My Case Against eHostDepot, “A COWENA Company”
My first web hosting provider when I started this blog was eHostDepot (www.eHostDepot.com). I (we, actually — my friend was a customer also) had a lot of problems with the service initially, but one of their employees managed to get us taken care of, and the subsequent year of service was decent, if rather slow. I chose them because their prices were very competitive — $5.95/month.
One year ago I cancelled my account with eHostDepot by leaving a voicemail for them (they don’t answer their sales/billing phone), and by e-mailing them multiple times. Despite this, they charged my credit card for renewal. I again attempted to contact them, and after getting no response I called my credit card company and disputed the charge. A minor pain in the ass, but at least it was over with, right? They wouldn’t continue to bill me if I dispute a charge that they make!
Wrong. Late last week I received notice of my upcoming invoice. (!!!) I immediately replied to the e-mail and reminded them of my cancellation over one year ago. No reply. I consulted with my credit card company, who advised that I call back to dispute the charge once it has posted to the account. Short of asking for a new card number, there is no way to avoid future charges. Today I called my credit card company to dispute the charge, and they happily credited the amount back to my account, advising me that “usually they don’t continue to charge you.” We’ll see.
When I went through this last year I was fuming mad, but I didn’t want to go overboard. In fact, I was almost subtle about it. This year, however, I’m here to tell you, dear readers and Googlers, in no uncertain terms: Do Not Do Business With eHostDepot.com. In my experience they will ignore billing e-mails, ignore phone messages, and your bargain-priced hosting will cost you a lot more in time when you try to take care of the mess. Hopefully this will make a difference. And I suppose there is some sliver of hope: in February I received an e-mail from a passer-by, inquiring about my eHostDepot experience, although he decided to give them a try anyway.
Sigh.