It Shouldn't Be This Hard!

byLanaC4

139 followers

6 months ago

Coming Home

On April 22, 2024 I made the decision to return to WA and I started the process. I left 3 years ago because I 1)thought I could save money elsewhere and 2) I didn't want to do affiliate marketing. It's just not my thing. But I loved the training and learned enough to carry me while at another company.

I loved the training but felt like it was all leaning toward affiliate marketing. Anyway, "B" (the new hosting company) was not forthcoming about the up-charges. I didn't know that I didn't have security until my site was hacked for the first time. They told me about SiteLock and their free plan. I signed up. I was told I needed to remove the "bade codes" from my site. You might as well be speaking Greek to me. I didn't know what that meant.

It's All Greek to Me

One of the agents was nice enough to do it for me. Okay, so after that, my site was cleared of viruses and was functional again until a few weeks later. My site was hacked again! I called SiteLock and told them that I had SiteLock and asked how it was possible that my site could be hacked again. They said, "Oh you have the free version. That only allows us to monitor your site and notify you of any fraudulent activity."

Are you kidding me?? Nobody told me that the first time I was hacked! "B" again told me to clear the bad codes. I said, "Can't you do it for me like you did last time? I don't know how to do that." The agent said that they are not allowed to do that but that he could point me to the files that needed to be deleted. I didn't want to get the other agent in trouble so I kept quiet. The "folder" containing the bad codes that I was supposed to delete easy peasy could not be deleted as one folder. I contained about 100 subfolders that could not be deleted as single folders but had to be opened and all the files inside had to be deleted individually. There was about a million files in each folder! It took me 3 days to delete everything. I called on the last day because I saw a file that looked important. The agent assured me and told me to delete everything in the folder. I did. Seconds later my website disappeared. I had deleted it! I told the agent my website is gone. He looked and it was gone. He said, "Yes that's because you deleted (whatever file). That should not be deleted." I'm not a screamer, but I was boiling on the inside. I said, "You told me to delete everything in the folder. I asked you about that file and you said to go ahead and delete everything."

Woo Saah

The next day after lots of prayer, herbal tea, and meditation I called back and someone was able to restore my site back to a previously saved version earlier that week. I would lose any articles I had written since that day. Hallelujah! That was fine with me. At least I didn't lose all my work completely. So after coming up off of $359 which was budgeted elsewhere they cleaned my site and assured me that I was good to go. After I deleted the bad code someone was relentless and kept trying to mess up my site. And/or I just realized that when my site was restored to a previous version it was probably restored with all the malware.

Fast forward several months and my site is now locked and an email tells me that my SSL has expired. What? What is an SSL and how do I get one?!! Another $90 out of pocket. I was done. My mind kept going back to WA. I remembered I only payed $49/mo. We never talked about security or SSL or domain privacy and protection because it was all included. I didn't know I had those things until I didn't. I researched other companies but I never found the value that WA offers anywhere else. So I returned.

Fast forward to April 2024. I initiated the site transfer. WA community told me I needed to get an authorization code. I contacted "B". They said a code would take 3-5 business days (or longer) to generate. I contacted WA community to see if this sounded right. They told me to contact Site Support. Site Support (SS) asked me for my login credentials and said they'd take care of the transfer for me. They didn't ask for the code or respond to my question so I thought they didn't need it. I thought that by using my credentials they could do the job. The next day SS told me I was all set, my site was moved and that I could begin working on my site.

Good to Go

The code came to my email and I told SS that it came. We were talking about a couple other things in that correspondence as well, but again they did not respond to the mention of the code so I let it go. Days pass and I begin the training and working on my site. I dealt with having to make "B's" servers point to WA or my site servers...whatever. I got that done. Meanwhile, "B" keeps sending me emails saying, "Your site domain is about to expire." I ignored them because I knew that my domain was already moved to WA.

I was having trouble getting my store up and running again. I went back and forth between Woo Commerce, Printful and Site Support. Finally, SS tells me that the servers are still pointing to "B". The told me how to fix that. But it didn't solve the problem.

Meanwhile, I need to live my life - go places, do things and a couple of more weeks pass. I contacted SS again and this time they said that my domain is still with "B" and that it needs to point to WA servers. I said, "I already did that." Upon further investigation they see that my domain has expired and the servers reverted back to "B". I called B and we discovered that WA never used the code. I told SS and they apologized for my confusion. They told me (for the first time ever) that there is a difference between transferring a website and transferring a domain.

Anyway, I dug the code out of my email after confirming that it was still valid and gave it to SS. They instructed me on how to do it myself and make my payment. The code actually was invalid so I went back to "B" for a new code. The agent said it would take 3-5 days or longer. I checked in with them at the 10 day mark and they said I'd have to wait 60 days because it's expired! That's not was the first agent said.

Know When to Fold 'Em

I am so tired. I don't have the energy for this drama anymore. I've had this website for about 3 years and my store never worked. Printful blamed "B", "B" blamed Woo Commerce and Woo Commerce blamed Printful. Maybe it's time to throw in the towel and try something else. Or at least try this in a different way. All this is seriously affecting my anxiety issues. There is no point in paying for a website that is not functioning.

Sometimes you have to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run. I will take some time to pray about what to do but in the mean time I think it's time to put the cards down on the table. (I am so not a card player lol - I just like the song. I hope I used the reference correctly. haha)

I hold no ill will towards WA. I thank you all for being so helpful during this process but I was just dealt a bad hand. I'm gonna step away from the table for a moment to reassess my next steps. God bless you all. May you reach your goals and dreams. Maybe I'll see ya later. (muaah*)