I've been a happy Hostgator reseller (I have about 25 accounts) for the past three years or so. That all changed about three months ago.

Hostgator "upgraded" their control panels and WHM. I started noticing problems - web browser timeouts, MySQL errors, etc. The errors were pretty much across all of my MySQL sites on their shared server. It appeared to me to be a server problem. I contacted Hostgator a half dozen times via chat support, and was brushed off each time. I was told my databases needed "optimizing" and other such nonsense. I knew that it just didn't make sense for ALL of my databases on ALL sites to suddenly start generating errors unless there was a server problem, but I couldn't get Hostgator to look deeply into the problem.

Until last week, the problem was an irritant, with my customers becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor reliability of their web sites. Then the bottom fell out. All of my sites went down on Wednesday, without warning. A frantic message to Hostgator revealed that they were now in an "emergency" rebuild of their RAID server and the sites would essentially be down for two more days. I was forced to move a site to another host at my own expense.

To add insult to injury, while updating my credit card info with Hostgator, I discovered a $75 invoice from TWO YEARS ago that they had forgotten to bill me for. I brought it to their attention, expecting that they would write it off, considering the time and trouble their failure to act in a timely manner had cost me. My mistake. They insisted on my paying the TWO YEAR OLD invoice, and offered no more than to reimburse one month ($24.95) of hosting.

My advice: if you are looking for a host, use someone other than hostgator.

I am sorry for your troubles.
May be the while updating cPanel/WHM they introduced some limits that were slowing you down... (I can only assume)

That RAID issue seems to be just bad luck / bad timing. Two days is certainly way more than the "usual" time. Just shows how many accounts/data they have on that server.

i've been using hostgator reseller services for years now and honestly i've never faced a problem with it and their support is awesome , they can help fix anything

Is it possible they updated their MySQL and PHP to the latest version and some of your customers sites were coded for older versions?

If you have a site specifically coded for PHP 4 and try to use it on PHP 5, there is a good chance you are going to have weird problems and/or errors.

HostGator has probably come to this point when a company is big enough to afford having a certain percent of unsatisfied customers. I'm sure that many of their customers are fine with their services. Try to find another hosting provider which will pay more attention to your needs. As far as for the downtime, it happens sometimes.

Sorry to hear about your poor experience with Host Gator! out of curiosity, do you plan on keeping your business with them or finding a new hosting provider?

Definitely a learning experience for all hosters, and not just those clients at Hostgator. I personally have had no interactions with Hostgator other than moving some customer files from their servers to ours. I do know that their dedicated servers they limit heavily. A quad core server with 4GB memory and a maximum limit of 25 mysql connections. It was a little too much for their ex-client to handle and they pulled the plug on it.

2 days to rebuild a RAID is a HUGE issue and as Fastian stated, that just shows how much data are on the drives.

Hopefully you had an external backup and can get hosting with an alternate web host ASAP.

With so many customers at Hostgator you'll have good and bad reviews, but this is definitely a bad situation for you and your clients.

Sorry to here that your problem.

I suggest you switch your Host RIGHT NOW! Many Good web hosting companies here ! Choose anyone of them!

Update: The $75 two year old invoice was dropped by HostGator.

Thats good to hear - how did you find out though?

A similar discussion was/is going on at WHT.

Typically, with threads like this - one post complaining about a specific provider - doing a search on the content reveals all the forums the OP placed it on. In this case, the OP followed up on WHT, but not here.

Ah - thanks for the clarification

Oh wow, that sounds horrible. I wonder why at least one employee didn't take a deeper look into your problems instead of brushing you off.

I wonder why you stayed at hostgator when they basicly blue you off like that several times. You could find just as great hosting or even better with the personal feel.