Why I quit using SiteGround...
You won’t believe their Customer Support

Executive Summary...
Read the full transcript either as text or PDF, if you have a few minutes...

On November 11, 2008 I received the following from SiteGround:

Our Server Performance Monitoring System has signaled that the following POP3/IMAP mailbox(es) hosted on your account is/are exceeding the allowed size of up to 200 MB per email account.

jrietz@think-different.com 1472 MB

blah, blah, blah

Best regards,
Ivan K.
www.SiteGround.com

Oh, my... What did I do now? My main account, the one that all my customers use, the one all my friends use, is down...

Well, I know why the account is that large... I switched to IMAP 8 months earlier and added a ton of my read and sent mail to the account. I mean, IMAP is the more modern protocol and really comes in handy when you have multiple computers and an iPhone.

So, what’s the problem? I have 3 accounts and 7 add on domains (add it up), each with unlimited E-mail... well, after reviewing the TOS, I did find, buried on a link from the main page, that you can have unlimited addresses, but each account is limited to 200MB.

That’s odd... what didn’t I get a warning at 201 MB, or 250 or 350 or 1 GB? Oh... the System Admin finally got around to picking on me. One of the Customer Service Reps explained that mine was “WAY” big... I did look that up, but couldn’t find any specific size defined, but I will assume that WAY big is 1472 MB or larger... probably should update WikiPedia...

So, I mention to the Customer Service Rep that the DEFAULT size for an email account in the cPanel is 250 MB... and that his System Administrator needs to attend to that instead of poking around for violations.

I’m getting no where... so, I’ll ask one of the Sales Reps.... Under the disguise of my girlfriend, Paula, I opened an online chat with Vesi. After the introductions, I got in to quizzing him/her and it went like this

Paula: It was recommended that I get an iMap email account?

Vesi: Sure we do have Imap,I am glad to say that with our plan you will be able to create unlimited e-mails and you can send up to 400 emails per hour. These e-mails can be sent to 20 recipients at a time. You can send 20 emails 20 times to reach the 400 mails limit

Paula: Wow. Is there any limit to storing all that data?

Vesi: You will have 750GB avilable and 7500GB traffic for your e-mails as well, there are no other limitations
[ snip ]
Paula: So there is no limit on any one account? It all gets taken from the 750GB?
[ drum roll ]
Vesi: “Sure you will have 750GB for all of your e-mails, you can create unlimited e-mails and use those resources fully”

Ah HA! I got them! So, I reopen my ticket and added the full transcript... and the Customer Service Rep states: “There must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Our Sales Representatives are trained to answer customers' questions and give relevant information.”

Misunderstanding? Trained? Right!

Ok... by this time I am opening an TRULY Unlimited Hosting account on GoDaddy.com - wow, I’m saving over $300 per year!. I will make one more reply to the Customer Sales Rep and suggest that he just let it go... but if he must reply the ticket needs to be escalated to his Supervisor.... I guess this would be the Super Supervisor, since I had already escalated to a Senior Supervisor.

So, I’m out of there and very happy with GoDaddy.com!

Now, let’s see how long it take to get a refund....

Well, after canceling each account, I receive this notice:

According to the SiteGround Terms of Use this account is NOT eligible for a refund. If you would still like to cancel it, please click on the button below.

Once you confirm, your account will be suspended immediately and terminated 7 days after the cancellation.

Your access to the SiteGround Customer area will remain open, so that you can manage any additional accounts or domain name registrations.