Mar 25 2006
Netfirms Webhosting Sucks!
Never piss off a blogger. I hope that this hits the search engines and ranks high. Let’s help with some keywords!
Netfirms.ca netfirms.com netfirms problems sucks failure crash reputation review support
There..I feel better now.
A few weeks ago I promised that I was going to give them a chance after my initial disappointment, but they continue to disappoint and it’s bordering on ridiculous now. I’ve been a customer for approximately a month, and it’s been one disaster after another.
The first week I was a customer I encountered a problem with SQL connection errors. My blog, my forum, and a personal picture hosting service were all basically useless as a result. What a great start.
When I reported the problem initially on a Friday afternoon, they tried to brush it off with all sorts of excuses. They told me that it was my software was opening too many connections to the SQL server. They told me that it was my software. They told me it was everything except their own damn fault.
It was not until the following monday morning when the crap hit the fan with their corporate customers that they finally admitted to, discovered, and remedied the problem. Even that took the better part of the day, and even then, I had a difficult time getting their “Technical Support Team” (using the term loosely) to admit that there was a problem to begin with.
Ridiculous!
Problem number two - a few days ago the sendmail functionality suddenly dies - my forum is spitting out errors left and right. A call to support reports that my site has been flagged as a Spam generator, as the software has sent out more then 200 emails by 4PM in the afternoon.
It would have been nice if they had told their users about this limitation, instead of having it suddenly crop up and basically cripple my forum for a full 8 hours! I submitted a form explaining the situation, and they increased my limit.
But that’s not the end.
Now, in the last several days I’ve been having “502 Proxy Errors” in my new forum. It’s at a pivotal time in it’s growth, and I simply can’t have this happening. At times, it’s making the site unusable - the users are reporting errors nonstop, and frankly, many are getting pissed off and reconsidering if they really want to hang around. My decision to host the forum at Netfirms to begin with was obviously a huge mistake.
Most of the new forum members are being patient and very understanding, but I’m sure that for every one that says they are OK to deal with the issues until a resolution happens, there’s probably two more that visit, encounter a bunch of error messages, and say “screw this!” and leave. In my case, it’s just a forum - in the case of others, it could be their business, and this sort of downtime could result in costly financial losses and upset customers.
I called TWO DAYS AGO to report a variety of issues I was experiencing. Initially, I received the same crap - “It must be your forum software”, etc etc etc. Excuses left and right. Everything except admitting that there is a problem!
I pushed the matter after 18 hours of repeated reports of the failures, and then they try to make it as difficult as possible to formally report the issue. They want me to ask users for screenshots of the error displays, and then provide their IP addresses, browser version information, operating system information, and time/date of the exact error.
Now, I know that this is helpful information to help diagnose a problem, but really - is this a realistic thing for me to ask my users to do? It’s not their responsibility to report errors on someone else’s site, and since it’s clearly obvious that the problems are at the hosting end and nowhere else, it sure seems like a runaround, or an attempt to simply make me go away.
Regardless, I did open a sticky topic on the forum and asked people to report their errors in a thread. The thread quickly swelled to 5 pages in length with people reporting errors every few seconds. The full gamut of OS’s and browsers resulted - everything from Linux to Mac to XP, Safari, Firefox, and IE.
Clearly there is a problem, and it’s server side!
Despite the clear fact that it was mostly a waste of time and greatly frustrating, I gathered reports, traced IP’s, and sent it all in to Netfirms as requested. This took time and effort on my behalf to generate. The answer? Nothing - silence.
I call Thursday or Friday to inquire about the issue, and finally seem to manage to light a fire under someone. The issue is escalated. Why did it take so long?
Last night I receive an email indicating that the problem is “resolved”, but it also states that they “could not replicate the issue”, so the ticket is closed.
Ok, perhaps the issue is solved. The reports of errors has decreased, so I consider that the issue was actually fixed.
Today, the issue is back.
I call Netfirms Tech Support and try to remain calm as I report the issue again. I’m nearly ready to pull my hair out, but I manage to stay civil.
I’m asked once again to provide screenshots of the errors, IP traces, and dates/times.
GaaaaaaahhH!
Still remaining calm, I inform the rep that this isn’t possible - I’ve been down this road once already. I will not be taken for a sucker twice in a row.
When I push the matter, he refers to my previous ticket, and sees the issues I’ve been experiencing, and then acts as if I’m the only person with these sorts of problems.
For the record, this is the same rep that I’ve been talking to repeatedly in the last week - it’s almost like we are on a first name basis, now.
“Report it again” is the response.
So, I dutifully report the issue via yet another email. That was this morning.
I call in a short while ago to see if the issue is being dealt with.
“Monday morning is likely the earliest this will get looked at, sir” is the response. WTF?
I explain that this is simply not acceptable, but I get brushed off. There are no supervisors to speak to (not surprisingly) and customer service is of no more help.
I’m past my “30 day trial” on the service, and they have over $100 of my money tied up for 11 more months of hosting that is apparently going to suck long and hard.
What does everyone suggest I do?
At this point I’m tempted to call the credit card company and chargeback the amount, but I suspect if I do they will seize all of my domains, which would royally screw me.
I’m normally a person with an almost infinite amount of patience and understanding, but really, this is nuts, and I’m really running out of patience.
Netfirms, you suck!
FIX THE PROBLEM!
Followup: I fought Netfirms and won. Read about it HERE. Also, take note that Netifirms is a member of the Better Business Bureau, managing only a “B” rating with plenty of complaints. Read all about them at the BBB HERE, and if you too are having problems, consider a report!
If you are looking for an alternative hosting provider, I can personally attest to 1&1 being a great alternative. The service is rock solid, the customer service and technical support is excellent (although you’ll probably never need them - the 3 years I’ve been using them I’ve only had one minor problem that was fixed quickly) and the service is easy to use and extremely capable for the cost. All of my sites (including this blog) are now hosted at 1&1 and I’ve been happy since the day I moved to them after my Netfirms disaster.
If you are interested check them out here:
(Disclaimer: Yes, it’s a referral link, and yes, I do make a few dollars if you signup after clicking on it. I promise you you’ll be happy with 1&1 after the fact, and I do appreciate the few bucks I make as it goes directly back into the cost of my own hosting, not into my pocket. Thanks!)
Did you get the problem fixed?
The host hasn’t exactly been forthcoming. I did get an email yesterday finally admitting that there was a problem due to overwhelming demand for their services in the last month.
I think that the plan that I signed up for (Which was on sale for $8/Month for 15gigs/75gigs xfer per month) greatly bloated their userbase recently.
Admittedly a very good deal, but they are sure pissing off their existing userbase with these errors.
I’ve noticed an improvement, but the errors are still occuring.
Any update on the issue?
I came across your story while searching to see if anyone has had the same experience.
I’m in Markham and swithced my small business hosting to Netfirms and am having serious mySQL issues. These guys are a serious pain to deal with and I’m starting to wonder if switching to Netfirms was worth saving a few hundred bucks.
I went to update my Blog the other day and the database was just gone - Netfirms told me that it was never installed however I had been using it for over two months already. I can tolerate downtime on ocassion but deleting my databse? Come on.
I like the idea of doing a charge-back on these guys. But I would need to transfer my domain first I guess.
Rant over.
Ha, yes, updates indeed. I’m going to make a post on it now to get all the details out.
[...] I just received a comment from Nick on my post I made a few days back regarding my problems with Netfirms. It seems he’s experiencing the same nightmare. [...]
I am having the same problem, but i am also getting to many connections when only 5 or more people are visiting at one time!
Pittifull, unfortunately. I’m glad I left them behind, as I can see based on the comments I’m still receiving on this, and a few other posts I made regarding Netfirms, that the problem has still not been resolved whatseover.
I can only suggest you do as I did, Lofton - file a better business bureau complaint and try to get as much of your money back as you can, and take your business elsewhere. I’m now hosting with 1&1.com and have been very happy. Netfirms still controls my domains, so I still have to go there to control DNS settings, but thankfully they can’t seem to screw that up.
If your interested in trying 1&1, let me know - I’d sure appreciate the referral credit. ;-)
[...] Out of interest, I googled “Netfirms sucks” to see if I was getting any hits from this yet, and found many other people with the same problems (apparently even in other languages). I saw the reviews on HostSearch and decided to add my own to the mix. [...]
hi does netfirms still suck.
I am having nothing but the same problems as you. I am always getting sql errors or just blank pages.. IT is unbelieveable. They are even turning there shoulder on me. They initally said that it was my webbrowsers cache. and that topped it all off. I flipped. I told them all my users are getting the same problem as me. and they are bleepin arseholes
Netfirm sucks. My domains with them offer open relay SMTP with no authentication. What a bunch of morons.
Hi all. I am facing same problems with Netfirms, they used to be good 4 years ago, but it seems that happened to them what happens to some companies when they grow to fast. Now they have a horrible service, their hosting is the worst ever, I have been using Netfirms for years I can tell, I used to recommend it to my customers, [What a shame] I hope they forgive me now. Netfirms they tell you have 10 GB of bandwidth and with 5 users visiting my web portal their My SQL server goes down, it’s horrible and the worst thing is to contact their technical support; it’s terrible they don’t give follow-up, they send you an email asking you to reply to confirm your request, guess what?, they never answer your email. My site was down for a while and they apparently tried to fix it but they never did. Their MySQL server sucks hard as it says in this tread title. In overall will not use neither recommend their service ever.
Regards,
Kevin
Did they get bought out or something? They used to be great!
RIght now Netfirms servers will not serve any files larger than like 5 megs. So all my video files and flv files are useless! Supposedly they tried to upgrade their service and all big files are transferred to http://media-nf.yourdomainname.com
But the system doesnt work and my site has been unusable for a week.
The sad thing is that I was very happ with these guys for the last few years, so have moved my work accounts there too. I have like 4 video sites with them, and moving to a new domain is a pain. But I cant wait any longer and my good-will is all used up. I’m transferring to a new Server tomorrow… I just haave to copy all my files off today..
The annoying thing is that the tech support act surprised about the problem every time… Oh REally? you are having trouble with video files?? Untill I tell them that they have acknowledged the problem on my other 5 sites over the last week. Then they finally cop to the problem.. we are working on it, can I give you a job ticket?
I dont want another freaking job ticket! I want to know what they are doing, and what I should do!
I’m done.. anyone reccomend a hosting company? http:1&1.com? that doesnt seem to exist
Chris
Hi Chris;
All of my sites (this one included) are now with 1&1 Hosting - http://www.1and1.com
I’ve been with them for about 10 months or so now (since my nightmare with Netfirms ended) and I’ve been spectacularly impressed - the service just works all the time, every time.
In that 10 months I’ve only experienced two tiny outages, both lasting less then 10 minutes, and for a consumer-level hosting plan that’s entirely acceptable in my view.
Billing is consistent, speed is consistent, the SQL servers work perfectly, sendmail works perfectly - everything is great, and the prices (at least for the plan I’ve got) are also quite good.
I’d highly recommend them - you can signup, move your files and databases, and have your sites online there really quick once you redirect your DNS from Netfirms.
Mar 12, 2007. I am also having problems with netfirms hosting, and that really sucks. I just in december paid 10$/month for full year and now I have to look for another provider. This is ridiculous. Every send time I hit my website, I am getting no page found error!
I have 3 sites hosted by Netfirms that are constantly down. When they are up performance is extremely slow. Calling support is useless, after 30 minutes on hold they send you to a voice mail box and no-one has ever returned my calls.
E-mailing their customer service will sometimes get you a response after 3 or 4 days (after 3 or 4 e-mails), sometimes after 7. The most frustrating thing about waiting for a response is that they usually just forward you a page from their help files and never address your issue. If they send me instructions on how to clear my browser cache one more time…
While their pricing plans are pretty good, I have to give them a low rating here also becuase it really doesn’t matter how little you pay if your sites are down every 2 or 3 days.
Needless to say all of my sites are down as I write this, which is why I have the time to spend writing bad reviews of a really bad hosting company.
I am currently in the process of migrating my sites to another host and hope to never hear the name Netfirms again.
Yes, netfirm really sucks. They are slow in every aspect, from support to sites, mysql, control panel … just everything.
But whatever, I only paid $10 for a year of their hosting, I get what I paid for I guess. Shortly after signing up I notice they are very slow and their ssh comes with very little useful commands. Good I didn’t move any of my sites there. I can’t say I wasted $10 because now I just use them to serve big files on my site. I am pulling a 600gb per month before they upgraded to 2000gb and this month I already used 400gb~ bandwidth already. So it’s okay I have just a little use for it. Just don’t count on their support, they take days or even weeks to reply a simply question. And when they do, they will just give you one of the answers you can find in their Knowledge base.
One time I said I can’t change my nameserver for my domain, I even said I followed their knowledge base instruction and it doesn’t work. So what they do? They copy and pasted the answer from their knowledge base. I have to reply with “Geez, I said I tried that and it doesn’t work. Read my email.” Then after I don’t know how long, they changed it manually for me. Another time with the same issue, I contact support again. This time they are more creative, they said there are characters in my password that caused this error and they went and changed my password without informing me first. I just out of the blue got an email saying my password has been change to bleh bleh. Wouldn’t it be scary if it happens to you? I went and change my password to my previous one and it got changed again.
At the similar time when I signed up netfirms, I also signed up dreamhost.com , they also have a similar deal $10 / year (the promotion ended unfortunately, if you need a discount you can try these promo code GMAIL, MSN, or AMERICAN they have some kind of company deals I heard). Dreamhost is a much better host imo, at least their support will reply to you within 1-2 days. They still offer big space and bandwidths. Something like 200gb space and 2000gb transfer. I am staying with them even after the promotional year I have to pay full price $9.95/month it’s still worth the money. Until stupid netfirms.
Netfirms suck soo bad, I was with Hostgator and seriously Regret moving to Netfirms, I thought it would be good to put my domains under the same company hosting them. But Netfirms are just useless, they dont even have Stats on their $9.95 a month service, they expect the customer to download and install stats and edit complicated files, and their customer service just Sucks Bad.
There download speeds use to be good ( only 3 months ago ) when I hosted 700 mb + files on their servers at 192 KB/s to 720 KB/s download speeds ( peak vs off peak speeds).
Now that they installed the b.s. media-nf system for files over 5 mb , download speeds are only at 32KB/s .
There upgraded 2TB plans are therefore utterly useless, because the download speed has decreased by more than 10 times.
Damn. And I had thought they were at least good for something.
Yes I agree netfirms tech support is very bad. slow response times. they just try to ignore people and hope the problems go away rather than working to help people.
Happily I Googled Netfirms Sucks to come across this blog.
I emailed to ask why my site was still not showing after I changed the domain on my hosting, many times and received only C&P answers which looked like they hadn’t even read the question. It wasn’t until I emailed some capital sentences containing f*** words that finally one of the guys there really looked into my problem and told me exactly what I needed to do to fix it, which I promptly did. Why someone couldn’t have told me that a week previous just made me so furious that if I wasn’t on the other side of the world I would have gone down there and strangled someone. But no, because I am on the other side of the world I would have to email before bed only to get a C&P answer in the morning, which really wasn’t working out for me.
So that’s my $0.02 as well
I see nothing has changed at Netfirms in the year since I ditched them.
My new host (1&1) continues to work perfectly 99.5% of the time. Its nice not *needing* to call tech support, even though they’re there when you need them.
I’m sure if I was still with Netfirms my sites would still be throwing errors left and right….and they’d still be claiming that everything on their end is “Just fine”.
Oh god, Netfirms mysql performance is absolutely awful. I’m running a small local business, so I don’t even have that much traffic and it can’t even load any pages that requires a mysql connection. It loads normal php pages quite nicely and file transfer is acceptable, but mysql really sucks.
They really do give you the run around when asking about performance questions. They keep on saying it’s me or it’s a cache problem. I’ve tested it with very simple mysql queries and it has trouble connecting.
I too have had enough of Netfirms. The 10 concurrent MYSQL data connections is not nearly enough to do anything with, except for small scale development.
As for solutions, there are many better choices, but a friend of mine had his site hacked into and he was with 1and1. Everything was deleted. The log files showed the attackers every move. No it wasn’t php.
I wish I had run “Netfirms sucks” past Google before purchasing a hosting package with them. It all seemd ok for the first couple months, but then I started getting reports of MySQL connection errors. Then I saw it a few times, even at non-peak hours. Then it started getting worse. I was at a potential customer’s location when I sent him to visit my site. Let’s just say his visit was ‘unimpressive’. I had an email from a friend across town at an electronics manufacturing house - he couldn’t buy some power supplies because of database connection errors.
I chose a site design where my navigation links are generated by php/MySQL. So when MySQL is suffering, so is my front page. In fact, the way it dies even keeps the email link from appearing. (I gotta fix that!)
Repeated calls and emails to Netfirms resulted in exactly nothing being done. No change. Not even an acknowledgement.
So, I sent them an invoice for business lost, replacement hosting, a partial reimbursement for my time, and added that interest will acrue at the maximum amount allowed by law. I haven’t heard back on that either.
Today, I pointed my DNS settings to another host’s name servers, and I’m very happy to say, so far / so good.
Bye, bye, Netfirms. Good riddance.
Karl at affordabletestgear dot com
I’m about ready to sue Netfirms, who hosts my website. I intermittently don’t get e-mails from Comcast clients, which is a huge number of my clients. After trying to get Netfirms to check this out, and having Comcast check it out, they both say it’s the other’s fault. However, Netfirms doesn’t really read my e-mails. They’ve sent me the same Form Letter three times, and in the letter they say they know they have problems with Comcast, but they’ve done everything they can. Then they can’t do email? What the hell good are they? At least Comcast tried to send me a letter. It got bounced back, and Comcast used that example to find out that Netfirms is the one with server problems. I don’t know if it’s Netfirms or Comcast, but given the runaround Netfirms has given me, I suspect the worst. How can an ISP tell you that they can’t guarantee delivery of your email, and then take your money for claiming they do? Anyone want to join a class action suit?
email: gliddy@comcast.net
I would give you my regular e-mail address, you know the one I’m trying to make a living with, but chances are you can’t reach me!!!!!!!!
netfirms is to be avoided.
their web servers go down often. they make cgi changes behind your back: they disable all your websites and then refuse to admit they caused it.
their support insults your intelligence. you have to go to through 30 emails to make them admit something is their problem. you spend 1/2 hour writing a 2 page email explaining in detail what the problem is, then they don’t reply. when they reply, they reply with a canned answer that makes it clear they haven’t read your email. when you call them, they still don’t fix it.
it’s irresponsible to trust your business to them.
Hi,
I am having the exact same problems. I am not very technical, but daily my website is down. I’ve sent them numerous emails over the last 2 years, just to be told that there is nothing wrong.
I would like to transfer my oscommerce website somewhere else. Can this be done?
If someone knows of any information, please email me at
angelface79@bellsouth.net
Thanks.
I tried installing vbulletin and it kept crashing on step 6. It was a server timeout issue. Their tech support was far from stellar. Got a refund because of their 30 day money back guarantee.
i’m out baby!
Yes, exactly !
this problem is still remaining, and even getting worse. My site got so many time in the last couples week. Im about to move it now. it’s all enough !!!
find a better one !!
My contract is up for renewal in 2 months and I want to get the hell out of Net firms. Can someone recommend a good hosting company? And can they transfer my website?
Thanks.
thanks for ur blog. i was about to go to netfirms for my site. but then after reading your comment and others, i went to dreamhost.com. if anyone needs a webshoting from dreamhost.com. use my promo code to get $90 off from 1yr hosting fee, ITBANK90
I have been through hell a few times at Netfirms over the years. Only thing they are good for is one of the lowest .ca domain pricing in Canada. Get you dot ca & get out. Been hacking away at websites for 7 yrs now 7 to date Bluehost is by far the best support & reliability I’ve ever experienced. Hope this helps.
Sorry about your problem with them, i have one here that has been sitting annoying me for over a month now…..
Well, after a year contract them them. i did not renew. the decided it’s better if they renew for me and charge me the monthly fee afterwards after i told them not to. Then the problem continues for a month of emailing them. They agree to refund that month charge but decided to renew my domain name for me for free but had to charge to the same amount of the hosting that they agree to refund to absorb for their cost. Worst hosting by far and i had many bad ones in the past. Now after i agree to to get the refund and and pay for the domain, the amount came out to $0 since they already charge me for the month, they won’t let that through unless i give them my new cc number and info….Crap by far!!
[...] I recommend you to read the experience of someone who hosted their website with Netfirms. He recommends 1 and 1 against netfirms, but I personally had run into trouble with 1&1 support when a client of mine hosted his website with them. [...]
YES…I am having 2 issues with them. 1..can’t update my website, still trying to build it, get an error that FTP cannot connect. Can’t send emails, get an error that says Host not on the list of allowed hosts?! WHAT. I have have been with Netfirms since 2002…somehting changed? Very frustrating, yet comforting to know that this isn’t on my end, others are having troubles too. Thankfully, my site is not up for commerce yet or this would be really bad.
Hi I’m glad I found this site, I need to vent. Couple months ago I was having trouble getting additional services with my hosting company, so I needed a new host. Because I had a couple domains already registered with netfirms, I decided to give them a try with the hosting.
Right off the bat I noticed the surplus of annoying error pages. If it wasn’t error pages, it was missing graphics and I constantly had to refresh the pages. I contacted support numerous times via phone and support ticket about this problem. They always assured me that everything was fine on their end and it must be my files or my Internet provider causing the errors (so I guess it’s also the ISP at my job and all the people that contacted me to report the errors). The databases and blogs I loaded were giving constant error pages as well. I went from bad to a torturing mess. Excuses upon excuses they give me, some of them were so absurd I can’t even list them all.
So basically the “support people” know how to spin you around in circles and make you look delusional. I’m convinced they were either buying time hoping I give up, don’t know what they were doing or flat out lying to me. At one point they even had me questioning my own sanity. I now realize they may have had me on a server that was overwhelmed or just rotten and they refused to switch me to another. I guess my money and little happiness meant nothing to them. Eventually I got sick of them and their excuses and asked for a refund right before my 30 days were up (timely blessing in disguise). I’m now with another company and I don’t have these problems, interesting. Forget these people and run far away!
Thanks
I have 40+ domains hosted with netfirms as I speak. I can only access 2 of them as we speak. Tech support is an idiot. Yeah “an” I think they only have one and he barely speaks english. I have been with netfirms for about 7 years and only had a few problems. For the most part they have been pretty good. Today I am just pissed off. All but two domains down and they say they are working on it. Just blowing off some steam here. Thanks for listening.
+1
All of my Netfirms sites are down right now and I can’t even get through to customer service. I can’t even get through to Netfirms! This is the last straw. I’m ready to switch hosting companies.
I am MAJOR problems with Netfirms right now. I never had any super serious problems with them, but I am SO angry right now. I can’t get in contact with anyone over the phone OR via email. My sites are still active, but if I’m logged out of the backend (wordpress) I cannot log back in.
I cannot post anything, and I cannot change anything on the site. Basically, anything that means having to connect to the database is NOT happening. How do I know this is a problem with Netfirms? Because the two sites I host with them are having the SAME exact problems, and the one site I host with 1and1 is NOT having any problems at all. They all use the same version of Wordpress with the same plugins, scripts, etc.
Arghh I’m getting so fed up! I’ll be switching these two sites over ASAP.
Ahh, yes, Netfirms does indeed suck! I host many small sites, and at least a few go down each week…”cannot connect to the database” , “500 internal server error”, ” you are using too much database processing time”…etc., etc., etc..
Most of these sites get about 20 unique people a day…so it CAN’T be me!
Tech support gives you the runaround, or ignores the obvious (that they are overloading the server, or are hosting sites on your shared server that hog resources from others). VERY frustrating!
I will be moving all my sites again, which a pain in the ass, at the end of my time period, as I don’t want these headaches anymore.
NETFIRMS, YOU ARE DRIVING YOUR GOOD CUSTOMERS AWAY!
I did a big blunder in my life, I hosted my site on netfirms server. Every day getting different type of errors like sql problem, cgi limit issues, internal server issue and finally i am getting a new message as ‘This page will not be available until 8:05AM EST. ‘. The excuse they are saying that my site visitors reached there server limit.
Now, because of their very bad service my daily visitors reduced to below 5000 from earlier average of 20,000 visitors/day. When my site has lot of visitors i never received one error like this. Now, i am planning to move my site to a new server.
Please stay away from netfirms.com. their hosting plans are very attractive but it’s very painful at the end of the day.
Silly me. I didn’t google “Netfirms sucks” before signing on with them. Silly me for being sucked in by the price. Right now I’m stuck with a static HTML site on Netfirms. It’s basically the only way our site will consistently work. The site is for a non-profit agency I work for.
I’ve tried setting up a more dynamic site using Joomla, and the process has been painful to say the least. The server is so slow, often timing out in the middle of a session. The Netfirms help files are minimally helpful at best.
Email - another joke. They advertise spam filtering. Useless. First the spam filter is either on or off. No other settings. When it’s on it keeps deleting legit email, even after I’ve indicated “this is not spam”. While it’s filtering out the legit email, the real spam gets through.
Unfortunately I’m past the 30 days, so we’re stuck for the rest of the year. But I definitely will not be renewing with Netfirms. I’ve seen a few other web hosts that are a little more expensive, but the are no “suck” messages about them on the net and some good reviews. I guess you do get what you pay for.
We struggled with Netfirms for a year, filed 2 BBB complaints against them, and then I went over and got hosting with HostPapa.ca.
Netfirms is the worst hosting I have ever seen, and even dealing with them through the BBB is insane - because they completely DENY there is a problem - even when there is one and they fix it, they pretend it never happened so they can avoid giving you a refund!
My biggest regret in the world right now is that I got my Aunt signed up with them a few months after we joined, because I assumed that it would be OK for her since she was using a lesser package and had a lot less to lose. The price was right.
Well, I’ll be getting her away from Netfirms as soon as her renewal comes up. You would not believe the nightmare I went through simply letting our netfirms expire, and then a month later my brother had the same problem with them - they actually tried to FORCE him to renew even though they had told him well in advance he was moving on to another company. Seriously, I am not kidding - they tried to extort him into renewing with them by claiming he could not move his domain name (which he simply got around by renewing his domain name with a new domain registrar, leaving the poor lying netfirms rep completely baffled).
Worst customer service, worst quality of service, and worst of everything else I have seen in ANY business. Your only hope is to get away from them - and don’t believe them when they tell you you can’t. Just go ahead and do it. They have trained their staff to be dishonest.
Netfirms Sucks!
i have a PhpBB with more than 2500 members and Netfirms tell me i use too much CGI Ressources!
+1!
As we speak, Netfirms servers are all down.
I think they have far too many $10/year clients that has sucked down the resouces…
As Flamesfans says, their entire servers, even the netfirms.com address is down. They are killing my regular sites and my adsense income. I’m out of here
What the fuck is going on with this fucking hosting provider!!! They all down today even official website netfirms.ca! Whatta fuck??????????
NETFIRMS.CA NETFIRMS.COM ARE THE WORST HOSTING SERVER IN THE WORLD. PLEASE AVOID THIS CRAP.
THEIR SERVER HAVE MILLIONS OF PROBLEMS AND THEY JUST SAY..IT IS YOUR SOFTWARE.
AVOID NETFIRMS…..EVERYTHING SUCKS IN NETFIRMS
Maybe their shit caught on fire!
The whole operation is down, phones, servers, FTP servers.. As if it never existed!
You would think a professional brand name company, would have at least a voice recording when you call. You call tech support and all the other numbers and you get a busy signal.
I guess the bigger they get, the worse they become.
If their phones and fax are also unavail, I’m guessing they had a power outtage… guess they don’t run adequate power backup supply……
Can anybody suggest an affordable alternative host?
I am looking around for a host now. It’s funny cause I’m in Toronto and so are they.. When we had several snow storms lately, everything was fine.. Today, a beautiful sunny day and this happens!
Go figure!
I think their web servers are based in Dallas, though they have a corporate office in Toronto for their Netfirms Canada ops.
Lots of complaints here, but I knew that going in. For 10 bucks/yr, I guess you can’t expect too much. In heinsight, a $5-10/mth is reasonable, can easily be paid off having Google ads running…
Heya everyone - I’m the blog author. It’s been a busy morning for people Googling “Netfirms Sucks”, I see. Welcome!
For those looking for alternatives, I’d strongly suggest 1&1. I’m not usually one to believe in affiliates and advertising, but after my disaster with Netfirms I moved all my sites (including this blog) to 1&1 and have been spectacularly impressed for the time (almost two full years now) that I’ve been with them - the service is rock solid, and the pricing is excellent.
Anyone interested, you can get more details by clicking the image below:
(Disclaimer: Yes, it is an affiliate link, and I do get a small kickback towards my own hosting here, which I would appreciate. There’s no additional cost to you. Thanks!)
I just updated this blog entry to include links to a few of my other entries on the subject, as well as my story of having fought Netfirms through the Better Business Bureau and winning. Those experiencing problems today may wish to file their own complaint.
It looks like netfirms is down fo all sites they host! going on 7 hours now
NETFIRMS IS GARBAGE
AVOID IT
the email server is back online… not the rest of servers tho.. oh lord!
I hope I read this post before I signed up to netfirms. Yap my site still not accessible and the support doesnt even response to my email re: the problems. I hope I’m not one of them that they lost all their post and almost everything. 3 downtime in 2 weeks. They will tell you its your things is the problem…suck!
yup, POS is still down.
Do you still use 1&1 ?
If not, who do you recommend… Netfirms interface is pretty cool and is not scattered, but there is just some stuff they don’t do right…
Yes, I’m still hosting with 1&1 for about 10 sites now, this blog included. I’m still exceptionally pleased with their service, uptime, and overall reliability.
Hi!
I have been with Netfirms for several years now, and can vouch for the fact that the service and quality have been going steadily downhill. Unfortunately, we made a decision in December to extend our hosting with Netfirms for an extra year. This year, 2008, is the year when all aspects of our business are expected to grow astronomically. We have 30 websites hosted at Netfirms and were planning to let them host another 20. That deal is now off.
Since Friday midday, we have been unable to access any e-mails sent to us through Netfirms-related accounts. They have largely disappeared, and mercifully, a few bounced, otherwise we would have been unaware of the issue. Worse still, messages we send through those accounts also vanish. Initially, we could access a couple of the test messages via the Webmail service, but then everything went dead. We can log in to Webmail, but the messages just aren’t turning up.
I can’t even to begin to imagine how much business we have lost or will lose due to this fiasco. Friday is the day when we send out price quotations for coming projects, and we have much to do before the coming holiday weekend. We have had to resort to guessing which repeat clients may have contacted us and contacting them through Yahoo accounts instead. Not a professional way to do business!
Our support e-mail to Netfirms, sent just after the problem was detected, analysed and found to be Netfirms’ fault on Friday, has gone unanswered. We sent an urgent fax message this morning (it’s now 10 p.m. here) in a bid to get things back to normal by tomorrow morning (Monday), but this too has also gone unanswered. I thought Netfirms had a 24-hour customer service?
I can sympathise with many who say that Netfirms used to be good in previous years. Sadly, it appears to have lost sight of the reason for its apparent success and phenomenal growth, namely its customers - especially those of us who pay full price for their business services. I have been recommending Netfirms to clients and colleagues, but I shan’t be doing that in the future. It is no fun to be held ransom to a company to which you’ve just handed your money for another year of bondage. I feel like we’ve been robbed.
Netfirm still sucks. Especially their MYSQL servers. After complaiing to them several times about CGI server limit reached error message I moved my site to another host. I still have 4 more sites hosted with Netfirms but will move as soon as I find an alternative. Problem is my domains are struck with netfirms. I have need to first move the domains.
Netfirms are a terrible hosting company, I have used them for a few different sites in the past and they all had issues when I started installing databases etc. My recent issue with this hosting company is how for some reason when I did a backup of my blog the backup was screwed. In part it’s may fault and I admit that, but only half of the backup was saved, when I look at the file some of the tables are missing, I should have checked the file before I went and started messing — but that’s not the point and now I am unable to log into my blog…it’s screwed thanks to Netfirms.
I recently E-mailed them asking why delayed posting wouldn’t work with Wordpress on their servers and I got a response containing a URL to a blog with instructions on how to edit a timestamp -WTF? I already knew this, I’d tried many ways to get the delayed post feature to work, it works fine on the local WP install on my MacBook Pro and my Windows XP. I explained this to them and I haven’t heard anything since, what’s worse is the URL they sent me was just about readable because the guy who wrote the post was Iranian or something.
In a way I’m glad Netfirms has screwed up my backup because it’s now given me the push I have need for sometime. I can still view my blog but I can’t log in, so now I will just save all the text from my best posts along with any pictures and I will delete the blog and all other things on that site and put up a re-direct to my new site/domain — but I haven’t set up a new site yet, I will.
I would urge anyone to STAY AWAY from Netfirms because they suck!
guess what I just found out…”netfirms does not backup customer websites! What hosting company today does not perform regular backups? I had about 17 sites hacked, and now, rather then just turning back the clock and restoring a previous backup, I have to rebuild them all! thanks netfirms.
I completely agree with everything. I have about 20 clients hosted on netfirms. I thought since it was local, Toronto area would seem well. I was wrong. My other 300 clients are hosting with a real company. 1and1. Never will I recommend netfirms to a client, their backed login system sucks!!! It just freezes all the time!!
1and1 all the way. Never have had an issue with them ever.
NETFIRMS really SUCKS
everything you install with a database with netfirms cause you a million of trouble
August 2008
Netfirms still sucks :( Can’t go in to my control panel
It is September 17, 2008 and yes, Netfirms still SUCKS!!! Getting connection errors like crazy can take more than 10-15 seconds to load a simple, simple blog page, and using the backend of Wordpress is painfully slow! Simple HTML pages load very quick, but anything that takes processing takes way too long. They simply have over-taxed their systems. AVOID NETFIRMS!!!
The same problems so I decided to change my hosting provider. When I try to move my sites they don’t letme get my databases!
The have file size quota, so if you try to download your data through phpmyadmin, your file gets truncated. Also, if try to make a dump using the ssh-console access another query restriction prohibits you to do the backup: mysqldump: Got error: 2003: Can’t connect to MySQL server on ‘10.xxx.xxx.xxx’
They lock you into netfirms bad service.
Oh BS of customer satisfaction…….
another terrible company is Bell Cellular, they suck & chew at the same time.
sorry to hear of your misadventures
Netfirms has terrible email support. Their webmail interface is disgustingly worthless. They have nothing to stop spammers from spamming using your domain name. One other thing I dislike is their default phpBB forum installation is a big spam target. If you spend a couple days setting up phpBB, it will be time wasted, because pretty soon the forum will be loaded with spam.
Someone please HELP ME to find another webhosting in Canada!!!
I just can not tolarete Netfirms anymore…
they keep on goofying up with all different aspects of webhosting and then when you complain, they fix it and say that they have not done anything and that your pages are working just fine.
Come one, what coincidence that after I have sent dozens of email my issues is magicly resolved. They never admited that they have done something to the servers that had cause the feature to stop working.
I had enough and now I will move to another host that it is professional and reliable.
Thanks,
Luiz
Its now September and Netfirms continue to suck!!! Their email servers are down once again. Last month their whole site crashed bringing down my 5 websites with it (great for business!!).
I’ve been on hold with their “specialists” for over an hour now - still listening to their bs advertising of how great they are.
WALK AWAY FROM THIS ISP - THEY SIMPLY SUCK!!!!
I have continues on going issues with them.
They grew to fast and can’t host or anything I’m really ticked off with them.
My email has gone down twice, yesturday and today.
All my sites are slow thankfully still up. I was told there windows systems are flaky by some of there internal IP people.
I agree with BC don’t walk but RUN!!!
just do a charge back ;)
I tried to launch a website hosted by netfirms and it went down everyday through out the day. At first it felt like the whole world was coming to an end. So I would call Canada and go through their phone system and talk to support. They always say the are going to escalate the issue and send it to there second level support, who, you never get to talk to. After a few months of agony, you eventually get used to the slow service and the database errors, you finally give in, and your aspiration to have this great internet company slowly fizzles. Now when the sight is down I shrug my shoulder and say “oh the sites down again, ho hum”. If you want to go through the complete breakdown that netfirms will put you through and have an unstable, unsuccessful website that when you search google, it says the name of your website and in the description it says database error or not found then go with netfirms. There are better free hosting websites. I may sound like it is now big deal but, at one point I considered flying to Canada to show up in there office to cause a big deal maybe through a chair through there window or something. Now I am less angry and this comment will suffice. I am happy to see somebody ranking high on this subject. Good job “information echo”!
Cool.. I just realized your a fellow pilot.
I tried to launch a website hosted by netfirms and it went down everyday through out the day. At first it felt like the whole world was coming to an end. So I would call Canada and go through their phone system and talk to support. They always say “they are going to escalate the issue and send it to there second level support” who, you never get to talk to. After a few months of agony, you eventually get used to the slow service and the database errors. After many days torture you finally give in and your aspiration to have this great internet company slowly fizzles. Now when the sight is down I shrug my shoulder and say “oh the sites down again, ho hum”. If you want to go through the complete breakdown that netfirms will put you through and have an unstable, unsuccessful website, that when you search google, it says the name of your website and in the description it says “database error” or “not found”, then go with netfirms. There are better free hosting websites. I may sound like it is not a big deal but, at one point I considered flying to Canada, to show up in their office, so I could cause a big deal and maybe throw a chair through there window or something. Now I am less angry and this comment will suffice. I am happy to see somebody ranking high on this subject. Good job “information echo”!
Cool.. I just realized your a fellow pilot.
I can’t speak for their hosting — we use webempowermentsolutions.com in Ottawa — but their prices on .ca domains are certainly reasonable. We just port the dns over to our host and all works well.
I don’t know why I continue to suffer from netfirms. I have been trying to call support for about an hour because all my websites that I have hosted through netfirms are down. I should have moved along time ago. I guess it is my fault I should have researched them before I got involved. Now It would be a huge job to just move my sites.
Here is netfirms contact information that I got from the Better Business Bureas.
Name: Netfirms Inc
Phone: (416) 661-2100
Fax: (416) 661-0700
Address: 800 - 7030 Woodbine Ave.
Markham, ON L3R 6G2
Website: http://www.netfirms.com
Original Business Start Date: January 1998
Principal: Ms. Pamela Harding, Sr. Manager, Care Centre
Customer Contact: Ms. Pamela Harding, Sr. Manager, Care Centre - pharding@netfirms.com
Email Address: pharding@netfirms.com
Netfirms is the worst host on earth, period. Stay away if you want a sain mental health.
ready to take this hit and change hosts. I just renewed (why did I do that?) and now my site is regularly down, and trying to update the site is a sickening process of hitting save or clicking on a page to change, then waiting 30-45 seconds for it POSSIBLY to allow me to update it. Often it provides a nice comment that there is an internal server error and I should sent it to the hosting company. After sending this message and a bunch of other snapshots of my control panel freezing up and my web stats showing even a THREE day period of my site down, I am ready to move on and take the hit on the increased costs.
I haven’t heard from support in 4 days after at least 5 emails.
I switched to GoDaddy and I’m VERRRRRRRY happy and would never look back at Netfirms ever again, its the worst if ur hosting a site with a database!!!!
Just thought I would mention that Netfirms Tech Support still sucks.
I think it would be appropriate if under the “Tools” menu in their user control panel, it showed photos of their staff.
Does Netfirms still suck? They currently have the best price/value around, so I WANT TO KNOW, please reply.
I think the ongoing thread on the subject (with the last complaint comment being only a week or so before yours) should speak volumes.
There’s a reason they’re the cheapest!
HI — JUST A SUGGESTION: IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS CONFIGURING YOUR DATABASE ETC, THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T BE ADMINISTERING YOUR OWN WEBSITE. PEOPLE IN THE IT INDUSTRY SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT NOTHING WORKS PERFECTLY 100% OF THE TIME. NETFIRMS IS VERY INEXPENSIVE, SO IF YOU WANT SOMEONE TO HOLD YOUR HAND EVERY TIME YOU HAVE A WEB PROBLEM, TRY http://WWW.WEBNAMES.CA OR SOME OTHER RIDICULOUSLY OVER PRICED SERVICE.
NOBODY CARES IF YOUR BLOG IS DOWN ANYWAY.
I am so angry with Netfirms and had to speak out somewhere …. this has to be the worst company EVER!! Our entore business rests on gaining access to email and we are hosted on Netfirms.
I have called 20 times today and nobody seems to care …. they will try their best …. but the POP and webmail is down!!
How can they get away with this???
I am going to post in as many places as possible … I will leave them but I dont want other people to get stuck with them … please feel free to contact me …. I will give you the low down on them … horrible horrible …. they suck big time …. DONT GO WITH THEM.
We have used Netfirms for a number of years. I have the Enterprise 1 package and we have had various issues in the past that are usually resolved within 24hrs. Recently we started seeing major problems with our main site. It started with slow performance, then CGI concurrency limit messages and now the site is more or less offline completely. We reported the problem three days ago and it’s still not resolved. Netfirms initially indentified some issues but have never provided any detailed information on the issue and how it was going to be fixed.
Customer service is an oxymoron to Netfirms. I started to email their support organisation to request a status and ETA on a fix with no success. When I telephones them to enquire about the status of the problem, they initially refused to acknowledge any issue. When I finally convinced the engineer to review my account in more detail he found a case open on our issues. He then simply mentioned the problem was being worked on but there is no indication on the issue would be fixed. We operate a charity music competition and festival and the problems are occurred during our yearly festival week. This means people cannot check schedules, book tickets, or find out general information. In essence, it’s a catastrophic event for us.
We have tried emailing their customer support manager Pamela Harding, their CEO Thomas Savundra and various other billing and sales divisions with no success. I would suggest to anyone thinking of opening an account with Netfirms to seriously consider an alternative. They may have competitive rates but if you experience technical issues you may find them lacking in the service department.
Hm.. I have domain service with them and was thinking of getting the webhost, after reading this, i seriously doubt my mind.
I have 200 names at netfirms and never have a problem,or down time customer service is awesome.I dont use alot of their programs so dont know about that.Did add a directory,got flagged when a spammer started adding links,same as you buddy fill out a few questions but they did raise the limit.
Free privacy,toll free number,they kick goodaddy’s ass I like netfirms and hope your problems get fixed and sorted out buddy.Good job of ranking high in the search engines
at netfirms.com you pay no hst!
I should add most of my names are forwarded by a record or dns to another host but I reccomend them to anyone.
Contact me at http://www.InternetManagement.ca if you have any questions or problems
I am terribly disappointed with Netfirms Service and had to speak out. Their webmail interface is worthless. They have no security to stop spammers from injecting javascript virus or sending emails.
Another terrible thing about their service is that if any day by mistake you have used outbound emails more then 200 then you are screwed!! they will shut down your mail server without any warning and send you a stupid note and ask reason why you have sent so many emails and you have to send your details and it will take atleast 3 to 6 days to have your email stored.
This is the most ridicoulous service I have ever seen in my life. They are worst then vortech hosting.
Its about 24 hours now and our web sites are still down. Just have this stupid message on their web site and no one is doing anything.
=============================================
Netfirms Community,
Date: July 26, 2010-07-26
Time: 11:25pm EDT
Some customers may be experiencing difficulties accessing their websites.
Our escalations team is currently working on the issue and we shall post updates as they become available.
Sincerely,
Pamela Harding
Sr. Manager, Customer Support
Companies like Netfirms should be held responsible for all business looses and someone should take them in court for the kind of service they provide. This company has 250,000 customers hosting websites on their server and they make a profit of over 50 Million Dollars a year…
I hope GOOGLE should soon start their own hosting service so atleast we would get a reliable service provider.
Winhackon said it right …
“Netfirms is the worst host on earth, period. Stay away if you want a sain mental health”
fuck netfirms … its been 6 days that my web sites are down, they answer emails once a week ( 24 hrs support hahahahahahahahaha netfirms joke ). better pay some more but be reliable than these useless mf.
I’ve been in IT since the late 1970’s. I was told just two years ago by my computer teacher that I was the best computer science student to ever go through my high school…even to that day which was many many years later. Owned and operated the first ISP/Hosting outfit in my hometown in the early 90’s. Was acquired by a larger ISP several years later. Anyway, I KNOW what I’m talking about when it comes to computers and internetworking, and NETFIRMS SUCKS HARDER THAN A BLACK HOLE. They’re bordering on incompetent, and as others have already said, their support is almost non-existent. Notice it was nine (9!) days to even get a reply from them….
============================
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry.
Please indicate the email account in question.
Regards,
Norman
Netfirms Support Team.
08/04/2010
Thank you for contacting Netfirms Care Team. We strive to improve our level of service and your feedback is welcome.
Complete our 30 second survey at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/163122/netfirms-survey
REMEMBER: Tutorials, demos, and answers to over 90% of your questions may also be found immediately at our Self-Help Support Centre: http://support.netfirms.com
On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:41:39 -0400, Darren **** wrote:
> memberid: ********
> membername: ******
> domainname: ********
>
> \”Outlook is unable to connect to your incoming (POP3) e-mail server. Contact your server administrator or ISP.\”
>
> PLEASE FIX MY EMAIL ASAP!
>
> Getting real sick of Netfirm\’s lame service. Been in computers since the 70\’s and Netfirms is by far the flakiest host I\’ve ever used. Still own and admin two IT-oriented listservs with a combined subscriber base of almost 100,000 Canadians, and I\’m actively considering informing them all how ungreat your service is.
I too have to jump in, and say their service has really gone down hill and very fast. I have been with them for several years and without any major complaints. But now, I don’t have any more patience with them.
Ever since I received and email from them telling me that I was being migrated to better and faster service, all these problems have been happening.
All my FTP/folders/files/root files/Mp3/video/audio/midi files were completely missing on two separate occasions.
They told me I should have all my files backed up. What! Am I stupid. Don’t you really hate having your intelligence insulted like that? I have my files backed up on three separate hard drives as well as with Norton.
This is a copy of my last email with them when they owned up to there being a problem.
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry.
We apologize for the long response time, as we have been inundated with a larger number of support requests than usual.
This issue occurred for many of our customers while we were moving our servers to our new data center.
We are happy to inform you that after testing your site, we are, at this time, able to browse to your site successfully. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.
Regards,
April
Netfirms Support Team.
Thank you for contacting Netfirms Care Team. We strive to improve our level of service and your feedback is welcome.
Complete our 30 second survey at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/163122/netfirms-survey
REMEMBER: Tutorials, demos, and answers to over 90% of your questions may also be found immediately at our Self-Help Support Centre: http://support.netfirms.com
My time is very limited, and I do not have anymore patience with these liars to put things true and blunlty.
Do you have any information as to where I can transfer my .ca site?
Thank you.