:angry: :angry: :angry: :confused: :confused: :confused:


I signed up for TacidHost/TacidBlue.I think you have heard about that story.I next signed up with


http://www.hostyard.com/


I asked and some gave me good references.


Its been a month now and everybody wonders what happened to the 'control man' Dylan.He has like disapperared.Some rumor he's still there but oddly he can't post one notice to his bulliten board in a month.



Websites are up but many are complaining theirs is down.



NOW ?? The messageboard on HostYard has disappeared !!!!! Its been gone for maybe 3 days now.


No way to communicate with others anymore.



I am still in my 30 days of satisfaction Do these 'clickboard' billing services give refunds even if a place disappeared?


I'm getting tired of this nonsense.I can't see any reason why somebody that runs a place will do a disappearing act? Should I feel secure and continue?



yah know..come on..theres got to be an economy hosting plan that is not a rip-off? I'm not saying hostyard is a rip-off but I've never seen anything like the management disappearing and everybody sits around waiting waiting..a month..now month two......

Well,

Their address says that they have a PO box in Africa.

Not even a real address!

What a joke.

Not a real address??? Unless you live in africa how would you know?

Im pretty sure it is a real address...

I thought hostyard was a regular here?

well, id love to visit the site, but its forbidden by my rating check, which is never a good sign.

you made a couple of mistakes:

1) the host offers cheap hosting, maybe cheaper than ANYBODY else, lol - thats always a sign
2) you hosted with someone with a PO BOX, thats a major mistake and dont know why people fall for it!!
3) did they post a telephone number on the web page?, if not then thats your third mistake.

I could carry on but most of the time hosting is common sense, i went with my host i am with now because:

A) actual address
B) telephone number
C) multiple levels of support
D) Offered FREE Trial acount for 1 day before i even offered them any cash.
E) Ping / Trace Routes to their network
F) finally I considered others recommendations after I had arrived at my own conclusions.

maybe we should offer a document on this board of the steps to go through to ensure as much as possible you wont get burnt by hopeless hosts that are in the game for 2 weeks to grab the CC's and run away never to be seen again.

I hope this is ANOTHER lesson to everyone on this board.

xtstrike, I think you should expect those things if you're going to colocate or get a dedicated server. But they are a little to high for shared hosting. There are a lot of good hosts that do not have an office or a phone number where you can call them. That does not mean that they are going to take your money and dissapear, or even that they are a bad webhost. If people do as you do, then the new webhosts have no chance. If I start a webhost and have a couple of servers, I won't be able to rent an office and still make a profit.

There are a few of ways to see if a webhost is good or not. You could talk to their current customers, see if they're happy or not. You can also look at their plans, is it to good to be true, then it usually is. You should/could also email them and talk to them, see how professional they seem, how fast they answer you, etc.

A lot of people see a host offering lots of bandwidth and space for a few bucks every year and they jump on the deals. You could just use your common sense and calculate how much profit the host is making. Think about the server, the bandwidth, support, etc. Will they really make enough (or any at all) profit of the plans they are selling or will they close in a couple of months?

zolbian - indeed I see your points there, but if I were to start a hosting firm then I would at least have a mobile phone for people to call or a house phone. I would use my home address as a contact address instead of PO BOX.

After previous experiences then I would never even dream of dropping below these standards I have set.

I would never use my home address as a contact, that is asking for trouble, but a real address would be good PO Box or not:D The phone for emergency contact would be a good thing

xtstrike, the phone support might be something. But then you would need someone to answer the phone and that takes a lot of time! A customer that calls you might talk to you for 10-20 minutes and you can't do anything else in that time. But if he/she emails you, then the same questions will be answered in less than 2 minutes.

I would never give out my home address in USA because there are other people living with me. I would never do anything to jeopardize their safty. There is way to much danger as it is, don't really need an upset customer come to my house. As the say.. Better safe than sorry!

Originally posted by mekmal
I would never use my home address as a contact, that is asking for trouble, but a real address would be good PO Box or not:D The phone for emergency contact would be a good thing

Yes, a P.O. Box is a must! I would also maybe consider an answering machine (pager) of some kind.

Hmm, maybe I work things a little differently, lol
Ive always been one for the "personal touch" and being able to call people and talk to a real person is something I have always felt quite strongly about.

Originally posted by xtstrike
Hmm, maybe I work things a little differently, lol
Ive always been one for the "personal touch" and being able to call people and talk to a real person is something I have always felt quite strongly about.

That is very good, but maybe not the best for a startup. It depends, if a guy is starting a company from his house and maybe his wife and a friend is helping him, then that might not be the best idea. But if they have another company and money to spend on people sitting and answering phone calles, then why not!..

Depends a little on the situation, but office/phone support is a must when you start to grow and can afford it.

Hostyard has been in business for a couple of years, and hes a nice guy, unfort. he offers the cheapest hosting which doesnt leave alot of room for upgrades and he cant higher staff which means he supports thousand of clients himself. I wont say hes running his business the right way, but i can say hes NOT a scam and he is trying hard.

quoth Zolbian:

I would never give out my home address in USA because there are other people living with me. I would never do anything to jeopardize their safty. There is way to much danger as it is, don't really need an upset customer come to my house. As the say.. Better safe than sorry!

If you fear for your safety from your customers, you probably shouldn't be running a business of this nature out of your home. Providing your address to your customers isn't the same thing as giving your address out to people you meet online in chatrooms. They are giving you their personal and/or business information, after all.

However, if you are going to run your business from home, but wan't to use a different mailing address, there are other solutions besides the ever-popular PO Box. Companies like Mailboxes, etc., that give you a street address and a 'suite number' instead of a box number are most often used to give home-based businesses the illusion of an office address.

Originally posted by Phoenix
If you fear for your safety from your customers, you probably shouldn't be running a business of this nature out of your home. Providing your address to your customers isn't the same thing as giving your address out to people you meet online in chatrooms. They are giving you their personal and/or business information, after all.

A few things..

1) I do not fear for my safety, if I was living alone, I would have had no problems giving out the address (although I feel it would be unnecessary). There are other people I have to think about.

2) Since the smaller host is not going to act like they have their on datacenter, I don't see any need for a physical address. The customer has no need to visit you at your home.

3) A lot of the smaller hosting companies are _online_ companies. I've even seen bigger online computer selling companies without giving out their customers their physical address, they basicly do not want to give that out to have the cusotmers visit them. They only provide you with an address when you have problems with a product and want to send it in for repair. This is how they work, they simply do not want to put money on sales people and a store. Instead they lower their prices and do everything online.

This is basicly how I feel about this, others might have other opinions on this subject. I respect their opinion, and hope they respect mine.

Then you should definitely use an outside address other than your home address to serve as your business address. I don't advocate giving your home address out if you don't feel comfortable doing so, but I do believe you should provide your customers with some sort of an address.

Regardless of whether a company is bricks and mortar, bricks and clicks, or pure-play Internet, they have to have a headquarters somewhere where the staff is, and people like to know where it is. It gives them an impression about the company they are dealing with, and lets them know whether the company they are doing business is next door, in another state, or in another country.

People often ask us whether or not our business address is in fact a home address because it is a simple street number and an ordinary street name in a mixed commercial/residential area, with no suite or floor number, or office-parky street name to give them any clues.

hostyard DID post their phone number

i used to host my site with them, they were very good. it's weird, everything starting going funky there RIGHT after i left