I've had it with BluDomain's lack of service

[mchong75]

Does anyone have or know the direct phone number to BluDomain?

At this point, I’m more than just annoyed with BluDomain's customer service. I’m furious!

With most BluDomain's website, the “Contact” section allows potential clients to email direct from the website by providing Name, Email, Phone#, etc. and submit the email.

Well, apparently, several friends and potential clients have tried to contact me thru my website but I never got the emails.
I tested it myself and it didn’t work so I submitted a trouble ticket.

On 11/13/08 (12:08 PM) – Trouble ticket submitted.

On 11/19/08 (5:43 PM) – I emailed “It’s been a week since I submitted a trouble ticket but, I haven’t heard from anyone. Why is it taking so long?”

On 11/19/08 (6:07 PM) – Wade from BluDomain emailed me and said, “I updated your site with a new file. Please send yourself a test message, and verify that this is working now. I apologize for any inconvenience.”

On 11/21/08 (12:27 PM) – I emailed “I’m still not receiving emails.”

On 12/8/08 (11:00 AM) – I emailed “Ok, this is sad. I sent an email on 11-21-08 indicating that email is still not working and I still haven't heard from anyone.
Is this the typical service I'm going to receive from Bludomain?”

On 12-08-2008 (11:10 AM) – I submitted a telephone call back request.
“I have a trouble ticket which has been opened for over a month. I can't seem to have anyone reply back to my trouble ticket or fix the issue.
I need someone to call me ASAP. This is ridiculous.”

I received an auto reply email that said “We have received your phone call request at BluSupport.
Please give us up to 36 hours to contact you.”“Due to the tragic lost of a family member, 1/2 of our team is unable to work today. We apologize for any inconveniences. Please read our blog.”

As a PAYING member, am I asking too much to fix something that’s not working?

[Moogle Pepper]

Yeah I have that issue, but I tried it myself too. So I think for me, until Bludomain fixes that, I am going to put in my information area to contact me via my gmail account until then.

[stathunter]

I purchased a BluDomain template but because of the issues I have heard I decided to host my own site. I expected it to be a long and difficult process-- it really was not that bad. I gave myself a few months of buffer time-- they were fine. But sorry to hear your story does not seem to be out of character for them.

[zagiace]

Sad that in this day of price competition companies apparently can not afford to provide good service. If this is your business site I would leave them immediately.
Silly question but you have checked their FAQ?
here it is just in case.
"1. check in any spam/bulk mail folder for the emails
2. raise the quota on the mailbox in question

to raise the quota for an email address you will need to log into your cpanel system. From there you will need to go to mail->Add/Remove/Manage Accounts. Click on 'Quota' next to the email address you use for your email form and raise the number."

Even if that were to solve your issue I would personally not be happy that the people who are running my business web server do not respond to repeated contact attempts.

[speedhop]

I also purchased a site from them...paid my money immediately. They sent me an email with what to do (as I was hosting with another company). I sent them one back with a bunch of questions...never heard back from them. That was 3 weeks ago.

Like it has been previously stated, if this is your business site, get out now.

I'd find a new company even though they do have some stellar looking sites.

[blackshadow]

I can recommend the customer service provided by hostgator.

[turbo212003]

i have been looking at their templates for my website but threads like this make me think twice about it. Love their templates, havent heard a lot of positive comments about their support. I have seen advice to host on other server and just use their template.

[cevad]

Not that this helps with your current problem but I use HostMonster and their customer service is fantastic. They have a 24 hour LIVE phone support that is not outsourced. I've never been on hold when I call and the people I talk to know their stuff and take as much time with me as I need. I recommend them highly.

Right now HostMonster is having a sale on web hosting for only $5.95/month, (it's usually $6.95/mo). Plus if you register your domain through them you get the anonymous whois feature FREE for as long as you have it registered through them! Domain registration through HostMonster is only $10/year. and that includes the domain plus the anon service.

(GoDaddy offered the anonymous domain service to me for free when I first registered my domain but then when I went to renew my domain registration they wanted an additional $11 per year on top of the registration fee to keep the anon service)!! GRRR!

I have since transferred ALL of my registered domains away from GoDaddy and over to HostMonster. HostMonster honored the remainder of my contract with the evil GoDaddy people and added the new year that I paid for on to the end so I didn't lose anything I paid for and I got away from a registrar that I wasn't happy with.

Anyway, sorry if this is too far off topic but my point is that you might want to change your hosting over to Hostmonster where you can speak to a live person when you have a problem and not have to wait on an email reply. Not only will you get great service but it's a good way of telling the Bluehost people that you think they suck. :lol:

Good luck!

[zagiace]

maybe a silly question but why do you need anonymous domain registration? My information is on the site I have registered so its not like it is a big secret.

[Brett Jarnagin]

There are only a few people that work for BluDomain. From what I have gathered, they are unwilling to grow their staff with the size of their clientele.

For templates I would recommend bigfolio.com Their customer service is great.

Showit sites are cool because you have total control over them and can change the layout as you please.

I recommend getting a site custom designed because you can't stand out in the photography world if you have the same site as the next guy. I met up with a designer to redesign my blog and he pretty much blew me away with his amazing ideas and anything is possible attitude. He didn't have a lot of work to show but he knows his stuff. All the mach ups he has sent me of my blog are really incredible and the final product should be one of the better photography blogs I've seen. I'm going to have him design a new website for me when he finishes the blog. His site is http://phiredesign.net/

[cevad]

maybe a silly question but why do you need anonymous domain registration? My information is on the site I have registered so its not like it is a big secret.

Not a silly question at all.

In my case, I don't have a "brick and mortar" business and I prefer to keep my home address and phone number private to casual browsers of my sites. The phone number on my site is not my home number and therefore if someone wants to call my business at 4am I am not bothered; nor am I flooded with unwanted calls at home during any hour. Not having my address published also helps prevent junk mail being sent to my home and gives me a layer of anonymity from the wackos. If a customer orders from my site, he/she will get my actual address on the invoice, so it's not a foolproof guarantee that no one will know who I am but it helps to weed out the bots that might pull my info from a non-anonymous site.

Also, I have a few other sites on which I don't sell anything or reveal my true identity. They are simply connections to the outside world where I try to spread my superior knowledge to the lesser people who would surely benefit from what I have to offer. :razz: (My making jovial statements like that which will most likely be taken literally by some people is just another reason to remain anonymous! The person who took me seriously with that arrogant comment might want to come knocking at my door with an Uzi!)

The anonymous registration is just a thin layer of protection. There are probably many ways that I am not aware of where it helps to protect me and I don't claim to be an expert on domain registration. In fact, I barely understand the whole process. However, my point in bringing it up in my previous post is that some domain registrars, (in my case HostMonster), provide this service for FREE where GoDaddy charges for it.

GoDaddy makes a HUGE profit from upselling and tacking on extra fees for services that other registrars offer at no charge! I'm just suggesting that folks shop around and do some research before they register a domain with a company just because it's the only one they ever heard of and because that company has great commercials during the Super Bowl. I made that mistake and now I'm trying to spread around my superior knowledge to help out the great unwashed! ;)

Once again I wish my best to the OP with his/her dilemma with BluDomain. I despise poor customer service and from what I have read so far, even GoDaddy would be an improvement! LOL

Happy Holidays POTN!

[swimchic]

You know I use them and have had no problems but I sure am scared to!! As soon as my first year is up I'm switching to somebody else, simply based on the fact I've heard nothing good about them. My year is up next month so it's really sad that after a year of fine service I'm still switching just because their reputation

[shimmishim]

You know I use them and have had no problems but I sure am scared to!! As soon as my first year is up I'm switching to somebody else, simply based on the fact I've heard nothing good about them. My year is up next month so it's really sad that after a year of fine service I'm still switching just because their reputation

Wow, your pictures speak for themselves. I don't think you'll need bludomain anyway to get business!!! :)

[EOS mE]

i had the same issue with my template. the main problem with clients using accounts like gmail or hotmail, or other free email sites is that the bludomain contact section in flash has a code that would route their email through their mail servers, which gmail, hotmail, and other free based email server doesn't allow. therefore, we as photographers don't get any emails. i've contacted them and they had fixed it for me, but i still wouldn't rely on that. so better to post as much info on your site as possible so your client CAN actually reach you. in fact.. i'm surprise no one has decided to sue bludomain for this coding error that is costing photogs many many lost business opportunities. sigh... *end rant*

[figmented]

bluedomain is the weekend warriors of the web design world.

trust them as you trust those ' i bought a camera and i can shoot weddings' crowd.

seriously, flash templates? how bout hire a professional web designer and get something that caters to you. oh wait, we are cheap on our own stuff, but want to charge customers 10k for a wedding, i forgot.

[qtfsniper]

bluedomain is the weekend warriors of the web design world.

trust them as you trust those ' i bought a camera and i can shoot weddings' crowd.

seriously, flash templates? how bout hire a professional web designer and get something that caters to you. oh wait, we are cheap on our own stuff, but want to charge customers 10k for a wedding, i forgot.

your website is broken.

[Rokkorfan]

My website is a bludomain website and has been fine since it launched last week. I can receive emails and I found them to be helpful, but hey - you get what you pay for. For a couple of hundred bucks including hosting I don't expect personalised service.

[Rokkorfan]

your website is broken.

Now this is HILARIOUS. :) And true!

[Rokkorfan]

the main problem with clients using accounts like gmail or hotmail, or other free email sites is that the bludomain contact section in flash has a code that would route their email through their mail servers, which gmail, hotmail, and other free based email server doesn't allow.

Well, I just checked mine, again, using a couple of free mail accounts. No problems here, the email comes direct from bludomain. So whatever problems may have existed appear to be resolved.

[EOS mE]

My website is a bludomain website and has been fine since it launched last week. I can receive emails and I found them to be helpful, but hey - you get what you pay for. For a couple of hundred bucks including hosting I don't expect personalised service.


well, i paid $400 for mine when blu first started becoming popular. but i host with godaddy, so that kinda works well. they resolved my issues fairly quick.. so i think i'm ok....

[Snagger]

your website is broken.

Yep:

Recent CommentsFatal error: Call to undefined function: blc_latest_comments() in /homepages/30/d106424104/htdocs/wp-content/themes/liquidblack/liquidblack/footer.php on line 20

[ParkerDeen]

we haven't had any trouble with our bludomain site, but i have heard many many issues from others. we did end up not liking the shopping cart at all as it would empty once your client logged out (didn't store images selected)- a real pain to find out from clients who'd spent time sorting and adding to cart! so we use zenfolio for ordering and proofing sessions and are completely happy there though would love to have music for client slideshows.
parker

[kimmortal]

i contacted BluDomain in October 2008 about becoming a new customer and still haven't heard from them. I went with Photobiz and love them.

[WillMass]

I was considering BluDomain for a new website/business direction.

But not after reading the comments on this thread

[Jenbad]

I use Bludomain and all of a sudden a bunch of my emails to customers are getting treated like SPAM. Any ideas on how to fix this? Can I have someone else host but also keep the same site admin privileges that I get with Bludomain?

[CathyKovachPhoto]

Me, too, I'm leaving them for Creative Motion Design. I paid Blu for 2 sites and only got one, and I'm tired of begging for the other one (it's been 6 months). At least I've been up and running with the one site in the meantime. CMD has a much nicer interface, and a MUCH nicer shopping cart. Blu's sucks. I wish that I'd looked for reviews before I gave them money, EVERYBODY seems to use them, so I thought they must be good. They aren't. I don't think their sites are prettier than CMD's, and the more decorative ones that they have are going to make you look silly when 3 other photogs in your area have exactly the same site.

And you can and should host with someone else if you have a Blu site. I've been hosting with 1&1 and have been able to avoid the Blu-hosting problems. If you can ever get Blu to send it to you, you'll get a dns from them, and you'll just give that to your new host.

[mchong75]

Update - 2-13-09

My site is still not fixed and I just found BluDomain user group on flickr and this is what I found....

These people can't get their sh*t straight!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/bludomainusers/discuss/72157613675244358/

So, if you have Bludomain account(s), I would be concerned.

[harroz]

^^^that link isn't working

OMG!!! I have just gone through the process of purchasing one of their sites, been pondering it for a long time and thought I'd bite the bullet today, while my credit card details were going through I came on here to browse, tand this thread pops up, then I check and there is a message i cannot pay with the cc I'm using!!! WHEW!!!!!

Just cancelled!


I'm a little gutted though as I thought they'd be good, and I have sent them emails in the past month or so questioning certain things and they have responded quickly, within a day. Here in NZ hardly anyone uses them, and certainly not in my area so i would've been sweet. They also had Lucy, which was flash and html based which works good for me. Anyway off to go on a search again :-(

[form]

Well that's keen, good thing I didn't run and buy the latest bludomain-style website myself.

[mchong75]

Link is fixed.

STAY AWAY FROM BLUDOMAIN!

I've had it and taking it as a loss and searching for something new.

[harroz]

WOW!!!! that would explain why I couldn't pay!!

H'es right...

STAY AWAY FROM BLUDOMAIN!