GoDaddy, Go Daddy, Hosting Nightmare and FRAUD. $4.95 hosting account then a $150 restoration fee if your card expires even within 30 days!!! Scottsdale Arizona

You'd think that GoDaddy would list among some of the top hosting companies for the way they treat their customers. For many years I have registered domains through GoDaddy and with our personal business account we have over 200+ domains purchased through GoDaddy.

I will never purchase another product from GoDaddy.com after being cornered into a situation where a $4.95 monthly hosting fee turned into a $150 ransom fee just to get my files back.

Everyone who pays online these days normally uses a credit card, credit cards expire, they get replaced and that is a normal part of business. On 4-6-2009 our GoDaddy Hosted domain expired, after logging in on 4-26 to update my credit card on file, I still could not see my website files or access my files via FTP.

I called into support and waited 19 minutes to speak to a rep. The rep was very courteous and upbeat and after spending 15 minutes trying to restore my account or finding out where my files were, he told me that I would have to pay a $150 fee to get my files back. Mind you... this is only 20 days after my card became invalid!

I told the rep that there was NOTHING on GoDaddy's website that put such a FEE in plain notice of a potential client and even if there was, it was a completely ridiculous and a blatant rip off. I asked to speak to a manager and again, I was placed on hold for about 10 minutes and was basically given over to a script reader who kept repeating the same lines over and over.

Among all of our combined accounts at GoDaddy we have 230+ domains registered under our business, I will do everything I can to move our domains and business away from GoDaddy.com

30 Days overdue is one thing, but I was under 30 days (20) and paying for a $4.95 monthly fee and then told that I would have to pay $150 for some button clicking on their side to restore my files. Why would anyone pay $150 because their credit card was expired/updated and it was still under 30 days?!!

This is clearly a cheap shot by GoDaddy to take advantage of customers after being lured in for inexpensive hosting.

Jonathan
knoxville, Tennessee
U.S.A.