The latest company to decide to post fake reviews on HostJury is none other than Surpass Hosting, owned & operated by HostDime in Florida.
For the past few days I've been removing a large number of their reviews that seemed questionable. They were all being referred to the site via private messages on MySpace, we expected the worst. Sure enough, one of their employees slipped up on the latest one.
Oops. Surpass Hosting shouldn't post fraudulent reviews on sites, it makes us sad at HostJury. So much for ethics! There are far too many providers out there with a lack of ethics already, we don't need another one!
Here's a few screenshots of the many fake reviews that have been posted:
They're not the first, of course. Surpass Hosting joins the ranks of HiVelocity, IPowerWeb & countless other providers who have decided to take it upon themselves to post fake reviews on HostJury. Fraud isn't a joke and should be taken into account if you're considering an account with companies like these.
Please note that 'dimenoc' is the internal network for HostDime, the company that owns & operates Surpass Hosting. Corp.dimenoc.com is their internal network from which the fake reviews were posted.
Located in Orlando, Florida, Surpass Hosting, LLC is a member of the HostDime family of web hosting companies. Our combined efforts have allowed us to launch two data centers in Central Florida. Surpass services over 100,000 websites adding approximately 300 more per week. June of 2007 will mark our fifth year of providing exceptional hosting for personal sites to high traffic portals. We are a fast growing company and one that you will always be able to count on.
Wed, 16 January 2008, 04:40
Apparently Surpass recently had an "audit" on all their accounts over the years and forgot to cancel/discontinue some that had been discontinue or refused to renew, now they are trying to collect 3 years of fees from past customers. I smell a lawsuit in the air if they continue the harrasment
Tue, 13 November 2007, 15:45
To all the sniveling runts posting comments on here (ARTbyTROY, Doomy, Geiss, Howie Sun):
My clients and I have been a customers of SurpassHosting.com since 2003. We started with shared/reseller hosting back then. Since then, we upgraded to a VPS, and as of this year have a dedicated server all to ourselves. So, I have experience with practically every type of offering at Surpass Hosting.
SurpassHosting has always done their best to be the best. In my [humble] opinion, their level of service is unmatched for the price. I have tried other companies, and have clients who host elsewhere.
SurpassHosting has some of the highest uptimes. I cannot recall their network ever going down in the last four years, unlike with some other hosting companies and/or data-centers.
SurpassHosting provides responsive phone support for dedicated server customers. Their on-line help-desk could be faster, and on occasion I have had problems with some of their support/techs. However, my experiences elsewhere lead me to the conclusion that my few complaints with SurpassHosting pale in comparison to the grief created by other hosting companies (where I would also be paying more, no doubt). SurpassHosting has always listened to me and done their best to keep me satisfied throughout any complains, which is why I am a loyal customer for years.
With my own experience in mind, I believe that anyone who complains about Surpass Hosting is simply a finger-pointer who cannot manage their own affairs. Such people wouldn't be happy anywhere, and probably didn't know the complexity of what they were getting into - operating your own hosting isn't for everyone! I feel sorry for your mothers who are probably still wiping your butts for you!
Surpass Hosting is not perfect - everyone makes mistakes, myself included (though definitely not in this case). Deal with your issues/problems and move on like I do! Don't turn HostJury.com into HostingCryBabies.com!
Those with negative comments should consider contracting me to manage their hosting (and probably other aspects of their business), considering they obviously weren't able to make a good go of it with the best hosting company out there: SURPASS HOSTING!
Sincerely,
Daniel Shakhmundes
Fri, 2 November 2007, 21:20
I had my site hosted with Surpass Hosting since they began, CaseModGod.com went live in October 2002, meaning I hosted with them for almost five years. Back in their early days they were pretty decent, but as they got bigger things really started to turn for the worse.
Surpass Hosting claims I owe them $1480 for 10 months of dedicated hosting that I cancelled, they have even sent it to a collection agency. I have nearly every trouble ticket I ever submit to them backed up, the last ticket submit (EFN-953896) however shows just how bad they've become both in regards to tech support and in how they treat their customers. At one point in that long trouble ticket their associate "Eman" states: "I agree that you should have gotten invoices I am not sure why you didn't. We manage over 20,000 accounts and as a business owner I am sure you can agree there has to be some room for error when you get to such high volumes."... weak.
When I finally tired of dealing with "Eman" over the course of a month and a half of "going nowhere" trouble tickets he decided to kill my site and disallow me access to my domain. When I asked why I no longer had access on Surpass Domains "Eman" replied: "Thanks for your reply, unfortunately the account is frozen until this issue is resolved. I feel we have done the best we can do in good faith given the situation."... super weak.
I would warn anyone that is considering hosting with them to seriously reconsider, they have (by their own admission) become so big that they shouldn't be expected to keep track of anything or be bothered with providing timely help, billing or support.
Caveat Emptor.
Sat, 27 October 2007, 19:24
Hello,
This is the billing department at SurpassHosting.com. During a recent audit, it was found that order 4******* for the Bronze Reseller plan on *******.com was canceled on 08/21/2006 after failing to bill on 10/10/2004.
Your due date for renewal was 10/10/2004 and all notifications of failure to bill have been sent to *******@****.com.
According to our records, your last payment was received on 09/10/2004.
In order to bring your account up to date, please submit payment via the following link(s):
(To submit payment for 10/10/2004 through 10/23/2007 + $10.00 late fee. Total is $564.5)
Sat, 20 October 2007, 06:43
To those seemly so loyal Surpass customers.
Even I'm extremely happy with a hosting company, I wouldn't bother defending them various times in a blog, and I definitely won't say a word for them if I find out they made fake positive comments.
Surpass, you and your band of puppets really stink.
Sat, 13 October 2007, 04:17
This is directly from them,
"This is the billing department at SurpassHosting.com. During a recent audit, it was found that order S-2P6873861C49***** for the Power plan on animewow.com was canceled on 11/22/2004 (by buyer).
Your due date for renewal was 10/15/2004 and all notifications of failure to bill have been sent to ***@***.com.
According to our records, your last payment was received on 10/15/2003.
In order to bring your account up to date, please submit payment via the following link(s):
(To submit payment for 10/15/2004 through 10/3/2007 + $10.00 late fee. Total is $226.8)"
It clearly states that I canceled it, and they are trying to collect the last 3 years' fees? After a few emails, they actually sent this to collection agency. What a joke.
Reporting to BBB and my lawyer if they keep on bothering me even with the collection agency.
Wed, 3 October 2007, 13:01
Understandable on that point. I actually forgot all about this except I saw this page in my referrer's log since somebody clicked my link.
Well then I will discontinue pursuing this as I'm doing more damage than good. Quite honestly, my argument had far more to do with my belief with the concept of toying with numbers and the principle of the thing, and less to do with a devotion with surpass. But I do understand where you're coming from.
And I hope that in the future when we've all forgotton about this you will reopen reviews on surpass, or just plain delete them.
Wed, 3 October 2007, 01:03
A host not having reviews is not a bias in any direction, in fact it's positive in a certain way, the code understands negative, neutral, and positive. A host having no reviews gives it neutral status, completely by design.
The problem is for Surpass regarding this site is your floating about, because there are people aggressively attempting to post reviews from around the time of this incident it's impossible for us to say what is neutral and what isn't; for surpass you have become a symbol, a martyr if you will, of this incident.
As David has said before nothing can be done until it is water under the bridge and your constant circling of the runway is making it impossible for that to happen.
Tue, 2 October 2007, 18:23
If you deleted a "Real Review" then it wasn't found to be fake. I know for a fact that at least one REAL review was deleted. And that was mine. I have nothing to do with the company other than the fact that they host my website. And it was deleted. And I understand the point completely - you're just throwing them all out because a few were bad and you couldn't tell which were which. But the company apologized and said they would stop, yet you won't open reviews again for that company - which gives your bias to the review (having no reviews is still a form of review). In light of being fair and balanced, you should either enable host reviews for this host again, or delete the host altogether - but what you're doing is currently toying with the numbers (zero is still a number).
And don't insult someone who could've been a user at your site. I clearly understand this concept better than you almighty supreme host judge.
Mon, 1 October 2007, 15:29
Robbie,
Not if they're found to be fake. It's not worth arguing if you can't understand that point.
Mon, 1 October 2007, 15:50
And you deleting real reviews is still toying with the numbers.
Fri, 31 August 2007, 22:00
HostFire,
There are no plans at this time to allow any additional Surpass Hosting reviews on the site.
I'm sure we'll reconsider further down the road once this is all water under the bridge. Until then, sorry.
Fri, 31 August 2007, 22:34
I posted a comment but you seem to have not let it through. I'm just wondering if you will be allowing reviews for Surpass in the future at some point, as I would like to add my review again if and when that point comes.
Fri, 31 August 2007, 19:36
Robbie,
No, toying with the numbers would be employees posting fake reviews for their company.
Fri, 31 August 2007, 19:31
I'd consider deleting all reviews "toying with the numbers."
Fri, 31 August 2007, 19:29
Rick,
My own projects are unrelated to HostJury, I wouldn't toy with the numbers.
And the reason my company doesn't have a single bad review (although I'd consider a 85% rating 'bad', in my opinion) is because I offer good service.
That's outside the scope of this discussion though.
Fri, 31 August 2007, 18:22
I have to agree with some points here, once again a site that David has relations with has become very bias.
Your blog post (even the modified one) is very unprofessional regardless of the situation.
Considering you operate a host yourself (which unsurprisingly doesn't have a single bad review here!) and have worked for an unsuccessful host, I would have thought that you of all people would understand the difficulties that any host faces with regards to controlling what employees do in their spare time.
Thu, 30 August 2007, 13:53
Selective, or 100% of reviews, both provide a selective view of the company - that is the host judge's view.
Thu, 30 August 2007, 13:34
Misunderstandings get out of control sometimes. Is there a policy here that says "Employees of any hosting company may not post a review of their company even if they are consumers of the services at their own personal expense"?
I think that if there HAD BEEN such a clearly stated policy, the issue here would have been avoided. I've hosted with Surpass for a BUNCH of years. Are they perfect? Nope. But then again, who is? I disappoint my customers now and again too...
But to call them "frauds" and cheats and liars like that, well, that's really not fair.
These folks were not "encouraged" by their superiors (or Kayla) to post these reviews as a part of their job requirements...
I personally belive in Surpass and the people there - which is why I stick with them inspite of the bumps, bruises, and Cpanel 11 crap..(can anyone say THAT was smooth? NOT!). Funny thing - a few of their employees started out as customers! Are their opinions invalid too?
Just my 2 cents.
John
Thu, 30 August 2007, 11:26
"They may have better service due to being an employee, but they are still a customer and their opinion is valid."
Not really in fairness, it's just like when you have say for example a competition from Coke, the rules clearly say that employees can't enter - why? because they could interfere with the process. Okay, it's not exactly the same but it goes without saying that any employee of a host reviewing effectively themselves is a dumb thing to do. It's called common sense, it's something I look for in people I employ.
An employee of a host stating how a host's support is fantastic is so completely absurd, is it unfair the reviews were deleted or are they just upset because they got caught? You said yourself it's hard to figure out who is doing what. We have tricks for figuring out who a review is coming from, and yes it's possible for a host to pay their customers to review them - but we will usually figure that out too.
Just to underline I've read through the text of this post about 6 times now and I can't see anything that isn't true.