Netfirms Avis 90

Absolute gong show over at netfirms. I have been trying to transfer a domain away and they have made it impossible. Even tho I use a gmail account, and my contact info for the domain is linked to a gmail account - requesting the auth code won't work! You need to supply an email thats not associated with any of your domains, and not a gmail. I had to use a friends email just get the code. Their live chat is brutal and their verbiage doesn't make sense. I do not recommend using ANY services provided by them.

I've been a customer for 22 years until last year always felt like they were pretty fair. This year my bill went up by a lot and when I looked on the website is still showed the price that I used to pay. When I called them they told me that that price was introductory. So I have had the introductory price for the last 22 yrs years? No notice of a pricing increase and when I called they literally told me it was an introductory offer that I was in. Terrible customer service and their rates have gotten way out of line with other hosting companies. I will be moving my website after 22 years with Netfirms and taking it somewhere else. I believe they have been bought out by someone else , when I call it says something about ipage And not Netfirms so I assume that Ipage must have purchased them or something. Regardless they will go up on your price without notice and they're hosting packages become way too expensive for what you get.

I have been a customer with Netfirms around 15 years. Originally because you could get domain and hosting for something crazy like $10/yr (first year). Then if you bought domain you got hosting for additional $12/yr. They were a reasonable company and helped keep the cost bearable.

Recently their pricing has spiked. I wanted to move to another company but none of the UK based hosts I now use, could host the canadian domain I have registered. So I stayed with them paying a premium.

Then they changed their control panel. It looked more user friendly but was not. Everything hidden away in deep menus. The times I had to have a 'chat' to find something that was obvious before.

Worst thing in the end I couldn't set up FTP accounts (to upload content). While not a disaster, they said it was a technical glitch which would be fixed next day. That was a year ago and it's still not fixed.

I have now signed up to a new host, but I chose one with a resoundingly good reputation. I signed up for 3 years and am paying the same as i used to for one year with Netfirms (why the heck I've taken this long to realise this).

To their credit, I found Netfirms support good and they almost always sorted tech and billing questions. However, we had our good times, and I'm looking for a change, so farewell.

For 20 years I was within Netfirms but am moving on (should have done this a couple of years ago). The prime reason for this is a loss of trust. I was purportedly on the "Plus" plan, which was stated on their website as being $4.49/month when renewed on a two-year cycle. I, however, was being billed $11.99/month, which didn't correspond to any stated Plan (Plus, Advantage, Business or other).
I asked for an explanation and was given the run-around. I was eventually told that the prices on the website were outdated and the "Engineering Department" would be fixing this shortly. Surprise! The prices have still not been fixed 4 months later and continue to state a rate of $4.49/month for Plus on a 2-year term.
I asked for a refund based upon what I considered to be over-billing. This was refused on the basis that they felt the service they were providing was worth $11.99/month despite being advertised as $4.49/month.
What the heck Netfirms!?!?!

They used to be great as mentioned. Bought out and now terrible.

PRELUDE:
Have been with Netfirms.CA REGISTRAR hosting for about 16 years.

PROS:
Nice front end.

CONS:
(1) - Finding the cost to renew is (was) a big chore.
(2) - Support : After purchase, pound sand.
(4) - Netfirms GUI would not let me manually Renew a domain unless I give up my right to privacy.

SUMMARY:
- We are *unable* or not permitted to make changes to transfer out, easily review fees, manually renew domains, access billing history or contact support (unless we're buying).
- The GUI problems from 10 years ago still exist.
- We are confident, based on our history with Netfirms compared to other Registrars we use, that if we tried to move any domains out, there would be many headaches - experience taught us this.

CONCLUSION:
Support: Moving domains out would cause a 5 - 10 day downtime while the names are transferred. We know that should not be the case.
Back when we had been able to contact support, we had a good working relationship with Netfirms. That was the 'good old days.'

The term "Caveat emptor" is a Latin term that means "let the buyer beware." So, caveat emptor!
SC

I was with Netfirms for about 15 years, it was great...then a terrible thing happened -- they were bought out by EIG a few years ago. Service soon went downhill, I was charged for things I did not request. Earlier I had quit Bluehost when I realized they were owned by EIG. Now I find out that Netfirms is also owned by EIG so I'm forced to quit them also which I did. No wonder their stock price went from 20.00 in 2016 to below 5.00 today.

An absolute shambles of a business, clearly inept at fixing problems that they caused themselves, tech support is nonexistent, steer clear, I cannot stress this enough.

Great email hosting website. Reliable and recommendable.