FatCow

What do you like best?

As of the time of writing (Feb. 2021), nothing.

What do you dislike?

TL;DR:

- Overpriced

- Frustrating, non-intuitive UX

- Customer Service doesn't understand basic English

- "A la carte" services snuck into my account without my approval

- Continued to charge me for services for domains I had moved to a different host

Full review:

I first started as a customer of FatCow in 2010. I loved that they used "green" energy sources, and I was willing to pay a little more for great customer service. And for many years, they were, as their slogan says, "udderly fantastic"!

But then everything changed in 2018. (It is now 2021 at the time of this writing.)

The way FatCow now does business is just truly tricky, duplicitous, and intentionally confusing. I find this reprehensible.

Since 2019, I have gradually moved all of my domains, as well as my hosting services, to another provider. This month, I am officially closing out my relationship with FatCow, as my last domain has finally transferred and my FatCow hosting package is finally ending.

Here's my experience as a customer of their current state:

- Everything is 1.5-4x overpriced compared to competitors (domains, hosting, privacy, etc.).

- The back-end "domain management" dashboard was redesigned in 2019, and now navigation is convoluted and near impossible. I'm a UX designer. It's awful. Sadly, it used to be really easy.

- FatCow added "a la carte" services to my account — like, secretly snuck them in — without my approval.

- FatCow still charged me for services (e.g., domain privacy) several months AFTER I had transferred my domain to another host. Unbelievable. I had to contact Customer Service to get them to remove this charge and "cancel" the service "separately."

- They move up your renewal date by a week each year. I initially purchased my first domain and hosting service in November 2010. You'd think it would renew each year in November, right? WRONG. I have no idea why or how FatCow did this, but I was cheated out of my full duration of services by about a week each year. By the time I transferred my final domain away, FatCow had moved up my renewal date to September — it moved up THAT much over the years, approximately 10-11 weeks if I go by the calendar. This is mind-boggling. Why wouldn't it just renew at the same time each year?

- Customer Service (CS) used to be fantastic: a native English-speaker, located in the US (!), would answer the phone, and they were always smart, patient, and helpful. They helped me so many times with different issues over the years, and IMO, this alone was worth paying a premium for. But then around 2018, FatCow farmed out their CS to a call center in Asia. Now, no matter how I phrase things, I just cannot get them to understand what I am saying.

- When you contact CS to cancel a product/service, they "pull a Comcast" and constantly try to derail the conversation to "save a sale." They completely ignore your original question and, instead, ask why you are canceling, what they can do to improve, how they can get you to stay, etc. This has happened every time I've needed to contact CS (which has unfortunately been a lot, because their system is so intentionally convoluted, confusing, and non-navigable). In each conversation, I have to tell them 2-4 times to stop derailing/trying to change the subject and that I am only there to have them confirm the cancellation of my services. It's like pulling teeth; they don't listen to you. This is not only frustrating but incredibly disrespectful of the customer's time.

I used to recommend FatCow to others but no longer do so (clearly), and I will not be returning to them as a provider. It's sad because they used to be really great.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

For your wallet and your sanity, please find a different hosting provider.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Used them for domain hosting/parking, privacy, website building, and email hosting.