Review Time
I had a hosting plan with the SiteGround for years, continuously having trouble with the SSL certificate and have to reset. Then I had my domain - from another company and there was another problem and had to buy a different domain from them. But the WORST happened today - the hosting was set up for auto-renewal - nothing to worry right? Wrong.I'm a graphic designer and my website is my portfolio, it took ages to create, plus I used paid plugins to do it so it costed me. I noticed my website was offline and contacted customer services, to do that I had to renew the plan, then, they told me that that were a failure in THEIR auto-renewal system and that they had simply already deleted all the files and no way to restore it as they just keep the back-ups for a month. So there is no way to restore it. I lost many many hours of work, as well as I will have to work many hours to create a new one. The offer of compensation was a 'premium CDN' - basically an automated feature to load the website quicker - that really just matters for very heavy websites - which is not my case - they didn't offer not even a discount on the hosting. The last word from their live chat ".And sorry about the failed auto-renew , indeed there looks to be some kind of problem with the payment but we did not find the exact cause of this. If you still need any help or to ask anything, you can contact again." just cancelled my account. I cannot imagine the loss if this happens to someone that actually paid a designer to do their website.
I heard great things, but was severely disappointed.The live chat was always responsive. The site was secure. No complaints there.But there were serious issues that left a bitter taste in my mouth.1) They employ dark patterns in selling you a plan that has a 70% discount, only to jack the prices up after year one or year two. This is not at all clear when you first sign up. They gave me a discount again when I renewed, when I explained the price hike was a surprise, but there is never a guarantee that they will do it in the future. You'd have to ask for it every year until they stop giving it.2) The plan said "Backups are included." And it's true, you can restore from a backup. But, if you try to download a backup for your own storage or future use. they say that is a premium feature that you have to pay extra for. There is no technical obstacle, this is just extortion.3) The performance was awful, on a tiny website with under 100 pages.
It took me a long time to figure out where my problem was. It was in the card link in the YouTube Video which was set to scullingacademy.com. That should have automatically redirected to the page I wanted because of the htaccess file but it was not doing this. I had to change the link in the YT card file manually.
Access to support is such a nightmare now! The technical support is top notch with qualified human support, but getting that support is very very slow, frustrating, and time consuming! SG support used to be so easy and access is fast and convenient. Now, you are faced with the challenges of facing a chatbot support who may or may not be giving you the correct and accurate technical answers. You'd have to struggle in finding the human chat support. And even then, you can't even submit a ticket unless you sign up to Premium I think, and chat agents are the ones who create the ticket for you. Very inconvenient and such a loss of too much time and effort. Bad for business.A long time client of SG here since 2010, and even until now, with just a few remaining accounts. Now, I don't really sign-up new clients with Siteground anymore unlike before where I host all my clients with them. At some point I had to migrate and transfer all of my clients with other reseller providers just because they have easier access to human support, faster, not time-consuming, and very much more convenient.SG should re-evaluate their support procedures. Just sad :(
SiteGround's support team is really good - I had a problem with my hosting, and they responded quickly and to the point. It's not the first time I've used them, and I always get help without delay. It's a bit expensive, but it's worth paying for the support.
Terrible experience with this company. Their security plugin left the backend/dashboard of our site open for anyone to access for days. Which is obviously serious. Luckily for us and SiteGround there wasn't a hacker passing by. The limits on the PHP and RAM memory (shared hosting) caused significant problems including not being able to save changes when using a page builder. The support team did there best to convince us that it was everything but the memory limitations. Even though they knew. Suggested we upgrade our plan. A sales tactic - offer a cheap plan and when it is not fit for purpose suggest they upgrade their plan.'Unfortunately, we were unable to locate your account in our system based on the details provided in this review. To help us address your concerns effectively, we've requested additional information using Trustpilot's function'. This response suggests that this is a fake review. It is not. There is no need to say this in a message response as SiteGround can request more details through TrustPilot. I see this comment a lot on TrustPilot which suggests this review could be fake. A clever tactic. Well done.Response to your update:Your assertion that our site has not been compromised is incorrect. I urge you to review the updated information I have provided on my SiteGround account, which includes the chat transcript with your support team and a relevant screenshot. It is unequivocally evident that our site was vulnerable until I disabled the security plugin from SiteGround. The duration of this vulnerability is difficult to determine, as we had not been actively working on the site for several days. Nevertheless, we have meticulously documented all server errors and will be escalating this dispute. Currently, we have an individual investigating these server errors. If companies would acknowledge their mistakes and commit to resolving issues rather than attributing blame to others with unfounded claims, they would earn significantly more respect. I recommend that you thoroughly examine your security plugin before it potentially leads to a hacking incident. If it hasn't already.Your assertion that the limitations on memory RAM are acceptable for the majority of users is inaccurate. While your support team may persuade some that alternative factors are responsible for errors due to the limitations, it is essential to consider the negative reviews associated with this matter. In a discussion we had with Hostinger, it was noted that they acknowledged that such limitations can indeed lead to performance issues. 'Thank you for sharing your concerns about the RAM allocation in our Business Plan.. We are actively reviewing our hosting plans to strike a balance between performance and affordability, ensuring they meet the dynamic requirements of modern websites'. Hostinger. It appears that you/SiteGround is asserting that their shared hosting limitations are devoid of any problems :).I would appreciate it if you refrain from responding, as I have already encountered a significant amount of of erroneous information from you and your support staff. As you know we have escalated this matter to your compliance department and we will converse with them from now on.
Updated - They kindly offered me a refund, which i very much appreciate.I made a genuine mistake I thought I'?€™d disabled auto-renewal for a website I no longer needed, but apparently I hadn'?€™t. As soon as I got the notice, I contacted SiteGround the very same day to explain and ask for a refund.They refused. No flexibility, no understanding, just a flat '?€œno.'?€ ?I get that it was technically my error, but mistakes happen and decent customer service means showing a bit of humanity. SiteGround showed none.I won'?€™t be using them again, and honestly, I'?€™m glad I'?€™ve already switched to Krystal. The difference in customer care is night and day.
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