Can anyone recommend any reputable Canadian resellers? I'm just starting out and assume that, as a Canadian, it would be cheaper to deal with a Canadian company - if anyone has had an experience different than this, I'd love to hear about it.

I really don't know of many Canadian companies with reseller plans, but I do know that Superb.net (http://www.superb.net) and
Hosting.ca (http://www.hosting.ca) both have reseller programs.

Also, the majority of Canadian Web hosting companies that I know of actually charge more than companies based in the US.

hmm...I was beginning to wonder that myself - thanks for confirming it!

Priority Colo -- http://www.prioritycolo.com

Originally posted by Synthetic
Also, the majority of Canadian Web hosting companies that I know of actually charge more than companies based in the US. [/B]
This guy reminds me of the American who thought all canadians lived in iglos....oh wait all americans think that way :D :D

Originally posted by bmwdriver
This guy reminds me of the American who thought all canadians lived in iglos....oh wait all americans think that way :D :D

Why do you say that, he's right. Check out the plans of Canadian hosts whos' servers are in Canada.
It costs more for bandwidth, more for set up, more for a .ca domain name, therefor they have to charge more for hosting.

**********.com, Hostopia.com, InQuent.com, and LFCHosting.com are all hosting co's based in Canada that offer reseller programs.

Originally posted by blue27
Why do you say that, he's right. Check out the plans of Canadian hosts whos' servers are in Canada.
It costs more for bandwidth, more for set up, more for a .ca domain name, therefor they have to charge more for hosting.

Bandwidth is not as cheap for them. Then again, I do not see nearly as many of them overselling like Americans.

I am an American though.

I'd like to see some hard evidence on that. Up here in the snowy flats of BC (British Columbia), we get Cable Internet (15th best provider in the world) for a measly $22USD a month. I've heard of my american buddies getting it for $40-50USD a month. Unless of course I have no idea what I'm talking about and internet access prices do not reflect bandwidth prices at all. Oh well, I'll just go back to twiddling my thumbs. ;)

What's your cable up/down? I'm going by what my friend, who owns a DC in Toronto, said about bandwidth.

I pay $19 for cable, but then again, I know people who pay $70.

I get 1910 / 487, pretty decent compared to other hosts. But my question remains- do internet access costs reflect bandwidth prices in that region?

Originally posted by PlacidHost
I'd like to see some hard evidence on that. Up here in the snowy flats of BC (British Columbia), we get Cable Internet (15th best provider in the world) for a measly $22USD a month. I've heard of my american buddies getting it for $40-50USD a month. Unless of course I have no idea what I'm talking about and internet access prices do not reflect bandwidth prices at all. Oh well, I'll just go back to twiddling my thumbs. ;)

Compare the rates for 10 megs of transit from a provider in Canada with 10 megs from a provider in the states and you might soil yourself the difference is so large. Places like bell, sprint, etc. quote up near the $750-$1,000/mbps level (Canadian of course), whereas you go to the states, and i'm sure you'll get quotes in the $75-200/mbps level USD.

Obviously theres a massive difference, your cable provider might do it dirt cheap (God knows Cogeco loves to!, and i love it!), but also consider thats why Cable/DSL is such an inheritly unrealiable, and poor market place, most of the providers doing so are in troubling waters financially. Needless to say, Canada has very FEW providers offering cheap bandwidth, and while they may do it for your cable, dsl, etc. Try buying wholesale bandwidth from your local ISP, i know Shaw "Bigpipe" (shaw's business end) wants in the ballpark of $400-500/mbps, whereas you can get 1mbps shaw cable for < $40/mo.

It would be great if we can go back to the question of the best reputable Canadian resellers. Clearly, based on WHT, PriorityColo is one of the very best. Firstly I hope people will mention others of the very best, preferably based on more than just their own experience (also on experience of acquaintances, what they've read here, etc.) I want a host based in Canada, preferably (but not most necessarily) with servers in Toronto or elsewhere in Canada near NY. I want well priced low-end packages, but with the skill and support of the very best. I want something like PriorityColo's bottom level package.

Secondly, I mention why I don't just go with PriorityColo. I was all set to, but was stopped dead today by details revealed here regarding their TOS. I feel the person was right to bring up the TOS concern. Some of the TOS is below. So, based on it, if I just happen to accidently not have the money in my account when billed, I'll be charged a $15 late fee and a $5 declination fee? Many others just try billing later, like the next day. And if I go on a 3 week vacation after failing to have the money available, and they shut down the site in 14 days, I have to pay $100 to continue doing business with them? And I have to pay $100 for credit card payments reversed "for any reason", even if it's their billing error? I know, make sure the money's in the account, check your email while on vacation, but the point is that such things can happen innocently, without someone's trying to cheat the host firm. I checked terms of other hosts that are well liked here (Myacen and Voxtreme), and they did not have similarly harsh terms. I think these elements of the terms are needlessly and ridiculously harsh. It is natural to think of the possibility that this is beyond just an effort to disincentivize truly unethical customer behavior. Of course this hurts poorer businesses much more than it does others. As a disincentive it is excessive.

So, Porcupine, maybe you can help me understand. Will the above consequences occur in the above scenarios? Do you exercize any case-by-case judgement (really), or do you just rack up these fines everywhere you can per policy? Hey PriorityColo customers, can you mention your experiences involving such terms and policies? I admit that it is significant that people in WHT are very largely praising Colo and not complaining about bad experiences with these terms. However, the nature of the terms is such that it's a likely dealbreaker for many. Not everybody has them. I really want to sign up with Colo. I hope I get help.

Don't forget to mention other of the very best canadian resellers, guys. Thanks.


From PriorityColo's TOS:

"4. Payments and Fee's: Credit cards which are declined may be subject to a $5.00 declination fee. Payments on credit cards which are reversed for any reason will be subjected to a $100.00 reversal fee. Services may be interrupted on any accounts which reach 14 days past due. Accounts interrupted as a result of non-payment will be subjected to a $100.00 reconnection fee. Accounts which are not paid by their due date are subject to a $15.00 late fee. Any additional service fee's, including technical support, bandwidth overage charges, and other additional fines, or fee's will be charged at the end of the month, or at Priority Colo's discretion. Accounts which can not be collected by Priority Colo may be turned over to an outside collection agency, and the subscriber agrees to pay a $100.00 Collection Fee.

5. Refunds and Disputes: All payments to Priority Colo are non-refundable unless stated otherwise by Priority Colo at the time of the dispute. All disputes of charges must be reported within 45 days of the time the dispute occurred. If the subscriber disputes a charge to their credit card which is at Priority Colo's sole discretion a valid charge under the provisions of the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and/or Terms Of Service (TOS), the subscriber agrees to pay Priority Colo a $100.00 reversal fee."

Are you guys crazy? Eastlink offers unreal prices here for colo and upstream, maybe outside of Nova Scotia it's harsh, but NS is cheaper than most states

I've been with PriorityColo since August 2002. I'm a very satisfied customer. I can't say I have ever had to deal with any of the TOS you mentioned, but that's because I have always made timely payments.

I can't speak for PC on whether those terms are cast in stone, but I know Myles very well and I know he is a very reasonable person who is always willing to work with his customers. I've seen reference to those TOS in the past, so it's nothing new to me. And I would say that they do not concern me in the least. As far as I'm concerned, I am lucky enough to have a great host who takes care of biz. Which frees me up to build my business rather than worrying about connectivity issues, etc.

When all is said and done, you have to be comfortable with who you're dealing with. But from my perspective, Myles is the real deal, and I would recommend PC to anyone without reservation.

Vito

I appreciate your input vito. You said you always made timely payments, so you never ran into charges relating to that. The facts that PC's a great host and that Myles is very reasonable and is always willing to work with his customers means a lot to me.

Of course, this is business. I have no problem with expectation of timely payment, and do not seek to get around timely payment. But beyond the fact that accidents happen, the attitude involved concerns me. As far as $100 for payment reversals "for any reason", a reversal could possibly have nothing to do with customer wrongdoing. Unless I'm mistaken, a reversal could possibly take place because of something that is solely their fault.

Maybe this is where Myles gets reasonable and willingly works with his customers. I hope for more responses.

Well, I think Myles will chime in here to clear things up for you. Again, I can't speak for Myles, but he is very fair. I hardly think that if there is an "honest mistake" that he would exercize the TOS to the letter. It's not etched in paleolithic graphite. As far as I'm concerned, we all have TOS to protect our businesses which are only ever (really) enforced when there is a "bad apple" customer. You certainly don't sound like one of those, rayg. ;)

Damn. I said I wasn't going to speak for Myles, and I think I kinda just did. Sorry, Myles. :blush:

:uzi: Vito :smash:

Oh, and one more thing. Up until a few months ago, I had a small reseller account with PC. I was then the target of a massive DdOS attack. I was specifically targetted. I suspect that many other hosts would have simply cut me off and let me fend for myself. Well, Myles stepped up to the plate and went above and beyond the call of duty to help me quickly get back on my feet. I now have a dedicated server with Myles and all is good.

As far as I'm concerned, PriorityColo has my undying loyalty as a result. Point in fact, I have since been approached by several other hosts offering me cheaper hosting packages. My only and immediate reaction is to tell them that they'd have to pry me (kicking and screaming) away from my current host. Myles stood by me in a time of crisis. You just can't put a price on that, can you?... ;)

Vito

It kind of sucks that the Canadian market for this stuff is slightly more than the US market, but then again, we're a lot smaller then the US too :D.

I'm glad about what you said vito, and you addressed key concerns. The point that strong penalties are enforced only for "bad apples" is the sort of thing I wondered about as far as my concern about their attitude. The story of how they came through for you during the attack is great to hear. Myles mentioned in the other thread that these aspects of the TOS were about protecting PC from unscrupulous people, giving the examples of people committing credit card fraud and people who suddenly decide to say that PC is stealing their money.

Your caution about not speaking too much for him is of course correct. I hope he does chime in. :confused:

Well theres been a lot posted (I haven't been reading WHT very often to be honest, I neglect it because I hate many of the things that go on with it, but at the same time love the others, shame on me!), but as requested (by rayg) I believe VIA Email, I shall try to clear up some of the questions.

First off, our terms do not paralell many webhosting companies because we do a lot more then webhosting. When someone cheats you or rips you off on a webhosting account, thats fine and dandy, and you've invested little other then a sprinkling of resources and time (typically), thus you cut the loss free and move on. On that note though, we provide a LOT more then just webhosting; We extend ourselves with signifigantly larger amounts of risk, as we offer physical resources such as colocation, and actual servers (when you build a $5,000 custom server for someone, you want some security with your TOS/AUP that you've got your rear covered in case the deal goes sour down the road).

That being said, here are some simple explanations of general policies on the subject that we try to enforce:

- We've never charged the listed disconnection fee, it's a deterrent from people being continually late on billing, a $15 late fee is hefty for some, but not if your account is rather large (and those are the ones that matter most for timely payments, to us at least).

- We've never charged the $15 late fee, it's never come in to question, and we've rarely charged the $5 declination fee, they're simply rearward covering terms to ensure that we are not abused in the billing department. We have however charged the $5 declination fee for people who continually submitted one time use cards for monthly billing, simply because we have better things to do with our time then get red flags on a credit card every month and jump through hoops, I just dont think it's a reasonable thing to do (to us).

- The $100 chargeback fee is not negotiable, we may at the time rediscuss this with a customer in question, but I would *never* advertise that we flex on this. If you call VISA and file a chargeback, you are labeling us thieves, that have charged your VISA without right, and indicated that all reasonable forms of communication have failed between us (with most banks, I realise some banks are neglegent on the matter and process careless chargebacks without even making you contact the merchant). The minute you chargeback a credit card, you not only call us thieves, but you also offend me personally. Accounts that cause chargebacks (due to the nature of what we offer) are nearly always using stolen credit cards, and will typically be disconnected immediatly until the matter has been resolved, this in my opinion is a completely unacceptable thing to do, which some people take lightly, I however do not. Additionally one should be aware that chargebacks go on a somewhat "permanent record" with a merchant (us), and can put us out of business if there are too many (lets face it, stop accepting credit cards, you go under).

- The $100 collections agency fee is also non-negotiable. If you're scared of that, I strongly suggest you do not sign up, as I do not enjoy sending accounts to collections, and would vastly prefer anyone who thinks they risk having to go through that simply did not sign up (alternative read: If you have no intention of paying for your services, please, seek a free host).

- Dispute length, 1.5 months is plenty for anyone to voice a problem with their bill, never been an issue before, doubt it ever will be.

So all that being said, I hope that clears it up a little more, while most of the charges are not applied, we may change it sometime in the future (eg. i'd really like to automate it and automatically bill for such occurances, eg. allow a person say 1 declination every 3 months, and 15 days late every 6 months without charges, anything else being automatically billed and invoiced as such). Most listed charges are simply for the amount of time and aggrivation it takes to collect on such accounts (its not what we're good at, what can I say, outside of our area of expertise :)).

Most of our customers probably dont even read the TOS, if it's too much to remember, just think of this: Treat us with respect, you'll get the same, make a conscious effort to pay your bills on time, you'll not have a problem, if you're having financial burdens, *let us know*, and we'll try to assist.

Let me know if I missed anything, looking in this tiny textbox, it looks like I wrote a short story :D.

Hi,

We were with PriorityColo for upwards of 6-7 months, perhaps even a tad longer. Just like them, we, as many others, have such things in our agreements simply because people think they can be late. I know Myles is a really great guy from much experience of working with him and if something came up where you had to delay your payment and talked to him I'm sure he would be understanding.

The TOS is there to protect the company, and most good companies will cover themselves.

What I can tell you, is my 2 years in this biz I've never met a more enjoyable person to work with in that time than Myles. We've been in so many datacenters I can't even remember them all.

If you with him, I highly doubt you'll regret it. Best of luck.

Is planetshosting.com
they have been great and at 100% for the last three months I have been with them. very affordable to.

:agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree::D

Originally posted by Yaz123
Can anyone recommend any reputable Canadian resellers? I'm just starting out

As a new startup looking for Good Canadian Host providing resellers plan - I Do Logic dot com (http://www.idologic.com) (idologic.com). They have good deals on flash demos for their clients too.

For the record, I should share what I think about Myles' answer. I was pleased about what he said, and about his willingness to really address the concerns (and answer the questions). I thought he gave a good explanation of why he has his terms. He head-on handled the possibly trickey topic of enforcement, and directly addressed my main concern of what's really behind such stiff penalties.

I joined two days after Myles' post above. I really like a lot what I've seen so far, including excellent response times and performances on my first support inquiries. Everything I've used has seemed to work great, including mail, with which I had problems at my previous host that were never really resolved.

I've delt with Priority Colo as well and Myles is very reasonable. If you don't make a habit of always boucing your payments I don't think he'll throw the book at you (in fact he didn't charge me any extra when I overloaded my CC one X-mas :-) and my payment to PC bounced. I just took care of the situation as quickly as possible. A lot of Canadian companies have NSF and charge back fees because our banks charge them to us. If the bank charges them fees for your bounced payment or credit card charge back you should exect that fee to be passed down to you.