Good morning to all.

It has been a daunting task to finally, at least, get martinzender.com to the new server and get the homepage restored. It's entailed hours with tech support between Hellgator (Hostgator) and Go Daddy. 

We've been with Hellgator for 15 years! They used to be very good, supplying unlimited server space, free control panel and great customer service. That is no longer the case. Web hosting doesn't even seem to be in their wheelhouse, oddly enough.

It took nearly two weeks to have the homepage index file restored from an August 30th backup. It took over a week and multiple chats with the support team to even find out the Aug 30 backup existed. (My index file and backup wiped out when I tried to edit one and move the other. As you recall, they suddenly, and without notice, blocked me from doing anything because we went over our space limit. We were paying for extra storage so I never thought to check this, figuring they would notify me of a problem. Ha!) This restoration only happened because I finally spoke to a supervisor after numerous chats and two unaddressed, open service tickets.

This was only the first battle. Once the site was migrated I was given our nameservers (the magic code that tells your domain company where to point the domain). We now have a VPS (Virtual Private Server) but I couldn't get the nameservers to work on Go Daddy. I've done this before and it's not hard, but after three hours of chat with both Go Daddy and Hellgator (and several shared screenshots) Go Daddy did a search for the servers and... they didn't exist! Hellgator didn't "register" them even though it had been a week since they moved our site to these servers. 

They apologized and told me it could take a couple hours and to keep checking. The next day came and still nothing worked. 

I contacted them and came to find out that the servers were now registered, but not "configured". Huh? They showed me a page on my hosting site where the server names appeared, but there was a big blue box next to each that said "CONFIGURE". I didn't even know this existed. I'm like..."Uh...am I supposed to be doing this?" Obviously, it was their job and they didn't do it. Surprised? Hold on - it got stupider. 

Once the servers were configured, somehow it changed the nameservers completely. I was told to disregard the original nameservers I had received from the migration team --- you know, the ones we spent hours trying to install and the ones Hellgator confirmed several times through chat and screenshots.

I went back to Go Daddy (I like Go Daddy, so far, which is why I'm using their actual name and not calling them "Ho Daddy"). It still took several tries, as the VPS acts differently, I guess. They finally came up with the proper configuration of the server names and... voila! 

Now the change has to update worldwide, and we're not there yet. Should be complete in 24-48 hours and I have a website where I can check the progress. 

In the meantime, Hellgator will not give me any control panel access or login to the new server. I can't make any changes, upload or get email. Same as it's been the past 14 days except, we at least have a homepage. It's from August 30th, but it's there.

I wasn't going to get into the weeds on this, but it turned out to be cathartic. Also, getting this in writing will help me when I try to get a refund for the 14 days we didn't have a working site.

I'm not looking for sympathy, but any sympathy would be appreciated. My brother keeps telling me I'm suffering evil for the evangel. In one of my rants to him I compared this to Christianity. You search for truth and guidance from the "experts", but the experts lead you off a cliff because they are not properly trained in their field. 

A big thanks and shout-out to the two saints (Dani and Lenard) helping me through this. They will also be helping me find better hosting options as we build a new website and get the hell away from the gator.

Also, I want to warn anyone out there about Hostgator. They are absolutely horrible. 

I love all of you and I thank you for your patience. We exist because of you. 

Kelly

I am available at publish@starkehartmann.com