Bluehost Woes

I am seriously upset/angry/frustrated, and I am not sure what other emotions I am feeling either (and no this isn't about those cicadas that have decided to leave their casings on our swing sets). Instead, this is a post about my hosting company. I have talked a lot of great things about Bluehost. They have always done right by me until now. I sat through the CPU issues last fall that all of us Bluehost users were getting and being told by support that it was us and low and behold it wasn't us. It was Bluehost.

Over the last several weeks, I have been dealing with Bluehost's ticketing system and phone support. I have been getting CPU errors daily. Since I monetize my blogs, it is very important that they do not go down either for 5 minutes or for 5 hours. It is seriously frustrating. I have gotten to the point that I can read the Bluehost Error Log and CPU exceeded logs better than their support people! My frustration lies in that their support is a lot of times less than helpful.

I'm sorry, but I expect your phone people to know more than me. I also expect them not to have to refer me to the ticket people who take days sometime to answer their tickets. Also, if they don't know what the problem really is, they shouldn't be upselling me to the $20 a month plan. When I ask if I'll still get CPU errors since the problem wasn't fixed, I don't know isn't the right answer. I expect that after 3 (aff) weeks we would figure out what the problem is. I expect your ticket people to read my prior tickets and know that what they are telling me, I ALREADY DID! (and not close said ticket). I expect that when you need my license to give me permission for SSH access that the uploader thing works, so your customers aren't waiting for a week with nobody telling them that you couldn't open the file I sent!

Granted, along the way, I actually had some extremely helpful support people who forwarded me links and documents to try. However, my problem still isn't fixed. My sites are still going down daily. At least the phone support person today was kind enough to tell me how to send in my ticket and have it escalated. Whatever my issue is, the phone person couldn't even access my file manager without crashing his computer. I am running 6 WP blogs, so it isn't like there is anything that is all that labor intensive or any special programming involved here.

I seriously could use some help here Bluehost. I really want you to come through, but it isn't looking promising. I really need somebody to tell me why all my CPU errors look like this: used 1.06 seconds of cpu time for php5 or this: used 0.75 seconds of cpu time for /ramdisk/bin/php5 or this: seconds of cpu time for PROCESS : php5. If anybody can tell me how to fix this, I would appreciate it. In the meantime, I have started looking at other hosting companies, because I can't let this go on to much longer. You are costing me money.

Lisa Martin

In April 2006, Lisa began blogging to stay connected with distant relatives and friends. As she delved into blogging, she discovered the potential to assist others by sharing her experiences. Lisa has actively engaged in numerous exclusive media ventures. Notable among these are her participation in events such as the Sony Mommy Bloggers Event, the Pampers Mommy Bloggers Event, the Epson Event in Chicago, the Stouffers Event, a memorable yacht excursion with Lands End, collaborations with 1-800-Baskets, an exclusive tour for bloggers by Mrs. Prindable’s, partnerships with Hallmark, PopCap games, Chicago Cubs Mastercard Priceless Events, and Rug Doctor. In addition, she has collaborated with Nutrisystem on a weight loss initiative, teamed up with Buick and Chevy, and served as a brand ambassador for Sprint. Lisa's collaboration portfolio also extends to Disney, where she has participated in press trips for significant movies such as Frozen, Guardians of the Galaxy, McFarland USA, The Good Dinosaur, The BFG, and Cars 3. Notably, for projects like Frozen, The BFG, and Cars 3, she was granted the privilege of walking the red carpet and conducting interviews with celebrities. The impact of Lisa's blog has gained recognition, with The New York Times referencing her content. Moreover, she has been featured in interviews by respected publications such as the Southtown Star, The Chicago Sun Times, and inside.

This Post Has 26 Comments

  1. Holly

    I so far have been happy with blue host. I haven't had an issue in a while, at least one where I have had to contact them. I wonder what is going on. They were really good once.

    I hope everything works out soon and they come through for you.

  2. Holly

    WOW, I can't believe this is still going on and they have done NOTHING to even make you feel like they are trying to fix it! Stumbled, I hope you can get a solution soon because I know you really don't want to switch hosts! Good luck!

  3. Lisa

    I know that I am php5 due to another issue I had back in Dec or so but that was fixed.

    I think I am going to take off the sezwho and there's nothing I can do about the itk 🙂

  4. Cynthia Blue

    😳 I left bluehost about 8 month ago.. or so. I was tired of the downtime too, the CPU errors, and the lack of knowledgable support. I have a VPS now… and I LOVE it. And the host has great support, Steadcom.

    Of course, I had to build the server from scratch, but it's a fun experience! And I signed up for the $14.95 a month plan. Not too bad!

  5. Emma

    Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your host, I hope they can sort out your problems soon.

  6. Kat

    Much faster without sezwho, major hang on the counters.gigya.com thing now.

  7. The Jilly Bean

    If you decide to switch don't go with StartLogic…they are worse than what you have, I guarantee it.

  8. Kat

    I honestly don’t know, but looking at what you just posted, “used 1.06 seconds of cpu time for php5 or this: used 0.75 seconds of cpu time for /ramdisk/bin/php5 or this: seconds of cpu time for PROCESS : php5. ”
    This is a php5 error that they need to be looking at.
    When my host, icdsoft, switched us all to php5, they made sure that we all knew they were doing it and to change our php.ini files.
    They do not work recursively, so if any file on your site is using php4, and your host has switched over to php5 totally, then the php.ini files all need to be changed. The new php5 will not just let the php4 files work.
    Just an idea.

  9. Kat

    P.S. your sezwho thing and your itk social spark stuff, are both hanging big time when trying to load your site and leave comments.

  10. Jennifer

    I don't have any suggestions, but when you made the comment about READING the tickets, and I almost said OH MY GOD, RIGHT? Cause that will piss me off like nothing else will if you give me a canned response to my ticket and it goes directly against what I've written.

  11. Karen

    This scares me. I have 4 blogs hosted with Bluehost. I sure hope they get their stuff together.

  12. Jane

    Bluehost is one of the best hosting companies, I'm sure they will improve their service, just have some patience. There are so many hosting companies that finding the perfect one is though.

  13. Michael Moore

    Bluehost is a good but very big company. With so many servers, it is hard to pay attention to all of them if something goes awkwardly wrong, especially intermittent stuff.

    Perhaps you should insist on moving to another server or seek other solutions. Otherwise, it is time to move to another host.

    Bluehost is great, but sometimes a company is not for everyone.

  14. A. Caleb Hartley

    I highly suggest HostGator – I'm using them now and have had ZERO problems with them.

    I switched from e3 Servers, who TOTALLY SUCKED. DO NOT even consider e3 servers. They crashed all the time, and then switched DNS servers on me without even telling me. I was lucky to have had a problem with them and submitted a ticket – it was the only way I would have found out that thy were changing to the new DNS THE NEXT DAY… my blood was boiling.

    Anyway – I'm very happy with HostGator, and recommend them highly. I use their reseller hosting account for my domains (as well as for a few others).

    Namaste,

    A. Caleb Hartley

  15. Tony

    😯 I'm shocked. I have been dreaming of switching to BlueHost. I think someone is not being faithful at his/her duty post.

    You should have been attended to and reassured with detailed explanation of what they are doing to resolve the problem.

    This lapse will simply create bad publicity for them. The NET is a small place. I pray the issues get resolved quickly. I don't have to imagine what it looks like, because I have had similar experience with a former hosting company.

  16. Monica

    Well, I did have some problems with my hosts too, so I've changed them until I found the right one. Of course, sometimes this host has some problems too, but not more than a few hours, and not daily or weekly. Oh, and they tell us on their website.

    Bluehost needs to hire some more people, if they can't handle all the support tickets 😕

  17. mab

    I use Host Solutions and I've never had a problem. Not a moment of downtime in almost 2 years. At least, none that I'm aware of. 😉 maybe it went down when I wasn't looking.

    Hope everything works out.

  18. Mrs. Mecomber

    I've had huge, huge problems with them since signing up with them in March. The second day after signing up, I had CPU errors all day! I was not getting major traffic, either.

    There are some things you can do to minimize your footprint. Get a smaller, slimmer blog theme. I switched to an SEO-optimized one. And move all web design pictures to image-hosting sites. This will reduce your CPU usage. Also, you know all those cute smiley icons? They eat up space, too– disable them. Taking these steps has helped me, and I've had fewer CPU errrors… for the past two weeks, anyway!

  19. Chanya

    Are you also getting "You've exceeded your CPU quota" errors? If so you've might have a bad plugin. I use Bluehost and had that happen to me one day; my site just kept crashing. I had to uninstall each plugin and then start adding them back one at a time before I found the culprit. It was the WP Database Backup plugin.

    The only other references I found to the "/ramdisk/bin/php5" string deal with running cron jobs or running bulletin board or forum software.

  20. UptakeInOH

    I hope you get this worked out. Do you have any updates?

  21. Bluehost Hosting Fan

    Hi Lisa, has your problem solved?

    I have been hosting with Bluehost for 4 years + and I'm very very happy with their service since day one.

    IMHO, the problem you're facing might not be an issue coming from the server. Instead it might be the errors/bugs running on your (or other websites that hosted along on the same server your're hosting) websites. Have you ever tried deactivating your WP plugins? Have you ever done anything with your php.ini? In case the problem's coming from your neighbour websites, is switching a server at Bluehost possible?

    These are the possible solution I can think of before you make up your mind in switching the whole web hosting. Nevertheless, switching web host isn't a big deal at all – especially if you're running your website on WP (with import/export features)!

    Wish you good luck~

  22. Lisa

    I actually ended up switching to Hostgator after Bluehost told me to delete my old posts and put them on static pages. I went from having sites go down daily to never going down at all, so I am pretty happy with my switch.

  23. sunbonny

    oh good, i hope the problem is solved:)

  24. Rico

    I work as a freelance computer programmer doing web applications and database programming. So I have several years experience dealing with a variety of different hosting companies. One of my biggest clients, who sub-contracts alot of work to me, was setting up all of their clients' websites to be hosted at BlueHost. Mainly because they were cheap and promissed alot.

    At first it seemed like a decent hosting company. But after a while I started to notice all of the sites we had hosted there slowing down greatly and then started to notice alot of down time. When this first started to occur I called their tech support and found out they were under what is called a denial of services attack from some hackers in China. This is actually very common. What is not common though is a hosting company that has no clue how to deal with it.

    The first time it happened I gave them the benefit of the doubt and was very patient while they took almost a month to get the sites back up and running half way decent. But in the months to come it was happening all of the time. I could never get any development work done on the sites we were building and the sites that were live were down more often then they were up. And the ones that would still come up were extremely slow and produced tons of errors on the pages.

    I again called their tech support when they again told me they were under a denial of services attack and as a result they had to disable many basic and common services on the server which is what was causes the errors. They did this without informing or warning any of their customers and then told me that it would be at least 2-3 weeks before they could turn them back on.

    As I said before I have several years dealing with a variety of hosting companies and BlueHost is by far and without a doubt the worst option available anywhere on the internet!

    Several months ago I began testing several other hosting companies to find a replacement for the accounts I had hosted at BlueHost. The one that I am the most happy with is HostGator. I have had no performance issues whatsoever with them. They have a 99.999% uptime garauntee and they take that very seriously. They have 24/7 tech support by phone and live chat. Their cPanel is the same as with BlueHost. And they have hosting plans as low as $4.95 per month.

    If you are currently hosted at BlueHost and have noticed the same problems that I did I highly recommend you take a look at HostGator. And if you are thinking about hosting a site at BlueHost…Don't waist your time and money.

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