Snot Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Sup, I just tried Yola and they owned me. I went with the $100 silver plan and then found out that its just a knock off of my space. The only way to edit your site is by copying and pasting code into boxes. They don't give you ftp, php, mysql, or anything a real hosting provider would. It would be nice if they let you know that somewhere on the order screen. Anyways now i'm fighting with them over my refund. They say the have a 30 day refund period but they keep saying I can't have a refund because I used a coupon and got it cheaper. Yea i'm pissed at yola they really suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 So I just went to their website and did a basic, quick recon of their pricing/plans, services, other sections of the site, and here is what I found: You complain about them not saying what kind of access you get but it seems to me that they clearly tell you what access you get. They have a snapshot of features in the pricing lists. They have a "features" tab that shows you what all they offer, what you can do with their services outlined with screenshots and a link for more details of exactly what you can do. So what you're really complaining about is them not telling you what kind of stuff you don't get. IMO that really isn't a fair expectation to set. Why should a company be expected to list what they don't offer? Which brings me to my next question: why didn't you research what they did and didn't offer, before making the purchase? Looks like they have plenty of venues for asking them questions. They have forums to ask/search. They have a popout tab on the left of the site encouraging you to talk to them. They have a phone number plastered everywhere inviting you to call them. They have a "get help" tab right there on the top. You can enter in questions and it tries to spit out answers. For example, I typed in "ftp" and I got: Can I use FTP on Yola? Yola does not offer FTP services. For something to work with our websites, it needs to be integrated in the Sitebuilder via a widget or by pasting HTML. You can also add certain types of files (image, document, media etc) to your File Manager. I'm sorry, I looked around their site and it is my opinion that they clearly advertise website building/hosting services oriented for non-technical people, and clearly detail what they do offer in that regards. Bottom line is that instead of doing even basic research, you just made some assumptions or worse, didn't even think about it at all, and then dove right in. TBH I don't really feel you deserve a refund. Not under the basis of them being shitty or false advertising or whatever. IMO you are at their mercy as far as a refund and they are justified in keeping your money in exchange for the product/service they sold to you. But one thing I have a question about...you said you spent $100 on the silver plan but that looks like their regular price, so where does the coupon discount come into play? Assuming there really is a coupon at play here...did you read the fine print regarding using it? Do the terms of using it state no refunds on use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snot Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Yea I'm kicking myself for not researching these guys before i signed up. I normally would have but I guess it was a timing them. My current hosting plan was about to run out and I didn't have enough money to renew it. Then this coupon shows up. Owned. I didn't say I paid full price for the plan. After the coupon anyways, but I don't think I should be at their mercy when it comes to the refund. One of the things it does say on the sign up page is that they offer a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. I made it perfectly clear that I was not satisfied in the least. As for Yola letting you know they don't offer anything. Its not on the sign up page. You would have to research it to find out. That I now regret is something that I should have done. Them not wanting to honor their refund is icing on the rotten cake. The coupon doesn't have a TOS that I can find. Not that I would have read it anyways. The three main points to take away from this aside from me failing to research something before I bought it. Yola is intentionally misleading when describing what they sell. At least I didn't know I wasn't buying a real hosting package until after researching. Yola doesn't offer a number of basic web hosting features that every equally price hosting plan I've seen do offer. It was my understanding that these were common features for paid hosting. Yola will give you the run around when it comes time to hold up their end of the 30 day money back guarantee. At least with me their excuse is refunds don't apply to coupons. Just giving you my opinion of these guys. True if I would have known i would have never signed up in the first place. That should be a good indication in its self of a poor hosting choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 TBH - I think those kinds of hosts screw people over because they typically output poor quality sites & charge an + a leg for it. Is this the case with them, I dunno. I can't judge. But... in the pricing grid if it ever says "Easy-to-use website builder - With Yola's Sitebuilder, no technical skills are needed and there's nothing to download. If you can click and type, you can make a website with Yola." and you're looking for just a good 'ole server for hosting your stuff... run the other way. Now are you calling them or doing it via email? If you havent tried calling, I'd call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I didn't say I paid full price for the plan. You said you went with the $100 silver plan. The listed price on their website is $100 (or like $99.95 or something, close enough). While you did not explicitly say "I paid $100," I think it was reasonable to infer from your statements that you did indeed pay full price. If that wasn't the case, then okay sorry for misinterpreting..just sayin' though... Yola is intentionally misleading when describing what they sell. At least I didn't know I wasn't buying a real hosting package until after researching. Again, that is your opinion. In my opinion, they are very clear in what they sell. It is you who misunderstood, and you misunderstood because you failed to research. You cannot blame Yola for your failure to research and ask questions before buying. That is your fault. Yola doesn't offer a number of basic web hosting features that every equally price hosting plan I've seen do offer. It was my understanding that these were common features for paid hosting. But Yola isn't a traditional hosting provider. They do not claim they are. They claim to provide non-tech oriented hosting solutions. All over the place they explain what their services are geared for, and what they offer in that regard. As I have mentioned earlier, it is not fair to expect a company to list the things they do not offer. What is fair is to expect the customer to find out by actually reading and asking questions, if they are unclear about something - something you clearly and admittedly failed to do. Yola will give you the run around when it comes time to hold up their end of the 30 day money back guarantee. At least with me their excuse is refunds don't apply to coupons. I can't speak one way or the other to this. Maybe they are giving you the runaround, maybe they aren't. If I had to make a judgment based on what I do know (what I see on their site vs. your posts), I would err on the side of you being the one unreasonable. I read the Money-back Guarantee portion of their ToS...it is not as simple as you make it out to be. Certain parts of the price are non-refundable, and between that and your coupon discount, you may not even have anything to be refunded. Did you bother to read the ToS? You've already admitted to not reading anything else. Just giving you my opinion of these guys. True if I would have known i would have never signed up in the first place. That should be a good indication in its self of a poor hosting choice. Okay clearly the service they are offering is not what you were looking for. But you have nobody to blame but yourself for signing up for something without doing your homework. And by homework I mean actually reading what the do and do not offer that is clearly posted throughout their website, or even contacting them to ask questions. This is not a good indication of a poor hosting choice. This is a good indication on poor judgment on your end. This is your fault, not theirs. I'm sorry, it's nothing personal and I'm not necessarily trying to come down on you. But you are unfairly defaming someone else for your mistake. The only takeaway I see here is next time, don't just jump headfirst into something before buying it. Read the description. Ask questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Any idiot can see that this is one of those "slap something together" hosted services, not a hoster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Screenshot the refund policy they have on their site. Tell them that if they don't issue a refund, you are doing a chargeback with your credit card company. Do a chargeback - include their refund policy. It doesn't matter if you thought you were a box of rubber dicks mailed to your house - the site says "If you’re not satisfied with our service, we’ll give you your money back." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 ... It doesn't matter if you thought you were a box of rubber dicks mailed to your house... lol, wtf? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 And it also says read the ToS to find out the rules/conditions/limitations surround that statement. Do yourself a favor: stop being retarded and accept responsibility for your mistake and learn from it. I know it's really hard in this day an age, seeing as how it seems society encourages you to to point the finger at other people, but that's a pipe dream. Unless you are already on top, you will not get very far by trying to hold other people accountable for your mistakes, and in many cases, you will wind up getting burned even worse in trying to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snot Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 I think I’ve jumped the gun with Yola. I was upset about my own failure to research something I before I bought it and took it out on Yola. Last night I spent some time using Yola’s site builder and its actually really cool. On the Yola silver plan that I got for $25.00 there are tons of cool themes for your site to choose from. I was worried about not being able to have a community forum or a shopping cart since all the ones I’ve used in the past required a MySql database and a lot of tweeking to get the cart software to match the look of your site. I was really surprised to find out how easy it was to setup a community forum and a shopping cart using Yola. You really just drag and drop it into place and fill in a few details and your up and running. In about 2 hours last night I had a nice looking website completed with finished forums, shopping cart, YouTube, videos, embedded Google map, and tons of games. So after I gave Yola a chance its actually really cool. I think anyone that needs a business or personal site would do good with Yola. A lot of the issues that I had with the features that they don’t offer were solved once I started using the Yola site builder. They have many many ways to get around those little details already built into the site builder. As for my refund issue I spoke with a very nice lady today and she explained to me that the coupon code I used was from Groupon and that I had actually paid Groupon for my Yola service and the reason the previous reps were telling me they couldn’t refund me was because I didn’t even purchase it from Yola. She went on to say However, details such as who you paid, the fine print, terms of service etc matter far less to us than how you regard Yola as a company. Also we are not in the habit of shifting responsibility and if a user of our service is unhappy, we like to resolve the matter even if it ends up costing us money She said she’s going to give me the refund anyways if they could send it with paypal or mail a check since they don’t have any transactions from me. That’s amazing. I haven’t had the pleasure of doing business with many companies that are willing to go this far out of their way to make sure a customer has a good experience. (Even a jerk like me) If your looking for a an easy way to build a website with hosting included check out www.yola.com Just to your research first to make sure it’s what you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Well there you have it then. Don't be so quick to pull the trigger and you'll often be surprised about how events turn out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maq Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 If you think it's worth it, add Yola to the web host list sticky: http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=117475.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I'm not so sure I agree with putting them in the sticky. That list holds *real* hosts in the sense of whether they offer shared, vps or dedicated hosting packages, it's still do-it-yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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