After years of spending my money on, what I thought was, the top hosting and domain provider online, I learned today that my affections for GoDaddy are completely unwarranted.

If you read the blog post directly beneath this one, it will bring you up to speed on the adventures of myself and Mr. Bill (Bill Rowe) doing battle with the Sissy Virus (siszyd32.exe) over the weekend.

Upon learning that this virus had infected our web hosting accounts as well as our computers, I got right on the phone with both GoDaddy and HostGator.

Contacting GoDaddy first, I explained the situation to the first support rep (yesterday) and asked if they could run a diagnostic on the server to locate the virus for removal.  I also asked for assistance in fixing the damage the virus had done.

After five minutes on hold, the GoDaddy support rep came back to inform me that the web host checked out fine.  And with a couple of slight changes, I could easily restore the site back to normal working order.

Once that call had ended I immediately contacted HostGator who jumped right on the problem as well.  I followed their instructions, contacted security, and within a half an hour… problem solved!

Today I created the blog post (see below) concerning this virus and how people can combat it (if needed) and protect their computer.  A friend of mine visited my blog just minutes after posting.  She then contacted me via Facebook to let me know that her security software was triggered by the visit to my blog and that I should probably have it checked again.

So, I got back on the phone with GoDaddy.  After explaining the situation to todays support rep, I was put on hold while the issue was explored.  What happened next floored me…

Upon returning to our conversation, the GoDaddy rep informed me that there was nothing they could do to fix the problem.  He went on to tell me that I needed to wipe the host clean and reinstall all of my files previous to the infection and that SHOULD do the trick.  He also suggested that I could back load the files onto my computer and then scan them for malware and virus infection.

As I picked my jaw up off the desk (realizing that yesterdays rep LIED to me about scanning the host account) I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!  You mean to tell me that I spend all of this money with GoDaddy, every month, and the one time I call and need help you’re telling me, ’sorry dude, you’ll have to fend for yourself?’”

I then explained to the rep how HostGator helped me out and solved the problem in no time and I didn’t understand why a company as big as GoDaddy wasn’t set up to do the same.  He didn’t have an answer but went on to tell me that this was “no big deal, it should only take about a half an hour of my time to correct.”  With that, I told him that (based on what he had just told me) that I would be leaving GoDaddy effective immediately.  He told me he was sorry to hear that and ended the call.

After talking to Mr. Bill (Bill Rowe) and sharing the aforementioned conversation with him, he suggested that I call back and speak with a supervisor… so I did.  When I was finally connected with the supervisor, I explained the situation to him.  Of course, I was then placed on hold to wait for an answer.

When the supervisor returned to our conversation he told me the same thing the support rep had told me earlier… nothing they could do, sorry.

At this point my patience had run out.  I asked the supervisor to help me understand how a customer could call their company, report a known, dangerous virus on THEIR SERVER and they DO NOTHING about it.  His reply was priceless…

“Oh, we’ll do something about it” he assured me. I then asked, “What are you going to do?  You won’t help me fix it so how are you going to handle it?”  He quickly replied “Well, if you don’t deal with it soon then we’ll just delete all of your files and close your account.”

I was stunned.  I’ve spent THOUSANDS of dollars with GoDaddy over the years, THOUSANDS!  From monthly hosting, to services, to domains, to reseller site… and this is the thanks I get as a valued customer?  Thanks for NOTHING GoneDaddy!

My next call was to HostGator in preparation to move all of my services there…

Think twice before trusting your website or blog with GoDaddy!

Cheers!

Rex