Finally I can let go of the rage that has been inside me for over a month. Finally I can share with all of you the truth behind a hosting service I beg you never to use. Finally I can tell you why I think Top Hosting Center is one of the worst services out there.

Why have I had to wait this long to purge my system of this highly annoying tale? Well because just yesterday after having to go on a badgering spree, I got my refund from Top Hosting Center, over a month after I was told to leave the service. I was not about to roast the place without the cash in my hands.

This only adds to an already long list of reasons to never sign up with this company and damage the growth of your web sites.

I have to point out that I was happy with THC when I joined them, they were nice and took me to a better place than I had experienced with Host Gator back when I first started out. The customer service people were helpful and kind and everything seemed perfect.

Then as Cuzoogle grew and started getting links on SI.com and a Digg FP link, things started to go in the toilet. Every week there was substantial down time that was killing my page views and ad revenue and there was never a real answer to explain it.

I was on shared hosting and understood that was not the best option for a site getting high traffic. But every time I was getting bombed, I went to THC and asked if I was causing any issues and every time they said no.

Friends of mine who also use THC were feeling the pain as well when sites would all be down without an explanation. They would do upgrades without warning and always glaze over it like it was no big deal. Who does upgrades in the middle of the day when you are hosting everyone’s web sites? I have worked for media companies before, I know you get your ass out of bed at 3am and do it then.

Anyways, as these problems grew it was becoming clear there was a bigger issue at hand. THC does not have a phone number you can call to find out fast info or get a much needed answer so you can go to sleep. They simply have online customer support who have no clearance to do anything but help you with the basics. No number to call the sales department to deal with a bill and no direct way to get to their admin folk. Now I have been with four hosting companies now and this was the only one without a phone number. Does that not seem crazy to you?

Here is the kicker, they ask you to deal with everything over email. That is fine but sadly they never reply to them until you bother them several times. To be fair, they are pretty new and probably have a small staff but to be honest that is not my problem. When my sites are down I want to know ASAP why. Not wait two days for an email.

So finally I had enough and decided to take the plunge and upgrade to a dedicated server. For being a client with a large site (and a pain in their ass) they gave me a great deal that I was very happy with. So I payed by credit card (what they told me they preferred) and was on my way.

It took the weekend to get all set up and I was very excited to test it out. Then on Monday I got three links all coming from SI.com and it blew the crap out of my DS. After going through the painful IM process, it took seven hours to find out that they actually did not set my DS up right. I lost it of course. Then in the same hour out of nowhere they wrote to say my site was under attack and to protect their servers they wanted me to pack up my sites and leave the company fully. Coincidence??

One person tells me that they f’d up my sites and then in the same hour another person writes to say I have to leave.

I quicky sent around this news to everyone I look to for tech advice and pretty much everyone was saying bullshit and they just want to cut ties with me.

Since I was losing money and hits like mad as I butted heads with the moronic admin department of THC, I quickly got set up with Media Temple.

Yes you have to do everything yourself with them but you know what, they have a phone number!! It was so great being able to take care of business fast and without hassle.

Oh just so you know the guys at MT also told me they did not buy THC’s reason for kicking me out. Go figure.

So once I got set up, clicked on the WP supercache, I was back in business and have not had any issues since.

Talk about a stress off my mind that I don’t need. That last thing you want when you are running popular sites is to wake up at 3am and check to see if your sites are up because you have no faith in your hosting company.

Sure I am paying a bit more but it is worth it.

So back to the issue I led off this post with. I was told when I left that I would get back my full refund that I payed to get my DS. Great, I could roll it over and pay for a chunk of the new one.

Guess what, two weeks later I had to argue with a customer service guy over IM that I did not get my refund. He came back with all of these statements that made no sense and that I would only get a certain percentage back. It was only after I explained myself again, that the guy figured out he was talking to the wrong IM window. My perception of this place? They are small time trying to be a big fish. Hire some more workers and of course get a phone line.

I finally got a manager on the IM window and he said, done, it is all fixed, you will get your refund Sept. 15.

This week thank God I remembered to check my credit card statement for the money. Shocker, it was not there.

Get on the IM window and ask. They can’t tell me anything and I have to email admin. I had to do that three times before getting this reply.

Apologies for the delay.

We tried 2 times to refund your credit card and finally we just got some news from the credit card payment gateway provider and it is not possible to refund it because the transaction is closed.

However, what we can do is to transfer immediately through a paypal account.

Please let us know if we can go like this and it will be easier for both sides.

I could not believe it. I was told back when I bought it that a credit card was easier for both sides. They obviously messed up and were trying to fix the issue fast. Where were the emails to tell me this? It pretty much was clear to me they were going to keep my money until I asked about it.

Finally I got my refund, with a little extra guilt money on top and now I can finally move on.

It only added to my perception of that place as being run by a bunch of people who don’t know what they are doing.

Now they claim to have a lot of big clients who are very happy and I am pretty sure John Cow is one of them. It just boggles my mind how these awesome sites can work with a company that does all of this to their customers.

I would love to hear some positive stories of people who use THC. Please leave a comment or email me directly. I am just sharing my horrible experience but I always like to get both sides.

I also want to mention that the friends I have the still use THC, are still experiencing down time, no answers to tickets and the stress of using a below average hosting company. I wish I got referrals for Media Temple.

So there is my tale of woe and stress. It finally feels good to get it off my chest.

Media Temple is the best I have ever used and I have not had one issue since the move.

So in conclusion if you have a blog or website that is growing and you want it to be successful, start off on the right foot and do not go anywhere near Top Hosting Center. I can’t say this enough.

Just ask yourself what kind of successful company does not offer a phone number for emergencies and that should seal the deal.

Cuzoogle apologizes to anyone who may have read earlier posts saying THC was good.

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