Streamline.net Review
Streamline.net offers a range of web hosting plans starting at £1.24 a month, and they support WordPress hosting. Plus, all of Streamline.net’s hosting packages include 24/7 phone and email support, custom error pages, mirrored backups, and online FTP interface.
2:29 pm on February 5th, 2010
I signed up with Streamline.net about a year ago. I was originally drawn in by their cheap prices and offer of a free .co.uk domain. I didn’t really know better at the time but I wish I had done more research, if you search online for streamline.net complaints you’ll see what I mean.
Now I should point out that it wasn’t a particularly well used site, it was a simple personal blog with very few visitors and the most basic WP theme installed, yet it was regularly down, dreadfully slow and support was terrible.
To add insult to injury, I received no email saying that my hosting was up for renewal until I got an email saying a payment had failed (due to my debit card having expired). I had thought about switching my domain and hosting over anyway so I contacted their support to ask to change the tag to my new, preferred host and they refused and said that they would not do so until I had paid for another year’s hosting and the renewal of my domain (which was not due to expire for another year)! The worst thing was, they were charging more than the previous year, despite their prices actually dropping. Further research suggests that they have a habit of taking payments without their user’s knowing.
All in all, a terrible experience, I cannot speak any less of them. The “pro” package I had was slow, featureless (no fantastico or cpanel) and probably the worst customer service I’ve experienced in my life. Prices are not even comparatively cheap these days either, avoid at all costs.
2:56 pm on February 5th, 2010
Had been a Streamline customer for 4 years. Their bulk hosting package was (is) very good value. Three years’ ago Streamline kindly donated a domain name and hosting to support The Prince’s Trust charity event I was organising. Deep down they were a good company to deal with.
However… time marches on.
You want to use ASP.NET? – more cost. SQL server? – way more cost. You host your Joomla sites with us and expect .htaccess + mod_rewite? Nope, don’t be silly.
There were a catalogue of issues leading up to their eventual dumping, including:
Streamline putting a note on their website (rather than emailing our customers) and then upgrading PHP from 4.x to 5.x … causing all our hosted Joomla sites to error out. Poor change control process.
We started to notice uptime slipping. Had complaints from several clients and were able to track it ourselves. Streamline would play down the issue (or not reply) – this despite several times per week finding a website(s) non-functional. Wait 20 mins and it’s all good (I suspect a website on the shared server was crashing IIS which then restarted itself). Uptime presumably refers to the network, not to the server itself.
We received an invoice for an SSL certificate renewal (payment was already taken from our Visa card). Odd really – we never had an SSL add-on to any of the domains. Streamline say we did but couldn’t find any record of the original order or the previous year’s bill. Despite writing (with a real pen) to their customer services director the reply came back that we were wrong. The money was never refunded.
All in all it’s a shame. On the face of it they seem to offer great value web hosting. Actually they offer low cost hosting but not great value.
We migrated many of our sites to CapitalServ.net who, like for like, were cheaper, gave far more in the bundle and who’s support was and remains excellent.
2:18 pm on March 11th, 2010
I have been with streamline for about 2 years, I originally used them for hosting small basic html sites / images etc. and it was fine, the control panel is a bit awkward.
Well recently i have had so many problems beyond belief, Firstly they wouldnt enable any php extensions such as PHP Tidy and Mcrypt (mcrypt for magento). Then i opened a new account which i was going to use for hosting my own personal portfolio / wordpress themes. they then tried to say that i couldnt cancel (within my 7 day rights) as they were ‘assuming’ i was a business and this law did not apply to businesses. I then told them it wasn’t a business, was not intended to be used for business purposes and last but not least it was not ‘Registered’ as a business. Still they were having none and eventually ignored my emails so i cancelled my card (they hold your card details on file and constantly try to charge it until they get there money).
Secondly i had paid for a 2 year hosting plan. Unfortunatley i did not see the email where it said it was about to expire, which wasn’t a problem as i had no intentions of renewing it. but because i did not say that i didnt want to renew it they assumed that they would carry this on even thought the site hosting has not been accessed for over a year and because my current account is also shared with this site i can not access any files on my 3rd site until i have paid £61/£62 for the site they tried to force me to renew. Even though i have paid for Site 3 they will not let me access it.
On top of that may i just add that i sent support emails on the 1st and 2nd of march 2010, and have not yet heard a response now on the 11th but i have had 2 emails from them saying they tried to bill my card and payment failed (good luck as i cancelled the card).
So there you go, they can take your money and send you emails saying card was declined. But they can not repspond to your enquiry / support emails.
Absolutley terrible.
11:32 am on July 1st, 2010
This company tricks you into a 3 month trial and then if you dont cancel they upgrade you to their most expensive two year hosting package. My credit card on their records expired and they will not allow me access to my control panel until i give them my new card details. This is despite the fact that i have paid in advance for the two years and still have one year to go.
Because i wont give them these details as i do not trust them i am locked out of my account.
Read the reviews, these guys use sharp practice to get money out of you and give a very poor service.
If i could give negative stars they would have many!
Avoid at all costs.