Hi all,

We have a customer that has been with us for
a couple months now. This is a single domain account.

After their first month of hosting the customer requested
a new domain name be configured with their account.
This is not something we would normally allow, but after
reviewing the account we noticed there was little to no
activity, so we accomodated the customer with their
new domain request.

The next month the customer again requested yet another
domain name swap for the account. There was some activity
after the first domain swap.


What would you do ?

Thank You :)

If his money, and the opinion of everyone he knows matters to you ... accomodate.

Otherwise, don't.

It doesn't take long ... so keep him happy and just tell him there will be a $5 or $10 charge next time ...

yes just add a little fee for doing it for him everytime.

Be strict and stick to YOUR rules. If not the customer will take advantage you then.

I wouldn't do it again, why would he need to change his domain every month?

Little more clarification :

The customer stated they cannot utilize a php script
because it required the latest version of php, with pear,
and also required php safe mode off.

After upgrading php, adding pear, and explaining that turning php safe mode off was not an option is when another domain name change request came into the picture.

We then informed him that any good script has a work around
for php safe mode, and there are many different scripts
that can do the same things, so searching for an alternative
script would be the best option.

Domain names and PHP have nothing in common ... WTF are you talkin' about now!?

Just showing that he's difficult?

I would do it again, or get a control panel so customers can do it themselves ;)

I've had a few clients who do this, basically they build sites for a domain and auction them off at ebay or some place.. when it's sold, they no longer need that domain for the account and request it to be changed for their new project. I've never seen a problem with this... every webmaster is going to be different.

Anyway, that's just an example of why this client might be asking this so much... there could be a ton more other reasons for this activity but none would seem strange or inappropriate.. if the client is paying a reasonable price for the service and isn't using an unreasonable amount of resources I wouldn't bother trying to charge extra for something so simple as a domain change or even worry about it.

Blieb :)

Basically eventhough we upgraded php compiled with pear,
the fact that we refuse to run php with safe mode off is
their problem, he wants to change the domain to someplace
that will allow him to use php with safe mode off, and setup
another (this being the third if we allow it) domain instead.

hosticle : that would be a time saver, although it gets a little
more involved when it comes to dumping their current
databases, creating 3 new db for the new domain (as requested
already, before even receiveing an ok to the domain change) setting permisions, moving the databases into their
chrooted environment so it counts as quota, etc, etc. bla bla

I personally just have a feeling this is one of those people
you can never satisfy...

Oh well, thats life huh. thanks for the input everyone.

Originally posted by Internet8000
Blieb :)

Basically eventhough we upgraded php compiled with pear,
the fact that we refuse to run php with safe mode off is
their problem, he wants to change the domain to someplace
that will allow him to use php with safe mode off, and setup
another (this being the third if we allow it) domain instead.

hosticle : that would be a time saver, although it gets a little
more involved when it comes to dumping their current
databases, creating 3 new db for the new domain (as requested
already, before even receiveing an ok to the domain change) setting permisions, moving the databases into their
chrooted environment so it counts as quota, etc, etc. bla bla

I personally just have a feeling this is one of those people
you can never satisfy...

Oh well, thats life huh. thanks for the input everyone.

Then do it this time, with a note that says future changes will be done a at cost of $10 per change.

Originally posted by Internet8000
I personally just have a feeling this is one of those people
you can never satisfy...


From what I've read, he isn't really asking that much. Something that takes a few minutes at the most. If changing the domain is too much for you, then find something less time consuming to do rather than running a host. If it is blatantly against your TOS, then tell him that. Otherwise you should have stated that what he wants you can't provide. It is a little late for that now, seeing as you've already done it once.

If it really is too much effort for you, do as others have suggested, offer him to do it at a small fee each time. It isn't how I, nor where I work, would do it, but maybe the extra few dollars would motivate you to keep your customers happy a little more.

What's the problem? Changing an accounts domain is as easy as 1, 2, 3..