As people who believe in demonetization, we would naturally gravitate to
free web hosts and recommend such to our friends and colleagues. I am
writing to let you know of a bad experience I have had with <a href="http://000webhost.com/" target="_blank">000webhost.com</a>
which was hosting my The End Of Money website. My husband is now
setting up my name servers on another site, but due to the actions of <a href="http://000webhost.com/" target="_blank">000webhost.com</a>
I have no access to my files and will have to reconstruct the site
manually from what we have on our home computers and the articles that I
have posted to my Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TheEndOfMoney/" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/TheEndOfMoney/</a><br>
<br>First of all, my husband's web site was suspended several weeks ago
for review, on the basis that the host reviews all sites to make sure
they are legal. Here is the notice that appears on screen when that
happens.<br>
<br><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="500"><tbody><tr><td width="12%"><img src="http://www.000webhost.com/images/icons/builder.gif" height="48" width="48"></td>
<td width="88%"><h4>Website Under Review</h4></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
You are seeing this page because the system administrator of
<a href="http://000webhost.com/" target="_blank">000webhost.com</a> is currently checking this website for malicious content.
This redirect page will be removed once we finish manually checking all
files on this account. Since we check over 100 websites per day, it can
take about 2-4 hours to complete. If you are the owner of this website,
you will get an email confirmation once it's done. If you are a
visitor, please come back later.
</p>
<p><b><a href="http://www.000webhost.com/" target="_blank">www.000webhost.com</a></b>
is the most popular free web hosting provider, and as such, suffers
from abusers. Around 5% of users sign up here just to start hacking or
phishing websites or causing other problems. So, in order to survive, we
must monitor what our users are hosting.
</p>
<p>
We are sorry for the inconvenience, but checking all content manually is
the only way to provide you with the most secure and reliable service.
If you find any illegal websites on our network, you can report it <a href="http://www.000webhost.com/report-abuse" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.
</p>
------<br>Two to four hours? My husband's site disappeared for 5 days
before he put in the ticket asking for faster review. (How long does it
take to look at a site to determine that it is not a spam bot, warez
distributor or the like?)<br>
<br>Several users on their forums complained that these reviews were
taking too long and that although the review is supposed to be a
one-time matter, they had had more than one review. Then today someone
wrote a note to the forum <br>
<br><b>!!URGENT!! Admin, please look at this - </b>
<br><a name="131f518829f2c692_131f30c61a0a1a07_131f2edecf789131_131f2e4154817735_newpost"></a>
<div style="width: 100%;">
<hr>
</div>
I am supposed to demo my site in 40 minutes and it has been taken down for review.<br>
<br>
I submitted a ticket #557271, if there are any admins online, please, please sort this out and review it some other time please.<br>
<br>
Thank you,<br>
<br clear="all">The reply this user got, from a senior forum member --they use volunteers for forum moderation--was this:<br><br>
1. Bad thread title<br>
2. It's free hosting, you get what you pay for, and in this case, a lot more than what you pay for.<br><br>------------------------------<div>------------------------------------------<br><br>Going
through their forums, you see that theme repeated. It's free so quit
complaining if it doesn't work right or you don't like what we are
doing.<br>
<br>However, the site itself brags about how wonderful their free services are: <br><br><p><a href="http://000webhost.com/" target="_blank">000webhost.com</a> (<i>$0.00 webhost</i>), is an industry leader in
providing top class free web hosting services without advertising! There
are no hidden costs, no adverts, and no restrictive terms. Lighting
fast speeds, maximum reliability and fanatical user support are just a
few of the features you'll receive with our service.</p>
<p>We are probably <b>the only</b> free web hosting company that has <b>proof</b> for "99% uptime guarantee". <a href="http://www.serviceuptime.com/users/monitoring.php?S=6c8ef11fcca35bab3d971cdce3d7179b" target="_blank">Check our uptime stats</a>.
We managed to reach even 99.9% uptime for most of the servers. Can your
current hosting provider show you any proof for that "99.9% uptime"
they guarantee?</p><p>________________________________</p><p>My
research on them turned up numerous complaints about their affiliate
program. You are supposed to get $5 for every new people you get to sign
up with them and can cash out at $100. I found complaints going back to
2007 that affiliate program members had not been paid. It seemed that
the MO of 000webhost was to send notices saying they had to extend the
time before payment was made and then to suspend the accounts of people
who asked for payment. <br>
</p><p><a href="http://marketingadvertise.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-domain-and-earn-at-000webhost.html" target="_blank">http://marketingadvertise.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-domain-and-earn-at-000webhost.html</a><br></p>As
to my situation: Yesterday, my husband, who acts as my webmaster,
wanted to review my site for span, as he does several times a week. He
found the site suspended! We were accused of violating terms of service.
Problem: What they claimed we had done,violated an alleged 20% CPU
usage limit, we could not have possibly done, and this alleged limit
wasn't mentioned in the TOS anyway. <br>
<br>We demanded proof of what they claimed was over 1,000 violations of
an alleged 20% CPU usage limit and proof that if this had indeed
occurred, they had eliminated the possibility that it had been caused by
a Denial of Service (DOS) attack.<br>
<br>Their reply: <br><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td><div><div><div><h1><span><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">
<br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><br></td><td></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">
<br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><span name="^io_im" title="Mark as not important"></span><br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">
</td></tr><tr><td></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><br></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><br></td><td></td>
</tr><tr><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">
<br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td></tr><tr><td></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><br></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"></td><td style="background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">
<br></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table></span></h1></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><span>Reply</span></div></div><div><div>
<span>|</span></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><br></div>
<div><div><br></div><div><div>Hello,<br>
<br>
If your account was suspended due to terms of service violation, it could be unsuspended only after upgrade.<br>
<br>
Please upgrade your account and submit new support ticket requesting to
unsuspend your free account. Please note that if your account was
suspended and you upgraded it, you could NOT ask for money back in case
you decide to cancel your new upgraded account.<br>
<br>
Kind Regards,<br>
Thorsten | <a href="http://www.free-installations.info/" target="_blank">http://www.free-installations.info</a><br>
<br>
Volunteer Staff<br>
<a href="http://www.000webhost.com/" target="_blank">www.000webhost.com</a><br>
</div></div><div><div><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><br></td><td><br></td><td><br></td><td><br></td><td><br></td></tr></tbody></table><div>
<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br>
<br>We put our heads together on this response:<br><br>You said, "If your account was suspended due to terms of service
violation, it could be unsuspended only after upgrade."<br>
<br>
I'm curious to know just how an alleged Terms of Service violation all
goes away if I throw money at you. I would think that a Terms of
Service violation is grounds for suspension at least, or deletion of
services at most, yet you say that I can give you money and everything
is fine. This sounds like extortion. You're holding my account hostage
and you expect me to pay the ransom.<br>
<br>
Incidentally, there is nothing whatsoever in your Terms of Service that
states that free accounts are limited to under 20% CPU usage.
Furthermore, you have provided absolutely no way whatever that would
enable a user to monitor this activity. Lastly, you have never once
notified me of any of those alleged 1,000 times that I went over this
supposed limit.<br>
<br>
The fact of the matter is that there never was a ToS violation. Based
upon the numerous complaints in your own forums and elsewhere, this is
a standard tactic that you employ to get rid of free websites to free
up room or get paying customers. How do I know this? Simple: my website
doesn't have the traffic for your allegations. Further, I don't have
any CRON jobs running. Yet you say I went over my CPU usage more than
1,000 times? I find this charge ludicrous and impossible to believe.<br>
<br>
That you are now demanding money from me to release my account is
extortion, pure and simple. I demand to know what evidence you have to
back your claim that I violated terms of service and how you eliminated
the possibility that this problem was a DOS or other issue that is your
responsibility. You have three business days to comply or else I, as an
internationally-known investigative reporter, begin reporting my side
of this story on every venue I can get my hands on!<br>
<br>---------------------------------------------<br><br>Their reaction was to close the ticket, which to me is a signal to go public before the three days are up.<br><br>UPDATES: <br><br>I
see these people as luring customers with free accounts and then trying
various underhanded means to get them to convert to paid accounts and
getting rid of them if they are disinclined to do so. Due to the size
limitations every free webhost has, my husband and I expect to
reluctantly move our web sites to paid accounts when our traffic
warrants it, unless we can find a satisfactory non-monetary alternative.
But we want no part of a web host who who treats free account holders
in such an appalling and unethical manner and we urge others to stay
away from them or to put their accounts elsewhere. <br>
<br>This experience also brings up again an issue I raised when I first
joined this list: The idea that what is free is inferior to what is paid
for. "You get what you pay for" said the moderator. People who are
accepting free services should be content with whatever if given. He
might as well have said "beggars can't be choosers". Despite all of
000Webhost;s bragging about being "an industry leader in providing top
class free web hosting services without advertising!" they clearly put most of their resources into the paid areas and think that free accounts
and their owners are a nuisance. Free should be a step toward paid to
these people. Given how computing resources, such as storage space, keep
getting cheaper, prices should be allowed to decline to zero eventually
for everyone. </div><br clear="all"><br><table bgcolor="#c2c2c2" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="460"><tbody><tr><td valign="middle"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px;">Posted by Customer, on
August 24, 2011, 13:04:53</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" height="37" valign="top">
<div style="margin: 3px;">Nowhere in the Terms of Service is
there any mention of CPU usage for free accounts. Therefore, I have not
violated your Terms of Service, yet you have suspended my account and
am now demanding that I pay.<br>
<br>
I was never once informed of any CPU overage, yet you claim I went over
it more than 1,000 times. Can you provide proof of this? Can you back
it up with any rules or regulations?<br>
<br>
All I want is to back up my site. I can't do that because you have
locked me out of it with bogus claims of violations. Give me access to
my site for one day and I'll get everything off of it, you can then
delete it and you'll never hear from me again.</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table bgcolor="#c2c2c2" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="460">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="middle">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px;">Posted by Staff Member, on
August 24, 2011, 14:11:17</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" height="37" valign="top">
<div style="margin: 3px;">Hello,<br>
<br>
Sorry, but your account can be unsuspended only if you upgrade, the
reason is:<br>
<br>
Suspended for violating 20%+ CPU usage limit for more than 1000 times.
Please upgrade to our premium UNLIMITED hosting at <a href="http://www.hosting24.com/" target="_blank">www.hosting24.com</a> to get your
account reactivated.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Alexandr | <br><div class="im">
<br>
Volunteer Staff<br>
<a href="http://www.000webhost.com/" target="_blank">www.000webhost.com</a><br>
</div></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table bgcolor="#c2c2c2" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="460">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="middle">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px;">Posted by Customer, on
August 24, 2011, 14:20:06</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" height="37" valign="top">
<div style="margin: 3px;">As stated (please actually read it
instead of posting a canned response, thank you),<br>
<br>
Nowhere in the Terms of Service is there any mention of CPU usage for
free accounts. Therefore, I have not violated your Terms of Service,
yet you have suspended my account and am now demanding that I pay.<br>
<br>
I was never once informed of any CPU overage, yet you claim I went over
it more than 1,000 times. Can you provide proof of this? Can you back
it up with any rules or regulations?</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table bgcolor="#c2c2c2" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="460">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="middle">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px;">Posted by Staff Member, on
August 24, 2011, 14:26:33</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" height="37" valign="top">
<div style="margin: 3px;">Hello,<br>
<br>
Sorry, but we don't provide our customers with any proofs. <br>
<br>
Thank You,<br>
Alexandr | <br><div class="im">
<br>
Volunteer Staff<br>
<a href="http://www.000webhost.com/" target="_blank">www.000webhost.com</a></div></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>I see these people as luring customers with free accounts and then
trying various underhanded means to get them to convert to paid accounts
and getting rid of them if they are disinclined to do so. Due to the
size limitations every free webhost has, my husband and I expect to
relunctantly move our web sites to paid accounts when our traffic
warrants it, unless we can find a satisfactory non-monetary alternative.
But we want no part of a web host who who treats free account holders
in such an appalling and unethical manner and we urge others to stay
away from them or to put their accounts elsewhere. <br>
<br>This experience also brings up again an issue I raised when I first
joined this list: The idea that what is free is inferior to what is paid
for. "You get what you pay for" said the moderator. People who are
accepting free services should be content with whatever if given. He
might as well have said "beggars can't be choosers". Despite all of
000Webhost;s bragging about being "an industry leader in providing top
class free web hosting services without advertising!" they clearly put
,ost of their resources into the paid areas and think that free accounts
and their owners are a nuisance. Free should be a step toward paid to
these people. Given how computing resources, such as storage space, keep
getting cheaper, prices should be allowed to decline to zero eventually
for everyone. <br>
<font color="#888888">
</font><br><br>-- <br>Kellia Ramares-Watson<br>Oakland, CA<br>Web Site : <a href="http://endmoney.info/" target="_blank">http://endmoney.info/</a><br>Facebook: TheEndOfMoney<br>Twitter: EndofMoney<br><br><div style="display: inline;">
</div><div style="display: inline;"></div>Why must we pay to live on a planet we're born on?<br>