BluDomain has really pretty sites, but this has honestly been one of the worst customer service experiences in my life.
I ordered a site on 12/10/08 and they said it would be up and running within 24 hours. I sent several emails over the next few days that went unanswered.
On Friday 12/12 at 4pm they sent a list of questions for my host. Those were answered on Monday morning at 9:30am on 12/15 due to the weekend.
By the morning of 12/17 I still had no site and no contact from them. This was when I told them I was worried. The site needed to be up ASAP.
No response until 12/18 at 9:48am when they said they couldn't log in to my GoDaddy account. Daniel claimed the password was wrong. Literally 5 minutes after his email I said to try again because the password WAS correct. At this time I also realized the password for my ftp had a typo and I told him this.
No response so at 2:53pm I asked them to follow up and please call if there were any technical problems.
No response and by this time I'm panicking. I email again at 4:58pm asking if I should just get a refund. This was for a brand new business that was being launched in just a few days, so the site HAD to be live.
At 11pm on 12/18 I get another short email from Daniel saying he could get into the GoDaddy account but now he can't get into the ftp. At this point I realized I was getting the run around and I would most likely not see a website any time soon. No apologies for taking so long, no validating that I was upset... Just excuses.
On Friday 12/19 I send four emails (yes, I'm feeling a bit psycho at this point!) asking for a response, phone call, anything! I'm getting their autoresponders and constantly checking my junk email folder in addition to the spam folder in Comcast. I am defintely getting their emails. Still no response.
Over the weekend I decide I've had it and I want to hire someone else.
On the morning of 12/22 at 11:41am I email and ask for a refund. No reponse (other than that damn autoresponder email!).
At 3:36pm on 12/22 I suddenly get an email from Daniel saying here's your link. I email back immediately at 3:42 and say "Too bad... You're too late. I hired someone else I want a refund". He writes me back right away (the only time that ever happened, by the way) and says "too bad, company policy if we already sent a link". I write back and say I asked for my refund over four hours before you sent the link. He writes back again and say "OK, then you should be ok. The owner will just have to approve the refund." I ask Daniel to forward my message to the owner. No response.
On 12/26 I email again (figuring it's Christmas and they were probably taking time off, etc.) and ask where is my refund. I get an autoresponder and no other response. So I email Daniel and ask him again to forward my email to Wayne who I found out is the owner.
No response.
On 12/30 I found out that BluDomain has an "F" rating on the Colorado BBB website with 14 complaints that they've never even bothered to respond to. I email BluDomain again asking for a refund at 3:50pm. I also file a complaint with PayPal.
At 11:33pm on 12/30 Aundrea finally responded and saying "Sorry, no refunds. You agreed to that when you purchased the site". You see, they make you click one of those boxes that has 5 pages of text before you purchase. Well, I printed it out and NO WHERE in there does it say no refunds. When I pointed that out to her she didn't respond.
I write back on 1/1/09 pointing out once again that I had asked for the refund over 4 hours before the link was sent. Once again, no response. I escalate my complaint with PayPal.
On 1/9/09 I get an email from PayPal that they do not protect buyers from 'intangible items' like a website. I email BluDomain and let tme know this and also let them know they haven't heard the last from me yet. Aundrea emails me back within 20 minutes with lies and inaccurate timelines and also trying to say it was somehow my host providers fault and "It's company policy" then calls me childish. Later in the day she calls me vengeful. She still refuses to refund my money or apologize for their lies and poor customer service.
I am now escalating with my credit union, the Colorado State Attorney General's Office, the Washington State Department of Commerce and the Colorado State Better Business Bureau. And I will be very vocal about warning people that they may or may not ever get their website.
There ARE people who are very happy with BluDomain. And I'm glad for them. The sites are great and it's good that they are experiencing good service. But my experiences and hundreds of other people's experiences have been completely the opposite.
I just wish I had bothered to look them up on the BBB site and see their F rating. I definitely would have used another service provider.
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