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Thread: HostVector.com 4 Year Review
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03-26-2008, 04:18 PM #1Newbie
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HostVector.com 4 Year Review
I have been with host vector for 4 years now. They have been a great host and have always taken care of me as a customer.
Here is my initial post concerning them:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=221666
Here is a 6 month review I wrote:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=272235
Now, after four years of business I am leaving and moving to another host. Don't get me wrong, their service and support has been and (it seems) continues to be great.
I spent a week of pure chaos with our website which turned me off from their service. It all started with an expired credit card. (Which is my responsibility to update. It is a business card used for many things and it just happened that I forgot to update the info with HostVector.)
I find the site down, discover that it is because of the card and update immediately. At this point I was ok and hadn't even considered leaving. After all it was just an oversight on my part.
Unfortunately, I had to wait for the dns to re-propagate. I have no idea how long it took because I was blocked from accessing my site by their firewall. The reason? Failed email requests. At this point I was beginning to consider leaving. I had a high priority ticket go unanswered for over 6 hours concerning this.
The more I thought about the situation all I could think was that this could have been alleviated if they had just called me to let me know that my card info was out of date. (Just like several other companies did.) So, I made the difficult decision to leave.
The reason I wrote all of this is simple. I am a web administrator for my church. Our sites are an important aspect of what we do. Since I work for someone who doesn't have a complete grasp of how websites work I was almost forced to leave and move to another company. Why? My boss looks at it and says "Why don't they want our business?" Which, in turn, forces me to find some company who does. Lesson: a 5 minute phone call can save a lot of trouble.
I had 4 great years with this company and as such, I believe that they will continue to run an excellent hosting solution. It was just time for me to move on.
I hope that this may help anyone who runs a hosting business, anyone looking for a decent host, or maybe you just needed a good read.
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03-26-2008, 04:33 PM #2Web Hosting Master
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Greetings Sean
You were with the same company for 4 years? Amazing in this day and age I must say and they must be technically competent to have kept your business for 4 years.
It's unfortunate but billing is often a weak point of the hosting industry.
May I ask how long total down-time your sites had?:•: iMountain.com Solar Powered Hosting - Same location for 20 years
:•: Clustered, HSphere, Webhosting, VPS, Dedicated and Luxury clusters
:•: Specializing in Database clustering and optimization for vBulletin, Joomla and Wordpress sites.
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03-26-2008, 06:10 PM #3Newbie
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Yes, 4 continuous years. Like I said, they were always extremely good to me. Just this one billing issue, unfortunately, has caused me to move.
We had 4 continuous days of downtime.
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03-26-2008, 06:23 PM #4-=*/E=-
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I try to double make sure when suspending site that i send 1 email prior to suspending so they can respond back as to when they will be making payment and 1 after suspension if no reply is received for the first email.
Cause billing can be tricky, some say they did not get invoice sent 7 days in advance, which i believe could be it was sitting in their junk folder (u know how emails work !! the most important ones you never expect in junk mailbox).
So motive above was to say yes i agree they should have tried to contact you if billing system gave them errors or you had pending payments, cause loosing a client is like loosing the leave of tree (called hosting) which feeds the tree itself.
But everyone deserves a second chance, not defending them here or something, but ones gotta do what ones gotta do.
And 4 continuous years is quite an achievement i have so far got a client or 3 approaching 3 years of continuous service . Congrats to VH for that and what a bumer for them for messing over for such a small issue.12+ years -same website , new server [SSD Inside] providing shared/reseller hosting only !
These things we do not provide/offer : Unlimited Storage ! Unlimited Bandwidth ! But Why? Cause, we were unable to put such a large number on our pages, it just would not fit.
So check out the numbers that actually fit >> << the page as well as your budget too !
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03-26-2008, 07:50 PM #5Web Hosting Evangelist
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Called you???
How much are you paying a month to be expecting this special service?
Which other companies CALLED to tell you your card was expiring?
From my experience, webhosting companies DO NOT call.
By the way, if you are using an email address that is your domain name, that was NOT the wisest thing to do. Use your ISP email address.
If you are going to drop them for something TOTALLY your fault, then so be it.
And I am confused how not paying your webhosting fee caused DNS problems. Care to elaborate?Last edited by atexit8; 03-26-2008 at 07:54 PM.
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03-27-2008, 01:07 AM #6Junior Guru
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I see you are really grateful with them, I heard a lot good things about them too. Sad that there are little things bugging their good reputation right now, everyone I think might experiencing this situation, hope they work on those problem soon.
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03-27-2008, 08:09 AM #7Newbie
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That's my point, why wouldn't a business call their customer to let them know that there is a problem? Especially with a customer that has been with them for several years. Using the phone is standard when doing business dealings.
Further, the host that I moved to utilizes their phone. Which apparently doesn't happen much in the hosting world. (Which is a shame!)
I know you are trying to help but this is pretty common knowledge. I have been working with websites for 12 years now, I have a pretty good grasp on how things operate.
After 4 years of paying on time and never missing a payment, I would have thought that my business was worth trying to contact me by more than just email.
Had to do with how they suspend sites.
I'm not saying they are the worst host in the world. I'm not bad mouthing them for this problem. They are a great host, I will always consider going back with them and would recommend them to anyone. I'm simply saying that maybe MORE COMMUNICATION in the hosting industry could help many problems.
Originally Posted by Edison2Last edited by scannon; 03-27-2008 at 08:10 AM. Reason: fixed quotes
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03-27-2008, 08:13 PM #8Web Hosting Evangelist
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I personally think that you may end up regretting this move to a different host just because they offer "phone" service.
You are just upset because YOUR own error caused you to look bad. It's not the webhost's fault. Yet you are taking it out on them.
It will be interesting if you will be trading in for more problems in the future just because of your IMHO irrational demand for phone calls.
The difference between you and me is that I take responsibility for my action. And please stop with the attitude about "working" with websites for 12 years.
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03-27-2008, 09:21 PM #9Web Hosting Evangelist
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I don't think the attitude you have is necessary in this thread.
And it stinks that they lost a loyal customer over something like this but phone notifications is not the norm in this industry so may I ask what host you moved too that uses their phone to do business with clients regularly ?
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03-28-2008, 01:24 PM #10Newbie
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First, allow me to clarify something. If you read my first post I did not leave because I made the mistake of letting the credit card expire. I left because of the lack of communication during the ordeal.
Second, nowhere in any of my posts do I try to demean or belittle my former host. It is quite the opposite. I have nothing but good things to say with the exception of one thing. No need for a condescending attitude.
Third, I don't understand why we don't make phone communication a part of a hosting business. Business REQUIRES communication. Yes, it is easier to site at my desk and shoot off an email to someone and at times it is more efficient. Most times, a phone call is more effective. Why? Because everyone uses the phone on a daily basis. This is the point of my post: Why can't hosts use their phones?
Fourth, my current host is geekstorage.com. My main concern when considering a new host was communication. I was assured that they utilize their phone to meet customer needs and I have no reason to doubt them.Last edited by scannon; 03-28-2008 at 01:25 PM. Reason: clarification
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03-28-2008, 08:02 PM #11Web Hosting Evangelist
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03-28-2008, 08:06 PM #12Web Hosting Evangelist
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My credit card companies don't call me. My telephone company doesnt't call me. My gas company doesn't call me. My health insurance company doesn't call. All communicate by MAIL.
My hosting companies and my domain registrars communite by EMAIL.
The only business people who call me are the telemarketers who I despise and my doctors' offices calling to confirm appointments.
So, you are wanting to bend the world to your way of doing things instead of accepting that what you WANT isn't how it is.
Enjoy your telephone contact at geekstorage. I'm sure that's the MOST important thing there is with webhosting.
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03-28-2008, 09:14 PM #13WHT Addict
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You are expecting WAY too much out of the average web hosting company.
Good luck finding a web hosting company that will wipe your arse for you like you are suggesting.
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03-29-2008, 08:49 AM #14Newbie
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All of those companies use the phone. Don't pay your bill for awhile and I guarantee you will be receiving some phone calls. When you have problems with them, you don't write them a letter or send an email; you get on the phone.
I'm not asking for anyone to "bend over backwards" or to "wipe your arse" I just want a little communication with the people I am sending my money to.Last edited by scannon; 03-29-2008 at 08:49 AM. Reason: spelling
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03-29-2008, 08:56 AM #15Web Hosting Evangelist
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You "guarantee" do you? My health insurance company did NOT call. Sent repeated letters.
Yes, we call them if there is a problem; however, they don't call us when there is a problem.
You had just better hope that your new host is stable or all this promised telephone communication will be for naught. Some companies will promise you the moon to get your business. You seem naive enough to not know that.
You never did answer the question about DNS re-propogation problems with not paying your hosting. What exactly was that about???
When you don't pay, the webhost just puts up an "error" page. The DNS is still fine. The minute you pay, that error page goes away and you see the website immediately. Believe me, I've seen this happen with websites that I visited. There were no DNS propogation issues.Last edited by atexit8; 03-29-2008 at 09:02 AM.
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05-18-2008, 07:06 PM #16WHT Addict
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It appears to me I have to move from them too (and their affilates at evenhost.com); their support at the weekends is non-existent, even if their sites are completely down; their forum is 404 error as well as their "parent" company website. Too bad, they were reliable; but sonataweb.net and some others were reliable too until they went into oblivion.
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PS. NOW they informed me that they have "remotely" rebooted server; maybe there's still hope for their long-term well-being...Last edited by tomaszb3; 05-18-2008 at 07:21 PM.