If you are planning to sign up for web hosting, I would advise you to read the fine print before you confirm your order. Like any large business, web hosting companies are going to try to squeeze as much profit as they can from each customer, no matter if they are being fair or not.
As I have written about my personal experiences with FatCow before, I am not a happy customer. They suspended my websites without warning, they wouldn’t help me when I asked them why they were suspended, and now when I go to cancel my account, there’s a $35 “early cancellation fee” that I have to pay for.
Nothing Is Unlimited
When you visit FatCow’s homepage, they flash information about “unlimited” storage space, “unlimited” bandwidth, and “free” services. The main reason I chose FatCow is because they offered unlimited web hosting for about $40 a year, which is pretty cheap compared to GoDaddy, Host Gator, and some other popular web hosting companies.
The only problem with “unlimited” is when it’s not actually unlimited. If you are overloading the server that your website is hosted on, they will simply remove it from the Internet. Server overloads can be caused by corrupt programs, an influx in traffic, or many people posting on forums, blog comments, or another program that sends requests to the web server. If you truly had unlimited bandwidth, server overloads would be nonexistent.
“Free” Is The New Trial Version
Another thing that FatCow tries to sell their web hosting with is all the free “extras” you get when you sign up for a plan. The extras can vary from a 1-800 phone number to Carbonite computer backups, but none of it is truly free. If you go to sign up for a service like Carbonite, you will find that you only get a small window of time where the service is free, which is technically called a trial. After, say six months, you will have to start paying for Carbonite yourself and FatCow’s “free extra” will expire.
You’re Leaving Us? There’s a Hidden Fee For That
If you ever decide to cancel your FatCow account (like I did), you will learn that they have a $35 cancellation fee. Most services have an early cancellation fee, but I feel that FatCow’s is a bit excessive. They tell customers that they can cancel the service at any time and be refunded for the remainder of the year they paid for. This sounds great, but when you only pay $40 for an entire year of web hosting, use it for six months, and then pay a $35 cancellation fee, you don’t get refunded anything.
Avoid FatCow, They’re Greedy
Before you even think about signing up for FatCow, just ask yourself if it’s worth the hassle. I know there are many customers who are probably happy with FatCow’s services, but I know I wasn’t. It’s worth finding a web host that tells you exactly how much bandwidth and storage space you get, what their policies are for cancellation, and how they operate without having to find out the hard way.
I told Fatcow I wanted to CANCEL my account a month ago. They refunded my money very quickly and all was well — until today. Today I noticed that they had charged my CC the full amount (which is $203.76 – for TWO years!). I called and told them that I had cancelled my acount a month ago and they had illegally charged my CC. They gave me a song and dance “explaining” that they thought I just wanted a “refund” and that they thought I didn’t want to cancel my account… I guess they must have “thought” that I just wanted a refund and for them to charge my CC a month later instead — SURE they did!!!!! So, today they did cancel my account and promised to refund my money. After all this happened, I got an email telling me that they would be charging me a “early cancellation fee” but NEVER said what this fee was — which will apparently be at least $35. This means that WHENEVER someone cancels their account with Fatcow they will be charged this “early cancellation fee” – meaning that sooner or later Fatcow WILL rip you off! I plan to complain about this to the Better Buisness Bureau…
UPDATE: I contacted Fatcow about the problem I mentioned above (being charged an early cancellation fee). They told me that they were NOT going to charge me any kind of ‘early cancellation fee’ and stated that they do not do that because they don’t want to upset their customers. This is not what their initial email said (the one I received after I cancelled my account) but that could just be a standard email they send out that needs updating(?) – I don’t know… In any case they said they will not charge me the fee – and I have to give them credit for that.
I’m impressed so far with faotcw, I was signing up and I got an error, and so I got an e-mail later on with a discount :] instead of the usual $66/yr I got $35/yr :].. I’ve also got to say the Beta control panel looks amazing..
That’s really awesome that they were willing to give you a discount after your error. I also like the control panel of FatCow, but honestly, how often do you look at it? Once I got WordPress installed on this website, I never looked at my hosting panel for Omega Web again.