Hi all, i just received an email from donhost wit several interesting bits of info

1. they are raising the price of their UNIX reseller to £399 ex. VAT per year

2. They are moving the reseller servers to Doncaster

and the most important

3. they have cut reseller bandwidth on all UNIX accounts to 20GB instead of 50GB even if you have alread paid for 50!!!!

So basically i have paid for 50GB and now i am only getting 20GB

They also claim theat they are phasing in a new system 2 deal with account problems 2 eliminate the account closures with no warning

i'm with Donhost, and to be honest was pretty pleased with the email, as long as transfer speeds do not suffer by a move to Doncaster. Communication is improving it seems.

Not had a problem with them in a year - barring the xmas shutdown which was very poor planning.

-Overall, improved customer service opening times - cool.

-30gig/month bandwidth taken off the reseller plan - 20gig was in effect the real cutoff point for them to become edgy, and always has been. Guess now they are being more truthful.

Really, if you are using over 20gb/month you should have a good enough business plan to know you can afford a dedicated.

Re: their AUP - after seeing the problems MCHost have been having with resources being hammered, you can see why Donhost are so ridgid - my customers have to adhere by the same AUP, so if there are problems with not abiding, then they should know the consequences. MCHost are now going the same way.

Think about it logically - there are so many hosts offering the moon on a stick, BUT in the end they realise that their business plans do not work. You must have a very robust AUP to stop the bb's, warez, mp3's and porn guys hammering your servers to death. If you have a sensible AUP for your customers to adhere to, you won't go over 20gb/month - if you do it's dedicated time!

For the record, i use Donhost for uk customers, and MCHost for overseas - and i love them both for different reasons....Donhost has the edge on control panel, MCHost on customer service.

This is bad. Current donhost customers should stay with 50gb. That's the business rule.

read the terms and conditions - can amend packages at any time.

Have a funny feeling that only those hammering the servers will be the unhappy ones....

and:

1) I'm not Daniel pretending to be impartial
2) I have no affiliation with Donhost apart from being a reseller

*gets ready for the flaming*:angry:

Originally posted by sco44
and:

1) I'm not Daniel pretending to be impartial
2) I have no affiliation with Donhost apart from being a reseller

*gets ready for the flaming*:angry: Well to be honest, you do seem remarkable Philosophical for someone who's account went up in price but down in value...

Despite the fact that my opinion for Donhost is well know I find it very hard to believe that customers will be pleased with the change.


Aside from anything else the comment about "those hammering the servers"... Are you referring to those people who believe that paying for 50Gb bandwidth, having unlimited diskspace, means they are actually entitled to it?

It never ceases to amaze me that people should accept that they were shortchanged when reality met marketing hype...

Anyway, I wish you well... if you're happy then I guess that's good for you.

Originally posted by sco44
read the terms and conditions - can amend packages at any time.

Was it orginially there before the new changes to terms?

I dont use 50GB bandwidth so its not really a problem for me but they do not have the right to do this at all!

where is the part in the TOS that says they can ammend packages at any time???? i want to check it with the old copy of the TOS i have

I also see they have cut the money back guarantee from 30 days to 7 days!!

I occasionally change my packages to try and find the right mix etc however i never change what my clients have paid for, its just good business practice to give what has been paid for and what is expected

Originally posted by tazd9t9
I dont use 50GB bandwidth so its not really a problem for me but they do not have the right to do this at all! Depends when you signed up...

The TnC I have a copy of from back in June/July says nothing about the right to amend a package at any time... nor service provision.. Actually it doesn't say anything about the right to amend the terms of service agreement either...

The only thing mentioned was the right to change the price.

Of course... that didn't stop 24/7 support changing to 9-5pm retroactively...

At the end of the day though, if you wanted to try and prove a point the only way you could do it was if you had a case and wanted to take it to court... which no-one has bothered with.

I have no intention of taking it to court and i wont be renewing when the time comes either but i am going to pass on the email and the old and new terms to a lawyer friend of mine to see where they stand legally on this matter

the price rise is a trifling amount for what is offered

i host over 100 accounts and am nowhere near 10gb, let alone 20 - why? because i dont offer the world, and have, if anything, a stricter AUP than Donhost themselves....

If the T&C's dont mention that they can amend plans, then you may have a case however - i'm not arguing for the sake of arguing.... 'specially not with snail .... he's already kicked a few asses in MCHost forums :D

ukspace4u - no wonder you have issues with bandwidth, with plans for 1/3/5/7gb of bandwidth/month! Who wrote your business plan buddy?!

Originally posted by sco44
If the T&C's dont mention that they can amend plans, then you may have a case however - i'm not arguing for the sake of arguing.... 'specially not with snail .... he's already kicked a few asses in MCHost forums :D
Actually I DO find the fact that these changes are due to take place in May rather than immediately a sign that "perhaps" things are improving...

That said, there was some clever wording in the announcement as provided on the Donhost site... "Less than 1% of our customers exceed the current limit"...

This may be true but what it fails to say is how many people use between 20 - 50Gb/month which should be a different kettle of fish. Ironically it seems to lend credence to the oft repeated complaint that the real limit has been 20Gb/month all along and the 50Gb/month little more than a bare faced 'marketing ploy'.

As for kicking asses... I do it when I have to... Credit where credit due though... the communication issue on changes seems to finally have filtered through and the advance warning is one heck of a surprise going by previous events.

That's not to say I'd touch Donhost with a barge pole again (and I'm sure the feelings mutual ;)).

1stly dont call me buddy
2ndly learn 2 read i said i dont have issues with bandwidth i just think their principal is wrong
3rdly why dont u check where my site is hosted, on a rackshack dedicated server, i have my donhost account for backup

Originally posted by MxHub
This is bad. Current donhost customers should stay with 50gb. That's the business rule.

They never allowed 50 GB anyway, so they're being more honest now.

Originally posted by tazd9t9
1stly dont call me buddy
2ndly learn 2 read i said i dont have issues with bandwidth i just think their principal is wrong
3rdly why dont u check where my site is hosted, on a rackshack dedicated server, i have my donhost account for backup

1] Apologees
2] Notice, that in general my tone was aimed at those who whinge constantly, that either hammer resources, or have never even used Donhost
3] Why would i go to the trouble of checking, as you were coming from a Donhost perspective 1+1= etc etc

sorry im just having a stressful day :-( i didnt mean 2 snap at u like that

no worries - i'm having a similar day myself ;)

Have a good weekend

Originally posted by tazd9t9
3rdly why dont u check where my site is hosted, on a rackshack dedicated server, i have my donhost account for backup
What exactly do you mean by "backup"? Are you mirroring your rackshack box or something or is it just there incase?? :)

I AM with Donhost and honestly, I am going to move.

I agree that the move to their data center might not be a wrong thing, but I choose them for the 50 GB limit. I am now on the edge of the 20 GB limit with 170 accounts, and what shall I do in the future? I can get better deals and probably nicer service somewhere else.

They are blaming resellers because they don't check their accounts, but we don't get any tool to do that either. Many of my accounts were closed, maybe with good reasons, but without me knowing it. Then how do you want to answer your customer who ask you what happened?

They are saying it's changing, I won't be here. Moreover, as an advice, many of my customer just left when they learned I was a Donhost reseller. They have a very bad image over there...

Thats a good point actually, we have no tools whatsoever to check our clients account so how do we know what they are doing?
I have only had one account closed which was for a legitimate reason but i had no way of knowing what they were uploading.

Do other companies offer resellers the facilities to check clients accounts?

Ok, here's my thoughts


Donhost never gave us any tools to check our users accounts. All they told me when I asked about this was "Just send a list of usernames you want to check, and we'll send the passwords".
Donhost are unfairly blaming resellers for their previous business mistakes.
Does this mean donhost will start charging that extortionate £16 per GB to existing users that were using 30GB??


In the long run where does this leave us? - There are better company's out there which apparently have better customer service, so they should have figured out that they are doing themselves out of business.

If it wasn't for the fact that I'm about to close my service due to lack of business, then I'd be moving to another company as I speak...

Shame, I had high hopes for donhost..

Their dedicated servers are over priced too.

Turboz, you said ur closing due to lack of business, is this because people know you use donhost? I have had problems with that, but the fact remains i dont only use them at all and i am prepeared to fight and win with daniel anyway, ive only ever had one account closed.

So far I've had one account closed, and that was only cos Daniel thought that Ian was using it.

Anyway, I'm also prepared to go head to head with him if he messes me around. Hell, i'm the same age as him!

Hello

Well, I haven't exactly made it public (except on these forums) that I resold for donhost (resold = history).

I've sent the email to donhost now telling them to remove my account, and I've told them that their new price is too much especially for 30GB less.

In my opinion, this is the beginning of the end for Donhost, and as for Daniel, I've spoken to him on the phone before - not the most helpful of people, but I did eventually get those IP logs from him... (2 phone calls later).


My problems:

1 account deleted - no explanation (though this is normal apparently)

Account was stolen - I setup an account for a friend, and 2 weeks later, found I had a cyber squatter using it - interesting seeing as I gave no-one the login details, and donhost were the only other people with access to that info...

Like I said, this is the beginning of the end for donhost. There are other hosts out there that charge a lot less for a normal hosting account that donhost charge.

I'll bet they'll be loosing a lot of cash from us resellers now.

With regards to my site closing down due to lack of business, this was bad planning on my part. I never kept enough cash back to open a merchant account, and I never got the meta tags in place early enough. I also designed a crap site, which was never going to talk anyone into buying space from me. Lessons which I have learnt for the next bash.

Lohosting.com will be back in a few months time, bigger, better, and gaining more customers than ever before... and also with a different reselling company.

Good luck people!

Be carefull when canceling - make sure you send the user and pass and if they dont confirm its deleted badger them until they do!
(Speaking from personal experience)

And which host would you select now as a reseller (just because I am in that selection process..)?

Well seeing as outlook express has failed to connect to lohosting's mail accounts, and lohosting.com is returning DNS errors, it looks like they have closed my account.

Good for me, Bad for Donhost.

This is the email I sent to Donhost:

Hello Donhost,

Please close my reseller account.

My user ID: <Not shown>

Users warned: Yes

Unfortunately, Lohosting has failed to gain any customers in the 5 months that I've been with you. this is partially my fault, for not designing a proper site, and not bothering with meta tags.

I can no longer afford the money £43 per month (including VAT), and there is no way that I am going to pay the new price, for 30 GB less Data Transfer.

Donhost, you've said in your new announcement, that resellers are not checking what their customers are using their accounts for. You're the ones that never gave us a file manager to check their accounts with. What were we supposed to do? - login via ftp (once you've supplied the passwords), and download every file????
You cannot blame us for your business blunders. We can only do what you allow us to do.

I will try to come back as a reseller in several months time when I have saved some cash. Unfortunately, I will not be coming back to donhost.

Your lack of communication, and lack of enthusiasm for customer service is a put off. I've spoken to a couple of your people in the past, and whilst I did get the help I needed, it wasn't exactly volunteered.

My reseller account is not paying for itself, yet alone making profit, so I have no option but to ask you to shut my account.
You are no longer authorised to charge my debit card.

I would also like to complain about your data transfer. Although I never used 50GB, I think that it's bad that you are prepared to charge people £16 for each extra GB that they use.

Good luck with your future business operations,

Yours,

<end of email>

Well I think I got my point accross to Donhost didn't I??

With regards to using a different reselling company, I'd prefer to use cyberwings another time, but rumour has it that it's difficult to get in with them because they're so popular.

I'll just have to watch the reselling space for a few months.

I emailed donhost with regard to not being able to check accounts, suggested they install something such as webmin as we can then check our clients files ourself and it will save them time and money..........here is the reply i got:

Hi,

Thank you for your email.

Its a possibility, we will see if its something we could implement.



If you require any additional information or we can be of any further
assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.


Kind Regards,

DonHost Ltd

ooh two pence worth time.

In my opinion, which counts for nowt, Daniel has actually turned a corner by implementing these changes. In my time there there were few resellers who got even near the 20GB limit and certainly getting near the 50GB was a pie in the sky achievement.

Daniels new approach including honesty can only be good for Donhost resellers and in breaking with tradition I actually think they have done something right.

This was talked about, reduction in bandwidth etc, when I was there and I did raise the idea about leaving existing resellers at the 50GB limit but Daniel had other ideas, along with the move to Doncaster I think it is a good move.

erum thats enough of that anyway

I think its good that he has decided to be more honest with whats allowed, the thing i dont like is that he has also done it to exisitng resellers, i dont even use 20GB a month its just the fact i have paid for 50 lol

i dont even use 20GB a month its just the fact i have paid for 50 lol

You havent *paid* for 50GB....50GB data transfer costs more than your monthly fee to Donhost.....never mind the server and all other costs associated with your setup....its not even possible to offer 20 GB at those costs in the UK.....FFS.


Cheers,

When it was 50Gig/month they were killing accounts with 10+gigs/month. I wonder what would be the limit with this 20Gig/month limit (2+gig/month). How could you trust !!! I guess we'll hear very fast ...

From what I've read on this thread, it seems people would rather have 50 GB of iffy bandwidth versus 20 GB of guaranteed bandwidth. So should I offer 100 GB reseller accounts and force people that use 40 GB of bandwidth to move to a dedicated server or start closing accounts? Like Jonny said, 50 GB of bandwidth costs much more than Donhost's monthly fee, especially in the UK.

Johnny whats the need for the FFS????
the contract resellers agreed to is 50GB for the price therefore under UK law as DonHost is a UK company we ave paid for 50GB, it is not our fault if they undercharge they are now technically breaking the law

Reading between the lines here and fer crying out loud for the second time today I am siding with them (must stop doing that) the contract with Donhost runs for a calendar month and is then renewed on each occasion with the ToC of the day being current, that is unless you paid quarterly or annually in which case you can quote the ToC from when you signed.

I suggest thus if you did pay quarterly or annualy and go over the Data Transfer rates as now dictated you should not be liable for extra charges otherwise if you are a monthly customer I am afraid you have to either put up or vote with your feet.

God how it pains me to say that

just thought i'd add this, i have a reseller account with donhosts, and i've never had any trouble at all with them. i've had the account since around last september/october time, and so far i've been very very happy with it, i'm not running very many accounts, only 25 or so so i'm not worried about the bandwidth changes, and since i've made the AUP very clear at the outset when adding new accounts i've never had a problem with account owners.

i must admit there could be a few additions to make administration a little easier, but scripts like phpmyadmin etc etc make things a breeze as far as that's concerned.

i'm not sure where all this hammering of donhosts has come from (i checked some of the other threads referring to them,) but for WAP enabled pages, and the rest of the package i would be *very* hard pressed to get a better deal. for those running above 20GB bandwidth i have to wonder why you haven't taken out a dedicated server with some of the big boys like WebFusion....

AJ

Well anyway.

I've been with donhost for a while now and more or less never had any problems with them except when they closed an account which had a 0,5M mp3. I complained and after that, they let me know of any account violations so that I could take it up with the users.

As a matter of fact I didn't know they changed the bandwith usage to 20GB until I read this thread. I've just recently contacted them if it would be able to open another reseller account and combine them both to increase the bandiwth usage. Charged fro two accounts = 100GIG. They said it was not possible. My account wasnt exceeding even a gig at that time.

Well, I guess something was amidst when they decided to close live help support...

Too bad... they seemed great.

Gotti

Huh this is an old thread? Who woke it up? :P