Can You Trust FatCow?
Being in the business since 1998, FatCow has obviously established their brand and solid experiences, be it technical or business administration in dealing with their services. Although years of experience can be a reference of the hosting quality, it is not a good one. Thus to answer the question – can you trust FatCow, we have to go into the users experiences.
 |
How Others Find FatCow?
Basically I can sum up my finding into this – FatCow = great hosting. I know this conclusion is not persuasive at all without reasons. So here is what you want:-
Not mentioning about the good user reviews and reports that I have read, try this in judging FatCow. FatCow is in the business for 10 over years, 11 to be exact. Imagine for these 11 years of services, there are very little complaints or none at all in the internet. You want to know how to justify this? Easy, perform a Google search on “FatCow Sucks” or “FatCow Complaints” and these are the numbers that return (Inverted commas are needed for exact phrase search).
- FatCow returns 559,000 results
- “FatCow Sucks” returns 521 results
- “FatCow Complaints” returns 561 results
Out of 559,000 web pages that are related to FatCow, there is only 0.1% of pages relate to complaints. If you look carefully into the hate page results it is also easy to see that some pages are out of date and are not relevant to FatCow Complaints at all. Will a hosting have this least complaints if they are not trustworthy, especially for a host that has served this long?
And here are some of the reviews from real and existing customers:-
“I appreciate the service you deliver. FatCow’s high standards and fair price are a terrific combination that I recommend to all.”
Barry, callbackworld.com
“FatCow has been hosting our Web site for two years. They have remained committed to delivering the best value and customer service in Web hosting to the small business user. The technical support group is easily accessible (via telephone or Internet), professional and quick to respond. Our clients have never experienced difficulty accessing our site. We utilize the FatCow Plan, which is a great deal.”
Gordon, gordonpage.net
“Your tech support group is excellent! Please thank Daniel in your Technical Support Group. He was very helpful and knew exactly what to do.”
Ed, bizzybroomz.com
How Do I find FatCow?
Obviously, I like FatCow. FatCow is indeed a good host in all aspect from hosting features, uptime performance to their customer support. If you were to ask me do I trust FatCow? Certainly I do.
[...] FatCow Hosting Features Review Can You Trust FatCow? [...]
I’m new to FatCow – less than a month and they’ve already had a major DOWN (including e-mails). That’s OK, can live with that BUT anyone who deals with FatCow should know that the reps and supervisors have ZERO authority and everything they promise is a LIE, particulary any credits they claim they are going to give you. If you’re OK with that, that I say go for it- their cheap! If I wasn’t locked into a contract, I would cancel in a heartbeat, but I will have to put up with their crap for awhile .
@New User,
Thank you for your information. I’m sure all the readers need that.
It is saddening to hear about the downtime. Can you tell us more about it. Like how often they are down? Did you talk to the support and what’s their response? I suspect there are some problems with the settings since your account is new. Also what are the credits FatCow has failed to give you? Mind to tell us the specified details.
FatCow is bonded with HeiferCratic Oath. They have to answer your call and emails in the shortest time possible. Thus you should really talk to the support and ask them to solve your problems as soon as possible.
Well, FatCow has a 30 days no-question money-back guarantee. Since you are only be with them less than a month, you are definitely entitled to it. Try talking to the support and seek for help. My experience was they are friendly enough to help you.
This is a great post and your analysis is very logical.. Nice work Daren. In fact I have just signed up FatCow. I find their hosting very good especially their vDeck control panel. Well I have a few cpanel hosting myself and this is my first vDeck. To my surprise, vDeck is very handy. In less than a minute I have already got used to the platform.
@Dave
Thank you very much for your comment Dave. I’m glad that you like my post. Yes indeed vDeck (to be specified vDeck 3.0) is very handy nowadays. It is designed to suit all level of users. Since you are cpanel user, do you know you can also customize the layout of vDeck into cpanel-look-alike? What you need to do is to choose IconPlus in your appearance settings.
I am searching for a Host & find your comments and opinion very helpful. Not everyone knows that you can google for “complaints” for almost anything on the planet. With only 0.1% Negative for fatccow over 20 years… thats pretty good as I understand that most problems are usually operator error. Also I have been Live Chatting with fatcow reps and they are already offering Me pretty sweet below advertised discounts!
(domain name & ShopSite Starter for $3.50 per month)
For a First time web presence for e-commerce… I’m going with FATCOW, next week I’ll try to remember to update you on how it works out for Me.
@Richard
Thanks for your comment!
I’m glad that you find the information helpful! I wish you all the best with FatCow. Also, remember to justify the performance of FatCow by tracking your website up time. You can easily sign up a free account/ service at either http://www.siteuptime.com or http://www.uptimeauditor.com/. I hope this helps.
>> Richard H:
Also I have been Live Chatting with fatcow reps and they are already offering Me pretty sweet below advertised discounts!
(domain name & ShopSite Starter for $3.50 per month)
For a First time web presence for e-commerce… I’m going with FATCOW, next week I’ll try to remember to update you on how it works out for Me. <<
I did pretty much the same thing you did. They were very responsible, pleasant, and helpful when I contacted them BEFORE signing up. Wait until you see what they charge your credit card! I had to FIGHT to get the rate I was quoted. After many, many phone calls and battles with them I finally got it. I had the name of the rep who took my order, the date/time I spoke with him and it didn’t matter.
Also be VERY CAREFUL when they offer credits. They will NOT credit your credit card; they “MAY” credit your account which doesn’t show up unless you ask a supervisor specifically to add that widget to your control panel. Note from FatCow’s billing console: “Please note: This chart reflects scheduled payments. It does not reflect any credits, refunds or special discounts. As a result actual charges may vary from those listed. ” You should also know that no matter what a rep tells you not all reps are authorized to give credit. I have less than half of the credits I was promised because the “Credit Czar” decided I DIDN’T NEED ANY MORE CREDITS. I’m still with FatCow (it’s too much of a pain to change right now and I’ve gone through hell and back with them)but if I had to do it over again…NEVER. Just an honest opnion.
@Richard, how could you get the $3.50 per month offer? Do you have any special coupon code? Mind to share? Or did you commit to a much longer contract?
@NewUser
“Wait until you see what they charge your credit card! I had to FIGHT to get the rate I was quoted. ”
Please clarify that the charges on your invoice is different from the one shown in credit card bills?
And, no offense NewUser but I seriously think it is a common sense that very little company or none at all, be it a hosting or a general store, offers credit back in CASH form! For usual case companies will credit back in term of product. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
I have been with FatCow for some time too but I’m not as lucky as you to get a credit back (Let’s hope FatCow sees this and offers a credit back to all their customers at once!) To me FatCow is fairly a good host. Not much remarkable performance and yet there is no bad points to complain about.
Hi NewUser,
Can I ask how much FatCow charge you? You have any coupon codes? I’m currently deciding between FatCow and Hostgator and then I come across your comment. It sounds like FatCow has a bad service. But anyway I wonder why don’t you switch host before the money-back period ends since you have experienced the bad service in the early time? Aren’t they allow a 30 days money back guarantee?
@Joshua@CSSWebDesigning said:
“Please clarify that the charges on your invoice is different from the one shown in credit card bills?”
Simple. I was told the fee was $XX; I got my credit card statement and it showed a DIFFERENT amount.
@Joshua@CSSWebDesigning said:
“And, no offense NewUser but I seriously think it is a common sense that very little company or none at all, be it a hosting or a general store, offers credit back in CASH form! For usual case companies will credit back in term of product. Anyway, just my 2 cents.”
No offense taken.
I find that companies I deal with issue credits both ways; however in this case it’s mute because initially I was told my contract would be extended by the credit amount. When I was told that I asked about a SPECIFIC DATE to make sure I understood and the rep confirmed the date. When that didn’t happen, I was then told it would be credited back to my credit card. I don’t have a problem with a company issuing credits the way they want but PLEASE tell me what you are going to do. Don’t promise one thing and do something else. Here’s the funny part: the rep who told me about extending the contract does NOT deny telling me. No one does. I give him credit for that. But as I mentioned before, it doesn’t matter what you’re told.
@Joshua@CSSWebDesigning said:
“I have been with FatCow for some time too but I’m not as lucky as you to get a credit back (Let’s hope FatCow sees this and offers a credit back to all their customers at once!) To me FatCow is fairly a good host. Not much remarkable performance and yet there is no bad points to complain about.”
The credits aren’t because of some special; it’s because of poor service. For example (my latest issue), did you know they post pics on your site without telling you? I was told they were “testing”; OK, maybe I can live with that but remove them after testing. What I can’t live with “Semi-pornographic” pics that I did NOT put on my server.
@Potential-Subsrciber said:
‘Can I ask how much FatCow charge you? You have any coupon codes? I’m currently deciding between FatCow and Hostgator and then I come across your comment. It sounds like FatCow has a bad service. But anyway I wonder why don’t you switch host before the money-back period ends since you have experienced the bad service in the early time? Aren’t they allow a 30 days money back guarantee?”
I think it was about $42. I have to check with accounting. There was no coupon. I just googled and found it. I did ask to cancel before my 30 days butg was told a credit card refund would take 3-4 weeks and a paper check 8-10 weeks. We all know it doesn’t take3-4 weeks to issue a refund. After being a FatCow user for a little less than 2 months, minus the billing/credit issues, FatCow is OK. I’m not a raving fan, but right now I have so much on my plate I just don’t want to change. Maybe when I contract ends and my credits are used up.
Switching from my previous host is really frustrating! However with the help of FatCow my websites are shifted smoothly, better yet, at no additional cost. I totally understand their free transfer service is meant for advertisement and marketing but I never thought they really did it so professionally!
I have signed up FatCow and received good service from them! A job well done! Thanks FatCow!
New Problem!
Last week Fatcow servers went down. Tried for 3 HOURS to get e-mails out. Didn’t happen. Finally called to check on the problem and was told there was no problem. When I insisted there was, they finally admitted, “yeah, it went out for about 15 minutes but everything is working now.”
So tried to send the e-mails again. NO GO. Told the rep and she said nothing was wrong. I insisted that there was; put me on hold for 20 minutes and finally admitted there was a big proglem. Asked how long it would take to repair. Didn’t know. I gave up. Found a work around using another e-mail account (not Fatcow) and it was a PAIN, but al least got the e-mails out. These were time sensitive business e-mails that were critical.
OK…here’s the best part. When they finally got it fixed hours later, apparently – without telling me – they tested EVERY e-mail address I have including one that goes to a listserv with hundreds of members. Many on the list thought it was spam, others didn’t know what to make of it, some replied (because it said test), some blocked my e-mail address and boy did I get chewed out for it. Normally if I do any testing I let everyone know in advance.
I explained, but still, I’m responsible since it’s my e-mail account. Oh…the adventures of having Fatcow hosting!
I like FatCow. It’s cute! Do you all know whether FatCow support WordPress?
@Mary,
FatCow does have WordPress. For your information, FatCow run on vDeck 3.0 which mean FatCow is embedded with Install Central, a free script and application library. For a full list of free scripts, check out this post – Install Central
I got a hosting account with FatCow, I paid the $46 a year. I think it’s decent for the price, haven’t -spotted- anything cheaper… heh heh… never mind.
My Experience:
- They actually called me on the phone to say, ‘hello and welcome’.
- I then got a call a week later to ask if I was satisfied or had suggestions.
- During the 3rd week, I even got a call same day about a technical support question I sent in through the help desk.
- I have since only received vague and useless emails in regards to technical support questions though.
Negatives:
My only complaint so far is their email server seems ungodly slow at times. I think it has to do with their antispam/virus scanner because new account don’t have any issues but my older email accounts with those features take 1-2 hours minimum to receive new messages.
I’ve tested it, carbon-copies emails to 6 email accounts hosted with them. All but 2 accounts receive the emails instantly. Those 2 take hours and the time/date stamps are off. It’s the wierdest thing I’ve seen.
Tech support had no clue.
I have had nothing but poor service from Fat Cow. I would caution against them. Their customer service is far and away the worst I have ever had from any company. They make promises and then deny they made them. They billed my credit card TWICE for one hosting account, and when I asked them to refund the second charge, they told me they were deducting the $15 domain credit because I already set up a domain. Um, I only set up ONE domain, and paid for it. It’s ludicrous to suggest that I am to accept a deduction from a duplicate charge!
Their representatives on live chat struggle to write clearly, so I’m guessing there’s a language issue. When a help ticket is submitted, it’s clear they are not really researching the problem because they answer back with a solution that is irrelevant to the problem.
I’ve had it with them and can’t caution people enough to BEWARE of Fat Cow hosting.
I am hosted by FatCow and they are the best I’ve had yet. Their support is simply amazing. You can’t go against that..
Right now, their having a problem with the servers, but hey, I’m fine with that. My site isn’t going anywhere yet anyways.
This is a post I’ll be linking to.
First, of all I did a Fatcow complaint search, and I came up with over 90,000 complaints, not the 521 that someone is suggesting.
Next, I’ve had Fatcow for over a year. I’ve always had problems. The customer service department is pretty good though. About 80% of the time I got my problems issued on the 1st try.
If I weren’t under contract, I’d be gone.
As for me, I’ve had nothing but slowness and downtime when it came to their hosting service. I should’ve gone elsewhere but absolutely loved the name and the fact that my domain would be registered with tucows, I love cows, cows are pretty but that’s a story for another time. I also signed up because well I saw a lot of good reviews about it and very little bad reviews.
Now, their support is great but the hosting is lacking a bit. Quite often will MySQL go down and sometimes (not very often) will the host entirely go down. Though all the time the host is slow at least since I signed up September 13, 2009. At first I figured “well this is just one of those bad days” and it’d clear up and everything would be fine the rest of the time but nope. In fact it wasn’t, now I never really submitted a ticket about the slowness up until recently as now it’s really starting to annoy me how the slowness never seems to clear up and when it does it’s only for that brief moment.
I decided to do a bit of a bench mark, compared my friends hosts, my free host and fatcow: http://is.gd/41d1W it’s a bit long so I just lnked it.
I suppose I’m just a bad egg so I can’t say that I would recommend it but since it’s a case by case scenario I wont say I don’t recommend it. Maybe you’ll get lucky and have no problems with Fatcow but I’ve had nothing but problems. Guess I’ll wait a couple more days before I attempt to get a refund.
fatcow sucks.. its slow.. and the server response time is awfull..
please dont go for it..
check the website link of mine.. and u can come to know the speed of the fatcow..
i am hosting in fatcow now..and suffering..
Sandeep, just wondering is your issue solved? Because I don’t find your site slow at all..FatCow looks just fine for me so far. So I guess I will be going with them..
Well I just wanted to say that I got a refund for my fatcow hosting and moved onto a different host. My problems weren’t solved so I gave up before it was too late.
@Sandeep
The slowness of their servers is EXTREMELY annoying, but what else do you expect? They give unlimited hosting and many more features to utilize! Maybe if people donated large amounts of money they can get 5 more servers. Up for it?
Dude if you don’t like what you are getting, then just move to another site. Either that, or try their dedicated server hosting. That’s a guarantee that your website will NEVER be down or slow. (Excluding Maintenance, of course.)
I for one won’t be getting dedicated server hosting from them, not yet atleast.
Please stay away from fatcow! I wish I had. They recently had SQL problems and they deleted my WordPress database then they blamed it on my and said that I never installed any tables in my database. What a joke. The site was very slow prior to this and now all the data I put into my blog is gone and their solution is for me to reinstall WordPress. No way! I am getting as far from them as possible. Oh by the way – they want to charge me a $35.00 cancellation fee. Stay far far away!
I have not been able to send email for a week. The work ticket has been open for a week. They tell me the problem is complex so it has been moved to a level 3 tech. They tell me the problem is specific to my account (which is odd/makes no sense, to say the least) and I don’t know what to think about them at this point. My business is suffering and they have no answers as to when this will be fixed.
The problem seems to coincide with an “upgrade” they did to the mail system.
I am at a loss, both figuratively & literally…
Thumbs down for FatCow. They are constantly having maintenance issues, like right at this moment for example. I was with iPower for several years and I was never affected by their maintenance procedures. I opened a FatCow account to try another host and what a disappointment.
You can’t buy domains on a 1 year basis. The minimum you spend is $20 if you want a new domain, and you’re stuck with it for 2 years. Maintenance issues seem to occur at least once a week. I have lost revenue on multiple occasions. Reimbursement? Lol. The user control panel is a circus. If it weren’t for the icons, I’d have no clue what to be doing since their verbiage leads you in circles and to no resolutions.
I hate this provider and will not be renewing, and will also try my best to discourage others from using them.
One thing I should mention to their credit: you can always access a tech support agent, but then again, which companies don’t do that?
Sorry for the negativity as I’m sure you’d like to hear more positive discussion, I just have some long-running issues with FatCow’s service.
Oh and one other thing I forgot to mention: I wanted to restore my file directory back to it’s original condition when I started with Fatcow. The tech support person told me I had to purchase the $15 system restore tool. Ipower did this for free, for you, while on the phone with you. But anyway, I bought the tool and then the tech support person says, “oh wait, you don’t need that tool for what you’re trying to do”. Did she offer a refund? LOL, not a chance.
Stay away from this company. They’re just bad.
well I have been with fatcow for 5 years now…..really they do kinda suck these days…my sit is down right now as we speek.I use dreamweaver to host my sit and fatcow is always down………it cost 100 dollars for 1 year………but they don’t tell you that you have to pay another 20 bucks to keep your domain name, why the hell would I want to change my .com adress every year………so why the hell don’t you just put the dam 20 bucks on the bill, I’ll tellya why, every year I pay with credit and you never add the domain renewl in theer so my site goes down and I have to swipe my card again to do this………for god sake just tell me I own 120……….and your people on the phone with tec from india speek inglish like crap. but sadly Ill still pay at the end of the year…….
I signed up with them a year ago. It never worked. Now that renewal is coming up and they won’t stop harassing me via the phone. Their livechat system is rude and not helpful. Stay away from these assholes.
A good company will ignore the positive comments and concentrate on attending areas of negative comments to improve on the service provided. It is easy to parade good comments but it is not good bussiness to ignore or wave away negative comments because there are many more positive comments.
SOOOO HAPPPY….
I LEFT Fatcow and can’t believe how great the new hosting company is. I feel like I’m in a new world, not the hell hole of Fatcow. I gave Fatcow a year of my life and there is no way to describe how HORRIBLE it was and what a NIGHTMARE my online life was.
A WORD OF WARNING (something to think about):
I went through two and a half weeks of hell trying to get my domain back so I would caution anyone who has their domain with Fatcow (who uses Tucows) to think again! I never in my wildest dreams ever thought they would hijack my domain. The problem? Factcow uses Tucows; even though your domain is with Tucows, they will NOT TALK TO YOU, HELP YOU, or DISCUSS IT WITH YOU. They tell you to contact Fatcow. Fatcow says “Not their problem”. I had to threaten to sue to get my domain bank. Since I couldn’t wait to get my domain, I had to get a new domain and START ALL OVER. Be VERY, VERY CAREFUL.
this seems to be a bunch of fat cow reps due to them quoting pricing in every post. I will say that fat cow is not the best host i have ever dealt with. My site must be hosted on the most over loaded server them have with all the downtime and very slow response times i get with them. I will not be renewing my service once my contract is up.
I’ll probly had back to 1&1 i have not had any real issues other then i hate how they do mysql databases.
Hello,
Fatcow is down AGAIN. Not just my site, but their site as well. So, from what I see on the web that means there is something wrong with the way I have built MY site? Curious when you search for Fatcow there are so many reviews and statements that link directly to Fatcow. How did that happen? They are busy little poo makers over in the Fatcow ranch to have themselves so well covered on the internet.
So I just sent out an email directing people to my online magazine and the site is down (again)! I can’t get email and as the Fatcow site is down as well it is a big ??? as to what happened. Time to move my blog to Media Temple (the professionals). So white wash this one fatcow!
DO NOT TRUST THEM!!!
Just because my father knew my one security question to my account.. they transfered all my files to his hosting account with them. I am contacting a lawyer!
Leave your response!
Web Hosting Deals
If you are looking for the best hosting then you are in the right place. Please browse around & read our hosting reviews. For best hosting experience, we recommend iPage. Also check out the deal-or-no-deal section of each host. The voting system is built for users to feedback on certain web host.
Hosting Review
Best Web Hosting
Hosting Coupons
Web Hosting
Web Host Voting
Featured Hosting Articles
Recent Posts
Best Hosting Review
Featured Hosting Articles
Best Hosting Deals
Other Resources: Web Hosting Reviews | Cheap Web Hosting | How to Make A Website | Web Hosting | Free Cheap Web Hosting Reviews | Joomla Hosting | Best Website Hosting | Free Web Hosting | Top Web Hosting | Free CSS Layouts | Web Hosting Reviews | Best Hosting
Best Hosting Deals: Review & Compare The Best Web Hosting.