Well, having dealt with 10s of hosting companies and going back to 1996, this is the first time I've dealt with this type of weird policy HostGator has.

The policy: HostGator: Lets upgrade our packages for our reseller accounts but those who signed up before the upgrade get to keep the old settings.

With any other hosting company I have dealt with, any time a hosting package is updated, all customers get this update. Therefore, if they increase their packages with extra bandwidth or disk space, all customers get this increase. With hostgator, it seems, once you sign up, you keep your current plan no matter if they upgrade or make changes.

The result, I'm paying the same $24.95 as the next guy for the cheapest reseller account and they are getting 5000MB disk space and I'm stuck with 1000MB disk space. How is this fair exactly?

Other than this, I've had a general great (4/5 rating) experience with them.

I must say, I did attempt to be very kind about this with an AIM conversation before coming here. Their response:
gatorsupport3 (5:49:44 PM): This is under new plan so it is not allocated to you.
gatorsupport3 (5:49:56 PM): You need to upgrade to higher plan

Then I say:
WITHHELD (5:52:57 PM): Wow, I'm going to webhostingtalk with this one. I have never heard of a hosting company upgrade disk space (or bandwidth) and not extend it to its current customers. This is totally odd to me. Pair doesn't do this, wiresix doesn't do this, etc etc. Thanks for your time. I'm just frustrated.
RESPONSE:
gatorsupport3 (5:54:51 PM): Please mail to sales@hostgator.com they will update you regarding issue

WITHHELD (5:55:39 PM): I don't need to be informed further. Your policy is clear to me. Thanks.
gatorsupport3 (5:56:37 PM): you are welcome

Is everyone else that has had an account with HostGator just ok with this? You would think they would extend their increases in bandwidth or disk space to its current clients to keep them happy as well?

They suggested to upgrade my account, therefore suggesting, they want me to pay more to get the extra disk space.

What baffles me, if I upgraded my account and then the following month, went back down, wouldn't I keep the new settings of 5000MB disk space? ::confused::

On the face of it, you present a valid & logical arguement.

Unfortunately, with Business perogatives being what they are, they don't always have to make sense. Although we don't follow the same guidelines as you mentioned, I'm sure that at least some other Hosting companies do the same as HG.

A reasonable policy IMHO would be to let the customer upgrade/downgrade to whatever new package is being offered. This would be no difference than for the customer to cancel the old account and sign-up with the new one immediately. That is what we would do, assuming the new offers are not limited promotions and only for new customers.

But then again, each host has its own policies, which may or may not be the same as the other hosts. Sensible or not, it is their choice to run their business that way.

ScottDaMan, I'm quite sure this was a misunderstanding, as I recall a different policy. Hostgator's owner will most likely come here and explain things in more detail, but the reason why they're not upgrading everyone's account is that it would lead to over population on the servers. To upgrade everyone's account they would ultimately have to move about 1/3 of resellers from each server to new servers (if I remember the details right).

Asking resellers to move accounts is not something that will make customers happy either.

What I'm saying is that they have reasons why they're not upgrading everyone's account.

On the upgrading options I won't comment because I don't want to risk posting inaccurate information on such a sensitive issue.

I think the logic of Scott's arguement is off actually.

If I rent a server and the current price is $159 and next month they lower their price or offer another hard drive I can not expect to receive the newest plan as I have bought the orginal plan.

When you buy a plan your locked into it. This can sometimes be a benefit as the price will not increase or change. Unfortunately for you it has been a negative.

Hello,

Below is what we posted on our forum about this and what you would have been emailed to you had you emailed sales.

"The new plans are for clients who upgrade, joined within 30 days of the new plan release, or those who cancel and rejoin.
Here's why.......

Just because our plans have increased that doesn't mean all the servers that are currently filled can handle all resellers getting double the disk space / sites on them. New servers being filled will have 25-35% less resellers on them to be able to handle the larger plans. This policy has nothing to do with us trying to force upgrades, nor is it because we are greedy. The cell phone companies have it easy. They first make you do the contract, then they can add towers where it's needed. We obviously can't add servers to your server since it's a single server that runs each box rather then a network. Nor is it easy moving a dozen or more sites from one server to another.

So we thought... "how can we increase our plans to remain competitive while it being fair to current customers, without overloading current servers which would result in more downtime" (in a nutshell)

here was our options....

Give all the resellers on filled boxes who joined prior to the new deals the new plans. This would result in = overloaded boxes / a lot more downtime
Do what we are doing which allows for us to offer upgrades without forcing resellers to pack up to a new server which would result in downtime, new name server ip's and the stress of moving. Believe it or not just as many people choose to cancel and rejoin under the new plans as those who upgrade to a higher plan to take advantage of the new offering.
When someone cancels and rejoins they are put under one of the new servers which have 25-35% less resellers on them which will be able to handle future growth based on the new plan specs.

So where does our policy leave us?

I personally feel it's wrong, but I feel what we are doing is the best choice. We obviously can't punish those who choose to upgrade, and to be able to offer these upgrades we need a way to move resellers off each server. Nobody here would be happy if we started forcing server migrations so our policy allows for volunteers with the reward of the new plan.
This really should be viewed in a different way by everyone. You now have the option to get the new plans at the same price you are currently paying if you choose to signup again. Or if you wish to upgrade you get the new plans and aren't forced to move to a different server.

Ask yourself this...

What's better?
1. us never changing plans and you never having the option to get a better deal.
2. us changing plans and you being able to take advantage of the new plans.
"

We give our new plans to shared clients without forcing upgrade unlike reseller plans. Reseller hosting is much different because if you are given more space and bandwidth you will host more sites and use more. With shared hosting it doesn't matter how much you are given your site is going to use what it uses no matter what your limit is. It's like you can have an all-you-can-eat buffet but obviously the buffet owner cannot allow you to resell your unlimited buffet to more people. You will be full when you are full.

Originally posted by monster123
I think the logic of Scott's arguement is off actually.

If I rent a server and the current price is $159 and next month they lower their price or offer another hard drive I can not expect to receive the newest plan as I have bought the orginal plan.

When you buy a plan your locked into it. This can sometimes be a benefit as the price will not increase or change. Unfortunately for you it has been a negative.

Well, I see your side as well, however, the client (me) is using reseller accounts because he/she doesn't want to worry about server configs, setups, and security.

I strongly disagree with a "when you buy a plan, your locked into it" this is not how shared hosting, in its history, has worked. That is how it works for leasing servers etc.

Since you are not operating your own data center and leasing, these are the problems you face every day. Now, for pair, they have their own servers, they can upgrade on a whim, and the end result, when they upgrade plans, everyone benefits!

That is my argument. And now to respond to hostgator...

Hostgator, interesting approach to my concern / rant. Now, lets train these chat personnel to handle our questions better. Instead of the way they responded, why not have them say "Yes, we are aware of this and sorry for any frustrations this may cause. We do have a couple choices for you:"
At this point, they suggest your offer above to go ahead and cancel and rejoin or upgrade.

They way they brought it to me was, you either upgrade, or your stuck.

Here's what I don't understand:
If I upgraded and then downgraded, wouldn't I be put at 5000MB disk space?

You did NOT increase bandwidth. Therefore, wouldn't it be easier to just go through and upgrade the hard disks to add capacity so that you coul, in fact, offer it to everyone?
I guess the answer would be, more or less, too expensive because you also do not have your own DC.

This is very interesting. Can I PM you? There's a couple account related questions regarding this I need to ask.

Lastly, I heard a few times disk space doubled offer. Lets remember, I am operating at 20% of your current offer, not 50%.

I am not getting 2500MB space or 5000MB space. I get 1000. I would even be happy with 2500 at this point. My sites use more space and less bandwidth.

I am sure I'm not only the one that see's the flaw in your logic.

here was our options....

Give all the resellers on filled boxes who joined prior to the new deals the new plans. This would result in = overloaded boxes / a lot more downtime
That would just be bad Management on the part of HG, nothing to do with what the Reseller does. It is not uncommon for Resellers to be moved, from one Server to another and just part of good Management.

Do what we are doing which allows for us to offer upgrades without forcing resellers to pack up to a new server which would result in downtime, new name server ip's and the stress of moving. Believe it or not just as many people choose to cancel and rejoin under the new plans as those who upgrade to a higher plan to take advantage of the new offering.
When someone cancels and rejoins they are put under one of the new servers which have 25-35% less resellers on them which will be able to handle future growth based on the new plan specs.
Reseller currently on Server A has to re-signup to get new package and be put on Server B. So what happens, they still have accounts to transfer over with hopefully no downtime. As it's an in-house Server move they will still expect HG to correctly transfer all their accounts.

How is that different from a Reseller requesting the new package and being moved over -- without having to re-signup?

hostgator, thank you for the explanation. however, i am curious about this one:

Originally posted by hostgator.com
Hello,

Below is what we posted on our forum about this and what you would have been emailed to you had you emailed sales.

shouldn't he have already gotten this explanation in an e-mail as a customer without having to inquire about it? i assume you are letting all of your customers know about what's happening and what their options are? you did mention about it being published in the forum, but not everybody check the forum all the time.

simply put, is it the op's negligence as a customer in understanding notifications from the hosts or is it the host's choice to only offer the explanation and options to customers who complaint?

I'm wondering the same. Better yet, spend the week it takes to go ahead and transfer everyone to new servers behind the scenes so the allocations are all correct then reuse the old servers as new ones with the new allocations in place.

Again, there's a huge advantage to having your own DC and staff running it.

I think this really comes down to revenue. Moving everyone would hurt the bottom-line big time.

I say, anyone who requests it, should get it. Without having to upgrade or dx/reconnect their accounts.

I won't pay the additional fees monthly for an upgrade because I can get a much better plan for $35 elsewhere.

Lastly, I wanted to point everyone to the thread I found on their site:
http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=1207&page=1&pp=25&highlight=disk+space

Their responses start on page 2 with exactly what they just put above.

Originally posted by emilrj
hostgator, thank you for the explanation. however, i am curious about this one:

shouldn't he have already gotten this explanation in an e-mail as a customer without having to inquire about it?

Or at least when i did inquire about it, why require me to email someone else regarding policy when the rep could have just asked for my email and sent it.

When I started all this, I truly expected the rep in IMs to just say, sure, I can upgrade you.

I really didn't expect all this. At least others are being made aware, right?

Wait a minute, why require me to cancel and rejoin when you could transfer my account to another server? I'm ok with a little downtime?!?

Edit: Ok, I'm understanding more. Most resellers have 1000s of sites according to that thread and they don't want to move them due to possible script problems, DNS changes, etc.

Alrighty, what about telling me that if I'm willing to transfer the sites myself, sure? Here's a new login for the new server, go ahead and transfer the sites. You have a grace period of 5 days?

Originally posted by Website Rob
I am sure I'm not only the one that see's the flaw in your logic.


Nope, your not the only one. I think they need to rethink this issue.


Originally posted by Website Rob
How is that different from a Reseller requesting the new package and being moved over -- without having to re-signup? [/B]

Yes, this is what I was thinking. You don't necessarily have to move all resellers and upgrade them all now, but you can do it by customer request without them having to deal with re-signing up and canceling their old account. Any customer that would like to take advantage of your new plans can be told they will need to be moved to a new server. Moving accounts from one server with the same cp to another with the same cp, especially if you have root access is not as bad as you are making it out to be.


Originally posted by ScottDaMan
I'm wondering the same. Better yet, spend the week it takes to go ahead and transfer everyone to new servers behind the scenes so the allocations are all correct then reuse the old servers as new ones with the new allocations in place.

Again, there's a huge advantage to having your own DC and staff running it.

This really has nothing to do with owning your own DC and staff running it. You can easily rent rack space and have your own staff and hardware on site to deal with your servers. I think that anytime data is being moved from one server to another, clients should always be notified... it should not be done "behind the scenes".

Having already done Server moves a few times without any downtime for Clients, I would like point out that Server transfers are pretty painless when done correctly.

If the Hoster does the prep work first, the Reseller account and all sub-accounts can be pointed to the new Server within 30 minutes of the Reseller receiving the eMail with their new Nameserver IPs.

Yes it true, some accounts using dynamic data may have be temporarily turned off for an hour, but not too much ask. And as old Server / new Server should be running at the same time, for a few days anyway, Clients can still login to their 'old' Server and use Web Mail to grab any leftover eMails.

They could give you like an option. If you want to get the new upgrades & benefits for your account, please pay $9.99 or something and we will enable them on your account.

That way, they get to keep their policy of not upgrading accounts, but also, clients have the option if they need it.

Maybe talk to hostgater and see if they would be willing to split your account over 2 servers. Keep the one you have now and allow you to use the extra space and bandwidth on a reseller account on one of the new servers.

So if your current plans is at 2 gig and 20 gig say and the new plan is 5 and 50 you get another reseller account on a new server with 3 and 30 that way you do not have to move clients, no downtime, they do not overlaod their servers, and you get the extra space and bandwidth.

Everyone wins.

Techark,

Well, I PMed them to see if it is ok to sign up for a new account, keep the old account running and then I would transfer these accounts myself. Then they could turn off the old account when notified.

Pending response.

Why not just inform them that you'll be happy to move them to a new server since it will supposedly overload the server if you give them the space/bandwidth they should be receiving? Making them signup again just does not make any sense.

And if it will supposedly overload the server if you give them the space/bandwidth they should be getting for the money they are paying, asking them to upgrade to a higher plan won't?

Originally posted by HostingZoom
Why not just inform them that you'll be happy to move them to a new server since it will supposedly overload the server if you give them the space/bandwidth they should be receiving? Making them signup again just does not make any sense.

And if it will supposedly overload the server if you give them the space/bandwidth they should be getting for the money they are paying, asking them to upgrade to a higher plan won't?

Why am I not surprised of this response?

It is a very wise move by any host when upgrading thier offerings to think about the current state of thier servers and forcast how the change will impact the current customers on the servers. Which is why if you read the thread instead of posting just to post you will see that they are offering this on new servers so not to impact current hosts that expect the server they are on to continue to operate as normal.

ScottDaMan,

You have been told how you can work this out with HostGator. I would suggest that you contact them via the proper channels and then come back and report. Why PM when you have the e-mail address in which you can communicate these questions?

Good luck!

Originally posted by UnifiedNet
Why am I not surprised of this response?

It is a very wise move by any host when upgrading thier offerings to think about the current state of thier servers and forcast how the change will impact the current customers on the servers. Which is why if you read the thread instead of posting just to post you will see that they are offering this on new servers so not to impact current hosts that expect the server they are on to continue to operate as normal.


Tell me why you aren't surprised? I am curious.

Yes it is wise to think of the current state of the server before simply upgrading any client on request but maybe you have an answer to why does the client need to signup again?

If you read the post, you would of seen that was the question.

Originally posted by HostingZoom
Tell me why you aren't surprised? I am curious.

Yes it is wise to think of the current state of the server before simply upgrading any client on request but maybe you have an answer to why does the client need to signup again?

If you read the post, you would of seen that was the question.

I am not surprised because you have a habit of questioning other hosts policies. Your pop shots in this case with "supposedly" seriously question your position here at WHT. "supposedly" ResellerZoom will fall over with its current offerings, Nothing a name change can't handle right?

"supposedly" it is not our place to question another companies policies especially after HostGator laid it all out on the table in his response.

"supposedly" HostGator should just create another company name to deal with his plan upgrades that way he can have a chance that half, or more, of his customers don't even know that they are offering more robust plans elsewhere.

Anyone that wants to be on a new server is welcome to sign up for a new plan move their accounts over and cancel the old plan / get prorated refund for the time not used on the old. That was one of the options we listed. The old servers are the same specs as the new servers 2.4 dual xeons 2 gigs of ram. So it really doesn't have anything to do with upgrading the server we simply put less accounts on the new servers.

Moving accounts is not that easy.... it is very time-consuming and editing DNS zones for what can be 100+ accounts would take a while. We have < a page > that walks you through transferring your own account to or from us. Almost every time we make an exception and copy someone's accounts over for them we end up getting yelled at for something like a script not working that never worked to begin with.
Rob how many reseller accounts have you moved over to a new server that had 20+ sites?
This comes down to us moving accounts to new servers which we choose not to do. It's a bad policy but moving resellers accounts is not easy and is not something we want to take on as a company at this point in time. There is another post on wht listing all the reasons why we choose not to move reseller accounts.

Hey Hostgator,

I think it is still reasonable to offer only upgrades to those that move to new servers, in which they still do the transfer themself. I can't blame you if you don't want to move accounts and get bitched at.

However, I think it is time consuming to ask them to refill out a form with there data, which you already have in the database for the same excat plan. Charge them X amount and than refund them X amount prorated amount.

Seems like your doing it the hard way. For both the customer and yourself. The way you are doing it adds about 2x more work for both parties.

Either way you choose, as long as your customers are informed they will probally accept any way you choose to do it. I think the whole thing that started this off was that customers were not notified and/or getting the correct information on this (this is judging by the post on your forums and the OP posting here not understanding).

Originally posted by hostgator.com
Rob how many reseller accounts have you moved over to a new server that had 20+ sites?
This comes down to us moving accounts to new servers which we choose not to do. It's a bad policy but moving resellers accounts is not easy and is not something we want to take on as a company at this point in time. There is another post on wht listing all the reasons why we choose not to move reseller accounts. I have done many Server transfers and/or Reseller transfers and most of our Reseller accounts do have 20+ sub-accounts.

Nobody has said Transferring accounts is easy but for the Reseller it should be. The Hoster should be doing most of the work and I agree, when providing Personalized Nameservers it does take awhile -- for the Hoster -- to change all the DNS settings after a transfer. So be it. Whether it's an in-house Server move or someone switching from one Hoster to another, it's all the same.

I also agree that you don't be moving accounts from one Server to another unless for a good reason. I don't see anything wrong with why you transfer Resellers that want a new package, it was your logic for making them re-signup that caught my eye. By having multiple Servers and your own Billing system or script, the only reason to be moving accounts is for load balancing of Servers. That is why making people re-signup in order to justify moving their accounts to another Server, didn't make much sense.

Server moves done correctly and painlessly is good for everyone. May it be so with all your Server moves. :)

First of all I respect Brent as a business man. I have seen the way he treats his clients especially during hard times and commend him for it. Nothing but respect for HostGator.

Now...

Originally posted by UnifiedNet
I am not surprised because you have a habit of questioning other hosts policies.

That is funny because I don't ever remember questioning other hosts policies before. I just browsed through 4 pages of threads and could not find even one. Since you mentioned it, maybe you can find one for me?

Originally posted by UnifiedNet

Your pop shots in this case with "supposedly" seriously question your position here at WHT.

I tried to decipher this sentence but couldn't. Can you rephrase?

Originally posted by UnifiedNet

"supposedly" ResellerZoom will fall over with its current offerings, Nothing a name change can't handle right?

I don't understand how this got in there but what does this have to do with anything? Learn to check your agenda at the door when you come in. It's nothing short of obvious.

Originally posted by UnifiedNet

"supposedly" it is not our place to question another companies policies especially after HostGator laid it all out on the table in his response.

If you read the thread, the customer said he contacted HG and they told him to upgrade to the next highest plan. Assuming he is on the lowest plan, upgrading would move him from "aluminum" which is currently 5/50 but he got 1/? to the "copper" which allows him 7/70.

I was saying if the client upgraded to the next plan, wouldn't going from 1 GB space to 7 GB space overload the server even more than simply giving him the 5 GB space that he should be getting?

In regards to the cancel and signup again, now that Brent has said they don't do account transfers, I can understand the logic behind it. Before that, even Website Rob and tailzie agreed that did not make any sense.
Originally posted by UnifiedNet

"supposedly" HostGator should just create another company name to deal with his plan upgrades that way he can have a chance that half, or more, of his customers don't even know that they are offering more robust plans elsewhere.

If that is what you are suggesting, let HG know. I'm sure they can use a person like you in management.


On a side note, I think WHT is great. It's great because people from all walks of life from every corner of the world can come here and bitch, complain, express their views and opinions. There will be times when you don't agree with with everyone's views but learn to respect it even if you disagree. Debating a topic is what makes it great but when bringing in other agendas or taking a debate to a personal level should not be tolerated. My 2 cents. Thank you.

Correct, I for one will have to accept making a second account and go from there.

I understand them not wanting to move sites so I can do this myself. Guess that's why I upgraded my dsl plan to 3000/768, I now have a reason ;)

Originally posted by HostingZoom
Why not just inform them that you'll be happy to move them to a new server since it will supposedly overload the server if you give them the space/bandwidth they should be receiving? Making them signup again just does not make any sense.

And if it will supposedly overload the server if you give them the space/bandwidth they should be getting for the money they are paying, asking them to upgrade to a higher plan won't?

"supposedly" questions everything that HG replied with. Not only did you use it once but twice and it comes of as if you are questioning the statement.

Originally posted by UnifiedNet
"supposedly" questions everything that HG replied with. Not only did you use it once but twice and it comes of as if you are questioning the statement.
That was because I was. Note the question mark at the end.

It did not make sense that they are telling their clients if they wanted to take advantage of the extra space/BW, which they are already paying for, they would have to upgrade to the next highest plan in order to take advantage of it and not have to move to a new server.

Now correct me if I am wrong but if these servers are "supposedly" filled (that is where it came from and based on what HG said), wouldn't asking them to upgrade to a higher plan which allotted more space than what they are asking for fill the server even more?

If yes, then why ask them to upgrade to begin with and not just give them what they want? That is the same space/BW they are already paying for as everyone else. If it maxed out the server, then let them know and see if they would voluntarily move to a different server.

Do you get my point?

This policy is not abnormal. It's done all the time outside of the webhosting industry, why should it be considered 'bad' in this industry? Cellphone plans...DSL deals (usually)....they all run specials and have better and better plans for new customers yet rarely change their current customers plans...

Now, one reasoning for not doing it, like others have said, when I setup a server I provision it according to the plans we offer. If we double all the client's disk space then this account is going to be terribly oversold.

I agree there is nothing wrong with it but I also think if a customer asked for the better deal after finding out about it, it's only fair to upgrade them to the new plan.

There are times when I find out about a better deal with my cell phone and simply call them up and asked, they gave me the better deal even when I'm locked into a contract. That's just good business.

There are times when I find out about a better deal with my cell phone and simply call them up and asked, they gave me the better deal even when I'm locked into a contract. That's just good business.Not gonna happen where I live. You sign the contract, you're stuck for the year.

Originally posted by nickn
....they all run specials and have better and better plans for new customers yet rarely change their current customers plans...

If it's a limited time special, that's a completely different situation. If it's going to be a permanent change, then they should also upgrade their existing customers. It's good to attract mew customers, but not at the expense of annoying your current customers.

This issue has already been beat to death, but I think a little my thoughts could be used because... that's just what I think. In my opinion it's always a classy move on the host to upgrade your current customers to the new offerings as long as the price is the same. If a price change is made, then I think the current customers should stay on the same plan. Afterall, they are the people who made it so you can offer a better product. At the very least, you could allow them to change their plan to the new offerings and if necessary move them to the new server. It's my thought that if your old servers can't take what your new offerings are going to be, you simply should not offer those then. That's just my opinion -- take it for what it's worth.

Edit: I thought offerings looked a little funny spelled with two R's.

Originally posted by inogenius
At the very least, you could allow them to change their plan to the new offerings and if necessary move them to the new server. It's my thought that if your old servers can't take what your new offerings are going to be, you simply should not offer those then. That's just my opinion -- take it for what it's worth.

Edit: I thought offerings looked a little funny spelled with two R's.

Well, as HostGator has stated, these aren't "old servers" technically. The new server setups are the same as the "old server" setups. HostGator just said, they are putting less resellers on each server with these new offerings. That makes sense to me.

Additionally, they are making it available to anyone who wants to do the work themselves. If you are willing to transfer your accounts to the new server, they request you to setup a new account and begin the transfer. They then will prorate your service and cancel the old plan when you request.

Therefore, I experienced 0 downtime. I was able to transfer my plans to the new servers first, then login to my domain service provider and update the nameserver records (IP address) when I had everything prepared and ready.

It's really not all that hard when u use the cpanel backup facility to do the work for you. I can see it being a hassle for those offering 1000 plans per reseller account, that would be a major PITA. I had less than 20 accounts to move.

I'm on the new plan now. This new plan is so much easier because for each package you make, whatever bandwidth you set, use 10% of that amount for web space and you'll fully use your alocations. My plan is now 50000 bandwidth and 5000 space. The space is exactly 10% of the bandwidth. Talk about easy.

Either way, I've had a few communications from this forum's PMs with hostgator.com and an additional question to their AIM staff which was answered perfectly.

So there's the update a few of you requested. I'm extremely satisfied with the way they handled my requests with exception to the very first AIM conversation which basically suggested I needed to pay more to upgrade to the next plan to get the benefits.

I still feel they should actually send the notification/update email that was posted here in this thread the first time any customer feels they should get the increase in disk space.

I also feel the email itself should go into greater detail for those who wish to cancel their old plan and setup a new plan. It should mention that you can setup a new plan under your current billing plan (to have 2 accounts) and then delete the old account when you are ready to do so. That they will prorate your service for the month for the time you didn't use the account you cancel.

As it stands now, I understood the email to say you must cancel your current plan first, signup for a new account, and then use your backups to restore the accounts. I was unwilling to do this because there would be downtime involved. As mentioned above, a rewording of this would help.

Thanks for all your input everyone. I hope this thread helps others who find themselves in the situation I was in.