FreeWebs.com/Community Reviews
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Great Service I've made two sites and put them online a few years ago http://www.freewebs.com/dublinaccommodationsalmara/index.htm and http://www.freewebs.com/dublinbandb and have never had a problem or down time. I think it's wonderful to have such a free service
Freewebs.com - "Really horrible"
Really Horrible. They really push and emphasize the "sell stuff on the web with a "free" website..." angle and sadly, many people wind up very very screwed.
My intentions were not to sell things via the web, but sadly again, I wound up screwed also.
I Paid (or rather overpaid) for an account in Feb. of '06. They offered only one upgrade package from their free (read ad plagued and VERY slow to load) one at that time.
I made a site and liked it, so I wanted the ads gone.
That one available paid upgrade from a free site included much useless stuff like picture resizer (merely a link to a free site that resized your images for you) and other more "premium tools" as they're called which are just more free things available elswhere on the web like counters and LOTS of google free stuff (calandars, clocks, scheds, etc.). Well I paid for all the free stuff along with the usual stuff like ad removal, a multi file uploader (as opposed to the "single file at a time" kind like all free sites) and some additional webspace and bandwith. Bandwith is limited on a monthly basis. When it's gone - it's gone, and your website is gone too. Nice if you're trying to do business right? Well that's where they'll get you if you're trying to run a business.
Well after much effed up sh** (please see other persons post) like many server changes, constant site "redesigns" (rearranging the user interface pointlessly, just moving things around with absolutely no added benefit of ease of use) and as I've noticed through the months, an ever increasingly more convoluted help section (it has become damn near impossible to find any answers to anything but the most basic of questions)they have, of course, added more "premium" packages.... instead of 1 upgrade available from being a "free" site there are now 3 to be exact.
These 3 "Premium" upgrade packages are all almost exactly the same as the originally offered available package. They all have the same free tools available on the web, and include the obvious basics. The only difference is in the amount of bandwith you're alotted a month, and the amount of "webspace" (pages with content) you are alotted, and email address(es).
You don't receive even 1 email address if you get the #1 plan, or "basic" as they call it, plan. For 50 dollars a year they won't even give you an e-mail address. Ridiculous.
Almost 2 years ago I signed up for 2 years because it was minorly discounted and it was the only way I could justify joining up with this crappy hoster. I forget the exact cost, but it was definetly over a hundred. A hundred just to remove their crappy adds, sheesh.
Anyway, with all the "mods" and server changes they've done, and now their new "Premium packages" they've decided to remove my basic ftp service, even though I am an original premium member.
Ftp which I've used in the past and HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR is no longer available to me. Unless, of course, I sign up again under their new and even more "ultra crappy" package and pay for another year of service.
I can't download my website off their servers anymore so they are in effect holding my site hostage unless I sign up again.
Yeah, right, that'll happen.
RUN PEOPLE.
Run Far Far Away From Freewebs.com.
P.S. I'm not sure if Kathleen knows this (she's the other person who left a comment/review here) but Freewebs has now placed a banner at the bottom of her website, a very nice and interesting site at that, even though she has paid for freewebs services and it should not be there. It should be removed.
That, amongst other things like ftp, is what we have paid for.
So I wonder what retaliation I'll face from freewebs now. hmph.
Jan. 20, 2008 ////////////////////////////////////////////////
At freewebs.com you would never even know that ftp was even available to you as part of these "premium" upgrades, that is how "basic" a service offered it is with webhosters.
Unless you navigated freewebs convoluted help section before buying a "premium package" you wouldn't know, but that's where they flat out say "ftp is available to all premium subscribers." Which is exactly what I am. A paid premium user.
They had no problem offering me their "GOOGLE AD WORDS CREDIT" when that became available to premium users. I guess it's because they think I don't know that it only generates profits for them in the form of a referal fee if I sign up for Google Ad words thru them instead of Google directly. Nope, no problem offering me that "premium tool".
Offer me a service I already paid for last year tho...that's absolutely out of the question.
Again, RUN PEOPLE - RUN FAR FAR AWAY FROM FREEWEBS.COM
FreeWebs.com's Incompetence
freewebs has repeatedly butchered my web sites and on account of their own incompetency compromising me, they have now taken revenge by damaging my url in all the search engines were I published it. They have BLOCKED "index.html" which contains the FRAMES file that structures my site, so that when people find HABEAS CORPUS CANADA in Google, for example, and the address of h-t-t-p-:-/-/-w-w-w-.-freewebs-.-com-/-habeascorpuscanada/ it defaults not to my site any more, but to freewebs with "PIMPED SPACE" on the front, giving the impression my site is gone. However, all the FILES are still in my file manager, and they were working perfectly after I spent HOURS last month manually repairing the MASSIVE DAMAGE inflicted thoughtlessly by freewebs who had MIGRATED all or most of their sites to a new url by surprise, being www1. instead of www.
Now that I had REPAIRED all the damage so that my sites then WORKED on www1., freewebs has REVERTED again without notice to the original URLs of www. thus AGAIN breaking all my pages and links. But this time, they have gone FURTHER and deliberately DENIED URL to prevent my site showing up at all. This is no doubt revenge for MY having been the one to point out in the freewebs FORUM (as "Mad Meg") that my sites had been destroyed by the url migration, and warning other freewebs members to pay attention to their own sites which were also in peril from the same problems. Another problem which occurred simultaneously was that my freewebs sites were HACKED by someone replacing the BACKGROUND IMAGES with a picture of a spook in black. I reported that in the freewebs forum, also. THEREFORE, my principal web site has been apparently assaulted by freewebs in vengeance for their own incompetency and my having reported in the FORUM to other VICTIMS of this negligence, the severe and massive, thoughtless problems inflicted on all the freewebs members. In addition, freewebs servers are SLOW, and there is considerable DOWN TIME inside the FILE MANAGER when attempting to edit your site. The major problems began before the url migration. I had used freewebs code for a shoutbox and tried to combine it with CSS, which is normal scripting language. After I hit SAVE, the combination of the shoutbox and CSS entirely destroyed my page code, leaving a few ragged shreds. freewebs techs were only able to recover an older version of the page, missing about 1/3 of recent content, which I still haven't had the chance to rebuild.
My experience with freewebs has prompted me to purchase professional space elsewhere and transfer all my web sites.
Kathleen Moore, Montreal, Canada 24 October 2007.
