Fast Hosts www.fasthosts.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

none really

poor hosting and deceit in billing

I had the reseller account from fasthosts, I had build some asp sites connected to a mySQL database, it would sometimes time out and always seemed slow. It got to such a stage that I no longer had confidence in the Fasthosts reseller account, I had rang on a number of occasions regarding the slowness, but was told it was network traffic, I had explained that I was the only one viewing my site due to me building it and I was testing it. They were not helpful. I was told again that it may be network traffic.

It got to the stage I lost confidence in the fasthost reseller account, I called the fasthost sales and was considering a dedicated server, I had some pre purchase questions. one of my questions was the optional dedicated server charge "Personal engineer support service £60 per 30 mins" I had asked sales with regarts to what would the main reason I may need this service for. I only ever had the reseller from fasthosts over the last few years. Any way on asking that question the sales chap just hung up the phone. I was furious, I was a good customer to fasthosts for many years I had passed many a customer to fasthosts and have never been rude. I had checked my reseller account as I was going to close it, I had checked my recurring payments and found nothing pending. I was so fed up I was desiding to close my account. But new it would take a few days to find a new host.

Any way a few days later Saturday 24th feb , I found one of my sites went down, I called support, it took 4 hours for my site to be up again, it took repeated calls on my part to get info as to why it went down. I was later told it was due to the server needing a reboot. They would not explain as to why a reboot took 4 hours. (This happened during the rugby game between Ireland and England). I had again checked my control panel and decided for sure I was going to close my account, I checked the recurring payments, and it showed nothing was pending. I knew that by closing my fasthosts account I would be at a considerable loss due to other services which I had purchased intermittently throughout the year, as in .net or just asp and mysql database space, this all was something I was going to have to write off, but I had finally lost confidence in the service I was receiving.

On 27 February 2007 08:12I received an email from fasthosts. Stating "Yearly Reseller Recurring - Signup ----- £587.50 VAT: £87.50." they just taken the money from my bank. I was on the phone by 08:14 and explained I didn't want another year with fasthosts and that I had checked on a number of occasion and not seen this recurring payment in my control panel. I was told by the sales chap that it was too late; I told him I didn't want it and wanted to close my account. I was polite and was not rude.
I had explained to the sales chap that it was not obvious in my control panel the recurring payment was today, I had gone into the control panel on a number of occasions and it was not apparent. I was told by the sales chap that as it was a yearly recurring rather then a monthly recurring that it would not appear in the control panel. I explained that this was most unfair, but he pointed out that in there terms and conditions that they do not give refunds.
By the end of that day my account at fasthosts was closed, and I am more the £585 out of pocket. Fasthosts are a disgrace; the way I have been treated is a disgrace. I have been with fasthosts a number of years and never been a difficult customer and this is how I am treated.

This was fasthosts reply to me stating that my recurrent did not appear in the control panel.

" The reseller control panel does show all recurring invoices, and while it is possible that the search criteria did not return that information for you it is there and your search criteria is fully customisable by yourself."

I am stating that I had checked on a number of occasions re my recurring payments due to me not been happy with the service I was receiving at fasthosts. It was not apparent to me that this was due, I have seen other recurring payments in my control panel but not the recurring payment for the yearly charge.

I feel I was deceived by fasthosts as were I to see in my control panel the recurring payment of the yearly payment then I would have cancelled before hand.

Fasthosts send an email a few weeks before a domain expires enquiring as to whether you want to renew that domain or not. It seems apparent to me the reason that fasthosts doesn't do this for the likes of the reseller payment is due in part to what I see as no more then a form of deception / poor service / poor value for money.

I am sure others might have a good experience with fasthosts like I have in the past. I will leave it to yourselves to decide have fasthosts acted fairly now.