I'm not sure which forum this belongs in, but this one seemed most appropriate.

The three most annoying pre-sales questions, in my opinion are:


1. Do you overload your servers?

2. Are your servers secure?

3. Why are you so much more expensive than (insert kiddie host here)?


I guess I just can't imagine why someone would bother asking 1 & 2...and 3 just makes me want to say "sign up with them for a couple of months and you'll have your answer".

--Tina

For us... its usually:

1. Is there a discount on this (already discounted) price?
2. Will you move my site from provider X? No? Why not? So-and-So will do it - why not yourselves.
3. Is there a discount on this (already discounted) price?

Annoying!!!

The question that kills me is, "Can I use the non profit, the promotional code, the prepay and the monthly discounts all at once?" I'm so tempted to say "You mean you'd like us to pay you to host with us? Sure, why not!"

--Tina

I actually got someone once that wanted me to walk him through how to build a site and then how to put it up on the server. All for the same price that he paid in the beginning. He did not know even what index.html or .php where. It was that bad.

I've never really considered any of that annoying nor any of the questions asked to myself.

It is not that the question itself was so annoying, it was the way the questions where constantly and persistently asked.

You have got to love these questions. For those asking why our prices are expensive compared to others, generally the first impression is :eek:. then we always suggest going to them first. Afterall, it will be a good learning experience.

The way I see it, answering questions - regardless of their substance - equals opportunity, and opportunity excites me.

There are some customers, not many, that I just don't want. :D

--Tina

There are some customers, not many, that I just don't want. :D

--Tina

Agreed. Sometimes its just not worth the trouble.

My favorite question is "Can I have a FREE paid package"? :D

Or on a 2000GB dedicated server package when they ask if they can get a discount for only using 1800GB.

Jeff: Can I get a discount for only using 1800gb? *smirks* :)

Greetings:

"1. Do you overload your servers?

2. Are your servers secure?"

These are very good questions in the age of overselling, and utilizing $30 template-based server hardening or not at all.

The most annoying pre-sales questions we get:

* How much is your Internet? Do you charge less than AOL? (note: we don't provide any Internet connectivity services)

* Why is your toll free number listed on the support page of the orange juicer machine? (several calls from the same guy).

* How much is your pet food (we somethings get confused with Dynamic Pet's)?

Thank you.

Greetings:

"1. Do you overload your servers?

2. Are your servers secure?"

These are very good questions in the age of overselling, and utilizing $30 template-based server hardening or not at all.




No, those are really stupid questions...heh. Think about it, do they *really* think that someone is going to say "Uhhh...yeah, we overload our servers and we're not really that good at security.". I feel its the type of question that most people would realize the answer is going to be 100% biased or an outright lie.

Its kinda like going into a restaurant and asking the chef "So, is the food here any good?" :P

--Tina

I find it annoying when a customer insists something is our fault, and after serveral tickets & cancellation threats finds out it wasn't indeed our fault but a simple fault on the clients behalf. No apology or anything either...

Guess its all part of the business...

Greetings Tina:

If you ask about security and overselling, especially face to face or over the phone, then one can get a sense of the person's character. Then either by 3rd party review, testing, or personal experience, if the statements are proven false, then one can quickly exit.

Thank you.

Greetings Tina:

If you ask about security and overselling, especially face to face or over the phone, then one can get a sense of the person's character.

We're talking about pre-sales emails and those being the only (or one of very few) question being asked. In other words, someone asking a question they think means something...which doesn't.

Like "How many accounts do you put on a server?". I would never lie to a potential customer, but I can see how these people can be basically swayed to believe anything...and it irks me.

--Tina

My number #1 is "Do you support web hosting?" :)

"Can you show me how to sell online?"
"How do I make money on the Internet?"

What the hell???!!!

1. Should I cancel my dialup service after signing up with you?
2. Why are your plans more expensive than X?
3. Will you price match?

- John C.

Yeah, deifnitely Why are you more expensive and "Price Match" are the two biggest ones we get.

There are some customers, not many, that I just don't want. :D
Ya preaching to the converted! :D

1. Should I cancel my dialup service after signing up with you?
That reminds me of a story. :uhh:

In 2000 I placed an ad in the local Yellow Pages, for my humble web design business. Cost a few grand for the ad. It was in the "internet" section of the Yellow Pages. I lost count of the number of calls I'd get with folks having problems with their ISP, or their Hotmail/Yahoo email address. Somehow I was the unofficial support hotline for such. :eek2: :rolleyes:

Fortunately HTTPme really kicked in and took off in the first half of 2001, so I disconnected the phone number advertised in the Yellow Pages, for that web design biz. :D

In 2000 I placed an ad in the local Yellow Pages, for my humble web design business. Cost a few grand for the ad. It was in the "internet" section of the Yellow Pages. I lost count of the number of calls I'd get with folks having problems with their ISP, or their Hotmail/Yahoo email address. Somehow I was the unofficial support hotline for such. :eek2: :rolleyes:


1998-2001.... I would also get tons of inquiries exactly like you mentioned, Bob, but through the "Contact Us" form on my hosting site. From random strangers. :eek: I'm happy to help people, but sheez....

Finally had a saved e-mail template that said "We only provide technical support to our current customers" etc etc, and over time those e-mails have indeed stopped. Haven't received one in probably 3 years now!

:) Bailey

Back in '99 when I was working at a computer shop we had a policy of charging higher prices for custom-built computers but delivering them to the customer, setting it up and taking a couple of hours to explain/show them the basics of how to use a computer. It was usually a good thing, but once I had this guy who wanted me to show him how to trade on the online exchange... I tried to tell him I'm here to teach him how to use a computer and I don't know anything about the exchange, but he didn't really get it... he even tried to ask about it on phone a couple of times afterwards. :rolleyes:

The worst questions regarding hosting I got when I was running a gaming network and we offered free hosting and one of the guys who signed up for the account asked me questions like "LOL what's FTP?", he found it actually funny that he didn't know anything, wasn't ready to read instructions or look up something on Google and kept asking me all those questions.

1) "Do I need a computer to have a website?" (Got this from 2 people; one became a customer and to my knowledge still doesn't have a computer).
2) If I cancel my account with [insert any other ISP or web host] can I keep my old email address?
3) Will you price match [web site selling pirated OEM software] or [insanely cheap kiddie host]?

#3 is by far the most annoying. The company I work for doesn't compete on price and if it ever starts I'm leaving! :)

1) Are you sponsoring?
2) Do your packages include free websites as well?
3) How come your prices are so much higher than XX company?

#1 and #3, wow!

3. Why are you so much more expensive than (insert kiddie host here)?

Oh, I've got so many to add here. But this is the one that gets me. "Why don't you offer ColdFusion and MS SQL for $3.95/month?"

Aren't you so glad that you're not still getting people wanting to know about the popup/popunder ads?

We still get the price match/price compare requests, but like anything else there's a reason we charge our rates and they charge theirs :)

I had a customer ask me:

"Why doesn't domain.com/home/ work?"

I said:

"It shows a 404, looks like you do not have a home folder"

Customer:

"But I have home.htm!"

Me:

"A file and a folder are not the same things"

Customer:

"But it should work, shouldn't it? I mean that's what you guys do"

Me:

"No, you would need to have an index.html in the folder /home/ in order for it to work"

Customer:

"well i just thought i could type in blahblahblahhosting.com/home and it would take me to the order page i didnt honestly think i would need the .htm or .html at the end of it "


And this customer wants to start up his own hosting business.

He was:

Going to pay $600 for MySQL
Going to pay $400 for PHP
Going to use plesk just to change domains and with WHM.
Going to get clientexec via "bareshare", instead of paying $150.

* How much is your Internet? Do you charge less than AOL? (note: we don't provide any Internet connectivity services)


We used to provide internet access - broadband, dialup etc.

The most annoying question, and it was always asked was:


Ok, so we pay you for the broadband, but how much do we need to pay AOL?


Then there was the annoying statement:


We ordered broadband with you yesterday, but we can't get connected. I rung BT faults and they told me that it's your fault not theirs. If you don't get it fixed, I'm going elsewhere.


Bearing in mind there's a 10-14 day wait on all broadband orders. :@

BT never explains things clearly to the customer either. :(

My favorite question is when they ask if we'll match [insert no-name kiddie host here] pricing.

This always makes me laugh, because our pricing is very very high compared to [insert no-name kiddie host here] since we operate a premium brand with a lowest plan price of $99/month.

So these bright folks somehow think we're desperate enough to drop our pricing by $98/month to match a $1/month plan.

lol.

We drafted up a standard response to this question that includes a "50% off your first month" coupon. Surprisingly, we've had a number of conversions as a result of this.

:)

I've just received your welcome e-mail and but, I still cant login to your online control panel. My password and username is:

Username: mikeJ@aol.com
Password: ***********

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And we had a client who registered 6 domains with us who even didn't know what index is, so after sending us like 10 ticket a day over month... this guy is now selling Viagra Online...I heard our Tech Girl gonna contact him to findout whether he's dead or something as he haven't contacted her over a week...

For me:

1. Can I have a free trial?
2. X offers such and such for 2 USD, can you match this price?

There are some customers, not many, that I just don't want. :D
Can you stop sending them to us for quotes though ;)

Recently we had one client chargeback after 4months - because we hadn't created her website yet - all they signed up for was our cheapest hosting plan and thought a 30 page fully designed site came with it !

My 3 current hates

1. why are you dearer than (insert xyzhost with an "unlimited" reseller package here)
2. my website was offline for 9 seconds during your sheduled server maintenance, how much compensation are you paying as i was losing thousnds of pounds in lost orders.
3. support tickets from people who we dont even host !

2. my website was offline for 9 seconds during your sheduled server maintenance, how much compensation are you paying as i was losing thousnds of pounds in lost orders.


Thats a funny one lol i hope i don't get stuff as stupid as that.

OK, I'll bite.

The only question I find truly annoying is "Will you sponsor a server for my gaming clan?" And when they are told "no," they seem flabbergasted that they would be turned down. Stunned that clan sites have the worst conversion rates of all "sponsored" websites. Well hello, you're a cheapskate looking for freebie server, does it not make sense that we're not going to think of your cheapskate friends as "great exposure" and "live prospects" ... :rolleyes:


Because we don't run cheap services, we really don't seem to attract the I-want-everything-for-nothing mentality. By the time folks dole out real cash for web space, most have had the sense to at least polish up on Website 101.

If they haven't though, I've always been happy to get them pointed in the right direction. At one time I was a newbie too and had no idea which way was up. There were many people who took time out of their busy days to help me then. I feel it's a privilege to be in a position to pay that back now.

Besides, there were years where tutorials were of absolutely zero value to me. My brain has changed a lot in the 8 yrs I've been running websites. When I started, I could read a whole tutorial on how to do something and just not "get" it. (Also had low reading comprehension scores in school when I was young, so no surprise) Today, I really don't have that problem. It's like the wiring changed in my head. So having lived that way for ages, I don't begrudge people who are slow on the draw that way. It's not that they aren't trying. They're just fish trying to swim on sand. :)

:) Bailey

2. my website was offline for 9 seconds during your sheduled server maintenance, how much compensation are you paying as i was losing thousnds of pounds in lost orders.


This was the first question I think I ever hated. Back when we first started a few years ago - selling $15/year plans - we had an outage of about 30 minutes to an hour. And someone went off on us about losing THOUSANDS....

I checked their site out afterwards - and saw that it barely got 3 - 5 hits per week...

And I dunno... If I was getting THOUSANDS per day - I think I'd go ahead and spend a little more than $15 per year for hosting from a clearly established company.

Not one such as we were back then. Clearly just starting up with empty forums and a big old grand opening sign on the home page...

*shrugs*

----

Question 2 I'm still hating...
"how much storage and bandwidth comes with plan xyz that's ###/month?"

This bugs me because the storage and bandwidth is clearly listed RIGHT NEXT TO THE PRICE! And we never seperate the two. Storage/bandwidth is listed right next to the price - anywhere we list the price.

Of course I answer curteously. But sometimes I wish people would just learn to read.

*sigh*

Automated Support System: Response #37
I'm sorry you failed the basic RTFWS check, one of the pre-qualifying competancy evaluation steps required to become one of our customers. Please try vtech or leappad who have products more in line with your expertise level.

1# Whats a euro?
2# My name is xxx and i would like to apply for free hosting... my password is xxx and my domainname must be xxx.com
3# I cant work, can you sponsor me?

bithost(NET), you remind me of why I completely discontinued game hosting from my life. A company I worked with used to go into clan channels on IRC and pitch them a plan. They always wanted a sponsorship. I remember one guy, after tyring to get a sponsorship out of me personally (actually asked if I could "hook him up"). I explained that I don't do that he began making up technical terms and telling me that I should know these terms, otherwise I shouldn't be hosting.

Another little tidbit is when we received more than a few calls from parents who tried to burn us for charging their children for playing games and (get this) actually telling them to steal their parents' credit cards to pay for their service. A lady even threatened to sue but eventually reconcidered after sleeping on it.

"I am a customer with you with (Server Package X). I noticed you are running a sale on (Server Package X). Can you adjust my price to the sale price and refund me for what I have been paying?"

This one always got me, because the point of running a special is to gain NEW server orders.

You mean you prefer them cancelling their current package and signing up to the new cheaper one, in the deal you gaining nothing but losing money both on the extra administrative hassle and on the new server hardware (and having an old server on your hand).

lol, sounds like you have done that a time or 2... ;) I do agree with you on that though.

To me, it's been an annoying sales question, because, come on - is the sales person *really* supposed to go back and retro all of their current customers just because we have a server on special right now?

If I buy a shirt at a department store, and I see that it's on sale a few months later, I don't expect to be able to walk in get cash back just because it's on sale now... The shirt is on sale becuase *right now* the department store wants to get rid of it, not months ago when it was full price.

That was worded a little strange, I hope the point comes through...

That t-shirt argument doesn't count. You are providing a service not a good.

Our clients depend on us just as much as we depend on them to grow. Logically you should fulfill a reasonable request like adjusting billing.

"I am a customer with you with (Server Package X). I noticed you are running a sale on (Server Package X). Can you adjust my price to the sale price and refund me for what I have been paying?"

This has happened to me more times than I can count...

I missed the refund part at the first time. What I meant is that if I run a special like "sign up now and have your monthly fee reduced by 10% for the life of the account", the fair thing to do is to reduce the monthly fee of all existing customers on that plan by 10% starting at the date of the promotion. Not refund previous months, but not bill them higher than new customers for the same neither. That'd be valuing your loyal longtime customers less than new ones.

Actually - most retail stores (especially consumer electronics) have a price-match policy "if you see this iten on sale anywhere for a lower price within 30 days we'll match the price, etc. etc."

The important thing is that:

It is time-limited
It is not automatic (customer must come to the store and ask for it)
It requires documentation (printed ad with lower price or phone call to store)

If existing customer asks for the same terms as a new promo, we'll always give it to them.

The business theory is the same as rebate coupons -- you offer it to get new customers but can plan on many/most never bothering to take advantage of it and most existing customers won't even see it.

If a few clients see the new promo and ask for it, giving it to them makes sense - you don't have to go back and discount everyone and the client that asks feels better that you are taking care of them.

As an FYI, I learned many years ago that FedEx uses the same policy. When one of my truly urgent packages "absolutely, positively, DID NOT ARRIVE by 10:00AM the next day" I had to phone their customer service and ask for the refund - it is not automatic.

Think about all the corporate clients where the employee doesn't really care about their employer getting the refund they are due -- I'm sure FedEx makes a fortune by almost never paying out the refund.


lol, sounds like you have done that a time or 2... ;) I do agree with you on that though.

To me, it's been an annoying sales question, because, come on - is the sales person *really* supposed to go back and retro all of their current customers just because we have a server on special right now?

If I buy a shirt at a department store, and I see that it's on sale a few months later, I don't expect to be able to walk in get cash back just because it's on sale now... The shirt is on sale becuase *right now* the department store wants to get rid of it, not months ago when it was full price.

That was worded a little strange, I hope the point comes through...

That post kinda didn't count anyway because it's not a pre-sales question ;)
But I still stand firmly by the company's decision to not issue a refund just because the same thing is on sale this week.

That's a loooot of work to hand out refunds, -and- if that was the case, then there would be no customers paying the standard, full price (that the company selected as the most efficient operating cost for that particular package)...

Sales in my experience were usually implemented becuase there was excess inventory. We would encourage the current customers to get in on this deal by saying "Add a cheaper server to your account!"

I dunno - I've never had anyone ask for the same terms as a current sale for the plan they purchased weeks/months ago.

Usually they see the sale pricing and immediately think "now's the time to upgrade"....

We do see plenty of upgrades due to sale pricing - rather than people just wanting to lower their current billing terms.