Believe it or not there are a number of web hosting scams online. The old saying “if something looks to good to be true, it probably is” couldn’t be more right, when discussing web hosting scams. There is a fine line between a web hosting scam and just misleading information. There are three areas I feel a lot of consumers are unaware of. In this article I am going to discuss unlimited bandwidth, web hosting contracts, and unethical domain registrations.
Unlimited Bandwidth
One promise that a lot of web hosting companies make is using the words “unlimited bandwidth.” This isn’t really a scam and A LOT of reputable web hosting companies actually use these terms. In fact, most major web hosting services will use these words. Big web hosting companies can get away with this because they have multiple servers with an ungodly amount of space. They are integrated with “load balancing.” Load balancing means that the workload will be evenly disbursed over multiple computers.
A typical website will use 1-2 GB of bandwidth per month (for a shared hosting plan). Most respectable web hosting companies will be able to handle this with much ease. A smaller hosting company with hundreds of thousands of sites would have a problem using the allotted bandwidth efficiently.
In the case where you actually reach the non specified limit, a respectable company will tell you that you need to upgrade to a VPS (virtual private server) or perhaps a dedicated server. This isn’t being dishonest with you, but rather telling you the truth. A down right scam will tell you, “you are using too much resource” and shut down your account. This is actually a lie because resources have to do with CPU and Ram, and have nothing to do with bandwidth. For a lot of people, it is better to know the actual amount of bandwidth you will be able to use per month. I would call the hosting company beforehand, and they will be able to tell you up front.
Contracts
Another thing shady web hosting companies are doing is locking you into an extensive contract prior to using their service. For instance, if they require you to sign a three year contract this is unacceptable, and you should not do business with them. Just because you have paid for three years, it does not guarantee that you will be getting three years of service. One year is acceptable, but I usually prefer doing a monthly payment.
Also, upon signing a contract they have the right to automatically sign you up for upgrades (according to their TOS). This can be quite a hassle and often times you are out of your money once they have upgraded you. They design their opt-ins in a way that will take thousands of dollars from customers, and then have fine print stating that you need to opt out or you will be charged.
Domain Registration
This is a down right ugly tactic that unethical hosting providers are offering. Sure it looks appealing to have a free domain name. You need to make sure it is in your name though. What I have seen is people are signing up for an appealing hosting plan. They will take advantage of their free domain. However, when they get the domain they do not realize that they don’t actually own it.
After a couple of years of poor customers service or extensive amounts of downtime they will become unhappy with their web hosting service. They will seek business elsewhere. After doing that they will try to switch over their DNS, but will find out that they can’t because the hosting company owns it. Imagine the amount of distress this could cause someone!
This is all backed by their TOS to protect them from getting sued. However, they slip it in their so discretely that a lot of people wouldn’t ever realize this until it is way too late. I am sure you know what I am talking about with a shady TOS. It is a growing trend.
These are just a couple of shady things web hosting companies are doing to get your hard earned money. What other unethical or downright scams have you seen in the web hosting world?