Hello,
When looking for a host, how long do you hope they have been in business?

How fast do you want emails to be replied in?

Do you care if the host has phone support? That just drives prices up.

Thanks for your opinions.

Personally,

I know of hosts that have been in the business from the start, and they are terrible. But they were one of the firsts, so they got big fast, and people continue to use them.

Emails I would want to be replied immediately, but that is just me. In reality, I think most people expect to wait a few hours. (6?)

Phone support has its advantages and its disadantages. I offered phone support for the longest time, and never had 1 call. So now I don't offer it anymore.

Thanks. Any other opinions?

Well, we offer phone support and have the same problem, we don't get very many calls. Yet, for us, it's the same phone to our hardware shop, thus it doesn't really take up time or money.

The biggest problem I see in the web hosting arena is getting emails responded to in a decent amount of time. If I were a customer out looking for web hosting and I emailed 4 different companies, the first company to send a response would probably be the winner. That is just because I'm someone willing to spend my money without doing any additional research. During business hours we get emails responded to right away, otherwise we have email responses back within 6 hours or so.

Something that we offer is support through our helpdesk, message boards, AIM, MSN, ICQ, AOL Chat, IRC, and a conference room on our website. Someone is always on these providing assistance to our customers. We have customers who like email and then customers who get to know us and chat with us on a regular basis about server updates and outages.

Before signing up with a web host. In the past i have always.

Check our their sales response times and see if they answer my question correctly.

Try to establish communication with a few of their current/previous clients.

Read message boards for opinions.

Read their AUP

Thats about all i can think of right now :)

For me, good prices, flexible plans, flexible host, he/she should be able to customise the plans according to my needs.

Support wise, fast email response plays a part, and ideally, support forums! It's always nice to share with other fellow hostees. =)

Uptime is #1. Then support (forums included) and price.

In my case, I would had a set of requirements first and then will see which host can match that.

I will then email them my requirements and see which are the host that respond in a reasonable time frame.

Later when I narrow down to a few host, I will get their ICQ or AIM and ask them questions and see their responese.

And of course having a good support forum and ticket system plays a part too.

Why is support always number one on people's mind? Does it take a genious to operate a web hosting account? I understand support for a managed dedicated server, because that's what you pay for - but what else do you need it for?

Originally posted by mas3000
Why is support always number one on people's mind? Does it take a genious to operate a web hosting account? I understand support for a managed dedicated server, because that's what you pay for - but what else do you need it for?

You will need good support if your site is down and can't seems to pinpoint whats the problem.

A site down time might mean lossing a great deal of money for many site.

You will need good support if your site is down and can't seems to pinpoint whats the problem. A site down time might mean lossing a great deal of money for many site.

I disagree with this sentiment completely.

If your business stands to lose "a great deal of money" due to site downtime, then develop contingency plans to deal with downtime.

If your downtime is caused by your own actions, why should a site hosting company be on the hook to support you?

I use "you" in a general sense here, referring to the great masses of people looking for the ultimate on-line computing environment with 24 * 7 support, tons of high speed transfer (at no extra cost), free backups, total redundancy, SQL gurus at your beck and call, mistresses or misters for those lonely times, dedicated servers -- ALL FOR NEXT TO NOTHING in terms of cost.

Its insane!

And if the downtime is host company / machine caused - again, what do you expect when you pay 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 even 60 or 199$ a month? Total redundancy and 100% uptime? Get real!

In the biggest corporate data centers its a rare computing environment that approaches 100% uptime, even for many hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

Yet thousands of would be entrepreneurs whine incessently about their business impact as a result of a cheapo hosting account.

Now if your business has revenue, then deal with the issue and spend some real dollars on IT.

Most of what we witness here is whining over pennies.

At least its entertaining.