e-mail. When I asked for a refund because of what happened they said I didn't do it right and "Madel" totally dismissed my refund request. I have e-mailed them back several times since asking if I would be able to get a refund back and no response.
No big deal I will just dispute it with my credit card company and get my refund anyways and will definitely be looking for a web host provider that is NOT deceptive and that has a sense of customer service.
Avoid Globat, they are way too sneaky. And way too much junk mail from them too.
I HATE this hosting. As griped about by so many other users, they will charge you without your consent for upgrades and things. But they also really screwed up my order when I first ordered. I found them by a deal offered to me through templatemonster.com. They offered a lower price for my first year on one of their packages. This should have included a forever-free domain and privacy protection from whois directories. Everything technically worked out for me setting up my page, but when I did a google search, lo and behold, my address, email, and phone number were listed for everyone to see. I KNOW this was supposed to be one of the benefits of the service. I specifically wanted and looked for privacy protection when choosing a server. Also am charged yearly for my supposed forever-free domain. But complaining to customer service was to no avail. The package I originally signed up for wasn't offered anymore, and they didn't even have solid records of what that package included. The emails sent to me did not detail anything. All I had was my memory of what I read when I signed up, and the emails of the **##I*#&@!Q!! automatic update I got that also included privacy protection. No change has ever been made, no apology, no admittance of anything. Not that it would matter... My personal info was already out. And now I'm locked into a plan for several years. THANKS FOR NOTHING GLOBAT.
I found the online costumer service very helpful and fast, though I only ever needed once. sometimes the speeds can be painfully slow.
The automated upgrade system is why I am now looking for another host.
My dads just died so looking at emails was on the bottom of the list.
when i finally looked I found an email congratulating on my purchase of some service or another. I was &$^£&" outraged that a company would do this to one of its clients. If some one takes something from you without your express consent it is theft, pure and simply theft. No court in england (anyway) would see it any different.
don't use this host their crooks of the lowest order.
First off let me tell you, STAY AWAY FROM THIS HOSTING COMPANY. They have an auto upgrade process that will upgrade your service, it sends you an email that looks like SPAM or some offer, you delete it, next thing you know you just upgraded your account for 50.00.
They have the worst support ever.
I called the second day to try to get my website running up to speed, it was so slow my users emailed me telling me they would not use it until I fixed it. So I called there support and they looked at it for a week, then told me it was a problem on there server. I checked the site and it was just as slow as before. So back to support, 4 days pass they tell me its my website, I moved from a host that was fast and never had a slowness issue but were about to be sold which is why I moved.
I ask them how to fix it, I do what they say, its just as slow. Back to support, now by this time I am thinking it's time to opt out of the 30 days and get my money back but there support tells me they found the problem and there going to move all the sites off this server and move us to a new one.
Never happens. Now its past the 30 days and I eat the 49.00 and move to a new host.
Here is where it gets funny, I cancel my account, I follow all there steps, cancel the entire account, 20 minutes later I get an email saying Congrats!! You just upgraded your account. I check my bank and sure enough they charge me another 50 bucks. I called there customer service 6 times, I logged every call, the rep told me each time that the account was canceled and my 50.00 for the upgrade would be refunded. On the last call which was today I finally asked for the manager of customer service which prompted the rep to make sure my refund went through.
Now I don't know if I will get my refund, I called my bank and they said they would take care of it.
Stay away from this place. They have a great deal as far as storage, bandwidth and perks go but there support is awful, I mean just awful and the hidden stuff like the Auto Upgrade is just complete crap.
You don't see me in here trying to get you to move to my new host, I'm not selling anything. Globat is just an awful place to host your website.
I have been a customer of globat for 4 years initially hosting my own personal site which was running fine for the first 2 years.
I then went onto the reseller program as I thought my clients would recieve a good service... oh was I wrong?!?!.
Email servers keep going up and down
Databases are dead slow
Tech support are very kind but not very good at their job. here are a couple of examples.
hello sir can I have your domain name please?
sure it's mydomain.com
sorry sir can you repeat that please?
sure.. it's m y d o m a i n . c o m
sorry is it fyrobain.com?
no no it's m for mother y for etc.....
sorry sir can you repeat that please?
After 10 minutes of going through the process you eventually start explaining the problem to someone who is clearly not trained enough to handle a simple email error.
In the end they will come up with some lame solution to your problem such as outlook doesn’t allow attachments higher than 1meg ?? WTF???
customer service is the worst out of the lot though. I have never been spoken to so rudly by anyone in my life.
I have even reached a point of receiving threats by some of the customer support staff such as "well if you don’t like it we'll charge you for X product anyway"
However... I have spoken to some really nice people in globat who are really helpful and try to resolve your issues. I am presuming that globat has a few offices:
Tech support outsource to china. (Hence problems with communication and knowledge although very friendly)
Customer Service in some grubby office in some basement in Detroit (hence the gangster like attitude adopted
Head office and marketing which are generally unaware of what's going on with their business.
I'm very sorry to be giving a negative review of globat as I really thought it was a great company.
if you want problems, then go with globat.com
they have been making unauthorized charges on my credit card. i got two charges for $40 in february 07 for their 'upgrade' on hosting service without my consent. the thing is i never had a hosting account with them. i only had a domain registration with them.
i called and got my refund. i canceled my domain registration in feb 07 but now i just got another charge for their domain registration renewal. obviously, they never canceled my account as i requested.
so if you want to call them every year to cancel your account, then go with globat.com.
i called my credit card company to dispute this unauthorized charge and have them take care of it instead.
I am doing my public service by making sure you do not endure the "PAIN" of Globat. I hosted my site with them and I am running away as fast as possible.
Whoever started this business must be had a pig head or otherwise a total loser who does not have any knowledge but cashing the money. Their tech support is useless with some outsourced idiots with fancy names. And as far as uptime goes, just forget it, 99.9% my ass.
I was trying so desperately to not have to switch hosting companies. I stayed as a loyal "old maid" for over 2 years just to see the sun at the end of the tunnel so that somebody from GLOBAT will wake up one fine sunny day to improve my uptime & fix their SQL server.
PRICE: REASONABLE
EVERYTHING ELSE: JUST SUCKS!!
The bottom line in my opinion is:
PLEASE, run away from them as far as you can. Don't be tempted with their cheap prices PLEASE, just pay a bit more extra and save A WORLD OF FRUSTRATION
I have email problem all the time, never got fixed. Just now my domain was hacked, linked to something else. I called the customer service, after spending 15 mins check, they said my domain was good and referred me to call back on technical support line and no direct tranfer. I called back on technical support line several times. Every time I called, they held on me for 10 mins and dropped the calls without any prompt. I wondered if this worst service you can get so far. And they often automatically charge you on your credit cards. The site only look for your pocket, not serving you.
The worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. Their prices are cheap but their billing is so bad that you will spend a great deal of time fighting for refunds for items you should not have been charged for. If you need technical support, prepare to hold and hold and hold. Billing, refunds and cancellation all require a phone call but they don't answer their phone. When you do get through to them, you will be routinely told that they can't help you because another department owns the issue.
I canceled my account in May and transferred it to Godaddy.com. I am still fighting a bill they sent me 1 month after they transferred my domina. Globat billed my credit card for hosting services that are now being provided by another company. This has been a terrible experience and I have wasted so much time dealing with them.
I'm at a loss for words. By far the worst experience I have ever had with any company in any industry. Disgraceful customer service. Horrid tech support. Sure its cheap but there is a reason, you won't get any service! My website was so slow. I contacted them repeatedly and they gave me many false promises to speed it up. Nothing ever happened. No change was ever made. Phone calls were never returned and their tech staff was a bunch of monkeys playing with a keyboard. I would rather be skinned alive and burned with a salt solution then recommend this company to anyone ever!
Horrible ! I'm a customer since years. Everything went fine till the last month. I have now a lot of problems with Globat, and nobody seems to be able to help me. The support is very poor. My site was going slower. They transfered it to another server. Since then, my databases don't work anymore, my forum is dead. And they give me no support !
I have signed today with another webhosting company. Globat is very very bad !
when i first signed up i couldn't believe the price & storage/bandwidth. it seemed too good to be true. well, it was true. i got the space. got the bandwidth. but the thing i didn't get is a reliable web host. anything dealing with a database makes your website slow to a crawl. the past couple months have been extra crappy. load times on my two domains are hilariously slow. when i email to find out why they blame it on me... why would they admit that they have problems?
i don't really need to explain much more that everyone else here hasn't already said
Globat.com is a hosting company that I used to do business with. I signed up with them for an extended contract of two years because their service was outstanding at that time
Everything was fine until a month ago when the site just basically stopped working… The problem was the the response times from the SQL servers “which pretty much runs my site” was anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 min. I of course called Globat to see what was going on and was given the run-a-round for 3 weeks until I finally moved my site over to a new company “www.godaddy.com”
Then I called globat to get my $50+ back from then that they owe me for unused service. An I was told by a Luis **** that Globat’s service is like a prepaid phone card and that I could not get my money back…. So I had to contact the BBB and file a complaint before they started processing my refund. Today is June 28 and I got a email stating that I should have my money on 8/15…. What a wait!
Summary: Unless you don't mind very slow SQL speeds and the worst off-shore customer support ever, then globat is for you....
Globat was good the first year or so that i hosted with them, but in recent months they have been absolutely horrible.
my account has been compromised twice in the last month, even after changing my account username and password. i have had no ftp access to my account for the last two weeks, and the technical support department keeps dodging the actual issue. my website is useless, and globat is doing nothing to help me get back in business.
stay away from globat, they are not worth the effort it takes to even have a basic level ofasking for information from me even after i service
When I first signed up, it was great. They were friendly, fast, and theirs prices are great for what you get.
Then I don't know what happened, but they're horrible now.
-You have to OPT OUT of upgrades, or you will automatically be charged.
-I can't understand a word of what the tech support staff says. Outsourcing to a country where they don't speak english is just dumb.
-The control panels, and their website, has all kinds of flaws.
-They are a pain in the ass to deal with.
I've managed to get a hold of Luis, one of the head honchos over there, and he was friendly and great to deal with... but it took 4 days to get someone to get him to call me.
Globat is horrible. No on e remotely speaks English. their service is terrible, there's no communication. Even if you can talk to someone they are no help, and it takes forever (an hour at the minimum)to get an answer to anything. They are terrible. I just moved my account elsewhere. I have had it with them.
I signed up with Globat because another review site recommended them. Unfortunately it was a scam (the review site got kickbacks from sending people to Globat).
As soon as I signed up I noticed that their custom control panel was very, very slow. Think dial-up speeds and then think slower. It got to the point where logging into the control panel to access my account resulted in time-outs - I couldn't log in.
This was mentioned to the tech support people (who were helpful) and they brought it to the attention of the System Administrator. He fixed it but within a few hours it was back to being unusable.
FTP to the new site was also dead-slow. Keep in mind, I had not yet been able to even get the site loaded to find out whether the service was fast or not due to the continual problems with the control panel.
After two days of this I gave up and availed myself of the 1 year money back guarantee (keep in mind, I was on them for 2 days!!).
After calling in the customer service rep just laughed at me when I told him the control panel was timing out and that I couldn't even get my site up. I repeated the complaint several times during that phone call thinking he might have misunderstood me. He didn't, he just laughed at me each time I brought it up!
I found this to be pretty bad. Not only were they laughing at their customer's complaint but they paid no heed to it )so they won't even fix the problem because they deny it exists. This is what awaits you when you sign up with Globat.
To make matters worse, they agreed to refund my money but only after more then one month. As such, they are scamming the interest off the money (or using it for other purposes like paying bills and overhead). It's very much a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In addition, when calling in to cancel the account I was told (after filing the complaint) that I then had to call the new Dedicated Cancellation Line (that alone should tell you something!). After calling them I was assigned a case ID and then told that they could not refund the money and that I would have to call back to customer service! After calling customer service (third call into Globat) they told me that was not the case and that the dedicated Cancellation Department were the only people that could refund my money. I called back to them (fourth call) onlt to find that they also didn't know what was going on.
If that sounds like a run-around in the hopes of keeping your money - you're probably right. I believe that their entire operation is designed to wear out the customer so that they can keep the money and not honour their warranty.
Read through the many similar posts here and you'll get the picture.
Whether or not Globat will actually refund the money remains to be seen. For myself, I'll be refusing payment to Visa and they can call Globat and find out for themselves why.
Globat is also a member of the on-line Better Business Bureau so I would encourage others to do the same as me and report this type of fraudulent behavior.
Think twice before choosing Globat. The more I think about it the more I realize that their core business is not web-hosting - it's profiting off the interest they can gain by holding onto your money as long as possible.
Sighn for 1 year subscription and instead was charged annually. Don't use a PayPal to pay for the Globat service because you will have hard time to get your money back next year if you don't need the service anymore. Was using the service for educational purpose less than 6 month and because the Globat set the payment annually with Paypal I was charged next year again. Spent over two month to get the money back for the cancelled service. Didn't get the full ammount back. Can't rate it more than one because they mess with my money.
I've had my site with Globat for several years now and have long been a satisfied customer - until this year. I had not been extremely bothered by the helpful promotions that they wanted to charge me automatically (although they are rather annoying). Two things finally did it for me. One: During the fall, my site went out for over a week. Support was not very helpful, and I was not refunded for my week without service. Two: My website stats have been on the fritz for over a month. I have had to email them three times asking them to fix this. Shortly after, it seems to work for a day or so, then is down again. I don't believe that it will ever be successfully repaired. I'm really surprised how quickly this server has gone from one of the most recommended to being widely criticized.
I wish this review site had 0 out of 5 as a rating, hell 0 is better, Globat needs a -ve rating.
I have never encountered any company/firm/merchant with such a crappy sevice. I dont know how Globat is still functioning. They are ripping me off and so many other people. If anyone reading this post gets a chance, change your service to someone better.
I wrote this letter but didn't know where to send it.
Edward Gaa,
I purchased webspace under domain redsleek.com about a year ago. This is May 21, 2007.
I have been totally frustrated with your company's services for the following reasons:
1. When I opened my account, I was promised a rebate which I never received.
2. I could never contact customer service throughout the year to resolve this issue.
3. Your company keeps sending emails about charging me for services and if I don't need them I should call and cancel. This is ridiculous.
4. In order to cancel my account, I have to call within 5 days of the billing date and I couldn't call earlier. This is again ridiculous.
5. Today May 21 2007, I made a call to 1-866-764-8159 to cancel my account. I made the call at 10:20 am.
I have been on hold for 20 minutes and I continue to hold as I write this email.
I am totally totally frustrated and I promise I won't do business with your company again in the future.
Sagar
I just moved my website from Globat to Lunarpages. When I first started with Globat in 2004, they were pretty good. Their customer service was responsive, although not always thorough. Then in 2005, things started going downhill. The problems I had became so severe that at one point I sent a complaint to the manager of tech support and the sys admin manager and got a personal telephone call in response. Things got better for a while but it didn't last. In early 2007, started the process of moving the site to Lunarpages (it took a couple of months to get approval from our board members). During this time, I had several conversations with Globat tech support and billing to verify the steps that I would need to take to make the transfer. All during that time, not one single Globat employee even asked me why I was leaving!
Perhaps a bit of history of their foibles is in order. I started with Globat three years ago this month. At first everything was just wonderful, fast and efficient servers, the promise of reliable 24/7 support for all your issues, a discount for signing up for year long plans, and free domain registration. I had more bandwidth than I needed, and plenty of space, it was good. That didn’t last.
As my first year of service rolled around, I renewed my plan with the ease of a few clicks, I was content. Next month my credit card statement showed up listing two seperate charges from my hosting, a mere day apart. Yes, they had double billed me. I gave them the credit that this was just an oversight on someones behalf, and continued to be a content customer. I had my second invoice refunded to me with little hassle, except I did lose out on some of the conversion rate between the US and Canadian dollar.
Year two rolled around, my renewal seemed to go off without a hitch. I was pleased. Six months later in August my website goes offline. I proceed to check the status of my account with Globat and discover it has been suspended due to lack of a payment. This I find strange, as I even expressely phoned them in January to give them my new credit card number for payment. I discover they charged me for my domain registration, but not my hosting. Even stranger. Several phonecalls later with numerous support staff who claim they cannot help me and the department I need to speak to are only around during the hours of 8:00AM to 4:00PM. What happened to my 24/7 support I was promised?
Eventually I get ahold of a supervisor, they are very hesitant to transfer you to anyone with any authority whatsoever. I discover the department I need to contact, doesn’t even have a direct line and can only be reached via a E-mail ticket form system on their site. Two days later my ticket is returned to me with simply a phone number and the message stating my account was sent to a collections agency and Globat no longer can help me. WHAT THE ****?
I speak with the collections agency and learn that they did charge me the fee for domain registration, as well as another mystery thirty dollar charge sometime in July, but no record of the invoice that would match the renewal fee. I scour my spam inbox for anything with Globat in the content. I find an e-mail stating that if I do not reply, they will automatically “upgrade” me for some service that I do not need, and they will be charging me $29.95. There is no doubt in my mind these e-mails were intended to be caught by spam blockers, thu insuring an uncontestable charge on your account.
So why were they able to charge me for that, and not my renewal fee in January? I wrote a rather lengthy letter explaining all my troubles, and evidence then submitted it via the ticket form. I kept a back-up because form submissions unfortunately won’t keep a record for you, and I didn’t trust them to reply with evidence they received it. They didn’t. My site went back online the next morning with no apology and my renewal fee was withdrawn.
This event left me bitter and feeling cheated so I promptly went scouting new hosting and have since written two letters to Globat asking that they remove me from their automatic renewal system, and that they never the specified credit card account again. This was advised by the staff of my credit card company, and if they continue to charge the card without my expressed consent it would be fraud. I received one reply to my second letter stating they would remove me from their automatic renewal plan. Relief, or so I thought.
At 6:30PM Friday night pacific standard time I received and invoice from Globat. An invoice telling me thank you for renewing my plan another year and that they have charged my account. The 6:30PM on a Friday is suspicious because that is conveniently after their billing department closes for the weekend, so I have to resort to waiting until Monday to sort this out. In the meantime I am assembling all my ‘attempts’ at communication with their various departments and support ticket numbers and replies in order to demand both a refund and the absolute cancellation of my entire service. I sincerely wish this company finds itself in some form of legal hotwater surrounding fraud on a grand scale.
YES. Easy to use control panel. Great Pricing. They must have a ton of other hosted sites because now the service is bad. I was downloading files from my site at 18 KB/sec. I don't know if they cap that speed, but that is horrible.
Any YES. They do send you periodic emails that if you don't read the emails indicate that they will charge your credit card for special features that THEY "believe will be of value to you". And they claim they are charging your card extra for convience to the customer! SOO LAME.
I have canceled my service with them after 2 years. Watch out!
Best host I've found so far has been AITCOM.net But I think they are going downhill now too.
Buyer Beware! Excellent prices, but not worth it! They regularly charge for "updates" and "upgrades." You need to refuse the upgrades otherwise you get charged. I don't regularly check the inbox they send the notices to so I don't know the charges have been made until I receive my credit card bill.
Unreliable service - servers have gone down periodically, some without an ETA. If there is an ETA, it's usually 24+ hours. They've also pulled my service (which I paid for) after I requested a refund for some upgrades they billed me for. My site is still not back up (they pulled the service a few days ago.
Customer service is slow and highly dependent on who you get. Some are ok, some are horrible.
I honestly don't think they're purposefully screwing their customers, but thir bookkeeping and data management is unorganized and terrible. In other words, they're not malicious, they're just incompetent.
Globat offers a lot for the money. But since end of last year the site has gone down for more than 24 hours at a time. Plus one of my clients was double billed. I sensed that something was wrong because customer service was not up-to-scratch. When I started with them the service was great but now its a nightmare. My site which is really important that it be available has been down for more than 48 hours now and all I get from Customer support is that we are aware of the problem and our technicians are working on the issue. Their technicians do not seem very knowledgable and can't even tell me whats wrong. I guess I will have to move to a more reliable host. I simply and my clients who are part of us cannot afford this downtime.
Customer service had no idea how to secure site by applying user security. I spent 40 hours developing my site using their content management piece, Mambo, until I realized that this free software package was freeware, had been abandoned by the software development teams back in 2005, and couldn't display web pages in browsers such as firefox. There are no patches, updates, user support etc. It's a hint when the latest messages from the software development team on bugs dates back to 2004. The speed is very slow and 30% of the time it would timeout and give errors that the site was down. By refreshing you could get to the site again, but if I were using it as a business it would be suicide.
Predatory pricing practices. Random charges on CC for "upgrades" you never asked for. Otherwise, not bad. Availability is good, almost always when I hit my site, it comes up right away.
The tools are a bit outdated. Webstats do not always update properly. Unlike many of the other reviewers, I've actually been reasonably happy with their support staff.
Last year, they were doing a promo: send in the best worded customer recommendation for globat's services and you'll get 1 yr free hosting. They were basically trying to bribe their customers to say good things about them :( How low does it go!
HORRIBLE! Watch out! I've started three accounts with them and customer service was always a challenge but on the third, HOO BOY - it's STUNNING. Almost impossible to deal with this time. Four days of contact has just gotten me brush offs and double talk. On the plus side, great price, lots of storage. But not a good "scripts" and add-ons selection and if the site won't work, what good is lots of space?
I have had multiple sites with Globat for about 3 years. At first, the biggest problems I had were with downtime and a frustrating inability for their servers to handle even the simplest php scripts or databases. These issues have slightly improved but are still below par.
Support is completely useless. Their support techs have no idea what is going on with their servers and tend to simply say "all problems have been fixed" when you complain about a down site. Unfortunately, your site will still be down after they reply. This is the best support they offer... most other support tickets receive responses that are completely irrelevent to your question / concern.
The biggest problem though is that they have recently decided on a new business practice that involves charging your credit card for upgrades you have not asked for. I'm fairly certain this falls under the credit card fraud heading, but they seem to think they have a loophole by giving you your money back if you complain and threaten to sue them. After demanding that they remove my credit card number from their system I got the following reply:
---------------
Dear Ben,
>
> Thank you for contacting Globat.com.
>
> Please be advised that if you want to have your credit card information be removed from your account you need to have your account cancelled to avoid being billed automatically. To cancel your account or upgrade, please login to your Globat Command Console (GCC) at http://login.globat.com and afterwards:
>
> 1. Click on “Account” tab
> 2. Click on “Account Management” tab
> 3. Click on “Cancellations” tab
>
> This will generate a cancellation case ID and your account would then go through our cancellation system.
> Please have it cancelled 15 days prior to the renewal of your account.
>
> Have a great day!
>
> > Should you have any further billing questions, please do not hesitate to email us at billingdesk@globat.com
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Levireth
> Globat Billing Support
> www.Globat.com Web Hosting Made Easy®
---------------
They are completely insane!! I've checked around and they apparantly also have a problem with going ahead and charging your credit card after you cancel. Many people have had to go to their credit card company to file a complaint against Globat and have the charge removed... Globat's response apparantly is to send you to collections with an extra administrative charge for reversing the charge.
These people have raised the bar for incompetence and side-stepped directly into theft and fraud.
Buyer beware! While I've never had any technical support problems with Globat, their Customer Service and Billing is a nightmare. I was very happy with Globat until the beginning of this year. Now, I'm in the middle of a billing dispute with them over automatic renewal of my domain name. They tried to auto-bill me (although my domain name doesn't not expire till Jan 2009) but I hadn't updated my credit card information. Now they are threatening me with breach of contract, with a fine of $150. I can't seem to get their billing dept on the phone. Calls to their toll free number reach Customer Service, who opens a ticket to Billing, who again tells me I owed them money. It's a never ending circle going nowhere. I can guarantee I WILL NOT renew with them when my hosting expires.
Its WORST service i ever seen! I in mistake purchased avbout 20 domains with them year ago... Now its biggest nightmare in my experence :(
Now they often sendig emails with "amazing promotion is part of our new special upgrade program of hosting
services for our loyal customers"... Its total SCAM for $39.95 because if you dont anualy opt-out it for every domain - they will upgrade and charge automaticly! Its total terorim! If dont get mails or forget to "opt-out" that "fantastic offer", they will charge ~$800 for nothing!
And is I trying to move my domains to different registrar - they dont give a authcodes!
The amount of things that Globat have got wrong in the last few months is astonishing. The transfer usage readout in the control panel is dead (sits at zero forever) and they have no interest in fixing it. So I tried to check AWStats and all that came up with was an error page (!)
Recently they had a bug on the server that caused FTP to abort every transfer with a "No space left on device" error, but worse, any files that were opened for write were wiped, including the PHPMyBackupPro back-up config. OK, something broke, no biggie.
But we have several sites with them and 10 days later, another site, a commercial site, goes down with the same problem. A major page was reverted to 0 bytes when I tried to update it. This problem was sporadic at first, with periods of uploaded files being reverted to 0 bytes, periods of no problems, and periods of "No space left on device". After 10 days, they still didn't have it under control enough. We tried contacting them by phone, live chat and e-mail and they never really seemed to have a clue what the problem was despite various explanations.
The most shocking problem was when they actually LOST the ENTIRE contents of our site, 10 GB worth of files (don't they have back-ups?) which had to be re-uploaded from scratch. Very, very bad.
They have absurd restrictions on Apache, banning things like mod_alias (Redirect* directives) and mod_mime (e.g. AddType) as well as forbidding control of whether indexes are allowed (Options +/-Indexes) yet mod_rewrite is fully supported. ErrorDocument is also banned, despite being important and useful.
Globat amuse me with how often something breaks, and how little clue they have about anything. We're jumping ship with this site (since it's due up at the end of the month) but our other sites, well, we're stuck with them another year unless we want to throw away the money we already put into them. D'oh.
I wonder why everyone seems to hate globat. Because i have had globat for a year and a half now and i have to be honest that ive had a few moments of downtime, but i understand that there must have been a problem with the servers? I see it as a minor glitch since the last time I had go daddy host my other site, I expirienced long and wasteful downtimes. No one can access the site for almost 20 hrs!!
So i switched to globat. Now my site has been running smoothly.
I have been using globat for a year now. Many actually hate their services but still i was one of the lucky customers who had less downtimes. Atleast globat has not yet given me the 20 hour downtime like what hostmonster did to my web site!
globat has been a good web hosting provider. i had less downtimes compared to others that i had. Also, i like the price ranges. The terabyte extreme is my next target they say its complete with all the things i need for my site
Slow and unreliable hosting from Globat. When you are comparing with other hosting companies don't just look at the numbers and the price alone, because Globat's services are oversubscribed thru the roof. My site on Globat was hosted with other 1200+ sites on the same (probably outdated and slow) server, I now switched to another provider with comparable prices and have less than 500 sites on a fast Dell server. The performance difference is like night and day. So whatever Globat's numbers are you will never be able to pump through that much bandwidth with their sloooow servers. As others indicated, their customer service only charges the credit cards promptly, it's useless for anything else. They also like spamming you with upgrade offers, and will try to charge your credit card surrepticiously. Cancelling account is a pain, so immediately after submitting cancellation, change your credit card information on the record to invalid one so they may not play dirty, then get in touch with eNom and get authorization code, then send compaints to BBB, FTC, CA consumer protection agency and department of corporations. That will make them moving. And leave a message on the review sites to warn the others.
1. Globuild web building software was full of bugs. I basically had to debug it for them. This was a high priority for me because I wanted an editting facility that could be used by our web nobice members.
2. Database server is always down. This effect login to the Globat Command Console, Globat Photo Gallery.... Ironically, when this is down, you can't review/pay invoices.
3. Support doesn't care. All they need to do is monitor their servers or heaven forbid, buy some more hardware capacity but they don't. If you can get service, they just say they are working on it. Not true. They just want you to go away so they can keep charging your credit card. RUN RUN RUN AWAY
This host has not been terrible although not particularly reliable over several years. There was one time a couple years ago when they had a big disaster and all the forwarding email addresses were deleted. They denied any responsibility when we finally realized this--probably weeks later. However, in the last few months they have started making unauthorized charges on the credit card. $29.95 in September, $39.95 in November. I've spoken to customer service who says it's now in their terms of service that they can make extra charge quarterly! more or less as they wish--it is in there now--we can notice it and reject it within 30 days and they'll credit it! Basically in other words they're not balancing the budget so they've turned into crooks. I do not--nor can I imagine that anyone would--want to have a business relationship under these circumstances. I would as strongly as possible recommend against hosting with these people.
Worst host ever. They put unauthorized charges on your credit card, and automatically bill you with your permission. Would never do business with them. They make it hard to cancel your account too. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!
these guys should go to hell! I have a website with them for 2 years, so fed up with the crooks. with your credit info, they first repeatedly added unauthorized charges for upgrade services to your account. you will be luck if you notice the charges from hundreds of transactions posted on a busy credit card. then, I called the billing dept, they promised they will stop charging my credit card without my authorization. But they lied, they extended my contract and charged my card again without my authorization. I called these crooks, they just refused to refund my money back. I am going through my credit card company to resolve this, they have to realize they can't do whatever they want with others credit card!
We've be using them for 2 years. We found that they are difficult to deal with. We use their email, ftp and web hosting. None of them are reliable enough for serious business. If you are using PHP and mySQL to run your website, don't even consider them. Their technical support is helpless on PHP/mySQL issues. We try cancel our account and move our domain to elsewhere due to horrible performance. They refused to give us refund. We will never recommend anyone to Globat.com
I consider myself to be a patient person, but Globat stretched me to the limit. First let me talk about the performance of their servers. Over the past few months I've been unable to access my site about 2 out of every 5 attempts. When I was able to access the site, it was absurdly slow.
It wasn't always bad, at the start they offered wonderful service at a pretty low cost. I have also never been too down on their support either. But when they started charging my credit card for things that I never asked for, then it got ugly. The service went downhill and everything fell apart.
I'm in the process of finding a new host for 4 other websites hosted on Globat. Don't use this company to host your site.
I can't speak on behalf of their web hosting, because I rarely use it. As far as their email hosting is concerned, it is terrible. The web interface has errors not allowing you to read your email 90-95% of the time (I can only think of a few times it didn't). I had to use the default of squirrel mail. The email server is slow and often down also. And the spam is terrible. My family (who I host this for) has complained endlessly about this.
Plus, they automatically charged me, which I'm sure is part of the fine print in my contact, but I consider that immoral. Almost all interactions with them has been negative.
Just for note, I like reading real reviews, and not either all pro or all con for something. But I've been disappointed at every turn with Globat.
I have submitted emails, help tickets and even tried the online chat and have yet to hear from ANYONE? I have tried to cancel my account for three months. Now I am trying desparately to move my domain name and I do not even have access to that info. God-willing I will be done with this company before they try to automatically renew my account. RUN from this host!
Their host servers go down often. And their customer service is the worst I have seen yet. Most customer service responses are ONE sentance long, and often their reply seems as if they have not read the whole email you sent into them!
I would NEVER suggest Globat to anyone.
Furthermore, they often call their rebates on technicalities. So unless you are willing to go without the promised rebate do not sign with them. Since they do not uphold them!
Unfortunately, I chose to have globat host the website for my business a little over a year ago. I would not recommend this company to anyone, in fact I would urge you to avoid them at all costs!
In brief (sort of...), the follwing is a list of the main reasons to avoid do business with this organization:
1. Unethical business practices - They will charge your credit card without your personal authorization. They imbed notifications of unrequested and unnecessary service upgrades to your account within what appears to be typical marketing emails (that most of us typically browse over - or don't even read). If you do not respond in an expiditous fashion to stop this from happening... your card is charged. Also, They have exorbitant fees associated with early account cancellation, credit card processing and chargeback fees, you name it...
2. It is extremely difficult to reach an actual customer service representative. - (Don't bother with the customer service tickets, or the voice mail, or the CEO's Blog contact email address - You will never receive a response) The best method to contact them is via the sales department (which always answers the phones - go figure..), and demand to speak with a manager.
3. The Customer Service Representatives flat-out lie to you - about their policies and procedures, often contradicting one another. Also, they do not take action or follow-up on your requests. It took me 3 to 4 attempts with various representatives to cancel my account.
4. They will attempt to collect additional monies from you after you have closed your account - They tried to charge my credit card (a renewal fee)for an additional year of web hosting, after I had thought that my web hosting account had been cancelled. Luckily for me, I had just cancelled the credit credit card which was on file with them (and had been used to open the account initially), a month prior to the cancellation. I never updated my account to reflect the change to my credit card information. If I had... My card most certainly would have been debited for an additional year of hosting..
I started to think about switching to another hosting provider due to the constant problems with their mail servers. There has been a lot of downtime but even in a normal day the accounts are not accessible. When I have two accounts in my Mail several times a day the second one goes to offline mode because the server cannot be reached within the timeout time. They seem to have the slowest load balancer in the world.
If only the switching operation was smooth my attitude would have been neutral instead of negative. Cannot expect quality with that price. Anyway the real problem starts when trying to get the authorisation key from their customer service. My site and email server has now been inaccessible for three days and the last time I have heard from their customer service was some seven days ago. Naturally I have been sending them requests daily but it seems that I'm in the spam filter now.
For a company like that I think it's a bit childish act to delay the process of releasing domain. There's nothing complicated or time consuming, just give the customer the bloody key!
I've used Globat for a year now, big mistake. Globat is a large scam company. They offer great "rebates" like free hosting for a year. I mailed them the rebate with all of the information properly filled out and well withing the deadline, however somehow they "don't have my rebate in their records". My friend also used Globat for a year, after experiencing lackluster hosting and poor support, he cancelled after his contracted year. Then he got a letter saying that he owed $250 to Globat and they had sent off the debt to a collection agency. He never received any notice, or even reason as to why he was being billed. Globat is nothing more than a front for a scam operation. Find your hosting elsewhere.
Haha... Globat. What a fantastically terrible experience. This web host is so, so very bad... I'm not joking here - avoiding Globat could be one of the greatest and smartest moves a webmaster could ever make. These guys are so bad, that it's hard to comprehend. My latest problem was with the processors and databases which take so long to respond at times that you could literally take a nap during the time it takes to load a simple forum page (that is, if it doesn't time out). I have a large website with many people, and from negative experiences, nearly all of us know about Globat, and it's funny because they're almost synonymous with the nazis on our site and everyone sees them as some kind of villain. I wasn't alone either, seeing as how at one point the #2 Google result was a "Globat sucks! Don't host with them!" page, as well as reviews on sites such as this one. Anyway, let's have fun and list, in very basic terms, the problems I've had with them in the past couple years:
1) not allowed to use .htaccess and various other things we needed to run the site - this was our biggest problem 2 and a half years back when speed wasn't an issue (and their hosting was a fraction of what they offer today)
2) at one point, our site was unavailable for a week at a time, randomly, for no reason. No point in trying to get them to fix it - with the choice of incompetent and downright retarded foreign tech support or VERY incompetent and rude phone support that you need to wait an hour to talk to, they're not going to fix your problem.
3) A problem I've had since the beginning - all the time, almost every day, we'd all be given a 403-forbidden error for small periods of time (on the entire site and FTP), and very often, for no reason at all. Sometimes though for fun, Globat would have one of those things last for hours upon end.
4) During a time when our site went down and we failed to renew, Globat charged for us when there was no domain for the site itself and there was nothing to host. We ended up paying it off, but for 7 months of one year, where we paid $300, we got nothing. Oh yeah, that's one more thing - when they change their plans to give more space and bandwidth, which has happened a good 5 or 6 times in the time we've been hosted under them, they'll keep charging you at the original rate, hoping you wouldn't notice you're being scammed.
5) One wonderful day they kind of screwed up and... yay, they deleted the entirety of my 10 gig website. Fun! Had I not miraculously decided to make a backup a few days earlier, my site would've been lost forever.
6) Now, the thing which just was the final straw - their databases... oh my GOD. People have seriously just given up on the website now because of how slow it is, and at times I sit and laugh as my Ikonboard responds a server execution time with something silly like "188 seconds" or "224 seconds" when 99% of the time it's supposed to say "less than one second". That's beyond bad, that's just funny.
What's also hilarious are their little limits... right now they have a 75GB storage package with something crazy for bandwidth, I forget. Anyway, if you read their terms of use (which is very well hidden, by the way), you'll see that they have a 10MB limit on files (what the hell?) and that half of the bandwidth used must be HTML pages. This sounds unreal, but they seriously say it. Read their terms! Is that laughable or what?
Listen - while I am taking a slightly humourous tone here - the only thing I can do to keep me from going insane - I kid you not. This is how Globat works - they give you some crazy deal with hosting, they satisfy your money-back time with great service, and after that, you're stuck with them. You're screwed. They'll forget about you. It's all a trap to recruit as many victims as possible. They continuously raise the ante with better and better deals, leave the past customers paying at the rate they came in for, while the customers stuck find themselves with loads and loads of problems. Once your year is over, you better be aware of it, because if not they'll charge you for another year, and generally it'll be a hell of a lot more than what you paid for in the first year for some crazy reason! Oh my! If you have a cancelled credit card and want to just let your site die out where Globat can't charge you for another year you're not going to use, they'll send a collection agency on you for money in damages. $250? Something like that. Their overage charges are INSANE - you better freaking make sure you never go over, or else your wallet is going to be held hostage. Want to cancel and end this mess? They'll charge you $150. Want to sue them? They'll bill you for that too! I am seriously not joking here either. I'm serious. This company's business ethics have brought me from going beyond angry to just laughing at the sheer stupidity of the company.
Maybe it's that I'm glad that I used Paypal and got to get away with not having to cope with their unauthorized credit card transactions, and that I'm happy because I'm finally getting away from their grasp and moving to a new web host and my nightmare's about to come to a close. Whatever it is, I'm extremely glad that I'm about to move on from this stage in life - the Globat nightmare hell stage.
Let's go back to that last thing which finally got me to draw the line and try to get away with them - the slow speeds. Well, I got on their worthless online tech support, which I'm thinking is somewhere around the 250th time I've done in it so far, and bitched nonstop about how dire the situation was. Well, they put me on their crappy support ticket thing under what the guy said was "high priority". Fun. 11 days later, I get a response, "are you still experiencing problems"? By that point, the problems actually were twice as bad, so I sent a furious email back at them, and I attempted to send another support ticket as well. There was an error on their site so I couldn't submit another one. Fantastic. Anyway, it's been, what... a month and a half since? No response yet. Somewhere in there, at least a month ago, I sent an e-mail to the quality assurance manager of the company in a final desperate attempt to resolve the situation. Of course, I've never received a response at all. I'll end the review of this fantastic company with the e-mail I sent to him, and hopefully this will be enough to convince the last of you considering to use this company's services to not consider anymore, and to stay far, far away. Boycott them, sue them, do whatever - this company deserves not only to be taken out of business, but prosecuted for unfair business practices and deception of customers. Here's the e-mail I sent:
---------------------
Dear Mr. Reno:
I have been a Globat customer since 2003, with an original domain of pumphaven.com and now ph-online.net. Over the course of my experience with the company, I unfortunately have to say that I have had a plethora of negative experiences. The issues I've had with Globat are endless: billing, domain transfer, frequent site inaccessibility, data corruption for the entire site, shoddy technical support, server downtime... my latest renewal of my account was literally only made for two reasons: 1) it would be a very difficult technical procedure to move all our files and databases to another hosting company and maintain posession of our domain with the policies Globat has and 2) literal fear that we would get our domain snatched away from us and some crazy charge sent for "damages" or whatnot. I have read reviews from others online, and I am fully aware of how Globat treats matters regarding automatic renewal and charging and possession of things registered under them. A web page dedicated to negative reviews about the company and how their policies are a scam was at one point the second Google result for the term "globat".
I am writing this e-mail because I want to be part of the solution rather than the problem, but right now I really need to address the issue I have at hand. Despite all the numerous and uncountable issues I've had with Globat, they have in some way or another been resolved (but believe you me - some took ridiculous amounts of time). The current issue I have now is an issue with the mySQL database on my site. Ever since renewing a year ago, the performance has been incredibly sub-par. Within the past month or two however, the performance has gone beyond being sub-par - it's absolutely ridiclous... insane. Response times on our forum 90%+ of the time range from one to several MINUTES, and that is if the thing doesn't time out. Creating a backup dump of our database is almost impossible because it too times out. I have dealt with the customer suport... the live chat... the support tickets... all of it. The phone support people are often rude and can't help, the live chat people are pretty much clueless about every given situation, and the support tickets, when (more like IF) addressed, do not solve the issue at all. All I get most of the time is the cliched "we're working on it, we apologize for the incovenience". The thing is - it's not being worked on. Nothing gets resolved.
I am writing this email to you because I honestly have no idea where to turn to. I implore you - please forward my issue to whoever necessary. I would like my site's account to be moved to a different, less bogged down server (currently on caicos). Sure, at times the server works okay, but those times are very rare. I am losing site visitors every day because people are being fed up and have no patience with the site. Those with patience are falling like flies as well. Our competition laughs at us for how awful the site's speeds are.
Also, I would like to know why it is that Globat frequently bumps up the space/bandwidth of their packages (I've seen it jump four, five separate times in the history of my account being here), while current customers get left behind. When our [pretty much forced] renewal comes, we get charged the amount for the OLD package, and we're billed even if we're not made aware that this billing is taking place. It's almost as if Globat's intention is to lure in more and more new customers, while the customers who already paid and are locked under a contract get trapped and are essentially forgotten! From what I've read in countless reviews of Globat, it's set up almost as if Globat HOPES you won't notice that your thing is expiring and they can get away with charging you again. Shouldn't Globat be just as concerned with satisfying existing customers as they are with getting new ones?
I will be dead honest with you - I have had enough frustrations with Globat to fill a novel. It has seriously been a roller coaster ride, one where the roller coaster consistently crashes. However, I am trying to address the issue in a civil manner. No, I won't lay you or your company with insults. No, I won't threaten to contact the Better Business Bureau. I just want my concerns to be heard... I want changes to be made. I want to be treated like a respected customer. The support tickets and all that are useless. I am asking you to help me. Whatever is necessary to get my site's mySQL performing at merely satisfactory levels - that's all I ask of Globat to help me with. When renewal time comes, I want to be offered the current package with the price I've been paying. I don't want to be scammed into paying the same amount for a package that Globat doesn't sell anymore. If you would like for me to list all the problems I have with Globat, I'd be glad to. For one, my web statistics analyzer has been down and not recording any information - since JANUARY. If Globat would acknowledge and promptly resolve these issues when they're addressed to them, I would be satisfied.
Don't get Globat just because they offer low price. You will find fees start adding up and ends up costing more than other hosting service. Read the fine line!!!! Don't get screwed by these guys. For example you have to follow their cancellation policy or you end up paying $286.00 panalty and collection fees.
READ THE FINE PRINT!! I hosted my family website for a special deal of about $50, but we stopped updating it. A year later, a collections agency calls me to collect $270!!!! This is in GLOBAT's User Agreement! "4.4 - Customer acknowledges that from time to time, but not more than once per calendar quarter Globat may automatically provide Customer with upgrades, new products, and new services that Globat introduces and Customer agrees that Globat may bill Customer for such products and services..." http://www.globat.com/legal/index.php?content=userAgreement
Don't get screwed like I did.
Please do not go with Globat. I am a reseller that has put up with them way too long. I have used them as a reseller for about 2 years now, and I am trying to get out. They have always been fairly slow or not at all about responding to my calls or emails. Their Servers are always down, and we know this because we monitor our clients sites daily.
I had to move two domains shortly after moving across the nation. I figured I was paying way too much for the service I had so I thought, what the hell, I'll get one of those fat storage offerings for the same price.
I tried godaddy but their offerings didn't have php or mySQL so that was out. Found globat and thought, this is great, so much space, all these features. Wonderful...
Until I got everything running. First I couldn't setup .htaccess files. Well that wasn't a big deal, I can do with out those. Then once I got my MT installation up it seemed lethargic, then it seemed dead. Uploaded my gallery, again slow.... submitted a support request. "We'll look into it." that was it... nothing else.
Then I started having email problems. I blamed it on my hillbilly network provider, then I noticed that other servers didn't produce an error every other time my client checked... hrm. That was 6 months ago.
I figured, I paid for a year, let it expire and I'll move when I need to. But no, suddenly I got an email saying "here's your bill, we already charged your credit card". WHAT?! I disputed it, but couldn't take my cc number off the account. Then the spam problems started. I send email to friends all over the planet and some actually have very very good spam filters. I started getting notices about spamcop reports, rbl listings for the mail servers at GLOBAT. I submitted support request after support request. "We're working on solving some problems with the server" But never what went wrong, why it went wrong or what they did to resolve it. Now I can't edit files, none. All my php applications are dead as they can't write to their files. It has been like this for 24 hours. Returned mail due to listing in rbl, spamcop. Tech support is a clueless bunch of monkeys sitting somewhere in the far east making $2 a day to copy and paste responses. Even when you call, they are absolutely clueless.
Run away from globat, they are pure concentrated evil.
I do not understand all of these negative reviews. I have used Globat for 1 year this coming month. I had an easy time setting up my account. I had a few problems with my site, and I contacted Globat via their online chat, and my problems were solved.
When first signed up, I talked to Globat by phone, and they solved my issue and I was on my way. I rated them a 5 in pricing because although their deals switch around a lot, they truly do offer some amazing prices. I rated reliability a 5 because I have had no server downtimes. The server seems to be quick, and reliable.
I have been with them for less than 3 weeks and this has been the worst experience of my hosting life.
Okay, so last year i had signed up with them and cancelled my account in 2 days. This year, I saw a promotion so I decided to try them out again. So while signing up, I could not sign my old domain from before again. They said the promotion is for new customers only. So I called them, and their sales said that you can make a domain up since it is free, and you are allowed to host 3 free domains, so you can bring your other domain in there as an ADD ON domain. He said it is FREE and you can get a FULL refund anytime.
So okay, sounded simple enough so I did it. I sent a request to add on my other domains.
Well After 3 million emails and being thrown around their whole staff, they finally answered my email after a long wait and added my domain.
Then my next problem was, the domain did not work. So I went through another level of hell with them to fix that.
Finally it was fixed too. Their support does not know anything, and I was telling them what to do!
So okay, I thought well I was done with the worst part. So to my 'surprise' the next problem was that my DATABASE would not work. Apparently the file size was too large and they told me to submit it to be uploaded.
So I did. Well Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs - go by. Each day I called them and they told me someone will fix it today. So the 5th day, a FRIDAY, I called them up in morning, and they told me someone will fix it shortly. At 5pm Friday, i called them up and they said OUR TIER 2 HAS GONE HOME FOR THE WEEKEND!!!!!
So at that point I was fed up and requested a refund. Just when I think the problems are over. Guess what??? THeres a new one on the horizon.
I was only refunded a portion of my money!! They said the ADD ON domains will be charged.
So I wrote to them AGAIN on a MONDAY, and all week goes by and theres no RESPONSE.. I am asking for them to give me the FULL refund because that is what I was told VERBALLY over the phone before I went ahead with buying the hosting.
I still did not hear from them. THey stole my money. No one answers the email. THeir support couldnt be any worse.
PLEASE people, PLEASE... move to another host. Im now hosted with draze.com. What a change. 10min response time. Globat is satan in disguise.....
At first, I thought it couldn't get any worse, then when it did, I thought this is as bad as it can be, then they proved me wrong again.
Globat seems like a great value. As long as you don't ever need tech support and you don't mind sporatic email interuptions.
But that isn't the worst of it. They charged my credit card for an extra service 2 months ago that I never ordered. After calling BanglaPakIndianesia, a couple of times, they gave me my money back. Fine.
Then this week they charged me again! I'm calling to get my money back, AGAIN and then calling a different web hosting company.
After a year they renewed automatically charging for 1 year to my credit card. Later the same day I told them I won't be using the service since I don't have the domain anymore. They refused to give me a refund saying it's their policy.
These people are crooks! STAY AWAY FROM GLOBAT! I SPECIFICALLY told them I did not want to renew with their crappy hosting company, and THEY BILLED MY CREDIT CARD IN DEFIANCE OF MY WISHES.
They are scam artists and belong in jail. I had to cancel my card because of these criminals. Take warning and never give them your card number!
Everything started out great, it was a good deal for me with all my php and mysql database needs... until I discovered that they wouldn't allow you to chmod all rights to a folder. That wasn't a big deal... then they started having server problems.. and database problems, but that was no big deal, stuff happens, right? I needed the webspace, so I went in to check out how much purchasing the larger t02 package would be... big mistake, they charged my card without showing me 1) the amount and 2) a confirmation to commit to said amount. I immediately filed for a refund and went through many hoops and unhelpful idiots who told me I had to cancel my account to get a refund... (Oh yeah, did you know if you cancel with them you get charged? Read their tos carefully and you'll find a TON of things meant to get your money if you're unhappy with their service. They will fine you for going after them with a lawyer as well.) AVOID THIS COMPANY at all cost.. I'm still waiting for my refund over a month and a half later and didn't get that initial refund they promised until six months later when I called repeatedly.. apparently they don't pay unless you constantly REMIND them that they owe you money.
I rated them 1 because I can not rate them ZERO!! Otherwise, ZERO or minus ZERO is what you deserve!
Looking for a new hosting company?
Well, look anywhere you want. There are many good hosting company out there. However, what ever you do, DO NOT go with GLOBAT.COM.
This people are nothing but RIP OFF and once they got you, good luck trying to get your money back. They will be sending you a tricky email stating if you don't renew your domain, you will loose it while on the other hand, they will sneak around behind your back like a big thief to charge your card for a service they never provide! So, whenever you are in the market for a new hosting or domain, remember this:
Globat sucks! Globat is a rip off! DO NOT GO WITH GLOBAT !!!
If you want to know more about how bad these thief are, email me! I will be more than happy to save you from being rip off by this people (I am not even sure if they are people). And to add spice to it, after ripping you off, they will be sending you BUNCH of JUNK EMAIL offering you what sounds to be a good deal. DON'T LISTEN TO THIS LIAR!!!
I will be posting this everyday to every where until this junk mail liar go down!!
Worst business ethics I have ever seen. Apparently they don't believe in referal business or repeat business. At first I had 2 websites hosted though them with limited success (downtime, lack of support, etc). After one year I wanted to cancel one. The account was linked to a now expire credit card, so I assumed when it didnt clear they would cancel. I never recieved an email from them saying it didnt clear, nor did I recieve a phone call or letter. The site was taken down by them after my one year was up and I assumed all was well. Low and behold 6 months later I get a collection agency calling me saying I owe them $275 in fees from Globat. Guess what, I am canceling my other website with them and spreading the word of how BAD THEY ARE all over the internet now. My brother in law, who has about 7 sites through them is doing the same, and making sure all the clients of his advertising agency do the same too.
Globat's service started off okay, but then it quickly went south. Theire 99.9% uptime guarantee is not backed up, and is closer to 80% uptime. Their SQL support is not adequate, resulting in frequent database corruption. If you're going to be using any data tables, don't go with these guys. Globats webstats go down a few times a month, as does their email system. Don't bank on getting those really important emails if you use globat.
I've used globat for over 2 years, but only becuase we paid for a 2 year agreement the last year. We have a year left, but we've had it, and are switching to r#alwebhost after much research and thought.
If you need reliability and good support, DON'T GO GLOBAT.
I've been hosting my blog and my photo gallery at Globat for the past few years. Reliable service, good support, and definitely a host to get your money's worth. I've recommended Globat to a bunch of friends and will continue to do so.
We are hosting our site with Globat for over 2 years and have seen nothing but above average performance from them. Even calls to their helpline in the middle of the night get answered without any problems. We recommended them to several of our customers and only heard good feedback so far.
My site is alonnahays.com. My friend is a computer wiz and recommended me to Globat. I am a singer / song writter and have my tracks online. Globat has never gone done and is pretty hassle free.
We hosted our independent movie on Globat.com. Our movie is: http://www.cainandabelthemovie.com. We took advantage of Globat's $1 hosting about 4 months ago and it's been solid. I started off using GloBuild when I wanted to get it into IMDB.com and then found a designer to make it match our movie posters. We've even put up a trailer of the site and haven't even come close to our quotas. I'd recommend them.
I was with globat before I signed up for canaca.
Globat is definetly more reiable then canaca, but why I left globat was the downtime, with canaca its the same.
Globat had a great live chat support with nice staff and very helpfull, but a few months after my use of globat, they disabled live chat, and it didnt take long till some small problems showed up, downtime, script errors that werent there before ( and I wasnt playing with the scripts )
Globat is great for personal use, evan medium bussines companies, but for bigger networks or communities I'd reccomend a more quality host.
Pricing at globat is great(cheap), but remember, You Get What You Pay For!
