- They don’t use cPanel/Parallels or any other standard back end, making it much harder for web developers to deal with them.
- You cant recover usernames/passwords without calling tech support, which is painful as you are frequently on hold for very long periods of time.
- Domain name renewals are $70 a year, twice the price of anywhere else
- They charge for services like DNS forwarding/simple management, which most don’t charge for
- Just one look at their Google places page, shows why Melbourne IT should be avoided. Most people feel their customer service sucks.
- Domain transfers away from Melbourne IT are hugely frustrating. They call their domain password a “registry key”, which is the name the AUDA gives to their password. The emails for recovery (which is another process you have to go through) are nearly identical.
I am sure there are more people out there with horror stories. Feel free to post them below.
It took webcentral 15 working days to update one of my DNS A record!
Oh boy do I hear you. Melbourne IT are horrendous. I actively tell people to avoid them. Their business model assumes that they are the only web company around. Their share price has also fallen considerably over the years. They essentially exist because less savvy people choose them based on their name.
Eventually these less savvy people will run out, and Melbourne IT will break. Above all I can’t believe they don’t have chat support or cPanel. I mean seriously… They should pay people to use them due to all the difficulties dealing with them.
I had another 4 or 5 clients leave them in the last few weeks. The second someone says “I’ve got my domain with Melbourne IT…” I reach for the paper bag.
14/2/2015
Webcentral/Melbourne IT just won my vote for the worst WEB platform provider. When you report that your webpage has been hacked for the 4th time in 3months and there is now an ISIS flag and Muslim propaganda scrolling through your webpage, they can’t help until Monday!
I’ve lost enough business and valuable time talking to their faceless support teams. Somebody PLEASE send me a lawyer who wants to help me sue Webcentral / Melbourne IT. I also need a quick easy way to get my website moved to somewhere it is NEVER going to be hacked again.
I’ve lost enough business and valuable time.
I couldn’t agree more webcentral’s customer service is absolutely appauling, i’ve had tickets open to resolve isses for 14days+ which then just get mysteriously closed with no resolution. The average time to speak to anyone on the telephone is well over 1/2 hour, then when you finally do get through to someone, you either can’t understand a word they are saying or they are completely useless.
I run an IT company and we are actively migrating all of our clients away from webcentral to a US based vendor who is half the price with 24 hour instantly available tech support they actually help and know what they are talking about.
This is the massive trap with cloud based services, once you get sucked in by all the marketing BS its an absolute mission to get away from them.
They are beyond bad.The Manilla call centre are absolutely ignorant.I have been kept waiting for tech support for periods of 25 to 1 hour and 35 minutes.They advertise they have 24 technical support then Manilla says that incorrect and its available only during business hours.Recently I had no email for 4 days whilst Melbourne i/t transferred me to web central to fix the problem and web central sent me to Melbourne i/t and veilia and ntt[overseas] to fix the problem and this went on for days.They don’t have ranking in the sue on the tapes so when you ring you just have to wait interminably.Some of their staff will just tell you anything ay any time with no rhyme or reason.I fixed the problem after spending over 7 hours on hold and talking to them as well as dozens of dollars on overseas calls.I have been trying to pays ann account for Melbourne i/t that we received but despite calls and emails all unanswered I cant pay it as the first person at accounts said the account was incorrec t ,the second said nothing was outstanding and the third maintains there is no such account.They are truly ,sincerely,unbelievably incompetent.Im trying to get a transfer authorisation number to extricate myself from these looneys but ,off course,they are ignoring my emails.
Nothing’s changed.
16th December, 2013. Phoned WebCentral to request they change my web host. Told monies outstanding of $25 for domain renewal. Not aware so paid immediately. Told would have to complete a “Request for Reinstatement” form which would be sent to me straight away.
17th December, 2013. Form not received so phoned to inform them. Received form, completed and returned.
18th December. Phoned WebCentral to ascertain situation. Told account was closed. Explained had paid on Monday and had submitted “Request for Reinstatement” form yesterday. Was informed that the form had been received and should be able to activate and send me the details within 3 hours so I could make changes through “Mission Control”
19th December. Nothing received so phoned and spoke to an Alex who told me the the account was closed. Once again explained had paid on Monday and had submitted “Request for Reinstatement” form on Tuesday. He checked and confirmed my information. Said he would request the job be marked “Urgent” so would have confirmation within the hour.
20th December. Nothing received so phoned 3 times, but no one would answer. Time hanging on 16 mins 28 secs; 16 mins 40 secs and 16 mins 56 secs. Sent an email pleading for help. Received email with details.
Conclusion.
1. The only action they did efficiently was to take my money.
2. Only took them 5 days to reactivate an account.
3. They must be incompetent or liars. Tell people anything to get them off the phone or just don’t know what they are doing.
4. I have four web sites and the file is now marked “Never use WebCentral”. Have moved domain registration away from them and, fortunately, they do not host any of my sites.
5. If you really, really, really HATE someone then recommend WebCentral to them
Melbourne IT should stand before the Dept of Fair Trading for fraud, misleading the consumer and trapping them into systems and contracts that they can’t get out of. They are beyond the point of a ‘few misunderstandings’ and well into systematic ripping-off of their entire customer base. Currently I design and manage a site for a major australian event using a simple template based platform (that also hosts for $99 a year), that also provides the most amazing support at any time I need them. My client who bought the domain from Melbourne Idiot Team a few years ago, with no hosting required, has been charged $30 a MONTH for three years to ‘manage the domain’. $1180 bucks where normally you’d pay, what, $60 for domain renewal over three years? My client did nothing but want to purchase a domain name, and Melbourne IT had taken full advantage of them.
It’s interesting and a bit sad that you are saying it’s hard to extricate your domain name from them. I’ll attempt it with my client’s domain and report back here with how hard or easy it was. Wish me luck, I’m goin’ in!
Couldn’t agree more. Mission Control is absolutely useless when it comes to managing your domain and their accounting system is hopeless. Have been billed multiple times in a single month for the same “service” (once charged 3 times in one day).
Have now moved all my domains so I never have to deal with them again.
My complaint with Melbourne IT is their selling of unwanted products in the form of a discount. So, in addition to the .com.au registration I want, they offer to add .net.au for the same price. There doesn’t seem to be any downside until 2 years later when they charge you full price for each of the two – except that for one of them they also provide Web Forwarding without discussion – presumably so that in 2 years time they can also direct debit the customer for that at full price also. So you start out with the simple need to register .com.au and, if you aren’t alert to the detail of their emails, in a few years they are direct debiting you for three products, only one of which is of any interest. And then if you complain, the support officer seeks a clear statement that you want to cancel web forwarding, in which case you will be charged the full price for the domain registration. Frankly, it is an ethics-free zone. I am currently preparing a financial claim to the industry ombudsman and will report results here.
Peter
First off I wish I knew this company treated everyone so badly years ago…. I also do thank you folks who took the time to add your experience here. I’m in NSW and I also am looking to contact our Ombudsman Peter. If anyone could suggest a better IT company we could use I would very much appreciate it! I started this company before graphic computers were really in use. I passed on the company to my business partner, and I am trying to get all this WEB Central sorted out. They even sent her other web sites’ copy write images on her pages for her new site. That ended any chance they had left for us to deal with them!
So far it’s sadly a mine field out there…..
Regards
Kenny
I agree with Peter, the way Melb IT conducts business does appear to be misleading. I took a starter package a couple of years ago and renewed it early (2 months before the due date) then they sent me upgrades for free, they later sent me emails an called about auto renewals (3 months before the due date)none of these mentioned an increase in price. I renewed and was given a bill which had increased by about 60% When i advised them advised That i did not want the upgraded package they told me that accounts would reverse the bill (no mention of being charged for this) accounts paid me part of the refund ad then closed my account in February. I advised them I had paid and the account and the next billing date was supposed to be April 2016 (according to their own email) Now they will not reopen the account unless I pay for another subscription.
Everytime I contact them they now tell me the account was due in February.
My advice is do not go near them, tell all your friends to steer clear. Peter if you need any of my info i would be happy to support you
Hi everybody,
I do not have a domain with them, but i paid upfront the first month what they called Social media Marketing which really didn’t work as they published images that are not from us at all ( we are wildlife photographers) so we lost people on our Facebook page.
So now we did cancel the contract through the console and they are saying they didn’t receive our request form???? and they ask us to pay the two month left but we can cancel the ads ( Facebook, google plus, twitter)??? the question is are we allow to cancel this under the consumer Australian law, we do not want to pay them for doing nothing as we do not want them to manage anything else anymore.
Thanks everybody if you do have an answer to this.
Dali
They deactivated my domain without telling me.
Even then they had it still showing as renewed for another two years.
I only found it by accident then checked with another provider and it was available.
I am furious. Transfering all my domains.
Unbelievable. Melbourne IT apparently bought my website hosting and SSL from Yahoo last year, and now the website has disappeared off the net. I went on Melbourne IT’s site, registered couldn’t find my domain name and called their toll free customer service number. The recording at the other end told me I was 6th in queue. Ok so far.
Well, it took 45 minutes to move to “you are next in line”. Then, magically, I was 12th in queue. REALLY? I hung up in frustration. So much for the first attempt to obtain my registry key.
Time to sit down and regroup. It may be simpler to create a new website rather than to deal with these shysters.
Just wish I read the reviews before hand. Been with the company 8 months too long. Besides taking ages for website to be set up and then the quality so inferior. So many promises and so many stuff ups we now only just found out the seo and so many things were not set up correctly. Sales or account manager signs you up and disappears. No method of complaint resolution or call backs. Found a lovely person to assist on website but with the loss of business, services and way they handle you as a customer and human, just not worth it!!
Melbourne IT Hold Their Customers To Ransom! – They Are Really Bad!
They are a very bad company to deal with! They over charge and don’t deliver! They have been holding customers to ransom by not allowing them to transfer their domain names away! They take over an hour to answer the phone for support. They do not complete the support issue. They do not reply to customer support emails. They are really really bad! They are connected to NetRegistry as well so stay away from them too!
From charging over 7 times the average cost (they currently charge $150 and no longer provide domain passwords) on domain name registration to poorly designed websites and customer service this company is one of the worst you’ll ever deal with!