Hello,

In an effort to pass on what I have learned after switching from ***** I wanted to let you know about my experience with Hosting Matters.

A couple of qualifications:

1) I am a ***** refugee and Hosting Matters was the company I selected when I moved.
2) I am not a reseller of Hosting Matters and am no way affiliated with them past being a customer.
3) The following domains are with them:
compunotes.com
b440.com
stpsports.com
wtc091101.org

My initial interactions with Hosting Matters is detailed in another thread. This deals with the experience in the first three months after having moved.

In a word my experience with Hosting Matters has been excellent. There are three main areas I focused on when judging how they have done: support, reliability and cost.

Hosting Matters support has been nothing short of excellent. Either through the use of online trouble tickets with email responses or the online community forum, I have had excellent results. My issues included Front Page extension installation, installation of phpBB and installation of PostNuke. I never had to wait more than an hour for an acknowledgement of my issue and never more than three hours for a resolution. This is superb and the best I have seen to date.

Reliability is something I consider essential as email is my primary communications vehicle. I registered my sites with two free monitoring services and my domains have been down a total of 11 minutes in three months. To be perfectly honest I have no idea if that was real downtime or the monitoring service's downtime :-) What I do know is that whenever I have needed to pull mail or get on my sites they are there.

Hosting Matters costs a little more than the discount or cheaper hosting companies. I wasn't a big believer in you get what you pay for until I went with Hosting Matters. It is the truth. The few dollars more you spend with them is worth it. Their rates haven't changed in the quarter and the billing has been done on time and as they promised. The best touch was an emailed invoice.

So, I guess my experience has been a 10 out of 10. After dealing with ***** and seeing other horror stories I'll admit I was gun shy, but Hosting Matters has delivered.

Nice to hear that.

I guess you have found the right for your website.


I feel happy for you :cool:

I have almost never received help from their support.

HEY IT'S A GOOD THING!!!!!! :):)

I don't want to contact their support, because my web site has always been there, I have even closed my internet seer account because it always shows 99-100% uptime. And when there's downtime, it's always "We are experiencing difficulties... we are investigating the problem... we will be monitoring the problem throughout the day..." and it is almost always fixed within an hour.

So I would have to conclude that I have not had much good experience with support, but hey, that would be a waste of my time, and their time, if I had to constantly have 'good' experience with support reps.

And people thought I was just some mindless cheerleader boosting HM (or FQ, take your pick).

My experiences are the same. Excellent, prompt, intelligent support when I have to contact them, which is rare. Great server management. None of this 900 accounts on a server and loads of who knows what. That extra dollar goes a long way and you get a lot more than what you're paying. Plus, they don't spend all their time hanging around these forums. That tells me they are paying attention to their own business instead of everybody else's.

Who is FQ?

Peeps, my friend. Hostmatters rocks, that's all I can say. Been a very smooth week since leaving Aletia, who is still having problems on various servers from what I'm reading on their boards. The server I was on (Panda) was replaced a few days after I left, and then taken down AGAIN a few days later, and now doesn't even exist...

As for Hostmatters not posting all over the boards, you're exactly right. I see so many hosts in here arguing with previous and past customers about this and that, it gets downright ridiculous. Some need to start addressing the problems that created the "unapppy" customers in the first place, rather than arguing their point to the grave...


Take care,

David

Pgrote,

FQ = Futurequest


David

I'm glad you're having good luck with them. They were wonderful for my first year, then the lag time between my support ticket submission and resolution became longer and longer. By the time I moved to a different host, I still had four unresolved issues ("we're working on it" or "we're looking into it") and three unanswered e-mails, not to mention the fact that they blamed ME for their errors. I responded to one several weeks ago, and they still haven't replied.

I'll reiterate: they were wonderful, fantastic, the world's best hosts for the first year, but in the last 5 months, customer support has started to go downhill. I've heard on the grapevine that they're a bit overwhelmed with the Alabanza migrations, thus the lack of good customer support. Still, that's no excuse for the shoddy way they treated me.

and the winner is? :)

Originally posted by Angel78
and the winner is? :) Maybe theladyshero could say where they meant the post be.


:stickout

[Edited this line, since the mods moved it into the correct thread - thanks]

I generally don't do this, but this is a special case. There are zero unaddressed emails from this person and zero open tickets. A couple of claims were also made by this individual in a public group, one regarding the length of time it took to get a mailing list issue resolved, and one regarding a billing issue that was claimed to be on our end. There may have been a misunderstanding on my part about a comment made by this person regarding moving, but the rest of the issues raised by this person are incorrect in their assumptions.

The first issue, addressed in an email to us but also posted to a public forum, regarded a billing issue that was indicated to be on our side. However, the client failed to provide valid payment information for one account, despite repeated requests by us that the account holder update their information. We did not suspend or otherwise interfere with the account, however, something we do not normally do, but this client had been with us for a year at that point - even though as of yesterday it had been over two months past due. We simply continued to attempt to have this client provide valid payment information.

The second issue that this person brought to our attention in October regards an issue with their mailing list (SmartList, for those of you familiar with the Alabanza systems) whereby it was not sending out to the distribution list. We acknowledged that ticket and worked on it. A day and a half later, we had resolved it, finally tracking it down to an empty line and an additional header in the distribution file. Indicated in the ticket to us was that the file was being modified locally on the client's side and then was replaced via FTP. We made no judgements on how the errors were introduced into this file - we simply fixed it and notified the client. We heard nothing back, despite requests that the client update us on how it was working. Likewise, another mailing list issue for a second domain was resolved months before that, and again despite repeated requests for an update, we heard nothing back. Both tickets were eventually aged from the ticketing system. A bit earlier this month, we received from this client a request to know if Alabanza would reimburse them for the "three months" that the mailing list was not working. It was pointed out to this client that a) Alabanza wasn't responsible for the error, and b) it was resolved within two days.

I take exception to the claim made that we are somehow "overwhelmed" by the migrations we are making away from Alabanza or that support has somehow suffered. Neither is true, something that can easily be seen by the comments in this forum and at our own. It's unfortunate that we received zero response to our repeated requests for information or updates, both from a technical and billing standpoint; however, there isn't much we can do for someone if they completely ignore the things we send to them at various addresses, attempting in vain to get an update.

There are, of course, no hard feelings on our end, since this is the way it goes sometimes. We do wish this person good luck with their new host.

What grapevine is this? You should get a new one, because your current one is wrong, wrong, wrong. Looks like you caused your own grief to me, first by messing up your own mailing list file and then not even bothering to respond to anything that was sent to you. When you have a ticket answered in under five minutes like I have or even something totally fixed in under two days for something like what is described above, which is not even something I would have expected them to find and fix for me, that's hardly a lack of anything. And I'll tell you something else, I wouldn't let someone skate for two months. You would have found your site suspended if it was me you weren't paying, especially if I found out you were complaining about it not being your fault when it clearly was.

>>There are zero unaddressed emails from this person and zero open tickets.

I sent two e-mails and have not received a reply to either one. In a note you sent me today, you claim that a reply was made. If in fact it was, I would not have gone to the trouble of moving to a different server and all of the hassles therein. I wasn't looking for trouble, I was looking for a resolution.

>>A couple of claims were also made by this individual in a public group,

This "public forum" is a private YahooGroups forum, and the post was sent to you by another webhost as a courtesy (she has since apologized to me) to let you know that someone was having a problem. And it was sent *after* I didn't get a response. The post wasn't a "complaint", it was a request for advice on how to deal with a problem with a webhost.

>>one regarding a billing issue that was claimed to be on our end.

I have the e-mails in which you said you were "working on the issue." There is no final e-mail telling me what the problem was or how to resolve it. I also have screenshots showing a closed ticket with no resolution on it. When I send my cancellation, there was still an open ticket with no resolution to it.

>>There may have been a misunderstanding on my part about a comment made by this person regarding moving,

"May have been"? There WAS a misunderstanding on your part. You claimed I threatened to move, when in fact, all I did was ask about moving to your new server. You never apologized for your false accusations, nor for accusing me of conjuring up excuses to move my website.

>>but the rest of the issues raised by this person are incorrect in their assumptions.

What assumptions would those be? That I was treated badly? Not an assumption, an actual fact. If my problems had been handled in a timely manner and my e-mails responded to, there would have been no need for any assumption.

>>However, the client failed to provide valid payment information for one account, despite repeated requests by us that the account holder update their information.

You should recheck your records. I provided an American Express number, which your system refused. When I alerted you to the problem, you advised me to re-enter using a Visa or MasterCard. I did so, using my Visa, but after repeated "Bad Account Number" messages, I sent you an e-mail asking if the information had been updated after I sent it. Your last e-mail to me, dated 10/9/01, says "We're working on it."

I fail to see how your server's problems equal my refusing to provide valid payment information.

>>We made no judgements on how the errors were introduced into this file - we simply fixed it and notified the client. We heard nothing back, despite requests that the client update us on how it was working.

First of all, I can't imagine it would be your place to make judgements about the introduction of errors in your client's files. Simply pointing the errors out would suffice.

Secondly, I never received an e-mail stating that a resolution had been reached, much less numerous requests.

>>Likewise, another mailing list issue for a second domain was resolved months before that, and again despite repeated requests for an update, we heard nothing back.

Again, I have not received these e-mails. The support ticket for the second domain doesn't even list a resolution, just "we're working on it." (I have screenshots.)

I can't imagine my ISP would reject so many of your e-mails; even if they did, the support ticket should have listed this supposed resolution. It's interesting to note that the "Bad Credit Card" error messages always made it to the inbox, though.

>>mailing list was not working. It was pointed out to this client that a) Alabanza wasn't responsible for the error, and b) it was resolved within two days.

Actually, it was pointed that a) Alabanza wasn't responsible for the error and b) this client is "using this as an excuse to leave." I thought I explained all of this in my e-mail to you, which you acknowledged having received.

>>I take exception to the claim made that we are somehow "overwhelmed"

Exception noted. I only repeated what I was told by some members of a group of webhosts I contacted about this situation (not the YahooGroups one).

>>can easily be seen by the comments in this forum and at our own.

Well, since I never made any comments in your forum, it can only be assumed that I'm not the only person having issues.

>>someone if they completely ignore the things we send to them at various addresses, attempting in vain to get an update.

Various addresses? I only have one listed, and it's a Yahoo address.

>>There are, of course, no hard feelings on our end, since this is the way it goes sometimes.

Since I have actual proof in the form of screenshots and e-mails to back up my claim, I have no qualms about speaking out. If my informed opinion offends or annoys someone, that's fine. It's just an informed opinion, not gospel and not hearsay.

Peeps said...

>> Looks like you caused your own grief to me,

Sounds like you don't know the whole story. You heard one side of it before making your statement. That's fine, I understand you're a devoted HM fan. I used to be, too. In fact, I would *still be* if they had bothered to respond to my second e-mail. Up until this point, I had found them to be wonderful hosts, but there was simply no call for the way they treated me, when I had been a loyal customer and "cheerleader" to many others about them.

>>When you have a ticket answered in under five minutes like I have

I'm happy for you.

>>or even something totally fixed in under two days for something like what is described above,

<<sigh>> Again, you've heard one side. I will not attempt to dissuade you from your opinion. I was merely offering my experiences to someone who asked.

>>which is not even something I would have expected them to find and fix for me,

Your mailing list doesn't work and you don't expect your host to investigate why not? Their excellent service in the past led me to believe the same thing would happen with this matter. The fact that it didn't doesn't speak for my inexperience.

>>And I'll tell you something else, I wouldn't let someone skate for two months.

Again, you heard one side. I have proof that I alerted them to the problem, attempted to fix it and even let them know that I had entered a different credit card number in an attempt to resolve the error. I didn't skate - their billing error didn't update with the information I provided.

>>I found out you were complaining about it not being your fault when it clearly was.

OK. You're entitled to believe as you will. I have offered my opinion, and I am willing to offer proof to back up my service issues. I'm glad you're happy with HM and wish you continued success with them. In the meantime, I will continue to share my experience and proof with anyone who asks.

>>There are zero unaddressed emails from this person and zero open tickets.

I sent two e-mails and have not received a reply to either one. In a note you sent me today, you claim that a reply was made. If in fact it was, I would not have gone to the trouble of moving to a different server and all of the hassles therein. I wasn't looking for trouble, I was looking for a resolution.


Why did you not post in the HM forums?? I would have noticed it there. Since you had been there a year you should have known the procedure:
1)Ticket system (highest priority)
2)HM Forums (second highest priority)--A simple, "Did you get my email?" would have sufficed.
3)Email carrying the lowest priority. Email is addressed after the tickets are taken care of, and the forum support addressed.


>>the rest of the issues raised by this person are incorrect in their assumptions.

What assumptions would those be? That I was treated badly? Not an assumption, an actual fact. If my problems had been handled in a timely manner and my e-mails responded to, there would have been no need for any assumption.


Treated badly?? You received 2 months of free hosting and had your problem resolved in a timely manner--even though it was the client's fault. Then, they did not judge or berate you about why the file was trashed. This is like getting into heaven, when you don't deserve to, and complaining about the size of your mansion.

I am sorry that you feel you had a bad experience. I sincerely wish you all the luck in the world. I do think this was a miscommunication and there has been an over-reaction. I also feel HM went beyond the call of duty to help with the mailing list problem. Many webhosts would have said, "Sorry, we can't help you. It's your problem, not ours."

Again, good luck to you.

Lamar

Several items, and then I'm done with this, since others have already commented on it - there are only so many hours in the day, and certainly not too much time to give to things like this when there is other work to be done.

First, you did indeed receive responses to the tickets you submitted. Every one of them. You also created a tracking account at the helpdesk system, and can log in at any time to see the status of those tickets or provide updates to them. You have screenshots of the originals, and that's fine. Would you be willing to provide the screenshots of the tickets as they stood when they were closed after our resolutions/updates were added? We can provide them for you or for this forum, if you like. You can view closed tickets as easily as open ones (although neither you nor we can modify closed tickets, for obvious reasons). You opened a duplicate ticket on one issue that was closed as a duplicate without response, since the responses were placed in the first ticket you opened on that same issue. Your various emails were responded to when received or shortly thereafter. Since you had been a client so long, you would know that it does not take us forever to send responses. We have a variety of methods of contact, ranging from tickets to forum to mail to ICQ, any one of which could be chosen to ask for an update or indicate there was some sort of issue and you were not receiving our responses. Alternately, you could have simply logged back into the help desk system to view the status of those items. You chose none of those routes. We cannot possibly assist with an issue if we do not know one exists.

Second, the notices sent out by the (Alabanza) system are automatic. We generated several manual notices requesting that you resubmit your billing information with a valid number, with a subject line entirely different than the automatically generated notices. You did not do so, and we allowed your account to remain open anyway. How that makes us the bad guy here is a little beyond me, although I imagine if we had suspended your account we would be going through this very same thing.

Third, you made the statement that we blamed these things on you (implying that we told you it was all your fault that the mailing list, in particular, was not working). We did not do that at any time when we were resolving these issues. I do not and did not call it our place to pass judgement on what clients do with their sites or to the files on their sites. The only thing we do - the only thing we have ever done - is ensure that if something does go wrong that we are available to assist the client with whatever the issue might be. Exactly like we did with the issues you raised, every time.

You're welcome to share your opinion with anyone you like, of course. It's a free country. However, posting things like this that are demonstrably false is not an "informed opinion" at all. In fact, it borders on knowingly posting false information about a company and as much as I dislike legal mumbo-jumbo in general, could be actionable. I will not stand for someone trying to soil our reputation when we have done every single thing in our power to ensure that our service levels and the implied contract we make with our clients are being met.

theladyshero, I will stand by my assessment. It pretty much looks like you screwed the pooch here (no offense personally, it's a figure of speech, you understand). Have you logged back into the helpdesk to see if things are as HM says they are? If not, why not? Take some screenshots of those for us, and we'll look at the ones you already have, too. The ones that you call "proof" that you were ignored. We'll look at the dates in the tickets (yes, I know how the ticket system works and can log in to look at my own, so I know everything is timestamped) and then we'll really have both sides, won't we? You complain about being treated badly but don't apologize for treating them even worse. I'm sure HM appreciates you giving other hosts the impression that you have been treated poorly, too, even though it's pretty clear from both sides of the story that you created your own problems. I'm sure they also appreciate you telling everybody how overwhelmed they must be and your excusing that with "I'm just repeating what I was told". That's a great way to treat people. :rolleyes:

And to answer your question, no, I don't expect my host to be a guru in every aspect of every little piece of software that they might offer in a control panel. Why would they be? Especially for something like what is described with your mailing list and the distribution list which sounds like a strange problem even at the beginning and would be hard to find for anybody. I would appreciate that my host would even take the time to look at the problem much less try to fix it. And they fixed it for you! What more do you want anyway?

All of this would make me furious, and I'm pretty mad right now, even. I only hope you are honest enough and diligent enough to correct misstatements that you have made here and any that you may have made elsewhere.

I'm from Singapore and realiability and support are really important when you are so far away from the site.

I spent many days searching through forums and finally decided to go for Host Matters.

I must say the support is top notch and frankly I don't know how they make money. I won't provide that kind of service for that kind of money.

While bang for the buck tends to be attractive, its probably more important to be up and running.

Keep it up Host Matters!

Hostingmatters.com and Martie have always had an excellent reputation and I applaud the customers who have so reported on them.

There are many excellent hosts, a large number who frequent this board. However, as in most things we spend more time and give more attention to the poor hosts. It is time we change that here-each of us, one at a time.

As to the negative post, based on past behavior, I believe Martie's side and find it unfortunate that she had to respond. However, it is so easy for one disgruntled customer to besmudge a reputation. And we have to recognize the greater preponderence of evidence and opinion. Then, when we see the exception, we should recognize it as one of two things:

1-An exception to the norm
2-An unscrupulous flamer

In either case we should give it minimal credibility.

Originally posted by Incognito
Hostingmatters.com and Martie ...
As to the negative post, based on past behavior, I believe Martie's side...


Just a quick note...To the best of my knowledge, Martie has her own company(HostCaters, or similar) and is not part of Hostingmatters. I think you meant "Annette".

I have heard good things about Martie as well.

-Lamar

I want to say I use HostMatters for some of our sites, our main account and about 35 more. We use HM in part because they use CPanel, along with others we use that still use Alabanza panel along with some on the Ensim platform and a few still on other private branded platforms.

We have been very happy with HM, they always resolve our support tickets quickly and with a professional attitude. I would highly reccomend them for those with a few sites needing superior service they provide.

I do enjoy the service but sadly we may be outgrowing our per account hosting with HM and others as we may get a VPS in the not too far future.

Hint to Annette: Offer VPS and you'll have us for life!