e-Business-Formula Internet Marketing Discussion Forum

[Chris (cat)]

I am hear to voice my anger!

A little bit of background. rss-feed-directory.com which I have mentioned here a few times was suspended without notification.

The site was using a very small 30 + web space and bandwidth for the month was a minimal 3 to 400 megs.

I had just placed a time script on my directory script a few days prior. If this was the problem, the time script would have taken a quick two minutes to remove had I been notified.

In addition, money spent on advertising the competition on rss feeds has gone to waste as my site has been down for three days.

The following is the last correspondance I have sent to hostgator regarding this matter.

[quote]Dear Hillary,

I am getting annoyed with your standard reply of "The account has been suspended for crashing the server."

Either I did not "crash" your server which is the real truth and you are not willing to give me a proper and responsible answer which I am due considering I've been paying for a service.

Or if I did crash your server as you say, I am very surprised that a company like yourself does not have systems in place to avoid this considering my site was using little space and basically no bandwidth.

If the problem was my directory script, a curtsy email informing me of the problem would have been polite so I could take the appropriate action and rectify the problem.

This is how business is done usually!!!

Using the word "crash" is a load of rot really. Are you trying to me that one of your servers is now totally useless?

I would like a decent answer this time please if that is not too much trouble!

I will be informing my readers that your company is good for building a small website.

If they are looking to build a decent site with reasonable bandwidth or run scripts that your service is dismal.

If they did happen to run into a problem rather than being helped or notified their site will be suspended without warning. Or maybe using your terminology, "ripped of the internet".

On asking for why this has happened you can expect three or four replies of "The account has been suspended for crashing the server."

The tone in this sentence is quite obvious, as if I'm totally to blame and should have known better for "crashing" your servers.

This has been the worst business experience I have ever encountered by any company, period.

For the fourth time, if you can back to me with a decent answer it woul be appreciated.


Regards & best wishes,
Chris Taylor
Anam Cara[/quote]


This is the forth email without any type of reasonable response!

It is my experience with hosts that as everything is automated that's about all the work they wish to do.

As soon as there is a problem, it is easier for them to suspend your account rather than to help you fix it. To do so would mean additional staff, etc.

I will certainly be making sure to inform all that use my services that hostgator are the last hosting company I would use online ever again.


Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

[Teena]

Hi Chris,

I'm sorry you've had such a dreadful experience with this company.

As they're based in the US and you're in Melbourne, why not give them a call if the automated email responses aren't satisfactory?

I call the US regularly for about $A2 per hour - if you'd like the details on this cheap phone card, I'm more than happy to provide them.

Cheers
Teena!

PS - I offer excellent hosting with *real people* available 24/7 - they've often called me here in Australia [from the US] to confirm a detail on an account enquiry.

[Chris (cat)]

Hi Teena,

Thanks for your suggestion however the emails have actually been sent by real people all conveying the exact same answer.

For such a large, well known hosting company of that size they have given no consideartion to their actions and how it may effect my business.

They did nothing to communicate the problem or in any way liase with me in an endeavour to sort the problem.

I have now had my "winge" so to speak so the best thing to do is get on with 90% solutions and 10% reflection only.

Within three ours of being notified of the problem I had sourced a new host (a friend actually) who offered me not hosting but seeing the predictament I was in a package at a discounted rate.

After some discussion, he actually conveyed a similar story but with a very different outcome.

One of his clients recently was draining a large amount of server resources, a few emails were sent informing the client of the issue, the client reponded by modifying the offending script.

The clients website is still up and running and everyone is happy.

Now if a small hosting company can give such proper service, what is going on that a larger one cannot even send one email to help?

Just curious Teena, who are you using cuurently for your hosting mention at the bottom of your post?


Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

[Chris (cat)]

At last, some sort of reply!

[quote]The below site is running scripts that are causing problems in a shared environment, either they are not working correctly or have bugs causing high CPU usage, as per our TOS we don't allow one site to crash the server for everyone else. Since this site is a heavy CPU user we would be happy to move it to a semi dedicated or dedicated server where it would not be in a shared environment, would you like more info?

Username: rssfeeds
Domain Name: rss-feeds-directory.com



Thanks, ......
HostGator.com[/quote]

This was what I sent in return and will be my last communications to this co.

[quote]Dear Ben,

The problem you have described below is not one that has all of a sudden become apparent. You would have known about this for some time and could have informed me prior to pulling my website completely offline.

I am sure you would agree with me that if "the planet - data centre" who run your services/servers were to pull one of your servers offline without any communication to you or your company, you would be extremely angry and maybe take your business elsewhere.

You yourself would not put up with such business behaviour from one of your service providers however you then expect your own customers to do so.

Placing such items in your T.O.S is just an easy way out for you not to have to provide any real customer service when your clients need it the most and after they have been paying you for months on end, and is definitely an immoral way to do business.

And just as a reminder of your so called "philosophy"!

"The Host Gator philosophy is simple: Provide reliable service, superior support, and affordable pricing to businesses and individuals seeking quality shared, reseller, or dedicated web hosting solutions."

In this matter you have given me no support! We actually never got to the support part because first there would have to be communication and there was none of that either!

Now to ask me if I wish to upgrade to a dedicated server with the addition of me having to ask four times to get any reasonable answer is an affront to my intelligence.

I willing be moving all my sites else where in the very near future.


Regards & best wishes,
Chris Taylor
Anam Cara[/quote]


Can you tell I've been letting of some steam!

Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Chris,

I've been placing clients who need hosting on the servers at http://sitehost4u.com since 1997.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Chris,

I too can understand your concern and anger.

Marketing Online, your success and or failure to a large degree is driven by some of the core services you choose.

A reliable Host is certainly critical, I some months ago had an unfortunate experience with my long time Host who basically just disappeared off the face of the earth overnight, I had been dealing with them for over two years without any problem.

The disruption that this caused was immense to say the least but from this a lesson was learnt.
That is, Do not make your decision on price alone, look at the service provided and most of all the ability to effectively communicate with the host at anytime.

We all know that nothing is 100% certain in life and things can crash at any time, but like most industries there are some providers that have been around for years and are very stable.

Don't be afraid to ask advice from your online friends as often they can assist more than you realise...In my case fellow forum member Steve MacLellan pitched in and helped me get back online in no time and provided some good advice as well.

I hope you are now settled with a new provider but as usual if any of us can assist please don't be afraid to ask.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[Chris (cat)]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the help and advice. I have now moved over to my new host without any major hick ups.

All should be fine now and yes without doubt I will learn form the experience. Another topic to write up about on one of my sites!


Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Chris,

I am pleased to hear that you are now settled with a new host.

Are you willing to share with us what were the main contributing factors that determined your final choice of host?

Your experience will no doubt be of value to others.

I look forward to your positive feedback.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[Chris (cat)]

Hey Kevin,

Fortunately I did not have to search too much this time!

I ususally find myself swapping hosts every 6 to 12 months due to lack of service, usually which in most caes has something to do with running scripts or programs.

I am now hosting with Mike Ambrosio who runs www.myinternetteam.com

I first met Mike (online) last year through Kim Standeline's forum when I egaged his services to install a forum script.

He's service was very good and he went the extra mile and did a few additional tasks for no cost.

Currently and over the last few months I have been meeting Mike & Kim online (voip) for general business discussions, thoughts and progress of each of our businesses.

It is an informal meeting whereby we help each other where possible and it is also good to chat to other online buisness people who share a common dream & goal.

As I was in trouble with my own hosting and as Mike had become a friend I took up his offer of hosting.

But probably more to the point is these two factors.

1. His service was excellent before I knew him.

2. He has extensive knowledge with scripts and software. He actually has written a book on the subject.


I can therefore be assured that if I have a problem with any script, I have a host who knows what they're talking about and will not just pull my site if there are problems because they have no experience in that field.

As stated above, my peoblem has been with scripts. I think most (large) hosting companies don't mind collecting your money but as soon as they have to sort a problem out it is easier to pull your site.

Why? People who can be taught a little knowledge about hosting, servers and online business are much cheaper to hire than experienced techs.

With all said above I would have no hesitation in referring Mike's hosting above and will be advertising his business heavily on my marketing site when finished.

Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

[computerincome]

Over the last few months I have had constant hassels trying to update my websites hosted at jv-hosting.net. Just would not connect for days at a time. I have opened support tickets and no response, emailed direct and over quota for weeks now. Looked up reviews on other sites and many others having same problem and telephone disconnected and paypal links not working.

I now need urgent reliable but cheap website hosting - any recommendations. For www.freedailycash.com , my newsletter site, I just need very simple hosting and do not really want to pay much for it so long as good uptime.

For http://www.computerincome.net I need more space and better hosting as this is my main site.

Rachel

[Kevin Robb]

Rachel,

I'm sure that if you asked 100 people to provide their best recommendation as to their preferred webhost you would get a 100 different answers.

Primarily this is because everyone has different needs and consequently any two packages rarely compare.

My best suggestion is to visit Webhostingtalk and scan the information available.
I am confident that you will find something suitable.

Cheers

Kevin Robb