Just received an e-mail from CoffeeCup.com (I'm a customer) the other day about their new hosting wing, Bluedomino.com. I'd like to get some opinions/views on this as it seems like a really nice package coming from an accredited parent company (CoffeeCup.com). I've been a web host consumer since 96 with services like Webcom, Smarthosting.com, IWZ, PCISD, CommuniTech.Net (currently still there and happy for the most part, but just looking to branch out) and so forth, so I know my way around the block so far but wanted to get some input on this particular company ... Bluedomino.com

Happy Holidays

I also received the e-mail 2 days ago. They claim to offer unlimited space AND bandwidth. Now that's quite amazing (if not suspicious). Their TOC (http://www.bluedomino.com/terms.html) doesn't mention anything about bandwidth and that you must pay if you exceed certain limit (which is usually happens with hosts that offer unlimited bandwith). In my opinion, you should sit back and wait until they can prove that they really offer unlimited space/bandwidth.

Unlimited bandwidth my butt. They have servers at RackSpace (a quick IP block checkup reveals RackSpace IPs) and RackSpace will charge for bandwidth if you're not careful. Obviously another 'biggie' company unaware of all the pitfalls with the web hosting business.

The following is a quote from bluedomino.com's FAQ. You'll note that it is inaccurate, misleading gobbledy-gook:

Unlimited Bandwidth means we don't charge your for the amount of traffic you get at your website. If you get 100 visitors a month, or if you get 1,000,000 visitors a month, we don't charge you any extra fees. You can have an unlimited number of visitors to your site without worrying about extra charges.


There's also some remark about one of the reasons they can keep their costs down is because they buy domain names in "blocks". What does that mean and what's that got to do with anything??

Sounds like they've confused 'hits' and 'unique visits' with data transfer, and maybe the other part was about their charges for domain registration services they offer. All in all, I just stay away from anyone claiming unlimited blah blah blah. I really do believe it *should* be illegal to state such a thing on a website.

Originally posted by alchiba

There's also some remark about one of the reasons they can keep their costs down is because they buy domain names in "blocks". What does that mean and what's that got to do with anything??


What this means is that they qualify for certain volume discounts by registering a whole bunch of domain names at once (I think it's 50% for more than 5 or something like that.) More than likely, if they are a RackSpace reseller as it has been suggested, they're teaming up with RackSpace and all their other resellers to register domain names. Because they offer a "free domain name" with registration, this would help to keep the costs down.

One thing to be wary of, however, is who the domain administrative/billing contacts are registered to. A lot of companies seem to be pulling a stunt whereby they register your domain name idea as their own domain and thus, blocking any possibility of transfer.

I felt very tempted to sign up woth Bluedomino but as I got to the last page to enter credit card details I decided to canecl:

* It may seem petty but the offer of free software only applies if you pre-pay for a year (might even have been two)

* The $18.95 rate is again also true only if your prepay. The monthly rate is actually a dollar more.

Okay it may seem trivial but added together I didn't feel completely confident. They aren't upfront about what your getting (the real cost and free software) and that they're resellers for someone else. Also the idea of "unlimited" hits/bandwidth/diskspace is clearly nonsense. No web host can afford to be like that. There has to be completely transparancy and at the end of the day Coffeecup doesn't come out of it too well. They're just another reseller making the slogan "to be good to be true" writ large on their offer.

Kev.

Email them telling them what you posted here, or the URL. I think you made the right choice.