<rant>Last night I send a customer an email telling him that he was going over his datatransfer limit for this month. He signed up for a 15 GB plan but was probably ending up with a total for January of around 40-45 GB. As he was already a customer I offered a price of 24.95

His response this morning:

i found a webhosting company that will handle it. they have unlimited traffic and disk space. so i think i will go with them so cancel my account and thanks for your service

So...he is going to take his 45 GB site to an unlimited traffic provider...

Anyone want to take any bets how long it takes until this unlimited diskspace/unlimited datatransfer host realizes that they contracted a "45 GB and growing" site and throw him on the street? :(

God, this depresses me.
</rant>

Yup...that does suck. One of the reasons I decided against going into the hosting biz was the cut-throat competiton and ever lowering prices.

Kill him with kindness. Thank him for his fantastic site sitting on your servers....sucking at your bandwidth...and when he finds himself face down in the gutter next time...He will think how kind you were to him.....then tell him where to get off!

ITS A REVERSAL OF CRUEL TO BE KIND.

Simon

Did you warn him about the limitations of unlimited? He might appreciate it.

Yes I did. I told him to be careful in choosing a new host especially if they promoted unlimited bandwidth as there are no hosts that promote unlimited bandwidth and tolerate a 45 GB bandwidth site. I gave him the links to unlimband.com and unlimitedtransfer.com

I feel better now though. This is no way to start your day ;)

What boggles my mind is that he is a reverend with a daily live radio show (which he also broadcasts over the internet, hence the 45 GB) cannot pay $ 25 for 45 GB of datatransfer.

Well end of story. He put a "changing to a better host" sign up on his site. They can have him. 3 New cusomers signed up today. Life goes on :)

<edit>

his new host: http://instantwebsitedesign.net/hosting.html
Unlimited datatransfer comes cheap these days at $ 5.99 :(

</edit>

I don't understand how you can even offer a client you know will use 45 gig of bandwidth a 45 gig plan for $24.95. Are you really able to pay less than 55 cents/gig yourself?

Originally posted by Pilgrim
his new host: http://instantwebsitedesign.net/hosting.html
It looks like they didn't spend much more than an instant designing their own site.

Not if I have to buy it per GB. But the servers I rent come standard with 300 GB of bandwidth (yes, Rackshack)

The server this client was on is already closed. Meaning I'm no longer putting any new customers on it since it was pretty much maxed out as far as the cpu was concerned.

45 GB/24.95 is not something I would offer any new customers but I figured that since this customer was already ON this server and was already actually using this much bandwidth it wouldn't make much difference anymore. (seeing how I only use about 150 of the 300 GB's allowed)

Common business sense made me decide I'ld rather cash 24.95 each month for bandwidth that I was already paying for then charge him a (insert dirty word here)load of cash with the risc of loosing him. Which would gain me nothing.

Unfortunatly for me I seem to have more common business sense then the customer ;)

Originally posted by Intelligent Hosting

It looks like they didn't spend much more than an instant designing their own site.

Ack, that site is terrible. It's even hard to distinguish whether it says "Price does not equal quality" or "Price equals quality".

Pilgrim, I see. That makes sense then. You mentioned your server was with RackShack. I was looking into getting a server with them (not for a hosting biz, but for my own sites). I've been a little afraid of going with RackShack though, because they measure bandwidth using 95th % method. Have you had any problems with your bandwidth measurements because of this? Thanks.

ummm, where did you read that?

I'm pretty sure, (Almost positive) that they are auctal useage...;)

I agree with what Simon said.. because he will not be lasting long at his new host.

hehehehe... Hes about to get the shaft from his "better" host.

After disabling BG in my browser, I read their "unlimited" bandwidth and came up with the figures 2G of allowable transfer...

He will only last ummmm.... I give him about 2 days at the max!

Gotta give him credit though for finding a site that looks more piss poor then mine :D

I'm also pretty sure that RackShack does not use the 95% method.

Originally posted by greggish
Yup...that does suck. One of the reasons I decided against going into the hosting biz was the cut-throat competiton and ever lowering prices.

No kidding. At least we can all come here and get along. :D I'm not sure which is worse - the competition between hosts, or the competition between dumb customers. I'm sorry, but a host has never pissed me off. The customer that jumps at the way-the-f-to-good-to-be-true host, they bother me. Pilgrim, I feel your pain, it's my number 1 negative about hosting. Just think about the happy customers you have. (you know, the ones you never hear from?)

Worst case, do what I do, set aside some free hosting accounts and buy some friends :laugh: (I went bowling last night and every last one of us could put "myname.com" up on the screen. heh)

LMAO.....I just delved a little bit into their site....and it appears that they are resellers for Burlee. Does that sound familiar to anyone?? :D (my bet is he gets a $400 overcharge for his 1st month...)

Originally posted by MGCJerry
hehehehe... Hes about to get the shaft from his "better" host.

He will only last ummmm.... I give him about 2 days at the max!

Well, looks like you will have to eat your words. Gotta give credit to this hosting company.....it took them THREE days before they disabled his site.

As of this morning my now ex-client can go looking for a new host again. His site has been suspended....:rolleyes:

I've been reading this conversation and it brings question to mind: wouldn't it be considered false advertising to promise unlimited bandwidth and then have a cap on the bandwidth itself? I can somewhat understand the logic on a CPU/resource cap and unlimited bandwidth (since the bandwidth itself is not the only factor that can contribute to high CPU/resource usage...poor code can do that too, among other things). But how can someone get away with saying "we offer unlimited bandwidth" and then offer say 2 GB per month transfer?

WUSSUPWITDAT?

LOL! :D. You gotta tell us if they ever contact you again! :)

Well, looks like you will have to eat your words. Gotta give credit to this hosting company.....it took them THREE days before they disabled his site.

As of this morning my now ex-client can go looking for a new host again. His site has been suspended....

Darn, I knew I should have rounded up my estimation figure... Oh well, I was close enough :stickout

His new host cannot even update their copy right for 2 years!
But, who would want to copy right that site?
Little things that I look at before the $$$$ goes out.............

Originally posted by priyadi
LOL! :D. You gotta tell us if they ever contact you again! :)

Although I am no longer pissed ( :) ) I'm still keeping track of this customer. It is turning into an interesting learning process about unlimited bandwidth.

No, he did not contact me again. He found a new host for his 45 GB site. And it is another unlimited bandwidth host.
www.hostonce.com (or one of their resellers - can't tell)

Unlimited webspace
Unlimited transfer
$ 4.95 per month

Startdate: 31-jan-02
End date: taking bets now.

LOL, $20 says he's already searching for a new host