Why GoDaddy Should Be Called StopDaddy!

I became a GoDaddy customer in 1999 when I launched the Time 4 Hemp website. At the time,GoDaddy was just about the only place you could buy a domain name and get a website builder to quickly build a site. By 2003, their website builders became obsolete and GoDaddy no longer supported them making it necessary to learn how to build a site with WordPress or find a webmaster who could. After building a site and adding content to it for 5-years, it was SUDDENLY necessary to re-build it again -- I was NOT happy, to say the least.

The following 4-years were a nightmare. WordPress was constantly being re-invented week-after-week and anyone who was any good with working with it had to also good at working with computer codes. When GodDaddy re-introduced their website builders in 2008, I was thrilled and quickly re-built my website AGAIN – and was happy to have a website that I could operate without needing a webmaster to do the heavy lifting.

In 2013, GoDaddy did it again! It stopped supporting its own website builders making it necessary to ONCE AGAIN rebuild my website from the bottom up with WordPress. After going through 5 different people in 3 years who declared themselves to be a ‘WebMaster’ only to prove themselves to be nothing more than a ‘BullShitMaster’, I learned enough about WordPress to run my own site.

In 2017, someone hacked into one of GoDaddy’s servers and was spamming Comcast customers.Comcast blocked that server and, as a result, ANY WEBSITE on that server was ALSO blocked by Comcast making it impossible for anyone using Comcast to visit my website – including me, since I’m a Comcast customer.

When I called GoDaddy and asked them to move my website to a new server, they told me it would cost me $280 to have them move it – OR – I could move it myself FOR FREE. I was so pissed that I chose to move it myself. Due to the size of the site, it took me 12 days to download all my files; 8 days to up-load them into a new server and 4 days to restore the site back to working condition causing my site to be down for 24 days. It would have taken GoDaddy only 3-hours to move it directly from one of their servers into another one.

In 2018, every time WordPress would update itself, my website would stop working correctly and I’d have to call GoDaddy and have GoDaddy fix whatever it was that GoDaddy seemed to have to do every time there was a WordPress update. GoDaddy DID offer to up-grade my account AND FOR JUST AN EXTRA $30 a month, my website would NOT be affected by future WordPress updates. I declined their offer and, every 6-9 weeks I had to call GoDaddy and have them repair my website due to an auto-up-date from WordPress.

In November of 2018, I decided to rebuild the website ONE MOVE TIME and upgraded my account so WordPress updates would no longer affect it. I spent 6 weeks working on the website and in January of 2019 launched it for public review. I sent out about 100 emails to prospective sponsors suggesting they check out the website. Two days after sending out my big announcements, my website was not loading in correctly. It was taking 2-3 minutes to load in.When it did load it, it didn’t look right. Everyone though my site looked like a 9-year old put it together and all the prospects for new sponsorship refused to take my calls.

I was furious. I called GoDaddy. They told me that due to the size of my website I needed to upgrade to a BUSINESS ACCOUNT. The salesperson stated that due to the nearly 48,000 MP3’son the site I needed to up-grade so as to handle not only the large among of content on the site but also the large amount of traffic the site attracts. I gave in and agreed to the extra $80 a month up-grade and after 3 weeks, the site was still loading in SLOW. It would load in correctly- but it took nearly a full minute for the homepage to load in and the rest of the site was just as slow.

When I called GoDaddy, they explained that I needed to either move up to a BUSINESS account with more storage and a dedicated server for $130 more on the month OR remove a lot of my content in order to speed up the load-in time. Frustrated, I decided to hired a web-repair company to go into my website and see what they could do. They charged me a small fee to go into my site and tweak it so it would load into a web browser more quickly. They pointed out that GODADDY IS NO LONGER EQUIPPED TO HANDLE WEBSITES BIGGER THAN 3-5 HTML’S IN SIZE. I was stunned, but it turns out, they were right.

In March of 2019 I decided to check out SquareSpace and discovered it to be amazing. It’s a good enough place for Joe Rogan to have HIS website and feature HIS podcast, it good enough for Time 4 Hemp. I fell in love with how easy it is to build and operate. By the time May rolled around,I had the new Time4Hemp.news site built and was no longer needing the WordPress site for anything other than warehousing all the MP3’S for the network archives.

In June I began creating new content for the website. I was feeling up-beat. It was the first time since November of 2018 that I could focus on putting together new podcasts, new booklets, new blogs, new videos and maybe even find some new sponsors.

On the morning of June 23rd I recorded a new interview and 2 hours later I got an email from GoDaddy telling me that I had 48 hours to shrink the size of my website or they were going to remove it from their servers.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I called GoDaddy and the salesperson I spoke with confirmed the email was correct. They told me that GoDaddy and did the same thing to them a year earlier and THEY WORKED for GoDaddy. Seems GoDaddy doesn’t want a website as large as mine on their servers and IT ALSO TURNED OUT THAT I WAS IN VIOLATION OF GODADDY RULES – seems GoDaddy has a policy about using their servers to warehouse content that is being used on a different website, such as all my MP3’S.

I was given 48-hours to remove my over half my files and shrink my website or GoDaddy was going to delete it from their servers. This was mind-blowing considering It had been on their servers since 1999. After my being a loyal customer for 20-years, GoDaddy was just kicking me to the curb, making it clear they had very little interest in me or my needs.

I have no clue why it is that GoDaddy thinks it has ANY SAY as to what I do with my website as long as I pay the monthly server fees. I’m the owner of the Time4Hemp website – NOT GoDaddy.

In LESS THAN 2-HOURS I GAVE GoDaddy what it wanted – me gone. I decided on the spot to just move my site to a new company. I found at new home at InterServer.

.I explained to the sales rep at InterServer that I intended to use the site mostly as a place to warehouse my MP3’s and that the website was very large. The sales rep said THEY DIDN’T CARE, they were happy to have me as a customer. As it turns out, many members on their team support cannabis legalization.

When InterServer began the process of moving my website from GoDaddy servers to their servers, about halfway through the transfer, GoDaddy BLOCKED the site move. GoDaddy continued to block the site move. After 3 attempts to move my website, one of the team members at InterServer downloaded a full back-up of the website onto his own personal computer at his home and then up-load it to the new server - all this work on his own time. It was the only way to get a copy of the site from GoDaddy. It seems GoDaddy was hell-bent on leaving me only 2 options to pick from: Either I destroy my website or GoDaddy would destroy it. I count myself lucky to have found the amazing team at IntraServer.

When I began the process of closing out my account at GoDaddy, I asked the customer assistant rep if GoDaddy had any concern about treating a 20-year customer is such an inconsiderate manner. I asked if GoDaddy had any concern about the amount of money it was saying good-bye to by treating a customer in such a way. Over and over, the customer assistant rep would only answer with; “I’ve taken note of your concerns and will forward them up to my supervisor.

Up until this point, the ONLY REASON I had remained a customer of GoDaddy’s was due to the amazing Customer Care Team they have. I ALWAYS got fantastic care when I had to phone in to resolve any type of problem. Sadly, not only were there just too many problems with their services – now the Customer Care team was nothing more than a BRICK WALL of people with NO ANSWERS to my issues that stood between me and GoDaddy.

Just for chits-and-giggles, I did a Google search for the term: “GoDaddy complaints” and what I found was very interesting. It seems there are even a few chat rooms dedicated to THAT TOPIC– FOFLMAO. I am now FREE FROM BEING A SLAVE to my website and can focus on creating new content for the network. No longer am I throwing good money after bad on an out dated web-hosting company that is incapable of providing even the MOST BASIC of services.

If you are someone who only needs a 2-3-page website and you don’t mind rebuilding it every 2-4years, then you will be very happy being a GoDaddy customer using one of their website builders.If you plan on using WordPress and enjoy doing daily maintenance on a website and find it fun to redesign a WordPress site every 3-7 months, then you will be a happy GoDaddy customer.

If you are someone who needs to build a real website for a business or an organization, then you will hate using anything GoDaddy has to offer. You will be better off doing what so many other people have done: build a website at SquareSpace. If you are a wizard at computer code and love using WordPress to build websites, you will find the services at IntraServer to be competitively priced – and they offer a lot more BANG FOR THE BUCK. Their Customer Care Team is fabulous as well! They went WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY for me. I was a NEW customer, and they could of very easy said that it was just too much a hassle to move my site to their company and then suggest I look elsewhere. Instead, one of their team members used his own computers and worked on his own time in order to get my very large website moved and working properly.

My Life has truly been much better since I left GoDaddy. With my MP3’s securely warehoused at IntraServer, ALL THE PROBLEMS THAT BEFELL ME AT GODADDY HAVE STOPPED!. I am so happy to have found InterServer. They have great customer care, better products and for less money. With the rest of my website being on SquareSpace – the constant need to up-date technology and software issues is GONE. My website always loads in fast and looks like it should every time it loads in.