TotalChoice Hosting Review, User Reviews of TotalChoice Hosting

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Date Submitted :

April 3rd, 2007

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 3 years

Overall Rating :

3 out of 5

Reliability :

3 out of 5

Support :

3 out of 5

Pricing :

4 out of 5

Verdict :

Started out good and came highly recommended. But last year to 18 months they started getting terrible. My site went down and I didn't even know it til client advised me. They denied problem but it "magically" came back on. This has happened several times.

Of late, it has started to be very unsteady. Often now email won't work and I cannot get to my domain site. They give me boiler plate language and say try this, but only sketchy detaila on how to do it as if I am an expert. Then I may get another tech rep who solves it quickly. They usually say it is fine on their end, but I keep complaining and it reappears with no explanation from them -- but always thanking me for using TCH. Then a day or two, an hour or two, or a month or two, it happens again. Clients say email to me is rejected. Then I have to go to the tech service route. They say "all is well on our end" but when I continue to complain,it finally gets fixed. One time last week they told me it would take 2-8 hours for the fix to proliferate through the intenet -- it took the 8. Sometimes after one of the problems I am liable to get "old" mail -- no explanation.

I sufffered through a LOT of problems when they switched servers -- and I only knew when someone would tell me they could not get through to me.

I had a "catch all" setup and they arbitrarily stopped it and changed it so I got only specific default email addresses. This caused a lot of business problems. This came in handy but did result in problems when they abruptly changed it with no explanation. When I called why I couldn't get mail, they said they'd had a lot of problems with tons of jumk or spam mail. They told me they had to change to prevent so much spam -- but no apology and they didn't tell me ahead of time.

Closest I got to an admission of fault was last week when they finally said "we are aware of problems on this server and are working to resolve the issues".

These are just some of the problems that have crept up. Don't know why their good service changed in the last few months.

I have a small, but profitable, consulting practice and deal internationally. I MUST have reliable service on my email and website.

TCH -- I'm outta there!

Submitted By :

b smith

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

66.169.35.27

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Date Submitted :

December 16th, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

6 - 12 months

Overall Rating :

2 out of 5

Reliability :

4 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

Started out great. When the going got tough (an issue that had been caused by one of their techs misconfiguring my account on their server) they showed their true colors. Lied, denied, and defied.

Great for hobbyists, but for goodness sake, don't trust a business site to them, and never trust a client's site to them.

Submitted By :

WinXalot

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

72.66.29.88

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Date Submitted :

August 28th, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 3 years

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

I've been using TotalChoiceHosting for over 1 year, and have yet to experience a single issue with compatability or reliability. TCH was first recommended to me by a thread on HardForum.com, and since I have recommended it to an increasing number of friends & colleagues alike.

TCH's support has been prompt and knowledgable whenever I had question. I've worked closely with web servers (Apache, IIS, etc) for almost 10 years, and can easily say their hosting is fast, reliable, standards-compliant, extremely dependable, and at a steal of a deal.

I'd highly recommend TotalChoiceHosting to any serious web developers out there - A pleasure to work with at a price that's pleasant to your wallet!

~ Kory ~

Submitted By :

Kory

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

192.104.193.31

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Date Submitted :

March 21st, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

More than 3 years

Overall Rating :

5 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

3 out of 5

Verdict :

I've never had any problems with our 3 sites that they host. Every once in a while they notify of an upgrade to their system but rarely is it every off for more than a few hours. Very stisfied.

Submitted By :

guamrider

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

202.131.160.213

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Date Submitted :

February 23rd, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

More than 3 years

Overall Rating :

5 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

After a few years with another Web host, I outgrew them and spent a couple years bouncing between half-decent hosts. Then I came across Total Choice. The price is incredible, my sites are fast, tech support is great... I host about 15 sites with them now. I can't speak for the quality of their dedicated servers, and from other reviews it sounds like they're not great for beginners. But if you have a Web site that loads fewer than a couple millions pages per month and you know what you're doing, I'd strongly recommend TCH.

Submitted By :

ashesnglass

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

68.53.60.153

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Date Submitted :

February 20th, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 6 months

Overall Rating :

5 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

Excellent host!

They are the best host I have ever dealt with.

I have only need support 3 times, and each time they have been right there awaiting to help me.

I suggest them highly.

Submitted By :

Jake

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

70.141.179.209

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Date Submitted :

February 20th, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 3 years

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

1 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

4 out of 5

Verdict :

TCH started out great when I started using them. Now it seems I am constantly having problems. There technical support also used to be able to troubleshoot the problems and now seem to struggle doing so.

Very frustrating because I thought I had found a host I could count on.

Submitted By :

frustrated

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

66.167.130.113

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Date Submitted :

February 12th, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

More than 3 years

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

1 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

3 out of 5

Verdict :

Things started out great but their attitude and support are now abysmal. Their live support staff does read your posts...they skim and you are left repeating your concerns over and over until frustration sets in and you drop the issue. Of course, I've also had them disconnect me twice when they couldn't solve the issue and I kept pressing. No transcript sent or anything.

Email delivery is dumbfounding. My incoming mail is delivered to the server on time and then the headers show that it is often not delivered for hours or up to THREE DAYS!!! And I'm not talking once or twice. I'm talking up to 25% of my mail! And, of course, I've lost clients over this. I opened a ticket and after finally speaking to the senior official he says there's nothing that can be done because it's a busy server and I should have my mail sent to another email address as a backup. So now my mail has to be forwarded to a different non-TCH address. This is apparently totally acceptible to them. Astounding!

Support tickets take a long time and have gotten to the point that I can literally predict exactly what they are going to say and how they are going to send it to a higher level. Literally an "insert issue here" and then "we haven't made any changes to the server...it's your fault." I just sent a response to one of my tickets kindly outlining my frustrations. I was encouraged when the head of TCH wrote back. But guess what, he hadn't read my letter because it was completely and totally irrelevant to my concerns. It did, however, kind of match the title of the letter. Guess he got that far in reading it.

I'm currently searching for a new host and I can't emphasize enough to look for a company that does not outsource its support!!! They know absolutely nothing about your concerns and simply spit out what they are told to say.

As others have mentioned the forums are a joke. After being told that their responses were rude and condescending, they started giving "welcome to the family" responses to all new posters and adding lots of smiley faces to posts. Note to TCH: all the welcomes and smiley faces in the world can't hide the fact that the service and responses to established clients are truly horrible. Any questions about their services or policies can provoke anger and extrememe defensiveness. Posts are often closed for discussion after the posters are slammed for making a challenge to the policies.

I used to recommend TCH to everyone and I now, sadly, have to tell everyone to stay away.

Submitted By :

looking.for.new.host

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

70.168.96.146

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Date Submitted :

February 6th, 2006

Length of time hosted by this company :

More than 3 years

Overall Rating :

2 out of 5

Reliability :

3 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

1 out of 5

Verdict :

Their 99% uptime claims are totally false. We had many services down for several DAYS during our hosting with them, including name service, SSL, and email. I would put their uptime at under 95%.

Also, their technical support people are terse, haughty, and anxious to try to prove that the problem is your fault (even thought it's always been theirs).

30 technical support incidents in 3 years, and I'm willing to undergo the pain of moving 30 domains to get out from under their evil spell.

Submitted By :

Brian

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

64.81.110.205

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Date Submitted :

December 27th, 2005

Length of time hosted by this company :

6 - 12 months

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

1 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

1 out of 5

Verdict :

They suspended site after 10 months been hosted by them for a reason that is nowhere to find by TOS and AUP.They simple do not like site that provide info about privacy, security and proxy servers with next quote

"...we do not allow proxy information sites on our servers. You will need to source a new host."

What a silly play after 10 months and what a illegal move from hosting.
If i live in USA and have money i would start legal process against them because they do disagreed with their own TOS and AUP where state

"you may not run any type of proxy service from your account. This includes but is not limited to a http proxy."

There is a big difference between host proxy service and just providing information about privacy, anonymity and proxy servers.
Furthermore any message that they do not like is always deleted from their forum.

Submitted By :

Make

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

82.75.56.249

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Date Submitted :

December 13th, 2005

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 3 years

Overall Rating :

2 out of 5

Reliability :

1 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

Im with this host since aout 1 1/2 years

the first years was good but since six month notting work well
server are down to much and help desk is nightmare, they moove us but now it is worst!

the online support is useless cause they alway request for a ticket

When you mail a ticket you receive fast respond but most of the time useless and so on...........

Post a question about why you have so much problem on there forum and they erase it. so dont be surprise if you read the forum and you see almost notting but good review

understand it is cheap but they should charge more and give a reliable host

Submitted By :

zapper

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

66.130.62.7

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Date Submitted :

December 3rd, 2005

Length of time hosted by this company :

Less than 1 month

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

4 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

I used to run a 350 person paging services company, including 250 customer service reps, and I understand the critical importance of providing a simple account activation process. I have found my first 24 hours with TCH, just trying to get my account set up, to be a classic customer nightmare. I am entering this detailed review because I chose TCH in the first place because of all of the excellent reviews on this website. I had a horrible experience. Here is a log of all of my calls to customer support:

1. My initial call was to determine whether I should set up my account first or transfer my domain names first. I pored through the TCH website, but I could find nothing that looked like a set of steps for getting started. A Getting Started process step list with associated URLs would have been very helpful and could have prevented this call.

2. I signed up for a shared web hosting account, provided my credit card info, and received a follow-up e-mail containing my new Username and Password. I then went to their FAQs, found how to transfer my domain name to TCH, and started the transfer process. When I got to the account setup page, I was given an already filled in Login ID field (different from the Username I had just received) and asked to create a new password. I was very confused. I had just received a User name and password. So I called TCH again to find out whether I should override the new Login ID with the Username I had just received. I was told that I did need to create a new Login ID and password. This left me scratching my head as to why I had received a Username and Password in my welcome e-mail, since I hadn't used it to get to this page.

3. When I got to the shopping checkout page of the domain transfer sequence, the page told me that I was transferring my domain names for 1 year (asterisked, but with no corresponding asterisked note below), and that I would be charged $10.95 recurring for each domain name. The natural conclusion was that this was a yearly charge for the transfer, which made no sense. So I called Customer Support AGAIN, and was told that the actual period was whatever length of time was left on my existing Domain Registration (plus a year), and that I would not be charged again until expiration (in my case in 2014). An Asterisk note that explained this would have prevented this third call.

4. When my Domain Transfer failed, I received an e-mail explaining how to fix the problem (which involved contacting my existing registrar) and then how to reactivate the Pending Transfer by following these steps (excerpted from their Domain Transfer Failed – Status Not Valid e-mail I received from support at securepaynet.net):

“To ensure the safety of your information, log in to your account
from our home page (instead of clicking on unidentifiable links,
pop-ups, etc.). This will guarantee that your information is
secure and encrypted.

1. Go to the TotalChoice Hosting Web site

2. Click on My Account

3. Enter your log in name or customer number and password
and click Secure Login

4. Select "Pending Domain Transfers" from the Domain Names
drop-down”

WELL, FOLKS, THERE IS NO “MY ACCOUNT” OPTION ON THE WWW.TOTALCHOICEHOSTING.COM WEB SITE!

So, I made my fourth call to their customer support area, where a very confused rep (he expected that there would be a “My Account” link on the home page, as would any user) eventually confirmed that I was right, and directed me to manually enter a long URL on the securepayment.net web site to get to a “My Account” link.

5. When I manually entered this completely non–intuitive URL web site, I was asked to enter my “Customer Number or Login Name” and my Password. I went to the welcome email I had just received from invoicing at totalchoicehosting.com and I lift the Username and Password contained in that e-mail and enter them in the My Account Login fields. I am informed that “There is no account with that information. Please try again.” ANOTHER call to customer support. It turns out that the username and password provided in my welcome e-mail is ERRONEOUS. THE REP CANNOT FIND ANY RECORD OF IT IN MY ACCOUNT. Instead, I am supposed to use the Login and Password I created during the Domain Transfer process. OK, got it. I enter this information, and I can get to the My Account web pages on securepay.net. This allows me to terminate the domain transfer transaction, since I have by now realized that I don’t need to pay the $10.95 charge to transfer my two domain names, I can simply point them at TCH’s Name Servers from my existing domain registrar account. The interface to do this is so confusing that I have to call Customer Support again (I have an IQ of 149, but it doesn’t seem to be helping me). I do eventually get the direction I need to accomplish my objective.

6. Next I proceed to launch the cPanel application to manage my website. I am presented with a request for my Name and Password. I enter my Login ID and Password. Oooops! Rejected! ANOTHER call to customer support. Ahhh, for cPanel I DO need to use the Username and Password sent to me in my Welcome E-mail. OK, got it. I enter this information and get cPanel to launch.

7. In cPanel I launch the add-on Domain icon and attempt to add an add-on domain. The transaction is rejected. I call Customer Support again at (480) 624-2500. They inform me that their group only handles domain names. For help with cPanel I need to go to the TCH website (not the Securepayments.net website) and get support there. I do this and get prompt livesupport chat help. I ask about why I cannot use the add-on domain icon in cPanel. I am told that the multiple domain feature that I thought I was purchasing is only for Parked Domains. For a second live website I need to buy another web hosting account with TCH.

8. This is the final straw for me. I have spent almost 12 hours just trying to get my account set up, let alone my bloody web site, and I pack it in and cancel the account, triggering the automatic refund provision. I will say that customer support was excellent: rapid and responsive. But the inherent difficulties of just trying to set up an account, with so many interfaces and websites to deal with, and such a counterintuitive process at each step, has driven me bats. I’m off to find a web hosting service that has a simple account activation process and can effectively document the steps involved using a single web site, a single support group, and a single account management interface. It is possible that TCH is a fine service for someone who has prior experience setting up web sites and understands how resellers typically manage the account activation process, but I cannot recommend this hosting service to first time users.

Submitted By :

Bruce Maxwell

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

216.39.22.224

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Date Submitted :

October 2nd, 2005

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 3 years

Overall Rating :

2 out of 5

Reliability :

2 out of 5

Support :

2 out of 5

Pricing :

3 out of 5

Verdict :

Support has continually declined. Now most senior support staff appear to be from India.

The general path for resultion of problems is almost always that you, the "customer" is at fault. (I have a reseller account.) Only when you prove that it's not you do they actually do anything useful - often only after much prodding and hours, if not days of wait.

I'll be taking the hit and moving all my users/customers to another host. I'm sick of having to hassle them for issues they still refuse to address and issues that my clients are complaining about too.

Submitted By :

Greg

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

24.22.13.143

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Date Submitted :

July 29th, 2005

Length of time hosted by this company :

6 - 12 months

Overall Rating :

4 out of 5

Reliability :

4 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

THE GOOD: Great host, great services, Cpanel is awesome, and their support rocks. Yes, it is all online, but that creates an electronic log of all correspondence. The support is also great when you're working at midnight and need help in a pinch. I got a PERL module installed at 2am. Most support tickets are answered and solved in 30 minutes or less. Reseller accounts rock too, become an ISP in minutes and make money.

THE BAD: If you have multiple hosting accounts, or like in my case multiple clients hosted there AND multiple accounts of my own, the auto-generated invoices for the monthly billing have no reference to which account it is for. So each month I get a crapload of invoices in my inbox, many for $4, $8.95 and $30 and no way to tell which is for which domain. Their support has been notified many times of this and has yet to correct it. Users report that they get more spam when we transfer them to TCH, and we have encountered some email issues because TCH is big and sometimes gets listed on a spam blacklist due to their user's activity.

OVERALL: TCH is the best host I haver used. Their servers just work. They don't have phone support because they don't need it. Everything works flawlessly 99.99999% of the time. Can't beat the price and ease of use.

Submitted By :

Preston Kincaid

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

Submiter IP :

67.180.12.243

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Date Submitted :

March 27th, 2005

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 6 months

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

2 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

3 out of 5

Verdict :

I do the tech for another company, actually a couple. We had 5 sites there and at any given time one or more was offline. Thier 24/7 support is chat only and then done by go-daddy who they also rent space from. The address can not be verified by BBB. There are 2 phone numbers, 1 is fake and the other is a recording, no one live. All our content lost. Keep away from this one.

Submitted By :

Anthony

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

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Date Submitted :

August 24th, 2004

Length of time hosted by this company :

6 - 12 months

Overall Rating :

2 out of 5

Reliability :

1 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

4 out of 5

Verdict :

Like some others, I have had the experience that my web site went down for no apparent reason, and in almost a week I have been unable to get any response from them. I intend to change hosts immediately -- can't afford that! (Until this incident they seemed very good -- nexpensive, well-laid-out)

Submitted By :

Charles

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

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Date Submitted :

June 21st, 2004

Length of time hosted by this company :

6 - 12 months

Overall Rating :

1 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

1 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

Support is horrible - get short incomplete answers to problems - e-mail only no one to call - my web page is down and it is costing me a fortune
and I cant get any credible help from them.

Submitted By :

ckeeper

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury

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Date Submitted :

July 20th, 2003

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 3 years

Overall Rating :

5 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

Excellent Host!

Submitted By :

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury - Homepage

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Date Submitted :

July 19th, 2003

Length of time hosted by this company :

1 - 6 months

Overall Rating :

5 out of 5

Reliability :

5 out of 5

Support :

5 out of 5

Pricing :

5 out of 5

Verdict :

Communication and Customer Service. Quick response on questions or problems, with helpful information, not scripted or automated responses. They seem to always inform affected clients about any coming upgrades or service, way in advance. Also, patient with newbies.

Submitted By :

Submitted From :

Web Hosting Jury - Homepage

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