O.K., let me first state that I am tired of defending my company for claiming unlimited disk space in their reseller plans. I am a customer service rep and consider myself an advocate for the customer, that (in my opinion) is how a csr should function. When the opportunity for a sale is presented, one should take advantage of it. On the suggestion of many in this forum, I convinced the owners to drop the "unlimited bandwidth" claim shortly after I was hired... this can't be delivered. Let me first explain how the "unlimited disk space" thing works for us. We own and operate our data center. When a reseller needs more space, they send us an e-mail and we add a GB (or more if they want it). I have heard all of the arguments and understand the problems that could arise, many of you are sharp enough to purchase an account just to see how many hard drives we can stack in our facility. My point is, what do you suggest I do? How do we advertise the service we offer our resellers without driving away the resellers we want ... those that know what the heck they are doing? Thanks for the input...

Oh, don't even ask about the plan (schmolie) that was put on our web site last night. I plan to make some suggestions as soon as i see him this morning!

If, you have to be emailed to put another drive in, then it may be unlimited to you, but the customer has just reached a limit. Lets hope he has nothing wrong with his email eh? Because if "unlimited diskspace" is what he needs, and he cant get through then not even conditionaly unlimited will apply.

Unless you are willing to watch your drives and put more drives on without the customers consent I don't see how you can claim unlimited as your putting "your" systems functionality & reliability that your business is advertising into the hands of any number of users random systems.

So is it unlimited disk space?

or is it : limited up to the max volume of drive, then the customer has to "request" the limits to be moved.

At no time is the customer going to be in a position to upload unlimited files without reaching a limit, it will always be limited until you are willing to take the risk.

JMHO

:D

Originally posted by Rotifer
O.K., let me first state that I am tired of defending my company for claiming unlimited disk space in their reseller plans. Let me first explain how the "unlimited disk space" thing works for us... <snip> My point is, what do you suggest I do? How do we advertise the service we offer our resellers without driving away the resellers we want ... those that know what the heck they are doing?
I'm a bit confused if you're tired of defending the company's shady practices of trying to convince us that you actually do offer unlimited accounts? Let me explain that your company does not offer unlimited disk space. They will not give it to customers. I don't care if you're willing to buy ten 160 GB hard drives for one client, at some point someone there has gotta be smart enough to say, "Whooooooa! Hey, we can't keep buying hard drives for this one $10 account. We gotta put a limit on this..." If nobody there says that, well then they're just a bunch of morons.

With that in mind, what is your question exactly? You want to find employment elsewhere because the current owners are shady and mislead customers? Please post a Job Request...



I am a customer service rep and consider myself an advocate for the customer, that (in my opinion) is how a csr should function.
A CSR shouldn't be an advocate for the customer, a CSR should be the liaison between the customer and the company and handle issues that teh customer has, according to the policies set forth by the company.

I think what you mean is that you have a problem working for lying scum companies who take advantage of the customer. if that's the case, then yes, it is a good thing. Personally, I wouldn't work for such a company in the first place, but that's just me.

I'm a bit lost as to what this thread is about. I can't tell exactly what the point is. It almost sounds like nothing but an ad when I read it a certain way.

I understand both of your points. I had not worked in the hosting industry prior to being hired, so many of these issues are new to me. The point of the post was how to explain this option. I enjoy the forum and agree that advertising unlimited disk space is silly. Thus far the owners have been willing to heed my suggestions, so what do other hosting companies do? Is it more reasonable simply to charge for disk space and avoid the issue? I didn't want the post to look like an advertisement, but was aware that it could be misconstrued.

Other hosts simply give a certain amout of something for a set price (pretty much how it works with anything you buy anywhere), and if you want more, you pay a bit more to get extra. It might not be much, but it should be something so that people know that you don't have a magic hard drive tree in the back and you just pick them off the branch whenever you need another one.

What i gather is that people have been burned by this in the past? I worked in the trust and investment industry prior to moving here. I thought that people were suspicous of banks (with good reason), and banking is a heavily regulated industry. But it was nothing like what I have seen here and, again, with good reason. The better business bureau comes up more times than I can count (a toothless group), but we reap the rewards, and evils, of working in an unregulated industry.

I think it comes down to false advertising, stating you will provide something that you can't and won't. You simply cannot (as a provider), provide an unlimited amount of anything for a fixed price without boundries that are known by all.

In other words, if I told you that you get an unlimited amount of weekend minutes (a 'weekend' is always defined in the agreement) with your monthly cell phone contract, you understand that they have not magically given you the ability to lengthen the day into unlimited minutes and that a 24 hour period has 1,440 minutes in which you can talk.

It has been argued that 'server resources' is a similar boundry (in terms of offeing unlimited bandwidth), however I don't think it is because although people know how exactly how many minutes are in an hour, they cannot possibly know how what the server can take before being pushed over the edge. This unknown means that you have to define it for the sake of everyone involved, however I don't feel you have to enforce the limits you set (let them go over by 20 gigs if you want).

Likewise, set a disc space limit, if you want to let them go over it, then fine. I'm not sure you won't have a problem explaining this to a customer, but that's your deal.

I'd rather buy something with a set limit. I'm paying $x, I want to know exactly what you're willing to give me for that. Oversell it, do whatever, but you are going to give me what you promised.

I really don't see how unlimited hosts aren't shut down by false advertising types in Washington. As you said, we're in an unregulated industry. If the industry can't police itself and behave, the government is generally more than happy to step in and do the job, charge more fees for this and that, etc. Generally this hurts the little guys the most and is ineffective at actually fixing the problem...

I really hate the word unlimited (unless we are talking about my cellphone :D )
I guess the people offering it, are thinking it is like a "All you can eat" buffet: When one dish runs out, a host comes out with another plate full. Of course everyone knows the quality - as it suits individuals - is comprimised in some way. The food is generically seasoned, the temperature is barely acceptable, and sometimes one must wait until their favorite dish is replentished, ect. Even a all you can eat buffet has limit though.
1. How many persons will the building seat? (or will they overload it?)
2. Did they purchase enough food to have on hand? (or do they have to sell so much food before they can purchase more? - a couple of HUGE people at $10 ea. could eat all the food at still not make them enough money to buy more food)
3. Is there enough cooks and servers to keep the food comming as fast as it is being eaten? and even the reverse, is the food being eaten fast enough to keep it fresh? Or is it being wasted?
For those that will swear up and down they can offer unlimited 'something' even when the general public knows there very clearly is a limit, the same questions can apply.
1. How many websites will the server hold? (or will they overload it?)
2. Is there a couple of HDs on hand to add as they are needed? (or do they have to sell so many sites before they can purchase more - a couple of HUGE $10 accounts could wipe out the space and still not make them enough money to buy more HD space)
3. Is there enough resources to handle all the accounts? or the reverse, is there too many resources 'on hand' so that there isn't enough money left over for things that crop up? I would think that newbies go for unlimited (just like 350 pounders go for the all you can eat buffets) so you will need lots of support staff.

The only difference between the two as I see it is: At an all you can eat buffet, you don't have to pay for the whole year, and you don't have to spend days moving in, only to find out some heffer got there before you and ate all the food. If they run out, so do you, it was only an hour (or two) of your time, and you are still somewhat satisfied. (unless you are the heffer) Either way, until you leave, you will be in the company of the "unrefined"

I see both of your points and appreciate the input.

My point is, what do you suggest I do? How do we advertise the service we offer our resellers without driving away the resellers we want ... those that know what the heck they are doing? Thanks for the input...

I think with the unlimited, you get the opposite. ie. the resellers who don't know what they are doing. :)

The word unlimited.

You may find a much "harsher" or more "BRUTAL" view on unlimited being used in marketing if you spoke to some of the Telco controlers!

If folk sell unlimited and the business suffers then investors suffer, then the telco's suffer. It's one thing one host going down, but another when a telco folds.

Help the telco's, stop false advertising, its not just a lie, it's the absolute worst thing that can happen to a system that requires advertising to exist.

Seagate has a new technology that produces HD with unlimited space....

I think these should be targeted to web hosts:) ...

Only one problem:( ...

...The drives are still formatting:D ...

:cool: Just kidding :)

:D

http://java.sun.com/people/jag/Fallacies.html

;)

So, shall we compose "The Eight Fallacies of Hosting"?:idea:

1. Bandwidth Is Infinite

2. Uptime Is 100%

3. Disk Space Is Infinite

4. ? .......

4. 24/7 customer support

5. 100% secure

6. (useful) Pre Installed CGI scripts.
7. 24 hour back ups.