***** stuck me with $150 for two months of service (various fees for cancelling their "service") - they are almost as bad as addr.com. Their techs are JERKS.

Are there ANY decent hosting companies out there that offer GOOD, GENUINELY GOOD, customer service - that I can talk to folks on the phone instead of email? That I won't have to wait 1 hour on hold each time I call??

Please advise.

Need 20 gig transfer per month, 100 meg storage, good tech/customner service, and of course reasonable rates.

Mike

You may want to put this in the requests forum. I'm sure you will get a lot of replies.

lol.. there are many companies out there... id recommend digitalrax.com... been using them for a couple of my sites... great support.. and the owner is a great guy :)

others you should look at our ventureonline.com and affordablehosting.com.. dont forget hostmajik.com :)

Yes there are good hosting companies out there. The only
problem is that people all over the world are jumping into the
hosting industry. They copy other people websites and make up
information. Some of them are so good that it is hard to tell who
is real and who is not. But like I said at the top there are good
companies out there you just have to look for them now. :stickout

Originally posted by kunal
lol.. there are many companies out there... id recommend digitalrax.com... been using them for a couple of my sites... great support.. and the owner is a great guy :)

others you should look at our ventureonline.com and affordablehosting.com.. dont forget hostmajik.com :)

digitalrax.com - "24/7 Emergency Email Support " Rules that one out.


affordablehosting - "UNIX Plan A ($50 Per Month) 200 MB of disk space 15 GB of transfer" need more badwidth, less disk, less $$$

hostmagik.com looks interesting though... http://hostmagik.com/features.html

Might give them a call.

Scratch hostmagik.com - "We offer 24 hour support, 7 days a week via our Online Support Desk." No one on one phone support.

Originally posted by mstembri00


digitalrax.com - "24/7 Emergency Email Support " Rules that one out.


affordablehosting - "UNIX Plan A ($50 Per Month) 200 MB of disk space 15 GB of transfer" need more badwidth, less disk, less $$$

hostmagik.com looks interesting though... http://hostmagik.com/features.html

Might give them a call.

How on earth do you want someone to give you 20GB of bandwidth and 24/7 live phone support for less then $50 per month? Come on...

dsvr.co.uk - excellent, your own httpd on a shared server (really), bit expensive though
wizardshosting.com - excellent, cheap

...

phone support is very expensive and expect to pay top dollar for it. most places i have dealt with have ticket support systems and if you need a call you need to request them to call you. Really there isnt much you can do more on the phone than you can on the ticket system. if they are there, they will reply and they arent there, they arent going to answer the phone either.

True, but it's much easier to ignore an email than a ringing phone :)

If your with a decent company they will have good email response times. Even companies with a relatively low cost like www.tera-byte.com have extremely fast support responses through email. Usually you get a response within an hour.

While I entirely agree that unfortunately there are a lot of crap hosts trying to make a quick buck who couldn't care less about customer care, I don't think the same can be said for every company offering web hosting services.

There are quite a few companies out there who go that extra mile for their customers, a pleasant to deal with, and still manage to charge reasonable rates. I think one fault actually lies with a lot of customers looking for "unlimited everything" hosts for 20 bucks a year.

I won't say anything about *****, as I don't want to embarrass myself. :angry:

There are definitely still some great web hosting companies out there. Unfortunately, the really sucky ones give us ALL a bad name. That's not good for anyone.

But it's definitely right that a lot of folks are getting into this business without a serious committment, thinking it'll be an easy way to make a buck. It's NOT EASY. Customer services needs to be paramount in a business like this and let's face it - it's NOT EASY to keep up with stuff like that. You need a staff. And not only that, you need a *knowledgable* staff. It's not enough to just be there. You need to know what you're doing.

When you're searching for a web hosting company, ask questions. When are they *really* around to answer questions? You know what their web site says. But ask them and see what they say when you're talking with them. What are their response times? What are their policies in the event that you decide to cancel your service? Do they offer incentives if you tell others about what they do? Maybe they'll give you discounts on your own hosting service if you sign up a few other folks? That sort of thing. A lot of hosting services have that sort of agreement with the folks they host. It's worth asking about. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. :)

Arm yourself! :)

Best of luck,

--Jodi

Well,

there are some decent hosts out there. It's just hard to find them and the experience could make or break you.

We have had good personal experience with the following hosts who offer shared hosting.

Linux.
-------------
olm.net
venturesonline.com
mchost.com

Windows
--------------
innerhost.com


Cheers,

Matra

Originally posted by mstembri00


digitalrax.com - "24/7 Emergency Email Support " Rules that one out.


affordablehosting - "UNIX Plan A ($50 Per Month) 200 MB of disk space 15 GB of transfer" need more badwidth, less disk, less $$$

hostmagik.com looks interesting though... http://hostmagik.com/features.html

Might give them a call.

why exactly would "24/7 Emergency Email Support" Rule a company out? As a member of the service, emails are answered within the hour, not to mention, if any problems on the server are occuring site techs. email you right away. There is no guessing going on. I wouldn't rule out a company if they don't have phone support, i'd rather have a good server, than phone access to the admins incase i need support

Originally posted by mstembri00
True, but it's much easier to ignore an email than a ringing phone :) i don't agree with this comment. if you are going to be with a host who ignores you, it won't matter what type of support services they offer, because in the long run they will still ignore you or even block your phone number (my friend had this happen with NSI). :eek:

i agree with one_web that you can't expect 20gb of bandwidth + phone support.. the both combined at under $50/month would drive a company into the hole. phone support is just too expensive(hiring people that are good on the phone, setup phone systems and phone bills, etc.) for some of the smaller hosts... ***** can provide it since they are gigantor. but as you can see from your own experience, just because a company offers phone support, this doesn't mean you will be happy with them.

I second that.

I totally agree with Dahlia - and when ever Ive needed to get in touch with someone I always have ;)

I can also recommend KDA for UK people - Im about to open an account with them and have known Dean and Karl for about a year now.

See, I know all the good hosts :D