[tempurr]

Originally Posted by Hosting Puppy - Jon

I too am Canadian with US servers.

IMHO, the statement "looking for <insert country here> host" isn't a serviceable request. What is serviceable is the reasons behind the statement. For example, if the reason behind the statement is:

1. "I want the economy to benefit". Then I answer "yes", I am a Canadian host. While several of my services come from the US, at the end of the day the bulk of the profit stays in Canada and it is spent it in the local economy. I also utilize services and products from Canada wherever possible during the conduct of my business.

2. "I am in Canada and want a servers in the same country for <insert reason here>". Then I answer "no" because my servers aren't in Canada.

3. "I want support personnel whose primary language is english". This is a mixed bag as we provide two levels of support and one level (our budget packages) are outsourced to India and the other level (our premium packages) is handled by locals. So, depending on what package the person is looking at will depend on whether I answer this yes or no.

That's how I view it - figure out the real question and then answer it. Just labelling yourself a <insert country here> host isn't going to address the base issues and might, in fact, cause you problems down the road if a customer signed up under a misunderstanding of what, exactly, you mean.

My 0.02 cents.

I agree with Jon's post here 100%. However, as someone else mentioned, customers do get a bit twitchy if you ask 'em too many questions. So, I think you could classify yourself thusly: "A Canadian-based company with hosting provided by and on US servers."

I had been one of those folks who'd asked for hosting based on the criteria that they be US hosts. Until this post, I honestly didn't think ‘outside the box’ enough to see what was really my main purpose: I didn't want to talk (or communicate via email or live chat) with someone whose first language was not English. I just assumed that a US host would provide English-as-a-first-language support… not necessarily so, I’ve found out. And while I am a current (and very happy) customer of HostingPuppy, I am a bit disappointed to see here now that the "budget" level of support is outsourced to India. However, that said - and although *in the past* I’ve had severe issues with outsourced support with other hosts - I am hoping that if I ever do need support from HostingPuppy, that they (the outsourced support) will be satisfactory. In the dealings and communications I've had with Jon, I feel that he’s conducted himself in a very professional manner and takes pride in his hosting business; I sincerely doubt that he would permit less than adequate support – be it in-house or outsourced – to be associated with his hosting services. My point here is that you (the original poster, Energizer Bunny) may also want to note somewhere on your site (perhaps the same place you mention about being a US-based host) what type of support you offer. Might help answer a few people’s questions without having to contact you, and also lessen some confusion.