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"Really, really unhappy"

I purchased a domain name on the assumption I would recieve free web hosting. Unfortunately it is very covertly advertised on the site that you need to be a Freeola Internet customer to recieves these services (despite paying for a domain and therefore becoming one).

The Getdotted website clearly states webspace is free, yet when I attempt to access it on Freeola, I am confronted with a £3 per month charge.

They are basically advertising free hosting, then making us pay for it.

Either way, I am very unhappy.

However, I have given up and have webspace elsewhere. I have attempted to change the DNS settings to the new provider, and they wont show up as changed, hours and hours later?

Can anyone assist me on this issue?

I purchased a domain name on the assumption I would recieve free web hosting. Unfortunately it is very covertly advertised on the site that you need to be a Freeola Internet customer to recieves these services (despite paying for a domain and therefore becoming one).

The Getdotted website clearly states webspace is free, yet when I attempt to access it on Freeola, I am confronted with a £3 per month charge.

They are basically advertising free hosting, then making us pay for it.

Either way, I am very unhappy.

However, I have given up and have webspace elsewhere. I have attempted to change the DNS settings to the new provider, and they wont show up as changed, hours and hours later?

Can anyone assist me on this issue?

After reading the 'hosting' page I have to agree that the 'required Freeola connection' is rather hidden to say the least. Even reading the T&C's it's not really very clear (to me). Perhaps Freeola could make things clearer for new customers...

It can take up to 24 hours for the DNS changes to filter through, so you'll have to be patient...

I've got quite a few domains with Freeola. When I started it wasn't a problem to dial up when I wanted to FTP updates. As I bought more domains I also became a Freeola ADSL customer which gives me access to everything :¬) bar MySQL :¬(

So I guess if you don't make too many updates, dial-up is ok, as the hosting is cheaper than some other providers. If you have a few domains and want to update them regularly then Freeola ADSL is the way to go - yes it's not the cheapest ADSL but if you have a few domains it starts to make sense.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before MySQL also becomes standard for ADSL customers as lots of hosts now offer this as standard ;¬)

Yes I can see why you would be unhappy. I know a another customer who feels the same way, he has two domains that were bought fromm freeola and fell into the same trap, he thought it would be one fee to release all for freedom. His opinion is that they are in his portfolio and the freedom shold be for everything in his portfolio, hes an educated man, and works for the Inland Revenue (top daddy in fact)and to say he was cheesed off was an understatement, he lives not far from Telford a should tell him to pop in and see them at the office and clear it all up he he and fix the form mail prob at the same time!

Freeola really should make it clearer as to what it means by getting a free site, site builder, emails at your domain etc with a freeola account. I'm not impressed and I feel as though I have been scammed. I might query it with Essex Trading Standards.

'Query away chum' and take it up with Essex Trading Standards but alot of us here are very, very happy with our service and support from Freeola and I've been here for at least 12 years :¬)

http://freeola.com/web-hosting/
First paragraph: 'Pick from our
free unlimited hosting with a Freeola internet connection'

http://freeola.com/free-email/
First paragraph again: 'Freeola's
Unlimited E-mail is available free of charge to all Freeola Broadband and Dial-Up
Internet users, or for just £2 per month with Freeola EmailPro.'

http://freeola.com/website-builder/
Does mention it being free for our broadband users and clear displays the price if you don't have a broadband connection with us. A 1 page version is also free for each domain you have with us. No Freeola internet connection is needed for InstantPro.

http://getdotted.com
Right on the front page 'Free hosting offer available to UK residents only and subject to terms and conditions and a Freeola connection to the internet (you can choose from our Pay As You Go or Anytime dial-up connection or high-speed broadband options).'

I can openly admit to interpreting information incorrectly myself sometimes, when doing so caused me to believe that there was some benefit to myself. I think Eccles has stated it rather well, and would advise anyone to feel free to look again should they feel that this has occurred.

Besides interpretation, each service has a fully fleshed out, detailed and descriptive service page. This service page details information quite clearly, albeit in a marketing sense. Where required they contain terms and links to further info.

At the end of the day each person will interpret information differently, and should anyone feel that anything is obviously misleading (whilst lacking any 'with Freeola Internet' or an obvious link to further details) then we invite customers to submit this information constructively to us through official means.

Nice statement WH ... but probably will fall on 'deaf ears' or not appear to 'blind eyes' in this case :¬)

Is it tme for another debate about the meaning of the word free? :-)

Freeola isn't free
It costs folks like you and me

:P

EDIT: Seriously though, if an ISP was offering something like free email addresses you would kind of expect that you needed to be customer to benefit from that, would you not? Subscribing to Freeola (in order to benefit from the free web hosting) seems reasonable enough to me.