So I had a web host hosting my little sites and I wasn't happy with them that much. I did some checking and found out that my little hosting company was a reseller. So, I dropped my host because they were down sometimes anyways and tech support wasn't that great. And I was thinking "Hey i could be a reseller too.". So I signed up with a reseller after only searching around a few sites and boy did their setup look familiar! I did some checking and I'm pretty sure my old host was a reseller of them. And I did more checking and found out that my new reseller, that I rashly signed up with already, was a reseller also! :/

So I found out that theplanet.com seems to be the real web host with the actual servers physically in their possession. And hostgator.com was basically reselling from theplanet.com. And I'm pretty sure that arvixe.com is a reseller of one of them or maybe a reseller of a reseller of one of these resellers o.O ?

So, eventhough I'm really poor I used my little checking card, that I can use as a credit card eventhough it's not really a credit card, to sign up with hostgator for the $34.95/mo. plan. And from their web site they recommended a few ways to accept payment and I signed up with 2checkout.com.

This was all within the past two days. And I was all happy bragging to my boyfriend who barely knows how to even run an anti-virus program, that I was going have my own web hosting company!

So, then I checked out some more stuff and by the way 2checkout.com made me sign up with them for like $49 setup fee and they take out 5.5% and $0.45 per whatever you sell. So I did this all for under $100 or so and feeling pretty smart. Then I tried to set up my payment script using 2checkout's info they gave me. I had a question and I couldn't even find a way to contact them. No support@... or anything. I had to fill out a 'support ticket' and all I got was a automated email and well that gave me time to think about how shadey they seem and maybe this isn't a great idea after all. Then I was looking at findmyhost.com and seeing how basically they are almost all resellers and some are probably resellers of resellers! Anyways, this was going to be a lot more work for basically nothing and all I'd get back was maybe my money I put into it back and then I'd be answering support emails from anybody unfortunate enough to sign up for my hosting services o.O BECAREFUL WHO YOU HOST YOUR WEB SITE WITH!

So, I went back to looking at hostgator's other regular webhosting plans and they had one for like $10/mo. and that sounded ok to me with decent stuff. So I sent them an email to downgrade my $34.95/mo plan to a regular $9.95/mo plan and they sent me an email back saying that to downgrade it'd cost me an extra $10 downgrade fee -.-

So, I sent an email back because I looked on their site and they said they have a 30-day money back guarantee so I want to just cancel my hosting with them and get back my money. The alternative is to pay $34.95 + $10.00 + $9.95...to downgrade! And I sent an email to 2checkout to also try and refund my money but eventhough their website says it. all I've ever gotten from them was automated reply emails after filling out 'tickets'.

I was looking at theplanet's stuff and their dedicated $249/mo. plan seems ok but I don't know If I want to invest that much just for a 'fun' project that at best I'd only make my money back or maybe some more...but thats doubtful.

So, I'm cutting my loses and I'm glad I just won't be billed for all that stuff again next month even if they don't ever refund me. But now I don't have a host yet anywhere for my little domains but I'll find one eventually maybe. And while I was throwing my CC around the internet I impulsively came to this site because I've thought about signing up a few times and even got to the paypal form but never clicked the final button...but this time I did and now at least for $100 + the gamedev fees (like $14) I'll get a place to rant and my very own avatar! (I'm going to try and screen capture the purple headed girl from my SNES emu Final Fantasy V now. ^_^)

...

Oh, also I sometimes come here and read the newbie forums and I hope to make a game one day :p