Please forgive us as we deal with issues with our current hosting provider.
We’ve been with GoDaddy for 17 years, since 2004. In the past 3 years we’ve encountered several issues with our hosting platform with GoDaddy.
Initially the problems began with being unable to access the GoDaddy portal for managing our hosted websites. Several tickets with GoDaddy had been opened, they would review and proclaim there was no issue on their side. We provided screen shots and videos from several computers across various states showing the issue and that we could not manage our site.
The blame was fully put on us by GoDaddy.
Fast forward to 2 months ago, GoDaddy support informed us we cannot manage our sites as we were on their legacy platform and we needed to purchase a new hosting plan and migrate our site. While attempting to juggle a full time job and manage our site, we had not found time to do so. We were then notified we would be moving to the new hosting platform automatically. Keep in mind, this is something GoDaddy told us they could not do and we would have to purchase a new package and different plan.
None-the-less, the migration to the new hosting platform was completed earlier this week.
Once complete, we attempted to update PHP and WordPress, no matter what options we choose on the GoDaddy platform to update PHP, WordPress would still reflect the older version. Back to GoDaddy support we go…
The initial rep the morning of 7/13/21, told us “Just go ahead and update WordPress, this will resolve the PHP issues and cause PHP to update.
Against our better judgement, we followed GoDaddy supports guidance, this again has proven to be a bad choice. Upon doing so, WordPress updated beyond the supported PHP version we were currently forced to use with GoDaddy. Thus leaving our website in limbo and certain aspects of the site would not function.
Of course this started a new support ticket with GoDaddy. Support Ticket #2 for July 13th started with the support staff telling us we should not have upgraded WordPress, even though it was GoDaddy Support that insisted we do so. They then informed us, they cannot assist and do not have access to the site or folders on the site. The direction given by GoDaddy support was to reinstall WordPress as an “Application” in their portal and then overwrite this with a backup we had made earlier in the day.
Upon doing so, it of course took the site down, so off to the restore process via the GoDaddy Portal. After 3 attempts to restore the data and it failing in the portal with a JSON error, support case #3 was opened on the morning of July 14th. At this point the rep stated we should not have overwritten the original website, thus again for the 3rd time GoDaddy support contradicts their own support reps.
The new rep stated they were unable to assist in repairing the damage done, and during the conversation they closed the chat out and forced me over to a different rep, where I had to repeat everything I’ve been dealing with in just trying to update PHP and get our site back online.
It was at this point we turned to Twitter and @GoDaddyHelp as well as a phone call into GoDaddy support. Twitter seemed to have been a failed endeavor, taking GoDaddy nearly 4 hours to even acknowledge the message, yet in the meantime a competitor Skystra Cloud was able to respond in less than 10 minutes offering support and hosting services.
The phone support rep was able to help with most things, and everything he stated yet again contradicted everything each support rep from GoDaddy had stated prior, unfortunately at this point things had been so messed up that even once the site was back online and functional, a large portion of our plugins were corrupted. This includes items such as our Downloads section and Paypal Check out services in our shop.
4 Hours in @GoDaddyHelp via Twitter states “Looks like the site is back up”, with out actually confirming with us, or if the issues have been fully resolved, so we provided them said details, and that we are still somewhat dead in the water. 2 hours after, @GoDaddyHelp responds asking for a DM with details of the issues we are encountering. These were provided well over 2 hours, and still no response, no acknowledgement of receipt, no effort to inform us they are actively looking into it, not one reply.
We will continue to provide you, our users, with details as this mess unfolds. And we are hoping to move services after 17 years with GoDaddy, and the utter abysmal lack of support we have received.
Stay Tuned!