When I went in search of a web hosting service, I first looked at old, reliable Epinions to help guide me.

Dreamhost was one of the top three recommended by users—the others being Cedant (#1) and Future Quest Hosting (#2). It took me a while to decide which one to go with because they all had similar features to offer for really cheap prices. In the end I chose Dreamhost because for a couple dollars more I was able to get 3 email accounts, 30 megs of storage, 2GB of transfer bandwith a month, and much, much more. To top it all if, if you pay for a full year you get 3 extra mail accounts and 30 more megs of disk space!

When I finally decided to go with Dreamhost, I became extremely excited and couldn't wait to get everything set up! I already had my domain name and now all I had to do was set up a Dreamhost account. This was where my nightmare began...

Navigating through the site was easy, inputing all my info was easy... paying was not. Dreamhost gives you a variety of paying methods—everything from your credit card, checking account, wire transfer, and even paypal. I went with credit card. After typing in my number and billing info I was told to click on the submit button only once so that I wouldn't get charged twice. It then redirected me to a page that stated my credit card was denied. OK. I knew there was nothing wrong with my credit card, so I picked up my cell, and just to be sure, I gave my credit card company a call. Just as I had thought—nothing was wrong. The lady said the transaction didn't even show up on their computer. OK, fine. So when I tried entering my credit card info and clicking the submit button again—DENIED. OK, forget credit card. I went back and tried paypal. It worked. NOW, I was even more excited!

So I logged onto my new account and began submitting my already registered domain name. Just as my nightmare with the billing ended, my nightmare with adding a domain began. With the Crazy domain insane plan, I am entitled to HOST one free account, but after I type in my registered domain name, it told me "You do not appear to have any services that allow you to add an extra domain." Sure I do, my plan states that I have one free hosted domain that I haven't used. You would not believe how many times I went in circles trying to figure out what was wrong. Finally I gave up. I had already emailed them with my problem so all I had to do now was wait. While checking out the other features on their control panel, I saw listed under the billing tab the last four digits of my credit card number! There was no charge attached to it, but how did it get there if it was denied twice already?

The next day, I tried numerous attempts at adding my domain name, getting the same responses as stated above. Later on that night (around 11PM), I finally got an email response. Of course it seemed like an eternity to me... Anyway, the email was very nice and it just said that my account was pending approval—that's why I couldn't add a domain. But now that it was approved, there shouldn't be any more problems, right? Absolutely wrong! I went back to Dreamhost, signed in, clicked on the add domain tab, entered in my domain, added the name to the plan I ALREADY have (so far so good), got directed to add a user to the plan, and then... nothing. After adding a user (me), I was redirected to a blank page—no error message, no hour glass, no NOTHING. OK, I tried redoing everything. Nothing. Tried once more. Nothing. Tried once more just to make sure. Nothing. Don't ask me how many times I tried—you'll probably laugh.

And that was that. My last straw. I couldn't take it anymore. Too many problems occured just within the two and a half days. I couldn't call them and ask for help. All I could do was wait. The most disturbing fact is that I could NEVER call them for help—they don't offer any phone support! I thought I could live without it, but after everything that's happened, I don't want to take anymore chances.



Recommended: No

Monthly fees (US$): $9.95/month, 20% off if you pay for a full year
Platform used: Windows NT
Hosted on Secure Server: Yes