I've read many comments on this board about getting what you pay for.
That isn't always true.....

For the last several years we've been paying a base price of $200 for our
website, plus additional fees for pointers, extra MB of storage, etc for
a total of $260 per month. That amount has never been an issue,
in fact we are prepared to pay more. We aren't getting good service.

For this $3,120 a year we get poor technical support responses, often 3-5 business
days or longer if we hear back at all. The host is having a problem with
one server and are attempting to move us to a different server. But
they haven't worked out some conflicts on their end that disabled the
order processing software that we lease from them. I've been trying
to get this resolved for 3 years. In the meantime, we've our site has
been split first 2 servers. That was okay, as long as everything kept working.
However, earlier this year, they started having problem with the first server,
which hosts our main site and allows our ordering software to work. So they want
to move all 6 of our sites to a new server. Now we are on 3 servers.
The problem the ordering software exists on server 3 also. No one there seems
to be able to tell me what is going on. They tell me they are working on the problem
and never get back to me. I've offered to change shopping cart software, but they didn't
get back to me on that either. They locked us out of the log for our main site a
month ago, so I can't determine traffic and the reps I've talked to don't
know why that was done either. I could go on for pages about the problems, but I don't have
all day....so

I started looking for a new host and stumbled on WHT. After a couple
months of research, I selected a host that is highly recommended on WHT.
I'm transferring files as I write this. :stickout But the cost for this new
host is 1/7 of what we are paying with our old host. And the base price includes
many of the features that we have been paying extra for. The jury is, of course,
still out on this new host, but so far they have been most responsive to my questions.
If they can handle our traffic, keep the server up, and stay responsive,
we'll be happy and have more money in our pockets.

If this works out, we'll be getting much more for much less. I'm surprised and
somewhat leery of paying so little when we're used to higher fees, but if the
comments I've read here and elsewhere are an indication, we should be fine.

Originally posted by KG
For the last several years we've been paying a base price of $200 for our website, plus additional fees for pointers, extra MB of storage, etc for
a total of $260 per month.

What was the data of this account? For $260 I would expect something really amazing.
Bandwidth?
Disk space?

It sounds like your old host was plain old ripping you off.

Generally, the saying "you get what you pay for" is used for super-cheap hosts. You'll still be paying over $30 a month, which is reasonable. I'd be much more worried if you went from $260 a month to $30 a YEAR. If the company you moved to has a good reputation on here, chances are you'll be fine. Some of the most demanding hosting customers reside on these boards. If they like the host, I'm willing to bet you will too.

Did your old host begin with 'I' or 'C'?

It is high compared to what many hosts here charge.
Our site has been online and growing since 1995,
but I never had a say in who we hosted with. That was
up to IS to decide.

Our base feeof $200 included
Throughput 16 GB & 200 MB storage
Domain pointers are $10 per month, we have 5
And 20 MB extra storage $10


The first host back in 1995 was a local company that was down 50% of the time.
We dumped them after 2 months and moved to a new host. Our site was up, but
their accounting was all screwed up. Everything was peachy for about 18 months
when until a bigger fish ate them. Service completely disappeared and their accounting
was worse. For these we paid $150 a month.

In 1998, we moved to another local company. The cost jumped to $200, but we had
great service. Usually within 10-15 minutes. Then a bigger fish ate them. Within 2 months
everyone at the local company (who had worked closesly with us) quit. That was about
15 months ago. The service has sucked since. Once the site is up, I don't need support
very often, but I do expect it to be there when I need it.

I just want reliability and service.

Originally posted by KG
I just want reliability and service.

Especially for such a price. :D

I've not even found any of our hosts mentioned on this forum.

That is expensive!! I get [almost] all that for $16 a month w/ great service!! Good job picking someone recommended here, they should be great

"You get what you pay for" is a general rule. As such, there will always be exceptions.

you are getting ripped off you might want to search around for a new host. try hostrocket there highest plan is like 30 dollars a month and it seems to fit your needs!

Aloha,
cool sounds like you were being kinda taken advantage of with bad service
if service was top notch then ya pay for it but hope the new one works out well for ya ;)=

With the amt of money you spend on webhosting monthly, you can actually opt for dedicated server instead of shared hosting accounts. :D

Check out Ventures Online's (http://www.venturesonline.com/) dedicated server packages, starts from $200 a month... this should be enough to host your sites and run really fine.

P/S : I don't work for VO, I'm just a happy client with them ;)

Originally posted by auyongtc
I don't work for VO, I'm just a happy client with them ;)

Like many others :D VO is really a great company :)

wow, that is very costly for very little in features and hardly no support.

We have been hosting for a long time and have seen prices sink drastically over the years. What we have seen over several years is many of these first early hosts, had prices that seemed reasonable when the internet was still very young. In fact, the prices were resonable. Things were much more costly back then, from connections, to the servers, and disk space was not nearly as cheap as now.

Over time, many more competitive new hosts and resellers were popping up all over the place. Many of these older hosts with at that time had the larger client bases, kept their prices intact, because they were used to the profit margin, and long as everything was OK, most of their customer base had no reason to look else where anyhow, and became accustom to the rates they were paying.

Then when some did look at others, they were worried at how it could be so much cheaper else where for the same thing or even more, and that something must be wrong. Sounds like the same thing happened to you, being that you said 1995. Working with some of the larger and industrial corporations, they have this same mentality, and would be easy to sell them this older pricing structure still to this day.

Sometimes you don't get what you pay for. Sometimes its more, sometimes its less. The saying really means, if you buys something really cheap, don't get upset if something goes wrong/ don't expect very high quality.

You always hear "You get what you pay for" for example, when you bought something cheap and it brakes or isn't as expected. Your friend shrugs and says that line. When you pay a low/good price and get more for your money, its considered a value. Over spending is just that, overspending :)

I think maybe the phrase should be changed to "Caveat emptor" or "You'd better be dang careful if you sign up for cheap anything without doing the research to see if the company really delivers what they promise."

That's an old famous phrase from, um, Roman times, you know.

Originally posted by KG

In 1998, we moved to another local company. The cost jumped to $200, but we had
great service. Usually within 10-15 minutes. Then a bigger fish ate them. Within 2 months
everyone at the local company (who had worked closesly with us) quit. That was about
15 months ago. The service has sucked since. Once the site is up, I don't need support
very often, but I do expect it to be there when I need it.


That's pretty much par for the course when a small company of any type, that is focused on providing good service gets swallowed by a bigger company focused on making money.

That's certainly been the Verio way. They became a national "tier 1" ISP by buying up other ISP's all over the country, and when these ISP's became part of Verio, their service went from good, to bad, to ugly.

The first warning was that the original staff quit-that's usually a hint that the working environment has disimproved. The new people don't know you and probably don't care.

At the time you were getting good service, you were paying a fair price, but when they decreased the level of service you were getting and kept the price the same, that was when you started getting the shaft.

Good luck with your new host,

I agree with Phoenix as far as when one company buys another.

An educated consumer gets what they pay for.
Everyone else just gets screwed.:cartman:

Aloha,
yeah and a education costs money ?

some of us have doctorates in being screwed by webhosting companies by now
others just have a grade school education ;)

I have had bad luck the last few months with vservers being bigger nad bigger
never a prob until recent
they can not seem to get billing or setting up NT accounts straight

Later

'yeah and a education costs money'
amen

Well for 200 dollars a month you can get a deciated server and dsl or cable. If your paying that type of price and don't get the service. I would take my business else where. If they don't take you seriously enough as a cunsomer then there is not point to staying with them. Good luck, with finding a new hosts there are tons of great affordable hosts out there waiting to service you.

For the last several years we've been paying a base price of $200 for our
website, plus additional fees for pointers, extra MB of storage, etc for
a total of $260 per month. That amount has never been an issue,
in fact we are prepared to pay more. We aren't getting good service.



Expensive education.
LS;)

Originally posted by Honu
some of us have doctorates in being screwed by webhosting companies by now
others just have a grade school education ;)

You made my day!

Originally posted by JKLIVIN
'yeah and a education costs money'
amen


ehhehehe
glad ya liked it

signed
Doctor Honu
(doctor of bending at the knees while tying your shoes for webhositng)

I never had a say in the decision until now.
Our IS guy did all the selecting. To be fair, there weren't as
many hosting options when we launched our first site in 1995.

I don't know how much, if any, research the IS guy did. Most of
the time he went with recommendations from the guy who set
up our T1 line. When I looked at the companies the phone guy is
recommending these days, I decided I could do better, and did a
little research. If the new host works I'll be saving us more than
$2500 a year. WooHoo!

Karin
:beer: