Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Web Host Testimonials are always good

[jcarney1987]

You know I'm always searching around the web and I see tons of sites especially webhost. All these web host have a testimonial section where customers have left their review/feedback of their business. Only thing is, how you know they are real testimonials. I'm sure some are but have you ever seen a bad testimonial in a host testimonial section?

What do the customers say? Do they even care how honest the host are. As a customer I like a more honest response then a marketing scheme.

What do you think?

[HostLeet]

I guess it's a great thing forums like WHT exist then!

[musicman153]

Not "all" hosting sites have testimonials on them. WHT is one of the best places I know as they do verify reviews so it would be difficult to put a fake here. Other small hosts would probably be more than happy to let you know where some of their client sites are and if you drop then an email...all the better.

[HostMantis]

The point of testimonials is to provide prospective clients with a reason as to why they should choose you, not why they shouldn't. So obviously businesses are going to provide positive testimonials.

[musicman153]

Even if they have to make them up?

Its hard to believe a testimonial that you see on a web host that registered their domain on 2/2/12 and you read the testimonial on 2/3/12 saying how great their experience has been (for the last year)

We've also seen hosting sites here that were totally ripped along with the testimonials.

[48-14]

Reviews are hard to judge, especially for smaller hosts.

For instance my company has been hosting 6 years, no reviews, and for a few reasons;

1. I never put time into getting reviews anywhere

2. asking for them is co-horsed

3. customers on a good host are busy doing their work and not have to worry about their host since it's doing what it's suppose to do, so they don't have time to leave a good review, they mostly do word of mouth.

4. more people will leave negative comments about a host in search for a new one.


A few good things about WHT is honesty and verification. People will be very honest on whether their host was great, good, or a complete fly by night game show.

[HostMantis]

Originally Posted by musicman153

Even if they have to make them up?

Its hard to believe a testimonial that you see on a web host that registered their domain on 2/2/12 and you read the testimonial on 2/3/12 saying how great their experience has been (for the last year)

We've also seen hosting sites here that were totally ripped along with the testimonials.

No reputable company is going to use false testimonials or a website that was ripped, however there are quite a few shady operations out there that wouldn't think twice about doing so.

Thankfully, such "businesses" usually don't stay in business very long.

[48-14]

Originally Posted by HostMantis

No reputable company is going to use false testimonials or a website that was ripped, however there are quite a few shady operations out there that wouldn't think twice about doing so.

Thankfully, such "businesses" usually don't stay in business very long.

Cough, cough, Sp*cH*sting

[WebzPro]

Pretty sure that 99.9% of the sites collecting testimonials, even if the testimonials are real if you check the top listed hosting companies you will find that their affiliate payouts are extremely generous.

We listed with one site that always promised to post honest reviews, they did and still do. We took the top stop there briefly until all of a sudden sudden even though our clients sent reviews they were not being posted. Checked the affiliate rate from the other two that kept getting reviews their affiliate rates were four to five times higher than ours. So honest to a point until money took over.

There have been members hopping around here before, running web host ranking sites giving advice on what a host should be doing and not doing, funny look at there web sites and the best ranked hosts on there sites are usually have some of the worst reps out there. It is all about making a buck.

For the most part when someone post a review here at WHT, they are at least out to offer there opinion only. You can believe them more that any web host ranking/testimonials sites.

[jcarney1987]

Yea thats really thing that annoys me. I've done hours and hours of research with Linux system administration. I've learned a good part of Cpanel, Webmin, and Directadmin so I can help customers at my best. I have my phones set to wake me up in the middle of the night if a nagios monitor complains about something and emails from support tickets as well and then I look at lots of other host who run around posting fake reviews and some customer googles them and the new customers see a 5 Star rating and they automatically think they are a good host. Then 5-10 later you see them posting here complaining where they have nothing but downtime, host hasn't set their account, nobody responds to support tickets, and all that stuff. So its just kinda gets me. How hard it is to make an honest buck but when you do bogus post all over you seem to make a faster income.

So yea I want to keep my business all honest and do my best to bring customer satisfaction. I've started my servers and been 100% uptime since December so hopefully in the long run it'll pay out.

[nuthin]

I think it's great to have a testimonials section on your website from proud customers if they can be verified. What I mean by that is if I am a prospective customer and I want to contact one of those clients in your testimonials page and ask them directly, so list your happy clients website address.

I LAUGH so hard seeing ones like, "blah blah blah" then "Thanks, Sarah A." What's the point of that if they can't be verified.

[DanJo]

this is why WHT reviews is far more sensitive as you needed to submit your domain and clarify on your testimonial based on your domain age as well.

[Serverfruit-Kris]

I agree that there are far too many sites that are just trying to (and do) make a quick buck and at the same time they unfortunately recommend a bad host.

However, as long as every review can be verified (and do get verified before it's posted on the site, or just after it has been posted), I honestly don't have a problem with it being affiliate links.

[Raceme]

It seems to me Web Host Testimonials are good for the potential clients oif the hosting company.
They give the outlook of the host services.

[kpmedia]

If the testimonial is from "Bob from California" or "Sally from Florida", it's bogus.
If the person doesn't have a URL attached, and the site cannot be verified (or is crap), then it should be ignored.

It's really not much different than any other type of reference, online or not.