Written by Jerry . Published on 3 Oct, 2009 . You might not heard about the name ‘GreenGeeks’ before this; so do I. But when it comes to eco-friendly hosting, GreenGeeks is without doubt one of the top players.
I was first skeptical about their green policy (in fact, I acted sort of rude and asked for certification and proofs before publishing them in my list of Green Hosting). However truth is, the hosting company had just purchased over 2.3 million MW of renewable energy in March 2009 and websites hosted at Green Geeks are 300% clean powered
Sound interesting? Well then you gotta check out the man behind all these – Trey Gardner. Trey Gardner is no-stranger to most experienced webmaster as he had been working for over a decade with some of the big names in hostingindustry. His experience in web hosting and web development is valuable and I’m glad to see important people like Gardner is picking up their responsibility in protecting our environment.
Without any further delay, here’s my online interview with Trey Gardner of GreenGeeks and TigerSites.
Q&A with GreenGeeks CEO, Trey Gardner
Hello Trey, thanks for your time with us. To get things started, let’s go with the intro. What can we know more about ‘Trey Gardner’? Can you brief us more about your background in the industry?
Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself.
I have been in the web hosting business for over ten years and another 2 years in the web site design and online marketing business in addition to my years in web hosting*. I have held positions with a number of large web hosting companies including; General Manager, Director of Marketing, Reseller Program Director, Sales Director and Quality Assurance Director. I have built; reseller programs, quality assurance protocols, support teams, marketing initiatives, sales teams and I have held management positions in all but server administration areas within a web hosting company.
Some fun quick questions about yourself: Do you have a dog? Are you a PC, or MAC guy? IE or FireFox? 
I do have a dog, a 115 pound chocolate lab named Guinness, I use a PC, I prefer Firefox over IE. I grew up in a beach town so I surf and play volleyball and I love to go skiing in the wintertime.
Okay, back to business. Both TigerSites and GreenGeeks are new names in the hosting industry. Can you tell us more about them?
Green Geeks was my vision a few years back, I had been working for another web hosting company and saw that the industry was just starting to move to become more eco friendly. I read some horrifying news about just how much of a carbon polluter our industry was and I wanted to make a difference. The web host I was the general manager of at the time saw this as a good marketing scheme but nothing more and they decided to do the minimal they could to become green so that they could come out as a “Green” web host.
At that time I was ready to branch off on my own and I decided to build my own web hosting company. I knew plenty of top talent in the industry and I wanted to really have the focus toward pushing our industry to become more eco friendly and Greener. I decided on the Brand Green Geeks.
After a year of fairly steady growth but still underachieving in some of the areas that I wanted to push into like our reseller program I partnered with an old colleague who owned the TigerSites brand. We formed a partnership earlier this year and it has been great. He and I balance our skill sets very well and the partnership has allowed us to push into the reseller area of web hosting as well as dedicated servers. We have more plans for additional offerings down the line as well.
What can we know about the web servers? Where does your data center located at?
Our datacenter is located in Chicago, IL and is one of the Greenest data facilities in North America. This state of the art facility is equipped with raised floors, climate control, fire suppression systems, 24/7 security, UPS & generators and water detection systems, to ensure that our customers data is safe and secure.
We buy state of the art high quality fuel efficient Intel Quad core processors with RAID 10 storage arrays, 4 GB DDR2/DDR3 Memory and 100Mpbs connection to the Switches. Multi-gig connectivity to our network’s edge routers. Unlike some other web hosts we also do not overload customers onto our servers, we like things to run efficiently here and my past experiences has shown me when you overload your servers bad things happen, like multiple downtimes. We make sure that our environment is living up to our 99.9% uptime.
You are doing a great job at GreenGeeks and I don’t see any green hosting companies come close in term of “Green Factor”*. How do you achieve that? Does the green policy damage the company’s balance sheet?
When I decided to start out on my own I knew it would not be enough to be part of a pack of emerging eco friendly web hosts, I wanted to be the best (I am competitive by nature) and to be the best you have to lead and let others follow.
I hoped others would follow in fact as I state on my mission statement that by being the most eco friendly web host and by aggressive marketing we hoped more companies would take notice and decide to go green for themselves.
As far as our Green policy affecting our balance sheets – it does, it is an added expense that we are deciding to add to our balance sheet but we believe it is necessary and we’re willing to take a little less per customer in order to better our industry and our environment.
* Note: GreenGeeks replace 3x of every power consumed with wind power.
Although TigerSites and GreenGeeks are new, I read quite some good words about your customer services. What kind of supports should we expect from the companies?
Support here at Green Geeks and TigerSites is fundamental to our business. If we cannot support our clients they will go elsewhere as I have seen in other web hosting companies. I wanted to make sure that we had the best support available. Having terrific support depends on 3 factors, reliability, communication and the right employees.
We purchase quality hardware and software at a world class facility and we don’t cut corners anywhere for the most reliable web hosting service we can create. We have made sure to have multiple communication lines for support which includes our emails, phones and chats as well as our extensive knowledgebase. We hire only highly skilled and friendly support personnel and we extensively train those support personnel on all areas of our service and make sure that they are all available through the multiple lines of communication.
Shared hosting plans nowadays are like dedicated hosting plans back in year 2000 – in fact, there are more and more companies offering unlimited hosting services. This includes TigerSites and GreenGeeks. Should your customers be concerned with overselling?
The industry went to unlimited plans about 3 years ago and I saw that as a mistake then but it is no longer overselling. The reality is that technology and servers nowadays are so far superior to where they were just a few years ago that they can handle the unlimited aspects of these offerings. Like all the other unlimited hosts we stipulate that this is for web site files only for the disk space and not file storage. The largest web sites might use a Gig or two of space for site files and most are well below that and with the limits we place on the amount of customers we place on a server it has never been a problem.
In respects to bandwidth, bandwidth has become so cheap we do not really have to look at that as a problem with regards to the unlimited offerings we have.
Your experience in the hosting industry is valuable. In your opinion, what are the important elements to look for when shopping for a web host?
I would say that the most important aspect that consumers can look for are webmasters and real users’ reviews, like the ones found on your site. You have to be confident in your web host. This is not a Coke vs Pepsi decision, in many cases this is a Coke vs Dish Water decision. If you see massive amounts of bad reviews about downtime and lousy support think to your self how much it would cost you to just have a little downtime with your hosting service and do your due diligence to try to find the best web host for you. Features are always important but it is the reliability and customer support which is going to keep you at the host you choose or force you to make a move elsewhere.
What’re your future plans with TigerSites and GreenGeeks? Where do you see them in 3 to 5 years time? Any chances for us to see VPS or dedicated hosting plans at any one of the company?
Actually we have already added dedicated servers this Summer, the pages announcing them will be going live on our sites in a week or so and we believe we have a great competitive offer in dedicated servers. In 3-5 years time we’ll still be here and we hope that by that time we will be even better known across the web hosting industry. This is a long term business plan for myself and all of here at the company and we look to even greater successes in the future.
That will be all for my questions, thanks again for your time! Is there anything you would like to add?
Yes, first thank you for allowing us the opportunity to better introduce ourselves, our company and our mission. I have a personal plea for all of those folks out there who are environmentally conscious as we are and that is the same thing that we state on our web site, if you decide to not choose Green Geeks or TigerSites for your web hosting (both are 300% Green) then please choose some other certified environmentally friendly web host.
Thank you and peace be with you!
Trey Gardner, CEO of GreenGeeks/TigerSites
Interviewer’s sidenote: What I think about GreenGeeks?
Given the fact that web hosting industry is producing more than 630kg of CO2 annually and growing to be as polluting as airline industry, isn’t time for us to rethink about our options in web hosting? Instead of picking up the cheapest or the one with most features, shouldn’t we consider the ‘green-est’ web hosting as well?
I still yet to run a through check on GreenGeeks hosting services but I’m extremely happy with their way of doing business so far – how the company execute their green policy, how their staff (TJ Williams especially) responded efficiently to my requests, and how the CEO response to my questions… everything is nothing but smooth and pleasure. If you care a lot about our environment and are looking for the right green hosting – GreenGeeks is a must-see. Learn more about the green hosting company at my GreenGeeks review; or, visit GreenGeeks online by clicking here (open in new window).
[...] In my recent interview with Trey Gardner (GreenGeeks founder), Trey told us that GreenGeeks is operating on its own servers with the data center located at [...]
looking for another host this is the BS I got from your chat person, Im so sick of hosting companies BS – you are all fricking liars
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘George’
George: Hello, my name is George, welcome to Green Geeks, may I have your name and how may I help you today ?
you: hi George
you: do you have your own servers ? whats the main IP
you: ?
George: Hello,
you: ?
George: Yes, we own our servers.
main IP?: IP?
George: IP address: 65.60.35.50
main IP?: thnx plz give a min
main IP?: who is SINGLEHOP.COM then ?
George: Our servers are in there facility.
main IP?: so you do not own your servers
main IP?: you rent them
George: We do own our servers.
George: Our datacenter is located in Chicago, IL and is one of the Greenest data facilities in North America. This state of the art facility is equipped with raised floors, climate control, fire suppression systems, 24/7 security, UPS & generators and water detection systems, to ensure that our customers data is safe and secure.
George: Server Details:
George: Intel Quad core processors with RAID 10 storage arrays, 4 GB DDR2/DDR3 Memory and 100Mpbs connection to the Switches. Multi-gig connectivity to our network’s edge routers.
George: http://www.greengeeks.com/why-us/our-datacenter.php
main IP?: I dont need another a description of the server
main IP?: why dont you tell me how it work meaning that the owner Tray went out a bought a sounple of servers and rented some floor space at singlehop.com is that what you are saying?
George: Yes please.
George: You can email sales@greengeeks.com to get further information regarding that.
main IP?: GAWD I HATE LIARS
main IP?: NO WONDERS THERE IS SO MUCH BS ON THE NET
[...] In my recent interview with Trey Gardner (iPage founder), Trey told us that iPage is operating on its own servers with the data center located at Chicago, [...]
STAY AWAY FROM GREEN GEEKS GREENGEEKS.COM GREENGEEKS.CA
This web hosting company has misrepresented some of their packages. Stay away from their ‘free domain name for life’ package. If you must use green geeks, make sure that you do not get their ‘free domain name for life’. It is a money extortion trap. make sure that you register your domain name elsewhere. They are scam
Here is how the extortion works!
Green Geeks has a “Free domain for life” promotion, in which they claim that if a customer signs for a hosting plan they get a free domain for life. The truth is that it is a ‘domain name stealing exercise’, or a ‘force customer to host with green geeks for ever’ scam.
Here is the scam. When a customer signs up for website hosting with green geeks, and they get a new domain name or transfer their domain to green geeks, their domain name fee is deducted from the hosting plan. Inevitably it appears that the domain name was for free. However the scam is that, the customer is never ever given the account information to manage their domain name. Such that the customer can not independently renew their domain name or even transfer their domain name to another host.
Basicly a domain name belongs to the entity that has the domain name account information. In essence green geeks is owning this customers, domain name under the pretext that they have provided them with a domain name for free. When the domain name expires, if the the customer chooses not to renew their hosting plan with Green Geeks, but wants to retain their domain name or even transfer it to another host, they are asked to pay an ambiguous amount of money even upwards of $250. Refusal to renew your domain name with Green Geeks, will practically result in the customer losing their domain name unless they pay the asked amount of money to green geeks.
So if a customer has a premium domain name and does not want to renew with green geeks or does not want to lose it, they are forced to pay what ever amount of money that green geeks asks them to pay for domain name renewal or hosting plan renewal. Because the customer does not have their domain account information, they are at the mercy of green geeks. They cannot choose to host elsewhere. Note that at the time of Domain renewal, the customer’s hosting fees may have increased from what they paid previously at time of sign up. So this exercise can go on indefinitely as long as you host with Green geeks. In essence the customer does not own their domain name. If you request for your domain name acount information and want to transfer your domain name, you will be expected to pay an exorbitant amount of money. They claim that they are getting a refund they gave you initially for the Free domain name. they then charge you what ever they want.
So if you have held your domain for at least a year, you will have already obtained some form of internet notoriety, in the form of google page rank, or even dedicated website traffic, so it is also in green geeks interest that they keep your domain, They will make it as hard as possible for you to transfer your domain name, such that they themselves set up one of those advert based directed websites on your domain.
Just switched to GG. Big mistake, servers are slow especially around 5 pm. been with them less than 10 days trying to develop new site for client. over that period could not access server in access of 18 times. I agree with above comments so sick of hosting companies just another BS company who has a sleek looking website. Ive tried others like Media Temple, ihost, iweb, bluehost they all suck!
Oh dear.
Switched to Green Geeks a week ago, as it seemed like the best hosting company I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe I’d never seen it before. What an utter delight.
*queue horror movie music*
I’ve never had such bad customer service. I’m a very patient, understanding person, and I’m sure it’s because they are understaffed or something, but it’s been an utter disaster.
I was told that they would kindly move my files across, and not to update my site because they would be doing it that very afternoon. Imagine my delight and excitement at finding such a brilliant host.
They promised this every day for 7 days, and have *almost* moved it by today (they’ve messed up some files during the file transfer process).
They have been either unavailable or grumpy/tired.
At one point, after not receiving a reply on my urgent ticket for over a day, I tried to give the office a ring, but it played holding music for 10 minutes, then asked me to leave a message, then told me that the “users mailbox was not recieving messages”.
I went onto their livechat but the guy asked me to phone.
So no help over email, phone or livechat.
The migration was incomplete, and look 7 days.
The hosting is not set up correctly for Drupal (had to fiddle around with my php.ini for even my small Drupal site).
They changed my FTP password from my previous web host (whilst ‘transferring’ my files. They did this without permission, leaving me with a broken site on their server, and without letting me know what the new password was. When I used Livechat to ask what the new password was the guy told me patronisingly that they hadn’t changed the password. It took them a day to own up to it, and then they gave me the wrong password, so I am still locked out of my own files.
They were totally non-contactable for nearly 24 hours (I am on GMT).
What makes all this so much more sad is that I really wanted to like them! I was ready to forgive and forget each time they messed up as I really liked their website, and thought they looked amazing.
What a disaster.
I’ve been a Green Geeks customer for over a year now and didn’t need support so I was somewhat satisfied. Until one of their servers got hacked!!!! The hacker started using my account as a source to send out SPAM. I contacted them about it and they somewhat cleaned it up. However, their IP’s were quickly blacklisted. It seems that they don’t know how to clean it up and I’m not going to do their work for them!
I kept writing them and nothing was done. The worst thing was when I was on vacation just this weekend. My customers account was disabled with an explanation that they were sending SPAM. (This is a valid corporate client). Green Geeks could not prove any spam sending from their server or maillog, they just cited that mail from this domain was being filtered at some third party service. THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING ABOUT YOU IDIOTS, FOR THE PAST COUPLE WEEKS!!!!! Your IP is blacklisted!!! I had to come back from vacation early cause Mr. George the tech support person said I had to answer my e-mail if I wanted support. Even though I told him I was not able to get to my email on my phone (this was over chat). Then later that night GreenGeeks phone lines were down, so I couldn’t even call them!! So now I’m changing hosts as fast as possible, these guys are morons and even worse they are morons that lie! I apologize to be insulting them like this, as I’m usually a mello guy, but unfortunately they deserve it.
[...] check out my past work with Hostgator, GreenGeeks, CoolHandle, HostColor, WP Engine, StratoGen, and [...]