Okay, so I haven’t blogged in a while, but this has got my blood boiling. I’m moving a website for a client. His old host became unreliable, so I recommend Hostgator because they’ve been very good to me. He opens the account, forwards me the Account Info email and I get to work moving his website over to this new server.

I first copy the site files and database over to the new Hostgator server. Then I log into GoDaddy and update the name servers. Simple, I’ve done this a hundred times. I use Google’s DNS, so it only takes a few hours for me to see the new server. But wait, that’s not the right site.

I check to make sure I entered the new DNS  properly. Yep. But I’m puzzled at this mystery site I am seeing, just a waste-of-space parking page with various links going to who-knows-where. Hey, this is wrong!

Okay, fire up the Hostgator chat. They have awesome support, so this should be fixed in no time. Um, wrong. After a lengthy back-and-forth, the Hostgator support guy pretty much tells me that the domain has not FULLY propagated, so that is why I’m seeing their parking page. There’s nothing they can do. Check back in 24 hours.

Whoa, huh? This is a real website! It’s supposed to be making money, not showing your parking page! The DNS HAS propagated. But you’re not showing my site! There was nothing in the email received after account activation that said it would take ANY time before the account was fully ready. And indeed I could log into cPanel right away.

This is total BS. It appears that Hostgator is effectively hijacking this domain during THEIR propagation period. Has Hostgator failed to warn us that there will be a delay before the new account is reachable OR are they deliberately doing this? I would be shocked to find that true. It’s also very possible there is some kind of technical issue and the Hostgator support guy has no idea what he is talking about.

UPDATE: After an email to support showing a number of DNS warnings, the problem is now fixed. No explanation given. I’m pretty sure this was all just a technical problem or something on the server reset automatically.  Only 9+ hours of Hostgator showing their parking page. Yes, I remain a Hostgator customer, but this experience has been disappointing.

RESOLUTION: After more time with support, I finally got an answer I can understand and accept. This tech did not know the exact cause of the problem, but gave several “possibilities”. In a round-about way I think they’re saying that I updated the domain’s DNS too quickly after the new hosting plan was created. Although I could log into cPanel, web traffic was not yet reaching my account. This makes sense to me, but their choice of “default page” needs rethinking. I would much rather have seen a Hostgator branded error page than what did appear. Then the word “hijack” would have never came to mind.

I do give Hostgator much credit for being prompt and responsive during this experience. Although the initial answers were incorrect and I was rather persistent, I did not get ignored.