Well at last I have found the time to review a good chunk of our hosts. Not all are here, but I ran out of time.

The first thing I MUST say... these are OUR experiences. Yes, they may differ to others, but I report them exactly as we have found them. We have no affiliation with any host whatsoever - we are simply customers, hosting at least one site with each of these (and many others) for ourselves and our partners.

I have listed them in 4 categories:
- Good solid hosts with no problems
- Recent additions but the signs are very good
- You could do worse
- I wouldn't consider them
- Avoid like the plague

It is also worth pointing out that we have different types of accounts with different hosts. Some are multi, others are not. The hosts also comprise a large spectrum of different offerings, prices, etc. When choosing, we simply plucked the package type we needed at that time.

Anyhow, without further ado, I hope this is useful to a few people:

GOOD, SOLID AND NO PROBLEMS

We've been with these for quite a long time, certainly long enough to form a solid opinion. None of these have let us down, and have provided a good solid service.

a) Pair Networks (Multi)

Big time player, but very reliable and very competitively priced. Never had any problems at all with them. An excellent choice for multi-hosting and single site hosting.

b) FastHosts (Multi)

This UK based host has everything we need: real 24x7 support (incl phone), nice control panel for multi-hosting, big and safe. We have quite a few sites there, but use them for emergency backup as well (if a host screws us, we transfer here because we can set up everything automatically ourselves). Multi-hosting here isn't cheap though: £UK 500 pa.

c) ROCHEN (Multi)

We have 3 sites with Rochen. The sign of a good host is that you never have to contact them. So far we have had no need to. We actually found them on WHT, when we put out a cry for help. They got us up and running quickly. Not a squeak of a problem since.

d) AlwaysWebHosting (Multi)

The support has been excellent for a small firm. Reliable hosting at budget prices, and although loading can be sluggish, the availability puts many big firms to shame.

e) Netcetera

Again, reliable, 24x7 telephone support, and fast. I'd say a very good single site site hoster at a reasonable price. Well worth considering.

f) X-Calibre (Multi)

Several sites here as part of their multi-hosting package. A little pricey, but again fast and reliable. Support? Certainly during working hours it is good. No too sure about after that in terms of the phone, mainly because we haven't tried it.

g) OpenHosting.Co.UK (Multi)

This budget multi-hoster has been extremely reliable with virtually no downtime over the three years we have been there. Good value honest hosting, and good support at normal times (again not certain on out of hours, as again we haven't needed it). They have an excellent and extremely helpful forum.

h) DixieSys (Multi)

We have a basic multi-hosting package here, and frankly, have been really impressed. Excellent uptime, good support, and bags of flexibility via their control panels. We are likely to be extending our presense at DixieSys .

i) FutureQuest

Almost forgot them, which is actually a very GOOD sign, as our sites there are always up. Never had a problem at all in 2 years.

j) HostMySite / SmarterLinux

The support from these guys when we first set up was outstanding. The sites load fast and have been up all the time since we moved in there. Support is true 24/7 and has been extremely good for both Windows and Linux.

MORE RECENT ADDITIONS BUT THE SIGNS ARE VERY GOOD

We've been with these guys for less than 12 months. But so far they have impressed. Too early to say too much, but are impressions are as follows:

A) Myacen

Had a bad start with an early issue. The good news is that the guy was clearly concerned and worked hard to sort it, which he did (in fact the problem wasn't actually their fault at all!).

Since then, the signs of a very good host are there. In other words, we haven't had any cause to even go to their site. Our sites are up all the time and are served quickly.

B) Webfusion (Multi)

Similar to FastHosts, but they give you less control over your destiny. Good uptime and speed so far, and 24x7 phone support. A trifle expensive.

C) Purple Paw

Every now and again we unearth a host that takes us by surprise. PurplePaw is one of these. Cheap... but a nice control panel bristling with facilities. Uptime so far has been excellent and has exceeded expectations.

d) Media Temple

Been there only a few weeks, but the signs of a really excellent host are all there, including very responsive round the clock support (incl telephone). We feel very comfortable with them.

e) Superb Internet

Again, just a few weeks, and again absolutely no cause for complaint. Another good value multi-host with true 24/7 support.

g) Clook

Good package, and so far no downtime.

YOU COULD DO WORSE

These have delivered decent service, but certain events or features have raised question marks. Generally OK though.

a) SupaNames

Well known for single site budget hosting. Very reliable. The doubt is with support. They used to offer 24x7 telephone support to all accounts, but not now. As a result we have doubts (they were quite poor last time our site went down, which to be fair is very rare). Could jump up the rankings considerably if they returned to the old system.

One other problem: one of our sites was once chopped for 18 hours because it was mentioned in a spam mail that also mentioned 20 other sites (they just picked the top 20 in Google). We had to PROVE it wasn't us by begging the spammer to confirm it.

b) DonHost

Middle range single site hosting, with whom we have 2 sites. Extremely reliable... the BUT is that they seem to clear off on public holidays/etc in terms of front line support. I don't really appreciate emails telling me that they will be closed from this date to that. If your site goes down on the first day, WORRY!

On the other hand, no reason to believe it will, as they have produced extremely good uptime. But you know that nagging doubt is there as long as they don't commit to full time support.

c) Ghoulnet

We have a long term multi-package with this firm. Fast and fairly reliable. Support could be better though. There's a telephone response during the day, but outside hours there are a few doubts. They will work hard and late if there is problem daytime, but they could step up if they were hungry enough. Lots of potential, but they need to want it to move any further.

d) HostingKey

Based in Liberia or somewhere or other (can never work it out). Very cheap single site host, fairly reliable and they get most things right. They respond very well to emails, but let themselves down a bit because they do the odd daft thing. For instance, one of our sites was chopped because we apparently didn't pay our annual bill. Except we always pay instantly when we are told we are due. To be fair... they are always seem to be up.... and for the price... extremely good indeed.

PART 2 TO FOLLOW - THE 'BAD GUYS'

PART 2


I WOULDN'T CONSIDER THEM

These guys let us down for one reason or another

a) Dominet

Seemed OK, until they got hit by a virus. They didn't tell us, even though our index page was wiped out. Two months later we spotted it (fortunately this was not a critical site). We fixed it, but they offered no compensation, refund or hosting extension even when asked.

b) AffordableHost

Lasted just a few months here. Too much downtime, and when down for prolonged period, no response from support. Too many better hosts around to stay with them

c) Dathorn

Didn't get very far at all with these characters. We told them we would buy a package if they could have a unique IP address (which we were happy to pay for) and if they could give us the nameserver names in advance, just to save time with DNS resolution (simply so we could re-point immediately). Incredably, the answer was no and no! We would have accepted no for the first but the second just seemed churlish. Also though, they failed to notify us when their sign-on period re-opened, and taking a look at their forum recently reveals some very long outages.

d) Freenetname

This UK host is free, so you can't expect a lot really. In actualy fact they are excellent in terms of up time and speed. The problem is, if you don't dial in for 30 days using their dial-in number, they simply pull the hosting from under you. You then have to get control of the domain name and re-point to another host, all the time your site being down.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Say no more. These proved to be a nightmare.

a) EASYSPACE

If you want an example of truly horrendous support here it is. Take a look at their web site. Try to find a telephone number. Now try to find proper email details.

That's just the first barrier. Hack through the so called database and eventually you will find a form to fill in. Not for support, but to ask a 'question'. Ask away. Expect a long wait. Chances are your question will be designated as 'solved' when you go back often without even a response. If you are lucky enough to get a response, it is most likely to point you to the database that didn't answer your question in the first place. If you are really really lucky you will get a response that doesn't actually answer your question.

But it's even worse. Make the grotesque mistake of letting them both register and host your domain, and then repoint your domain to another host (costs you £5 by the way) and guess what? They punish you by stopping their servers serving your pages instantly. Nice people. My advice is to AVOID AT ALL COSTS

b) EdgeHost

These guys are toast, and deservadly so. So it's no longer worth explaining just how bad they actually were.

c) SquareInternet

Another that has gone. Very poor and totally ruthless. Taken over I think by Starhosts... which must raise questions about them. We found them to be totally objectionable in every respect.

d) WestHost

Everything fine until they unilaterally decided to 'upgrade'. Many, many of their customers suffered substantial downtime. And for good measure: they turned off the phones and removed the live chat. Support tickets were simply ignored. Next step: delete the posts of screaming customers from their forum. They must have lost a hell of a lot of customers, including us.

e) BargainHost

Frequent, lengthy, downtime. Lack of support. We had to invoke their local trading standards to get a refund.

f) Names.Co.Uk

We transferred the tag on our domain name so we had control of it. They took down the hosting, without telling us, shortly after. It was down for 6 weeks before we noticed (we never monitor level 3 sites). Coincidence?. I know what I think.

g) Noc24

There's more written on this guy than almost any other host... all for the wrong reasons. Scratch the surface with search on here and you'll see what I mean.


FINALLY

There you go - our experiences, for what they are worth. Please remember not to shoot the messenger. I have just posted what we have found ourselves.

Must have taken you some time to write this up :D

>> Must have taken you some time to write this up <<

That's an understatement.... but we have to keep track ourselves on these things to decide whether to renew or change hosts when the time comes (we usually purchase annual plans).

Wow, you've certainly done your fair share of host testing... between you and RossMAN (another WHT member) you must have tested every hosting firm on the internet :D

Good writeup, well done :)

I feel left out :(

-Brendan

Me too :p

Hey, with all those firsthand-experience reviews under your belt...you could just start another Web Hosting directory.

Nice, clean reviews. Not jumbled. No ranting and good English...nice writing skills.

>> with all those firsthand-experience reviews under your belt...you could just start another Web Hosting directory. <<

Nice idea.... but I always found that as soon as someone pays you to advertise, your editorial integrity is compromised, even if only sub-consciously.

Thanks for the comments by the way... I'm relieved not to have been harangued by people shooting the messenger (at least so far!).

and no 1&1, that'll be a relief to some!

Could do with the url links to the sites in the reports.

Originally posted by Jim_UK
Wow, you've certainly done your fair share of host testing... between you and RossMAN (another WHT member) you must have tested every hosting firm on the internet :D

Good writeup, well done :)

Jim,

Hey now ;)

I only have 10 current reseller web hosts and a shared dedicated server at The Planet. Eventually I'll reduce those 10 down to 3 and that's it for me. This "hobby" isn't cheap. FWIW clook.net is one of my alltime favorite resellers and although I am no longer a client I still continue to refer new clients your way.

JenniH,

Great mini-reviews. It's a shame that dathorn didn't notify you ahead of time that they are accepting new sign ups and refused to offer you IP numbers before signing up. I recently signed up for another resellers account with UltraUnix.NET (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=232012) who was more than happy to supply me with nameserver IPs before I signed up. Then again they have far fewer servers than dathorn does, so they would be certain which server my account would be placed on.

Please continue the great work :)

A great pice of honest research. Well done for putting the effort into doing it up.

Some great reviews, I really think this post will help a lot of users of WHT.

Finally some honest reviews from a solid customer (3+ months) of the host(s) they are reviewing. No mumbo-jumbo, no fillers, just clean and clear "this is how they are" writing.

I LOVE IT. Great work.

Nice review, JenniH. Very well constructed :)

Some interesting views there, especially shedding a bad light on a couple that continually get recommended here on these forums (though I'm not sure that the people actually recommending them have any experience on the host they are recommending at all).

Excellent reviews. Just out of curiousity, how in the world do you ever manage running all these sites? :confused: :)

must be a nightmare trying to remember who to email if one goes down :eek:

Originally posted by Loon
must be a nightmare trying to remember who to email if one goes down :eek:

Not if you have a nice record keeping system. Even an Excel Spreadsheet would do...

Really, this clearly clear and realistic reviews!
I hope, that there will be a continuation! :)

Originally posted by RossMAN
Jim,

Hey now ;)


Just to confirm, my comment wasn't meant as a dig at you or the original poster in any way, shape or form. Quite the contrary: it's always good to see people testing out hosts and even better to see well written, concise reviews here keeping us all on our toes.

>> Just out of curiousity, how in the world do you ever manage running all these sites? <<

Nightmare!

Seriously, I run websupervisor every couple of hours to ensure the sites are up. If not we have a procedure:

a) Try from various proxies to ensure it isn't a temp network glitch
b) Contact the host severity 1
c) Copy the site to one of our bigger re-seller accounts and point at their nameservers. This puts a max cap of 24 hours or so on the outage.. terrible, but at least it's a max
d) Nag the host to sort the problem
e) Switch back the nameservers if they fix it. If the outage is more than 12 hours we usually ditch the host.

>> Even an Excel Spreadsheet would do... <<

That's exactly how we keep track of them. The spreadsheet holds info like userid/password, domains hosted there (+ their expiry dates), IP addresses, etc.

And thanks for the kind words everyone. I've spent countless hours here finding hosts. Hopefully the above will save at least some people a bit of that time.

We do have a few other hosts, but I was shattered after this lot... maybe next time!

JenniH,

I'm curious about your spreadsheet since I rely mostly on my browser's cookies to remember passwords, etc.

Would you mind providing me with a blank copy of your spreadsheet -or- alternatively list ALL the fields it has?

Thanks,
Ross

Rossman - Without seeing her spreadsheet, I would venture to guess the fields are:

Hosting Company
Company URL
Company Phone Number (if available)
Domain(s) Hosted
Domain(s) Expiry Dates
Domain Login URL
Domain Username
Domain Password
Hosting Fees per Month
Support Desk URL
Support Desk Login
Support Desk Password

At least, if I were to contruct a spreadsheet, that would be what I would include :cool:

Hosting Company (yes)
Company URL (No.. usually self evident)
Company Phone Number (Yes)
Domain(s) Hosted (Yes)
Domain(s) Expiry Dates (Yes)
Domain Login URL (Yes)
Domain Username (Yes)
Domain Password (Yes)
Hosting Fees per Month (No... we pay annually when pos)
Support Desk URL (Sometimes)
Support Desk Login (Sometimes)
Support Desk Password (Sometimes)

Plus:

IP address(s)
General notes
Hosting anniversary date

Plus:

We use some hosts as backups... to switch to if the normal host is down. We therefore record this info as well

VanHost and JenniH - Thank you again.

I've also noticed that some web hosts have different URLs and passwords for:
support
billing
affiliate referral

Originally posted by JenniH

Hosting Fees per Month (No... we pay annually when pos)


Actually, this should have simply read FEES. Being that many hosts offer monthly and annually payment schedules.

Thanks for the clarification JenniH

Originally posted by RossMAN
VanHost and JenniH - Thank you again.

I've also noticed that some web hosts have different URLs and passwords for:
support
billing
affiliate referral

No problem RossMan. I agree some hosts have different URL's for each. Ours, however, is all rolled into one :cool:

Interesting to see the majority of hosts you surveyed were UK based and not US.

When you use a reasonable number of hosts, all you can hope to do is gradually improve over time. In other words, keep the average number of downtime incidents (etc) per month moving downwards.

This is done largely by weeding out the bad hosts, and replacing them with more reliable and more responsive partners.

Experience helps. We make far fewer hosting mistakes now than we used to, because we do more research in advance. We learned to spot the clues better. The problem is that it is really hard work, and is time consuming.

If that sounds negative, it is. But on the other side, there are some really good hosts and good people out there who will go the extra mile to help.

For every awkward sod who won't even give you their nameserver names in advance, or who you can't even get a response from in a timely fashion, there is a host who, if it's business critical, will switch your site to a different server if they are encountering a server problem, or who will walk you through some new technology.

Diamonds like that are worth looking for, because at the end of the day sooner or later you will need support. There are a number of them in the list above.

Above all though, the most important factor for most of us is uptime. Reliability is critical for most people who run businesses through the web. Again, all those in the top list have excellent uptime records for us. The poorer hosts tend to treat downtime as nothing to get upset about. You can sometimes spot it in their forum responses, or even through the words on their web sites.

Anyhow... it's bed time here, so I'm off. I'm glad I didn't get slaughtered for the reviews and I'd like to thank everyone one lats time for the kind remarks. At some point I'll try to document the process we adopt when seeking new hosts and the clues we look for.

>> Interesting to see the majority of hosts you surveyed were UK based and not US. <<

Is that the case? We never even look at that. I think most servers are actually in the US, although some are fronted from the UK (eg: Rochen I think). Certainly our first hosts were largely UK, as we are UK based ourselves, and we found them through magazines/etc.

However, as we progressed, we started to choose hosts via the internet, though our network of contacts, WHT, etc.

Most of our newer hosts are therefore US based... but they don't qualify for the list above yet because we haven't been with them long enough to make a sensible judgement.

The list above therefore is a balance, although largely UK and US. Over time it is inevitable that the UK will reduce numerically as we feed in more and more US and Canadian hosts in (and other countries in fact). To be honest though, country of origin is not an issue for us.

JenniH - Just curious how long you were with the "plague-like" hosts before you abandoned them for the more reliable ones?

Great reviews!

Given the large number of sites you host, I'm intrigued to know why you have never decided to go for your own dedicated servers spread over say 3 datacentres, UK and US?

Now THAT is a fair and fairly darn honest assessment of webhosts. Wish there were more comparisons done like that. Be helpful to all. Potential clients and hosts alike.

Good on You Jenni!! :D

Originally posted by JenniH
c) Dathorn

Didn't get very far at all with these characters. We told them we would buy a package if they could have a unique IP address (which we were happy to pay for) and if they could give us the nameserver names in advance, just to save time with DNS resolution (simply so we could re-point immediately). Incredably, the answer was no and no! We would have accepted no for the first but the second just seemed churlish. Also though, they failed to notify us when their sign-on period re-opened, and taking a look at their forum recently reveals some very long outages.

Two things I like, learning a new word (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=churlish&x=0&y=0) and hearing people speak honestly about Dathorn. They/Andrew seem utterly devoid of any enthusiasm for hosting or desire to take on new customers/do something for existing customers. One wonders how Dathorn made it this far. I have a sneaking suspicion that the secret of their growth is that they turn away customers most of the time.

What's the best way to make someone want something?

Tell them they can't have it.

Originally posted by HRBrendan
I feel left out :(

-Brendan

Me too :(

It was very nice and thoughtful for you to do this. I wish would have had better luck with hosting.

A positive review for Fasthosts. I'm intrigued..you obviously don't run any asp scripts on your site.

Originally posted by JenniH
...although some are fronted from the UK (eg: Rochen I think)... Yes, that's correct. We are a UK based Private Limited Company, with all our servers located in the United States. We also have staff located throughout Europe, North America and Oceania.Originally posted by [inx]Olly
A positive review for Fasthosts. I'm intrigued..you obviously don't run any asp scripts on your site. I used FastHosts myself several years ago, before we got into the hosting industry ourselves. They weren't fantastic back then. However, I have heard several positive reviews on them recently and it sounds like they are starting to turn things around :)

Originally posted by itspoopagain
Two things I like, learning a new word (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=churlish&x=0&y=0) and hearing people speak honestly about Dathorn. They/Andrew seem utterly devoid of any enthusiasm for hosting or desire to take on new customers/do something for existing customers. One wonders how Dathorn made it this far. I have a sneaking suspicion that the secret of their growth is that they turn away customers most of the time.

What's the best way to make someone want something?

Tell them they can't have it.

Since this has become a topic of discussion I'm going to throw in our piece of the story.

During the time in which accounts were not available there was a mailing list setup that anyone could subscribe to and receive a notification when additional accounts were available. If you signed up and validated the subscription, you were sent an e-mail. As to whether it actually got delievered correctly or not, I cannot guarantee that. We do not have time to individually send out e-mails to 120+ users so if you did not signup for the mailing list as I should of suggested then you obviously weren't going to receive an e-mail.

All IP addresses require proper justification before we will allocate them and this must be done after you signup. This goes the same for DNS server IPs as we cannot tell you what server you will be placed on before hand as it changes far too often.

Great review! I like this review for a few reasons..

1. Has more then 1 host review
2. Has diffrent sections (good, okay, bad and so on)
3. You where not really one sided. You told it as it is
4. Great writing
5. You take the time to review
6. Seem's you are testing all types of hosts


It is nice to see a great review (even if it is on a host), keep up the great work. This review I bet will help alot of people decide on where they will go.

Originally posted by JenniH
>> with all those firsthand-experience reviews under your belt...you could just start another Web Hosting directory. <<

"Nice idea.... but I always found that as soon as someone pays you to advertise, your editorial integrity is compromised, even if only sub-consciously."



BRAVO Jenni. That's the quote of the day, and you just earned my respect. :)

Originally posted by JenniH
PART 2


I WOULDN'T CONSIDER THEM

b) AffordableHost

Lasted just a few months here. Too much downtime, and when down for prolonged period, no response from support. Too many better hosts around to stay with them

c) Dathorn

Didn't get very far at all with these characters. We told them we would buy a package if they could have a unique IP address (which we were happy to pay for) and if they could give us the nameserver names in advance, just to save time with DNS resolution (simply so we could re-point immediately). Incredably, the answer was no and no! We would have accepted no for the first but the second just seemed churlish. Also though, they failed to notify us when their sign-on period re-opened, and taking a look at their forum recently reveals some very long outages.

I don't have account with AffordableHost but so far I've seen no complaints around here but praise, yours is the first, guess I have to check the Search button again :D.

About dathorn, I don't know how long ago you got account with them, but that's very strange. I submit ticket asking an IP to install my SSL, and support guy reply within 3 mins (they always reply that fast) and tell me to wait for proper justification, about 15 mins later Dathorn replied with the IP at no charge. And I've been a happy customer for almost a year.

Jenni, you finally got around to it :) Congrats to the other hosts :)

Robert

Originally posted by Jim_UK
Wow, you've certainly done your fair share of host testing... between you and RossMAN (another WHT member) you must have tested every hosting firm on the internet :D

Good writeup, well done :)

:D :D

Yeap, RossMAN just signed up with us to test our service too! I wonder if that is part of their hobbies :P

Originally posted by UltraUnixNET
:D :D

Yeap, RossMAN just signed up with us to test our service too! I wonder if that is part of their hobbies :P

This is an expensive hobby and I think you will be among the last and UU is definitely a "keeper" if things continue to run smoothly :)

Originally posted by Weberz
Me too :(


Maybe those who were left out could submit their company names to a specially setup page. :D I know i'd do that. :stickout:

I'll try and answer the outstanding questions:

>> JenniH - Just curious how long you were with the "plague-like" hosts before you abandoned them for the more reliable ones? <<

Names.Co.Uk = 18 months
Easyspace = 3 years
BargainHost = 12 months
SquareInternet = 12 months
Noc24 = 2 months
Edgehost = 6 months
Westhost = 6 months

In some cases it was only when things started to go wrong that we realized we were skating on very thin ice with the host.

In others, downtime just became to regular and too long.


>> I'm intrigued to know why you have never decided to go for your own dedicated servers spread over say 3 datacentres, UK and US? <<

We are not techies at all here, so that's one issue for not having a server and all that goes with it. Another is resiliance.... spreading the risk. Another is different site suites need different facilities (having said that most of our sites are flat html). We tend to like hosting maybe 5-6 with each host. If something goes wrong it's not a mega task to move.


>> A positive review for Fasthosts. I'm intrigued..you obviously don't run any asp scripts on your site. <<

That's correct. All our sites there are flat html sites. What we like about them is the flexibility of being able to shift things around there, the ability to move sites in easily ourselves, the reassuring voice on the end of that phone 24/7 and that the uptime has been very good for us.


>> Dathorn: so if you did not signup for the mailing list as I should of suggested then you obviously weren't going to receive an e-mail <<

We did signup for it.

>> Dathorn: All IP addresses require proper justification before we will allocate them and this must be done after you signup. This goes the same for DNS server IPs as we cannot tell you what server you will be placed on before hand as it changes far too often. <<

I half expected the IP answer, but the for the nameservers... we were basically just told 'no'. No explanation as such, just a fob off. The nail in the coffin for an account there was seeing the lengthy downtime on a couple of the servers: If we had an important site there, and had begged to have it put on a different server during that period for example, the responses to the pre-sales questions indicate that the answer would have been 'no'.


>> Maybe those who were left out... <<

We do have quite a few more, but I genuinely ran out of time, and for some we haven't really be with them long enough to be confident in our opinions. As I haven't been shot down for it, I'll do another in a few months and include them.

And again, thanks everyone for the kind words. It makes it all worthwhile and is the friendly attitude that makes WHT what it is.

Originally posted by Nam
I don't have account with AffordableHost but so far I've seen no complaints around here but praise, yours is the first, guess I have to check the Search button again :D.


I would be very curious on the details in this case as well (your domain, the server you were on, helpdesk ticket numbers, etc.).

We make it a point to send out mass notifications in every instance of scheduled, unscheduled and any sort of an outage. Plus, we have the HelpDesk, emergency phone and our IRC chat where we are there approximately 18 hours a day. We're not perfect, but I am obsessive about my network...to the point of almost having no life. :D

Overall, things run very smoothly...but, of course, we have the occassional hard drive crash, etc. like any host (we have dozens of servers - so the odds of everything always running 100% correct are almost impossible).

I guess the most surprising comment of her review is that we didn't contact them when problems occurred. I would love for the original poster to contact me with details, so that I can either track and correct the situation so it doesn't happen again...or legitimately refute her statements. I invite the OP to contact me directly at tpeters@affordablehost.com with details, please.

Thanks!


--Tina

>> I would be very curious on the details in this case as well... <<

If I had the details to hand I'd send them, but I'm certainly not going to start spending time digging into the specific history of it.

All I can give you without spending time is that the final straw was sometime early last year when the outage was quite a lot of hours, and we just couldn't solicit a response from you whichever route we tried. We made our notes and moved on.

>> ...or legitimately refute her statements <<

Feel free to believe I made it up if you want to. I can't see why I would though, can you? Life's too short to get sucked into non-productive nonesense.... I simply posted our own experiences.

JenniH, good reviews there. :)

It's a shame, JenniH, that you felt the need to edit your last post -- it was so much better before the edit. Anyone has the right to face their accuser, ask for details and refute or confirm what was said.

Anyone is free to believe that "everything" you stated, you made up, but why would they? And if they do, or ask for some details on what you have stated, it's unproductive to get upset about it. ;)

>> Anyone is free to believe that "everything" you stated, you made up, but why would they? And if they do, or ask for some details on what you have stated, it's unproductive to get upset about it. <<

I suppose it's human nature to go into denial, but to be honest it still annoys. Still, it should be obvious to most that we didn't move for no reason.

I'm not accusing by the way.... I try never to look back in anger. We sometimes learn as much from our experiences with bad hosts as we do from good ones.

Although your reviews seem to be fair and concise, you look at from a Customer POV, whereas, any previous Hoster your review reflected poorly on would look at it from a Business POV and be concerned about improving; on where you thought they were lacking. Just makes sense and is good business.

Customers, past & present, are under no obligation to explain or provide evidence to support their "opinion" in private, but when reviews are stated in public -- as this Forum is -- there has to be some accountability. Although Forums see people posting baseless opinions on many subjects, I dont' think that is the case here.

Hopefully, those Hosters you could not do good business with will review their policies and make improvements where they can -- if applicable and if they haven't already. All businesses desire Feedback and, even though most people don't tell the company they had/have problems, a Feedback Form is a "must" for any Hoster. If we (Hosters) provide people with a quick way to send us their comments, we can only hope that people will. :)

Originally posted by JenniH
>> I would be very curious on the details in this case as well... <<

If I had the details to hand I'd send them, but I'm certainly not going to start spending time digging into the specific history of it.

All I can give you without spending time is that the final straw was sometime early last year when the outage was quite a lot of hours, and we just couldn't solicit a response from you whichever route we tried. We made our notes and moved on.

>> ...or legitimately refute her statements <<

Feel free to believe I made it up if you want to. I can't see why I would though, can you? Life's too short to get sucked into non-productive nonesense.... I simply posted our own experiences.


Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! I absolutely was not calling you a liar, at all. I was asking if you could give me details, as I said, so that I can track why you had such a bad experience that you decided to make a public post about us....AND FIX IT, so it doesn't happen again. I can't improve services, if I don't understand the problem.

On the other hand, if your experience was based on something that was a misunderstanding...which does happen, I could understand why you felt the way you do and offer an explanation.

I'm not sure why you were under the impression that my previous response was hostile towards you. It most certainly wasn't and I apologize if it came out that way.

Yes, you absolutely have the right to post reviews of hosts you have dealt with. I have no quarrel with that at all. Like any host, we don't have a 100% customer satisfaction rate. But, I like to learn from our mistakes or perceived mistakes so that we can improve.

--Tina

i think this thread must be closed now for good sense :)

Well said Tina, that's why alot of hosts look up to you. If they don't well they should :).

I highly doubt any host with over 1000 customers has 100% customer satisfaction. You get a bad apple in at least 1 in 1000. Not saying your a bad apple Jenni your actually a maintenance free customer :)

But some customers can't be pleased you do everything within your power and they still go out and make life terrible for you. I know we have had a few past through our doors ;)

Originally posted by MN-Robert
Well said Tina, that's why alot of hosts look up to you. If they don't well they should :).

I highly doubt any host with over 1000 customers has 100% customer satisfaction. You get a bad apple in at least 1 in 1000. Not saying your a bad apple Jenni your actually a maintenance free customer :)

But some customers can't be pleased you do everything within your power and they still go out and make life terrible for you. I know we have had a few past through our doors ;)

There are also times that we legitimately screw up...like any host. Which, originally, was my whole point...but somehow didn't come through.

--Tina

True, but that's why I stated that you do everything within your power. If we screw up we admit we are at fault. Theirs no point placing the blame on anyone else :)

No-ones perfect but the "real" hosts will stand above the rest when they are ready to work through any issues with the customer.

I simply posted our honest experiences with 30 odd hosts. End of story. That's all there is to it.

And yes, Website Rob, it is the customer point of view.... a customer with no affiliations to any host, which is more than can be said for a lot of apparent reviews that I read. By the way... if your objective was ONLY to identify a problem Tina, surely you could have PM'd me?.

Finally, I don't expect to have to defend myself or justify myself for an honest review and an accurate description of events. I'm not going to get taken down that path.

If you want open and honest reviews you have to accept that some will be critical. If not, fine, then I'll think twice in future and won't bother. There's no gain for me - I just thought our experiences might help others.

>> i think this thread must be closed now for good sense <<

I agree. The review is done, but the thread is being taken down unproductive and unhealthy tangents.

I don't really see why the thread needs to be closed. It may still help others to be able to ask questions publicly and see the responses.

Thread closed at the request of the thread starter :)