ComplaintsforSiteGround

• Initial Complaint

  06/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This merchant make promotion for web hosting. In their promotion, they promise 30 day moneyback experience. I paid 35.88 USD and started their service on june 4 and not satisfy with their service. When I request a refund, they only refund me half of my payment. Per their customer service, the domain is not refundable, but they did NOT state that in advance. If I were informed that, I will go to another service provider. So I request FULL refund.

  Business response

  07/10/2023

  Dear *****************,
  
  We would like to begin by expressing our apologies for the negative experience youve had. After locating your account and thoroughly reviewing the case, including the support history, we are determined to provide clarification and resolution. In order to ensure complete transparency, we have made our refund policy readily accessible on our website and terms of service. This policy provides comprehensive information regarding domain name fees, explicitly stating that they are non-refundable as once registered the domain becomes your property until its expiration. You can find more details about our refund policy in this article: 
  
  **************************************************
  
  However, with that said, we also acknowledge that you may not have been aware of these refund details in advance. We recognize that each situation is unique, and taking into consideration the circumstances, we have decided to make an exception and have refunded the domain fee as well. Please note that it may take up to 10 days for the refunded amount to appear in your bank account, depending on processing time.

  We hope this resolution adequately addresses the matter at hand.

  Best regards,
  The SiteGround Team

• Initial Complaint

  03/24/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have been trying to transfer my site from siteground for going on 4 months. There is always a reason why its being denied and always a waiting period that follows. They continue to exit the chat without solving my issue. They dont answer the phone. All I hear is what they cannot do to help me. At one point they sounded almost desperate to keep my site for some reason which is beyond me. I would never do business with siteground again.

  Business response

  04/07/2023

  Hello *****,
  
  We are sorry to hear you were unhappy with our services. To better assist you, we have checked the status of the domain in question and reviewed your support interactions with a Customer Care Supervisor.

  According to our logs, there was a change in the domain admin details requested on 2023-01-21 which triggered an automatic 60 days registrar-lock status (as per the registry's rules during this time, the domain is locked and not available for transfer). Our domain team provided all relevant details about the lock, period, and how/when to proceed afterward to start the transfer via a support ticket in your Client Area.  
  
  Later, on March 24th, we see you contacted our support team via live chat with a request to check on a domain transfer that was already initiated away from SiteGround. The operator confirmed the transfer was already in progress and also assisted with escalating the case to our Domain department.
  
  Our domain experts updated you via a support ticket the following day, March 25th, that the domain was already in Pending Transfer Away status, and as such, we no longer had control over it. We'd like to point out that generally domain transfers take several days to complete. And in this specific case, your domain transfer was completed on ?arch 30th.
  
  According to the information publicly available on *****'s lookup page, your domain registrar has already been switched to another one. Here is their official lookup page:
  
  **********************************
  
  We hope this information clarifies the matter. And our support team remains available to you 24/7 should you require any other assistance.
  
  Respectfully,
  The SiteGround Team

  Customer response

  04/13/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *************************
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Siteground have charged me 3 times the amount which I never requested to renew. They have purposely not put cancel auto renewal on the account section & when trying to cancel the account they forward you to a chat window which gets you nowehere. My hosting account was suspended which is fine to me because I never wanted to renew. My credit card was stolen but when my card new card was issued the payment went through on January 27, 2023. I have repeatedly requested to refund my money $247.61 because my account is laready suspended but they are not entertaining my rtequest.

  Business response

  03/17/2023

  Hello *****,
  
  In order to better assist you, our team has already checked the status of the account in question. Our records indicate that your hosting plan was suspended due to a chargeback we received on your automatic renewal payment of 2023-01-26. While we understand that some customers may not wish to continue using our services, we always recommend contacting us directly for any payment issues, and chargebacks are typically the last option. In terms of our policy on refunds, both initial and renewal payments of shared hosting plans are refundable (in part or in full) within 30 days of the payment date. However, once you file a chargeback, the situation becomes more complicated and we are required to follow a much more strict and time-consuming procedure that is beyond our control.

  Our team has already provided you with a few status updates about it through our live chat and ticketing systems. The relevant ticket and chat transcripts can be found in your Client Area’s Help Center. Currently, the Chargeback procedure is still ongoing and we are awaiting the final outcome. As soon as we receive further information, our billing department will notify you. Alternatively, you may also contact your bank since they have full access to provide you with the needed information on when they can get this resolved given the matter is not up to us at this point.
  
  It is our hope that this information proves helpful to you. Our support team is available to assist you 24/7 should you require any other assistance or have further questions.
  
  Respectfully,
  The SiteGround Team

• Initial Complaint

  12/18/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  months later I have been with the site ground website for a few years. I was unhappy with the new rates so I chose to upgrade for 1 year. I turned off the renewal and order the 80 dollar plan. They billed me twice and when I asked them they said nothing could be done.

  Business response

  01/05/2023

  Hello *******,
  We'd like to take this chance and help out in any way we can. Given the transaction amount you've mentioned, it appears that you upgraded to a higher plan during our recent Black Friday or Cyber Monday promo period. You should not be billed twice but simply renew at the regular price when the plan expires.
  As there isn't enough info for us here to locate the specific payment and review the case properly, we'd like to invite you to drop us an email over at [email protected]. Tell us how we can help, preferably reach us from the admin email of your SiteGround account so we can verify you as the owner and we'll be happy to address the situation.
  
  Looking forward to your contact, all the best - The SiteGround Team.

  Customer response

  01/11/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *******************************
  

• Initial Complaint

  11/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have ordered 1 Year StartUp Hosting which in sitegroundgroud.com July 15,2022 ,the refund rules is billing by time then.But today I canceled my order before expiation date, they don't pay for any refunds to me.They took the liberty of changing the refund rules, they should refund 8 months of fees following rules which I ordered the product .

  Business response

  12/13/2022

  Hello ******,

  We noticed your complaint and this prompted us to review the case in detail.

  You created an account with us a few months ago, on 2022-07-14.
  That account was later canceled on 2022-11-27 and you reached out to our team via chat to inquire about a possible prorated refund. We clarified that refunds on shared hosting payments can be issued within 30 days of the payment being made.
  If the new billing period had started we also have the option of deducting a month from the refund and still issue it if the payment is less than 30 days old.
  Our refund policy remains also unchanged and is accessible on our site:************************************************ .
  Still, we take all perspectives into account when addressing such cases.

  As you've already canceled the account, we're willing to make a custom exception and prorate the full remaining months of hosting. We've already issued a refund for 8 months of StartUp hosting or 23.92 USD back to the CC originally billed.

  You can expect the amount to show up in the next 10 business days, usually it is much faster. Hope this brings the needed clarification about the situation!
  Regards, The SiteGround Team

• Initial Complaint

  10/31/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  They won't allow me to host a website under their plan. They offer no avenue for a refund.These people are criminals.

  Business response

  11/24/2022

  Hello *******,
  Your feedback prompted us to look into your case and we found the records about your account in our system, and we feel like we need to bring in some more clarity.
  You contacted our team with an inquiry about a websites transfer, which is usually a paid service, but our team agreed to assist you with it. We encountered permissions and connection issues with the previous host that hosted the site. Ultimately, our techs found a solution and completed the transfer for free.
  We have a 30-day money back policy, and you can still get a full refund on the hosting by choosing the immediate cancelation option from your Client Area.
  Here is how: *********************************************************.
  In case you need assistance with the hosting or the cancelation - you can contact us directly from the Help Center:
  *************************** Regards,
  The SiteGround team

• Initial Complaint

  10/25/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  SiteGround charged me for a domain autorenewal that I had turned off online beforehand. I went in to verify it was off and it was. I clicked it to make sure it was 100% marked as off to see if it would light up and it did light up so I turned it back off. I contacted them and they said it only showed that I just turned it off that day. Their system obviously had an error yet they would not help, refund or do anything to resolve the issue. They said there wasn't an error because their logs didn't show anything. However, the fact that their logs don't show anything is the error aside from the fact that they didn't show in their system that I had it disabled even when it showed disabled online. How would I knew to turn it on and then back off to disable it.... So they refunded the privacy, but then of course that would make it so that all my personal info would be shown to the world which I didn't want so I had to buy that back again because they can't cancel out the domain purchase.

  Business response

  11/17/2022

  Hello *****,
  
  We see the case has already been resolved with our colleagues, and we've refunded the amount you have been charged for the renewal, but we wanted to do a quick follow-up just in case. Usually, domain name fees are non-refundable, as they cannot be deleted from the global domain registry once a renewal has gone through our system. At the moment of your complaint directly to our customer care team, our colleagues have thoroughly checked both our auto-renewal and server system logs as well, and there was no record of a turned-off auto-renewal action for the domain. Our log records showed the domain renewal was canceled a few hours after the auto-renewal transaction went through successfully. In this case, we cannot reverse the renewal from the global domain registry and have already paid for it. However, our colleagues decided to make an exception in your case and have refunded the full domain renewal fee, which you should have received within 7 business days since the refund was issued. We hope this clarifies the situation better. We appreciate your feedback and thank you for your business.
  
  Regards, The SiteGround Team

  Customer response

  11/17/2022

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************
  

• Initial Complaint

  09/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Charged my card after I cancelled service. same complaint as the previous people all had. they dont tell you that cancelling out your account and service doesnt stop the payments from being pulled. a completely unscrupulous company. please for the love of god, investigate these people and stop them from doing business in your state. and if you would like to file a class action, I volunteer to testify against them.

  Business response

  10/20/2022

  Hello *****,
  
  Wed like to clarify how our interface works and what caused the confusion with the plan cancellation. The way our system is set up,
  Our hosting environment provides clients with the option to manage separate website slots by creating, renaming or deleting the websites without this affecting the existing hosting plan.
  This means that even if the site created under your hosting plan is deleted, this does not cancel the hosting plan you have ordered, nor the billing for it. That is why despite the website deletion that took place in September 2022, the system kept sending you renewal notices for the active plan, as it was near its expiration date.
  During your latest chat, the session was disconnected before our rep can clarify that setup for you or advise you of the current status of your hosting plan, and how you can proceed with the cancellation.
  We are sorry to hear our hosting plan did not match your expectations. As all website and email content was deleted 3 months ago, we are willing to honour this as your cancellation date.
  We went ahead and pro-rated the amount equivalent to the 3 months of service from your yearly prepaid fee. You can expect the refund posted on your credit card within the next **** business days.
  Please accept this as a cancellation confirmation of your StartUp plan for your records. We can confirm that there will not be any further charges for that account.
  
  Kind regards, 
  
  Gergana Z*. 
  Community Manager 
  SiteGround

• Initial Complaint

  05/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  The hosting site is charging me renewal fees. I clearly marked no renewal last year, and it is charging me. Now there is no way to mark it again-it just gives you links to circles which lead to nothing. There is no help line or contact form to reach them. They are stealing from my bank account through fraudulent activities.

  Business response

  05/31/2022

  Hello *********, 
  
  Thank you for being our customer. We would gladly clarify the charges under your account. 
  In April 2020, you purchased a domain name registration and a web hosting plan from us. In June 2021, you have disabled the auto-renewal for your hosting plan. As the domain name registration is a separate service from the hosting, and as the domain name auto-renewal was not stopped, the service got automatically renewed for another year.  After you contacted our Chat Support, the rep helped you with canceling the whois protector and the domain name and with the refund. We can confirm that there should be no further fees from our side under that account as all services have been canceled.
  
  Kind regards, 
  
  Gergana Z*. 
  Community Manager 
  SiteGround

  Customer response

  06/06/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  The issue has been resolved, but I know I made the proper choices for non renewal and it still renewed. I've lost faith in the company. Thanks for correcting the problem.
  
  Regards,
  *****************************
  

• Initial Complaint

  01/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I canceled my service in 2019 but have been billed for partial service in 2020 and 2021. I contacted customer service and they refused to reimburse the charges after i canceled my services with them

  Business response

  03/08/2022

  Hello *****,
  
  Our records show that in 2019 you have canceled only the StartUp hosting plan. The domain name registration and the ID Protect feature are separate services, and they were listed as such in the attached invoice. Their auto-renew feature remained enabled, which is why the system extended your domain name registration and ID Protect service in 2020 and 2021. 
  We can confirm this is the expected behavior in our system, as stated in the several renewal reminders sent to the contact email before the expiration. 
  When you contacted us at the end of February 2022, to cancel the domain auto-renewal, the chat operator helped you with that, and he correctly advised you that the domain name fees are non-refundable. In addition, please note that the timeframe in which these payments were collected exceeds the timeframe in which we can issue a refund for these funds. That is why, despite our best intention, we are unable to assist with the refund.
  We can confirm that there are no other active services under your name on our end, so there should not be any other recurring fees.
  
  Kind regards, 
  
  Gergana Z*. 
  Community Manager 
  SiteGround

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩