The bully Bluehost is no different than other internet and social media bullies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The primary service of Bluehost is Web hosting done right which includes Domain name registration and sales. Bluehost also claims that WordPress made easy is one of their services. Bluehost promotes various marketing services designed to increase traffic to businesses and Blogs. These marketing services are separate from the Bluehost webhosting services. Unfortunately, for customers, when it comes finances, the bully Bluehost links their marketing services to their webhosting services.
My saga, as it relates to the tactics of the bully Bluehost, is detailed below. The issues raised demonstrate that the internet is unfriendly to We the People. Big Tech has all the power and We the people are at their mercy under the current regulatory environment. Drastic revisions or elimination of Section 230, which protects cyber bullies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube from litigation, are essential. The United States Congress should consider legislation regulating the internet and the bias censorship of all types of social media cyber bullies
Since Section 230 is part of the Communications Decency Act contained in the Telecommunications Act, which was enacted into law in 1996, this entire law should be evaluated for revisions that protects We the People from all forms of internet bullying. In my opinion, webhosting companies offering marketing services like Bluehost’s SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) social media link building and all non-webhosting services should be prohibited by law from deactivating a website when these services fail to fulfill their obligations to clients resulting in payment disputes. Ethically and practically marketing and all other non-webhosting services and webhosting are separate functions.
Disputes related to failures of marketing campaigns, as detailed below, and other services unrelated to webhosting should never result in website deactivation. Negotiation of all non-webhosting service failure disputes must include the possibility refunds or price reductions. Shut up and pay up or face deactivation of your website is not a business negotiation; it is a hostage negotiation. That is exactly what the bully Bluehost did to me.
This is how my saga unfolded. One of the marketing services that Bluehost provides to customers is SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) social media link building or Full Service Design and Social Media Management. This service claims it will drive customers to your store, blog or website. Consequently, I paid for the service for over a year. The social media management group promises to accomplish this goal by posting content on a regular basis to both Facebook and Twitter. Our agreement was for two posts per week on each of my Facebook, @MCCrossroadBlogsFace, and Twitter @MCCrossroadBlog sites.
While this service did build my Facebook following to just over 1,800 people, reaching as many as 1,000 people per week, fewer than 20 people per week followed links on their posts to my Blog, America’s Crossroad. After a few months, I started discussing the fact that the Social Media campaign was not [driving} customers to [my] blog with the account manager. Her answer was always what the promotion for this service states, Getting Social Media engagement is a process and results shouldn’t be expected overnight. However, more than one year is certainly not overnight; and the service failed to drive customers to [my] blog. Additionally, the service failed to provide two posts per week for one, often two weeks, to my social media accounts about 25% of the months of our agreement. In each instance, I requested a reduction in the subsequent monthly fee to compensate for the failure to perform their posting obligations. This request was always rejected, but the subsequent number of weekly posts was increased by the number of post failures instead. Finally, the service failed to fulfill its post requirements for two weeks at the end of October 2021. On November 4, I contacted my Bluehost Social Media account manager and terminated our agreement. She told me that the number of posts missed in October would be posted in November because she could not provide a refund for the service failures. Later in November, I learned that on November 3, my credit card had been charged for services which were terminated November 4. This revelation triggered a series of events that would introduce me to the reality of the bully Bluehost.
On November 18, I checked my Facebook and Twitter sites and saw that the Social Media Management services had not made the promised postings. The October 17 posting at the bottom of the first image below is the last post by the Bluehost service in October. I created the November 12 post at the top of that image. The November 18 post on top of the second image below is the next post provided by the Bluehost service. The post shown at the top of the first image below and bottom of the second image below are the same November 12 posting which I posted. The November 18 Bluehost post was posted at 11/18/2021, 4:00 PM. This was after I informed Bluehost via Email that I was disputing charges to my credit card related to this issue.
The Email text below was sent at 11/18/2021, 11:43 AM to my Social Media Management consultant:
Today I had to dispute charges to my credit card. You charged me for November and have failed to credit my card for the 11/3 charge that was made. I also disputed the October charge since the posts for at least half of October were not made and have not been done as you promised. In addition, I blocked further automatic charges to my card.
My card company told me that I should request a cancellation verification number regarding further charges to my card for your services which I cancelled on 11/4/2021.
This Email will become a permanent record If needed in this credit card charge dispute.
Unfortunately, this is a sad end to what I thought had been a good relationship regarding your services and my blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
Mark
Her 11/19/2021, 5:28 AM Email response below showed me the reality of bully Bluehost tactics:
Hello Mark,
You reached out after the charges already went through for November and a refund was not requested. I let you know we would honor the amount that had been paid up to that point. I really wish you would have discussed this with me prior to disputing it with the bank because we could have worked it out.
I will close out your marketing account with us today. Please be advised when you dispute a charge with your bank, it will most likely lock your hosting account which will bring down your site so you will need to clear that up with the support team.
In spite of the fact that I informed the Bluehost Social Media account manager that I was terminating the service on 11/4/2021 by telephone, the above Email confirms that she did not close out [my] account until 11/19/2021, more Bluehost incompetence.
At 11/19/2021, 1:08 PM I responded:
I did not know that my account had already been charged on 11/3 when I talked to you on 11/4, or I would have requested a refund. Â I did request a partial refund of October charges due to your team’s failure to meet obligations in October which you refused. Consequently, I terminated your services based on October performance which was the third or fourth failure to fulfill posting obligations. The last October post was 10/17. The 11/3 charge should have been reversed. In addition, you promised that the failure to produce 2 posts per week on Facebook that were missed would be made up in closing my account. One post was made 20 hours ago by Stephanie Hanson, I guess from your team, not three. It is interesting to me that no action came from your team to make up missed October posts until I disputed the charges. This does not include the Twitter posts that were not posted. Since you were not able to produce Twitter posts due to the failure of your system, your price should have been reduced because you agreed to two posts per week on Twitter as well.
I fail to see what this dispute has to do with my blog site since that is web hosting and your services were supposed to be about building my Facebook and Twitter following. I would appreciate your explanation for this linkage and contact information for the support team.
Mark
At 11/19/2021, 1:133 PM, Bluehost responded by Email as follows:
Mark,
I’m not disputing the lack of posts that were promised, I just wish you would have discussed the refund request with me directly before disputing with the bank. I would have informed you any chargeback, regardless of the service, will cause a lock of your hosting account until it is resolved.
The phone number for the Bluehost support team is.
Early Thanksgiving morning, 11/25/2021, 3:48 AM, Bluehost sent the Email below:
Mark R,
Your web hosting account for americascrossroad.com has been deactivated, as of 11/25/2021.
(reason: customer did chargeback).
Since the Email was sent at the beginning of a long holiday weekend, it was not opened until 11/29/2021. As soon as I read this communique, I contacted Bluehost support to determine how to challenge the deactivation of americascrossroad.com. As with most internet giant bullies, the bully Bluehost does not provide direct telephone access for customers to present their case in disputes. It took two days to learn where and how to present my case. Bluehost representative gave me a case number and informed me that all discussions regarding my situation would be done via Email, no telephone discussions were allowed by the bully Bluehost when money is involved.
The bully Bluehost Emails continued on 12/1/2021, 11:18 PM with the following:
Hello Mark,
thank you for contacting support. I’m looking into case number 36955709. I understand your concern regarding account activation, and I appreciate your patience while we are looking into this for you.
Here’s what’s happened: From the records, I see that there are chargebacks on the account for the auto renewal of SEO Link Building – 3 keyword (Standard) for two months.
A payment and a fee will help us clear the chargeback and activate the account. We have provided access to the account for the next 48 hours to update the credit card. You can access the following link to update a new credit card.
Once the credit card information has been updated, please fill in the following template and reply to this email to confirm you authorize us to charge the total amount as well as the fee on the new card. I ______ authorize Bluehost to charge $XXXX to the credit card ending in XXXX.
We look forward to receiving your information email and resolving this for you.
It would be great if you could take a quick survey by clicking on ‘Tell Me How I Did’ at the bottom of this email and rate my support (5 = Best). The head up, the survey link is active only for 48 hours.
Regards,
Escalated Support
The arrogance of the last paragraph above is palpable. Consequently, I did not complete the survey, but I should have. I doubt they are interested in a 1=Worst rating.
On 12/2/2021, 5:21 PM, I responded to the bully Bluehost with the following Email:
SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) social media link building service to increase Facebook and Twitter ad campaigns described by Bluehost, Small Business Consultant, XXXXX, in a 10/6/2020 Email at 12:34 PM PT; and Bluehost webhosting are distinct functions with separate payment and contractual obligations which ethically should not be linked, in my opinion.
Consequently, your solution is inadequate. You have not investigated the Bluehost SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) service failures regarding the reasons I disputed the charges involved in this matter. I do not want to continue use the SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) service. I terminated the service on 11/4 for failure of the service to fulfill your obligations regarding Facebook and Twitter postings for 10/2021 and several previous months. This failure is the reason for the October chargeback. This failure was acknowledged by your SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) representative by Email on 11/19/2021 at 1:33 PM PT. This service is advertised to produce two posting per week on each of my Facebook and Twitter pages. No posts were provided by the service between 10/17 and 11/18/2021. I terminated the service on 11/4 not knowing that my credit card account had been charged on 11/3. If Bluehost was an ethical organization, you would have credited my account for the 11/3 billing since no work was performed by the SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) service between 11/4 and 11/18, actually 10/17 to 11/18, as documented on my Facebook page. This is the reason for the November chargeback. I have Emails and screen shots documenting your SEO Link Building – 3 Keyword (Standard) performance failures.
Hopefully, the information provided above will allow you to reactive americascrossroad.com or stimulate a personal discussion of the issues.
Please contact me personally if you need further clarification of my position on this matter.
Mark R. Champlin
Even after I provided the Bluehost correspondent’s name and Email dates and times, Bluehost did not think I have the documentation (shown previously) that they could access themselves. The bully Bluehost asked me to provide the documentation in their next Email to me.
At 12/2/2021, 6:01 PM, the bully Bluehost made the following Email request:
Hello Mark,
Thank you for your reply. I’m looking into case regarding account activation. I am really sorry for the inconvenience caused due to the unauthorized charges.
In order to assist you further in this matter, please provide us the screen shot of the emails which you have documented. It will definitely help to us investigate the issue.
We are an inbound call center and I am afraid we do not provide callback. If you wish to speak with our Phone support, then please feel free to call them at: U.S.(toll-free): (888) 401-4678. (Why? Phone support would know nothing about the issue under consideration!)
At the bottom of this email is a link to a brief survey that lets me and my manager know how I did. It would be very helpful if you could take it for me. (5 = Best)
A heads up, the survey link is active only for 48 hours.
Thank you for your time!”
Again, I did not complete the survey, but I should have. I doubt they are interested in a 1=Worst rating.
Although I have yet to respond to respond to the last information request, americascrssroad.com was reactivated on 12/3/2021. During this dispute with Bluehost, I contacted GoDaddy about the possibility of moving my website to their webhosting services. I was told that if the bully Bluehost continued to hold my website hostage by their deactivation, the best GoDaddy could do was accept my domain name with their service. In that case, I would have to totally rebuild my site and all its articles. Since I compose all my articles, including images and URLs in Microsoft Word, and save them, I could accomplish the task in about two weeks. Consequently, when I saw that my site was reactivated on 12/3/2021, I immediately contacted GoDaddy and started its migration process to their webhosting services. GoDaddy was able to quickly conduct the migration of the contents of the site and all that remained was transfer of my domain name to GoDaddy from the bully Bluehost to reactivate my website. Domain name transfer could take up to seven days. At 12/6/2021, 6:31 PM, I received another Email from the bully Bluehost notifying me that my website had been deactivated again.
On 12/10/2021, America’s Crossroad domain name transfer from the bully Bluehost to GoDaddy was completed and my website was once again active. At 12/13/2021, 4:23 PM, my first Blog Post with GoDaddy as my webhost was published. Consequently, I am done with the bully Bluehost.
My saga with the bully Bluehost is merely one story of how internet giants and Big Tech have all the power We the People are at their mercy. Cyber bullies like the bully Bluehost, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube will hold us hostage to extract money from us, suspend us, and exclude us from their platforms when our opinions do not conform to their woke, progressive, or Marxist norms. The United States congress must provide legislation that regulates all aspects of the internet and protects free speech and the rights of We the People.
If you have similar Big Tech cyber bully experiences, join the fray and comment on this article. All of the other America’s Crossroad Posts are listed by categories in the BLOG CONTENTS tab. If you decide to read a few, please leave comments about your Patriot Visions, start or join the conversation, and share the Posts with friends and political frienimies.