pgrote
08-05-2001, 03:35 PM
Hello,
My name is Patrick and I am a former ***** customer.
Hello, Patrick.
I feel the love already :-)
Anyway, this Friday I decided to switch hosting companies. I did this with great trepidation as I knew it was going to take time and effort to make it happen.
I chose Hosting Matters for the following reasons:
1) Support. They seemed to be very responsive. They have a forum on their site not only for official support, but user to user support. They also have a ticketing system so you can follow the progress of how things are going.
http://support.hostmatters.com/
2) Price. I liked the spread of their plans they offered. I have three domain names with different resource requirements. There plans were well documented and spread out so that I could maximize my hosting dollars.
http://www.hostingmatters.com/plans.html
3) Their network. I liked their explanation of their network. As someone in the enterprise computing business I appreciated their frankness and explanations.
http://www.hostingmatters.com/noc.html
The day to move the domains came. I signed up with Hosting Matters through their online order form. It was a secure form, easy to understand and with quick response. After I clicked order my domains were created and a welcome email was in my inbox within ten minutes. (on the third domain I moved I didn't receive a welcome message. I opened a ticket and Hosting Matters responded. They sent the welcome message to me within 30 minutes. Later that day I logged on to my corporate email address and guess what? The welcome message was there! For some reason it was sent to the seconday "off network" email address I submitted. No harm, no foul.)
To change the name server info, I struggled with Network Solutions on using their crypto password. When I actually stopped to read the instructions I realized I was doing the wrong thing :-) All the info I needed to change was contained in the welcome email I received. The only suggestion I would make is that it would be nice if they included their handle name for Network Solutions.
After Network Solutions emailed me to verify the change had been made, I sent a message to Hosting Matters to ask if I had done it right. Within 15 minutes I had a response from Hosting Matters letting me know that yes, I did do it right and that they had received the email from Network Solutions as well. :-)
I then proceeded to the Control Panel application. I know many hosting companies have this, but ***** doesn't. I was in heaven! It was awesome being able to create pop accounts, check stats and read logs all from one interface.
I did have a few issues that I created trouble tickets for. To me it's critical that a hosting company is reguarly looking for tickets and then resolving them. In my mind a ticket should have a 3 hour SLA (Service Level Agreement). I'd like to see an update on the ticket within three hours.
Here is my experience with Hosting Matters:
Submitted: 10:03
Resolved: 11:42
Ticket Info: Requested that front page extensions be installed on the two domain names I transferred. I was surprised they weren't installed by default or there was an option to select it when ordering. 1:39 turn around time is awesome. Everything worked.
Submitted: 17:44
Heard Back: 18:36
Ticket Info: SMTP isn't working on either domain. I can't send mail from either domain. I read the support forums and FAQs and it indicated that some ISPs block the SMTP port. This isn't the case with me. I detailed in the ticket the exact configuration, my ISP, my setup and why I knew it wasn't an ISP problem. I heard back from Hosting Matters that they would create a test account and try things out. I haven't heard back from them, but it's been less than 24 hours and it's Sunday for gosh sakes. I would expect to hear something first thing Monday morning. Am I ok with this? Yes, I have a workaround and sending email from that domain isn't mission critical. The important thing here is that A) They didn't try to force the ISP answer down my throat and B) They are doing a logical step in troubleshooting.
Submitted: 17:56
Resolved: 18:34
Ticket Info: Didn't get the third domain welcome message. I addressed this above.
Submitted: 20:34
Resolved: 21:08
Ticket Info: Installation of front page extenstions on the third domain name. Excellent turnaround time.
In conclusion I can wrap up my three day experience with Hosting Matters as excellent. My comments:
1) Excellent responsiveness.
2) Great contact methods through email or ticket system.
3) Front page extensions should be an option when ordering.
4) Excellent control panel.
I hope this helps others who are looking for a hosting company. Not so much to get Hosting Matters more business, but to give you an insight into what my experience was like.
My name is Patrick and I am a former ***** customer.
Hello, Patrick.
I feel the love already :-)
Anyway, this Friday I decided to switch hosting companies. I did this with great trepidation as I knew it was going to take time and effort to make it happen.
I chose Hosting Matters for the following reasons:
1) Support. They seemed to be very responsive. They have a forum on their site not only for official support, but user to user support. They also have a ticketing system so you can follow the progress of how things are going.
http://support.hostmatters.com/
2) Price. I liked the spread of their plans they offered. I have three domain names with different resource requirements. There plans were well documented and spread out so that I could maximize my hosting dollars.
http://www.hostingmatters.com/plans.html
3) Their network. I liked their explanation of their network. As someone in the enterprise computing business I appreciated their frankness and explanations.
http://www.hostingmatters.com/noc.html
The day to move the domains came. I signed up with Hosting Matters through their online order form. It was a secure form, easy to understand and with quick response. After I clicked order my domains were created and a welcome email was in my inbox within ten minutes. (on the third domain I moved I didn't receive a welcome message. I opened a ticket and Hosting Matters responded. They sent the welcome message to me within 30 minutes. Later that day I logged on to my corporate email address and guess what? The welcome message was there! For some reason it was sent to the seconday "off network" email address I submitted. No harm, no foul.)
To change the name server info, I struggled with Network Solutions on using their crypto password. When I actually stopped to read the instructions I realized I was doing the wrong thing :-) All the info I needed to change was contained in the welcome email I received. The only suggestion I would make is that it would be nice if they included their handle name for Network Solutions.
After Network Solutions emailed me to verify the change had been made, I sent a message to Hosting Matters to ask if I had done it right. Within 15 minutes I had a response from Hosting Matters letting me know that yes, I did do it right and that they had received the email from Network Solutions as well. :-)
I then proceeded to the Control Panel application. I know many hosting companies have this, but ***** doesn't. I was in heaven! It was awesome being able to create pop accounts, check stats and read logs all from one interface.
I did have a few issues that I created trouble tickets for. To me it's critical that a hosting company is reguarly looking for tickets and then resolving them. In my mind a ticket should have a 3 hour SLA (Service Level Agreement). I'd like to see an update on the ticket within three hours.
Here is my experience with Hosting Matters:
Submitted: 10:03
Resolved: 11:42
Ticket Info: Requested that front page extensions be installed on the two domain names I transferred. I was surprised they weren't installed by default or there was an option to select it when ordering. 1:39 turn around time is awesome. Everything worked.
Submitted: 17:44
Heard Back: 18:36
Ticket Info: SMTP isn't working on either domain. I can't send mail from either domain. I read the support forums and FAQs and it indicated that some ISPs block the SMTP port. This isn't the case with me. I detailed in the ticket the exact configuration, my ISP, my setup and why I knew it wasn't an ISP problem. I heard back from Hosting Matters that they would create a test account and try things out. I haven't heard back from them, but it's been less than 24 hours and it's Sunday for gosh sakes. I would expect to hear something first thing Monday morning. Am I ok with this? Yes, I have a workaround and sending email from that domain isn't mission critical. The important thing here is that A) They didn't try to force the ISP answer down my throat and B) They are doing a logical step in troubleshooting.
Submitted: 17:56
Resolved: 18:34
Ticket Info: Didn't get the third domain welcome message. I addressed this above.
Submitted: 20:34
Resolved: 21:08
Ticket Info: Installation of front page extenstions on the third domain name. Excellent turnaround time.
In conclusion I can wrap up my three day experience with Hosting Matters as excellent. My comments:
1) Excellent responsiveness.
2) Great contact methods through email or ticket system.
3) Front page extensions should be an option when ordering.
4) Excellent control panel.
I hope this helps others who are looking for a hosting company. Not so much to get Hosting Matters more business, but to give you an insight into what my experience was like.