I have a friendly request for opinions and I am curious how other hosting providers feel.

Most of us are fully aware that as web hosting providers we are held to a high standard of providing top level and immediate service. To say this is a cut throat industry with much smoke and mirrors would be an understatement. With that being said, an angry x-client can make accusations about poor service, but is there interest from the community to protect against bad clients?

When I say bad clients, I don't mean angry or upset clients because they received bad service, I mean spammers or other shady clients that pay there bill for a month and won't pick up the phone or return an email.... Would you be interested in a place to find info on companies related to the web hosting industry?

There are definitely allot of shady companies and individuals. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the "over night" hosting companies from the real ones.

It would be nice to have a place to go where you could find info on the shady companies and the individuals who support them.

Would you be interested in a place to find info on companies related to the web hosting industry?

After reading your post, I think you meant "info on customers", as in a place for hosts to find out who's an undesirable customer? A sort of blacklist of customers, with their email, name, IPs used etc.?

don't see how that would work though - IPs can change, and they can always make up a name, address, and email.

Although I like the idea of a bad client blacklist...it won't really work unless you sell your products face to face and require photo ID for every purchase (something most shared hosts don't do since the dollar amount is low)

Do what we do :)

1 - Fraud Monitor all orders using Maxmind for GEOIP and Make them confirm their telephone number and set the fraud risk score to 5 which is adequate.

2 - Carry out a credit check and require an individual to be of consenting age to enter within a contract. I know terms and conditions are not a contract however may legit customers will give this information.

In regards to Nazmus's post : MANY ISP's are starting to roll out static IP address to counter internet fraud. Yes Dynamics can change however static ranges cannot. We already have static IP's from our ISP and hundreds of other home users we know and host all have static IP addresses ;)

Best Wishes,

Dom

You'd almost certainly be violating consumer protection laws by doing something like that.

It would be illegal, at least in the United Kingdom, for us to participate in such a scheme without the prior consent of our customers (probably could be worded into the Terms of Service though).

You'd almost certainly be violating consumer protection laws by doing something like that.

Indeed, that would be an important aspect.

Maybe something like what the credit rating agencies/bureaus are doing, with access to the data not too liberal, would be doable or could somehow be emulated? Still not too sure of the legal framework involved though.

I'm not sure the benefit of a site like that, versus the resources it would take to implement and maintain would be worth it. It would take allot of resources legally, financially, and a large amount of cooperation between competitors (web hosts) to implement such a system. And in the end you do what? Protect yourself from a small handful of PIA customers? The benefit/resource ratio doesn't seem to be there.

Now on the other hand, what I thought you were talking about to begin with, a site devoted to helping customers avoid PIA hosts could be a better idea.

Now I'm not talking about the hosting directories with user reviews and ratings that are currently out there now. I'm talking about a site where you can find out if a host is a reseller, if they have their own server, how many, and other various pieces of information.

It would be very useful to be able to weed out the hosts that will be there and take your money one night and disappear with your site the next night. AKA "here one minute gone the next".

A site like that could be helpful to consumers as well as legitimate hosts.

There are the scammers, yes - But there are legit customers that can be a pain the butt, slow payers, aggressive support nightmares. I can think of few clients in particular who I would not wish on another host.

My main worry (being in the litigious US) are that I'd get sued for libel or something. But yes, I’d love some sort of reference from others.

I have to say for the most part, I have great customer experiences. Knock on wood. :D

I'd have to admit, I've had some customers that have just caused trouble. Others that were always late on bills, etc. I doubt this is a good idea, since any 'blacklisted' clients would just freak if they found out there information was being shared on the net and negative feedback would pour in. Plus, this is most likely illegal in the US, UK, Canada, etc.

Simple

When one orders use there ip to pin point their location on a map.

Then use their address given to pin point that.

Then compare and contrast the locations ... If they are near by then good. if the address is cali and ip is north Dakota then lable has fraud can terminate account.

That's what programs like maxmind are for. They'll do this automatically. Then you take their recommendation and do your own homework just to be sure and this cuts down on 95% or more of the fraud.

Thanks for all the responses... I know I am just daydreaming : ) with thinking this would be possible without getting sued... It would probably be illegal and might violate consumer protection laws, unless it was in a forum format like WHT where people are allowed to express opinions...

It can be very frustrating to spend time closing business, and two months later have a few blocks of IP addresses blacklisted, or complaints in the sales que that x-client is doing some form of illegal activity.... It's just a shame that this malicious and illegal companies are permitted to just roam around from provider to provider, and all we can do is put them into collections....

Scott - Good idea for maxmind! I guess should the client's revenue justify a background check, I would look in to this.

If you use whmcs, I think there's a free basic option for maxmind. That's how I got it and I've been using it ever since. I've never needed anything more than the basic.

I have a friendly request for opinions and I am curious how other hosting providers feel.

Most of us are fully aware that as web hosting providers we are held to a high standard of providing top level and immediate service. To say this is a cut throat industry with much smoke and mirrors would be an understatement. With that being said, an angry x-client can make accusations about poor service, but is there interest from the community to protect against bad clients?

When I say bad clients, I don't mean angry or upset clients because they received bad service, I mean spammers or other shady clients that pay there bill for a month and won't pick up the phone or return an email.... Would you be interested in a place to find info on companies related to the web hosting industry?



In the early days pretty much when one company got scammed by someone they would post here as a warning with the info used. It worked well, but that seems to have fallen off as the normal process as the community has grown. Also, I believe there were a few users here that made dedicated sites to help warn for the scam artists also, don't remember the link though. It was several years ago.

There are bad clients in the way of scammers, spammers and just down right mean people that abuse companies. It is hard to control what is posted by companies and no way to confirm the validity of what anyone says is the biggest problem I see in a site dedicated to report them.

numbe of companies are dispersed like manpower in india and admin ppl in US. if technical guy places order and request server but admin person pays from US what you say in such condition? I dont think this ip to location process as reliable, you may loose a good client of yours with it!