Are my eyes deceiving me? Because the number 6 of 25 webhostingstuff.com webhost In Motion Hosting appears to be on Hurricane Electric servers (he.net). One of the companies I started got its first cPanel start with one of their users called Powersurge.com, some how later I would be tossed off to fastservers.net. It was never clear as to why I mysteriously became a fastservers customer. But I had to deal with a rather un-delightful sales agent named Aaron, who was always happy to talk about new service. But when it came to problems such as faulty servers, he was slow to take action, but quick to blame me or my staff. In addition to their hardware problems (we had a 70% failure rate, and 40% reoccurring rate of failure), there were a lot of network problems with Hurricane Electric. Especially denial of service attacks. The problem was I had 9 servers with them, I can’t remember the amount of clients. But to solve my network issues Fastservers wanted me to buy new servers at their new location. Instead I went with ev1 (who merged with theplanet), as they were offering first month if I gave them a competitors invoice. Fastservers would soon become http://www.layeredtech.com/ right before the last of my servers were moved, Layered Tech was less interested in keeping my business then fast servers. There is a post about Layered Tech coming soon.
During one of the worst Hurricane Electric outages one of fast servers staff broke down and made claims on their forum that he did not know if the connection would ever be restored. It was eventually restored after a long and sleepless night, but I would love to find that link, I am pretty sure like most negative things about fast servers Aaron had a hand in cleaning it up. I don’t have the highest expectations that Hurricane Electric has gotten better since I left. So I can’t imagine in motion hosting customers have a lot of thrilling tales about up time and network speed. Maybe their location had better uptime then my location, I have doubts.
Inmotionhosting.com is another company that uses the same level of high payouts that other companies that use webhosting review websites.
- 1 – 2 Sales Per Month: $50 Per Sale
- 3+ Sales Per Month: $100 Per Sale
Also:
- Please Note: InMotion Hosting has a strict policy against ‘Self-Sign Ups’ or attempts to earn commissions on your own hosting accounts.
Its hard to find bad things about in motion hosting. Probable due to the fact that there are so many variations to type inmotion, that it might cause confusion when posting or finding places to post. My recommendation if you ever want to make a bad post about this company is to stick with inmotionhosting.com, of for that matter a good review. Though it does not appear the affiliates and top host review sites are having the same problem. So for now I am going to focus on the order form and the terms of service.
http://www.inmotionhosting.com/policies.html
I figure due to the fact that their cheapest plan is only purchasable in 2 years terms, it might be a good idea to look at the refund policy. I understand why they might want to charge per year and 2 years, those $.22 – .35 fee per attempted transaction on credit cards really eat into a $3 fee over 24 months of monthly billing.
- Notifications of cancellation must be made 30 days prior to successive rebill period. InMotion Hosting reserves the right to deny, forfeit, or refuse refunds at any time if necessary.
I think that is enough to address my concerns. Clear as day, they can refuse to give you a refund. Also if you cancel your account on the 3rd day of the 23rd month of your hosting account, you will be charged for another 2 years.
I have also noticed that they do not have PayPal as an option on their checkout. I am by no stretch of the imagination a fan of PayPal. But I consider them a necessary evil, especially when up to 20 % of my clients paid that way. Plus I was more likely to win a dispute through PayPal then my merchant. Otherwise they are not the easiest people to get a hold of, plus it takes almost nothing to kill a subscription, regardless if I or my client wanted it canceled.
I am a little surprised while looking at the order form to see that they include frontpage extensions, considering I have not seen a request for that in years. I am currently looking at the starter which most people will sign up on. It offers 100 gigs of space, 1000 gigs of bandwitdh. Further review of this package tells me that its no better then a unlimited package, maybe worse then a unlimited package. There are a lot of limitations that would make it impossible to use the full amount of space that they offer.
I also see no option for WordPress or other blogger applications on the starter. The reason for that probable is because there are no mysql data bases on the starter package. I am not sure how anyone is going to use a 100 gigs of space when their account has no mysql databases. Its a little unclear but it looks like I can only get one domain on the starter package.
I thought I would look at their Pro the only package under Business Class that has monthly terms, the first thing that sticks out when I go to the Shopping cart is:
- 1 Month – $19.95/mo + $40 Setup
That is a pretty high step-up fee, which I am sure is non-refundable. But that’s not all that sticks out:
- Supports: 16 Separate Web Sites, Unlimited domains with email (see terms) and 200 MySQL Databases
Support 16 websites, yet unlimited domains? See terms?
http://www.inmotionhosting.com/policies.html
Unlimited Disk Space & Bandwidth
- While IMH does not meter disk space & bandwidth, the purpose of an IMH hosting account is to host web sites. Using a hosting account primarily for online file storage or archiving electronic files is prohibited.
- IMH Personal & Business Class hosting are shared hosting environments, so to ensure fast & reliable service to all of our clients, accounts that adversely affect server or network performance must correct these issues or will be asked to upgrade to a virtual or dedicated server.
Still not clear on what is meant by 16 sites, with unlimited domains. But lets take a look at the bottom of the terms of service.
- IMH does not make implied or written warranties for any of our services.
- IMH denies any warranty or merchantability for a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by IMH.
Still not clear, and I find there are no guarantees that their service will work. Not to mention no warranty should they be the cause of my service interruption. Sounds like a great webhost.
Awards? Yes inmotionhosting.com has afflialates….. I mean Awards!!!
http://www.inmotionhosting.com/about.html
Webhostingstuff.com, Hostaz.com and more phoney baloney review for pay websites.
I could go into each of the awards, but I would be repeating myself on many of these sites as to why they are affiliates, and not true review sites.
The Inmotionhosting.com chat session.
After reviewing their terms of service, package, and order form I had questions. I was particularly disturbed with what I had found.
My chat session started with 8 people ahead of me, but I was soon forwarded to a chat operator.
You are now speaking with Brian C. of Sales.
Brian C.: (8:9): Hello Benjamin.
Benjamin: (8:10): Hello Brian
Brian C.: (8:10): How may I help you today?
Benjamin: (8:10): I have questions, first let me ask can I pay by PayPal, I don’t see the option on your orderform
Brian C.: (8:11): If we place the order for you via chat or email we can accept Pay Pal on 6 mnth or longer billing.
Benjamin: (8:11): ok, why is it not on the order form?
Brian C.: (8:12): Due to how Pay Pal is processed we have to place the order so we can do a request for payment via Pay Pal.
Benjamin: (8:12): strange, you should consider whmcs
Brian C.: (8:12): What type of hosting plan were you looking to get setup on?
Benjamin: (8:13): well I am still looking at the moment
Brian C.: (8:13): Also we do prefer to take all orders via phone or chat to ensure everything is setup properly the first time and to avoid mistakes.
Benjamin: (8:13): Am I correct on that I can not install wordpress on the starter and it only has one domain?
Brian C.: (8:13): The starter under Value class hosting?
Benjamin: (8:13): yes
Brian C.: (8:14): Or were you referring to the Launch plan?
Benjamin: (8:14): the $3 per month plan
Brian C.: (8:15): No as Word Press requires a MYSQL database. If using WordPress you would want a minimum of the Launch plan. Also we do not accept Pay Pal on Value class hosting.
Benjamin: (8:15): If I place a order via your ordersystem with out contacting you on chat or phone how long will it take to get the order setup?
Brian C.: (8:16): After you place the order the confirmation / fraud check will take up to 30 minutes. After that process is completed a confirmation specialist will need to give you a call to go through all the information. After that call the account will be setup.
Benjamin: (8:17): also you did not answer me if the starter only gets one domain
Brian C.: (8:18): Correct.
Benjamin: (8:18): On the Pro (business class) it says that I can have 16 separate websites, yet unlimited domains. Can you clarify on that?
Brian C.: (8:19): The unlimited domain names are referring to parked domains which are pointers basically. For example www.abc.net would point to abc.com.
Benjamin: (8:19): ok, finale question
Benjamin: (8:19):
I see a graphic that states 30 or 90 day guarantee, does it matter what I order to get the 90 day?
Brian C.: (8:20): All Value class hosting includes only a 30 day money back guarantee. Business class has a 90 day.
Benjamin: (8:20): sorry one more question
Benjamin: (8:21): Usually I sign up for the max amount of time for optimum savings
Brian C.: (8:21): I completely understand.
Benjamin: (8:21): Lets say I experience a long period of down time and I am force to move my account to get active again
Brian C.: (8:22): We have actually maintained 99.98% uptime across the board since 2001.
Benjamin: (8:22): and its after 30 days would I be eligible for a refund, and how much
Brian C.: (8:22): We do not give refunds past the specified time.
Benjamin: (8:22): are you on hurricane electric servers?
Benjamin: (8:22): or should I say network
Brian C.: (8:23): Our datacenter is tier 3 datacenter utilizing 30 day diesel generators.
Brian C.: (8:23): We also on business class and above offer multiple bandwidth providers over multiple OC-48 lines.
Benjamin: (8:23): the trace route shows he.net, and I was on their network before
Brian C.: (8:27): Unfortunately that trace route is inaccurate as we are not on he.net network. Also the network depends on which hosting plan and server you are tracing.
Benjamin: (8:27): I am tracing your main domain
Benjamin: (8:28): what state are your servers located in?
Brian C.: (8:29): We have two data centers. One in Los Angeles and one in Washington D.C.
Benjamin: (8:30): ok thank you, have a good day
Nice how there chat sessions have a time stamps.
My Finale Thoughts on inmotionhosting.com
I got my answer on how a site can have 16 sites yet unlimited domains. Its not really unlimited domains, and I know of many domain registers that allow you to just forward your domain where you want. The bottom line is you get 16 websites hosted under 16 domains. Nothing unlimited about the domains, other then you can set them up as many as you want to forward to one of the 16 domains / sites under their pro plan.
I think the biggest red flag I get from this company is the fact that they offer no refunds regardless of the reason for canceling the account. As out lined in there own policy even if it was their fault that you canceled. My suggestion is to go the bbb if you have problems with getting a refund, though there is no guarantee that they can help you or for that matter will not take inmotion’s side. But every drop in the bucket counts
http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/InMotion-Hosting-Inc-13192913
I did not mean to get out of customer mode in the chat. Instead of trying to point their network location, I should have got him to concede in regards to a refund would happen after extended down time. After all what do they have to worry about if they have no down time. I don’t buy that they are not using Hurricane Electric. Perhaps I am wrong.
| Equinix LA1 | 600 W 7th Ave, Los Angeles CA 90017 |
| One Wilshire | 624 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90017 |
Then there is the PayPal issue, they don’t indicated that its available. You have to ask for it on chat or by phone. Its limited to certain types of accounts, and no less then 6 months or longer as out line by some of the complaints I have found.
http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=12450
Its not that hard to configure for that matter I used to manually generate subscriptions before we got a new billing system. It was a bit cumbersome, but no where near as bad as sending out billing notices every month. Every day one of my staff would review the previous days subscription payments and enter them into the billing system. Atleast until we got a new billing system that still processed if for us. But we did weekly audits to ensure all payments were tracked. But “Due to how Pay Pal is processed we have to place the order so we can do a request for payment via Pay Pal.”, meaning they login to PayPal.com and send you a money request.
The website looks out of date, which makes me wonder if they are using an outdated billing system as the order form is not that impressive. The failure to have a PayPal on that system makes me wonder how out of date their billing system may be or for that matter how secure it might be. I can understand wanting to call to confirm my order is valid. But not every customer wants to be called. The setup questions are obscure at best on the order form. Setup questions could be addressed on the order form.
Basically if you choose to go with InMotionHosting, you better hope that nothing goes wrong. Because they reserve the right to refuse a refund.
More fun Reading
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-368804.html
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