The Worst Hosting Experience!
Apparently all the good press that DCoT has received was too much for my web host. There was so much activity on the database that drives that back end of the website that my host decided it was in their best interest (definitely not mine) to disable my website.
Of course they did this and sent out an e-mail just after I left and was unable to get back to a computer for three hours! I estimate that I missed about 5000 hits! Not to mention what this does to the good name of DCoT!
So, the question that I have for you, DCoT reader, is this:
Should I “punish” my web host for this action?
If so, how?
If not, why not?
If you are suggesting things that I should “punish” them with, please keep it in the legal realm. Suggesting that I start embedding PHP loops into my web pages to overload their systems would not be constructive.
I look forward to reading your opinions in the comments.
If you found this post useful, why don't you buy me a cup of coffee to show your gratitude?
15 Responses to “The Worst Hosting Experience!”
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Dodgen Aziri Says:
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:41 pmSimply Move to another provider, nothing strikes fear the hearts of providers like when huge sites simply move. I am from canada and one that works here (read: its prolly an american provider), DreamHost (go here and follow the link for $30/year http://www.ivanov.ca/dreamhost-discount-coupon.php) They start at 1.5 TB transfer and grow every year. they start at like 50 gigs i think and grow every month. They are who i am considering for my major College Senior Project (live-to-web streaming websites)
Thats my thoughts
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Sarah Says:
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:03 am[regular reader, first time poster]
Punish? No.
But, a word with the owner/manager perhaps? Yes.
See if you can set up an emergency contact with them, so that next time they call your cell, or page you *before* they pull the plug.
And, you might want to consider some changes to lighten the back end load on the server.
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Michael Says:
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:10 amI don’t think you should punish your webhost.
I think you need to have a frank chat with your host and tell them you are now experiencing higher volume of traffic - is this going to be a problem for them?
If it is, you need to find a new host - otherwise, they may have a better solution so that you aren’t left without a website for 3 hours next time you get some good publicity.
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Geoffrey Smith Says:
November 23rd, 2006 at 3:04 am“there are a million nightmare hosting stories in internet city, this has been just one of them.”
I too have suffered at the hands of a hosting company, vizaweb. Doiwntime (2 weeks worth) for no reason, no response from support staff, even email autoreplies were turmed off for a period of time.
Revenge of the www entrepeneur! forget it, you are just one of hundreds of clients for them. I thought long and hard about revenge, my pr dropped to ZERO as a result of the downtime.
The best way to hit them is to discuss their shortcomings openly and honestly with them and in public, just like here! To post on forums, blogs and in articles what a useless bunch of idiots they really are, and to speak with your feet, move to a better host, one that provides competent 24/7 support like BLUEHOST.
This works, the mnore people, particularly their clients, hear that the host is bad, the more will leave and it hits them in the hip pocket nerve and for them, the hosting company, that’s where it really hurts.
Good luck
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Michael Says:
November 23rd, 2006 at 4:12 amWas it in the contract you signed?
because if it was expected, there’s not much you can do about it.If not, you should first of all recede from the contract and find a new hosting service, and then do your best to get a refound (I’m afraid you’ll have to get a lawyer to have more than a refound, though).
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Angus Says:
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:28 pmIf this is the first time it happened, I’d talk to the Powers That Be at your hosting company. If this is the second (or more) time, I’d think it’s time to move on to a hosting company that is more responsive to your needs.
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Jon Says:
November 24th, 2006 at 10:27 amI had my host delete my site twice in 3 months without having a backup newer than three months, and when I canceled with them, they really didn’t care. I don’t think that you can really punish or scare them. The best that you can do is vote with your feet and move to a more reliable host.
If everyone else did that, they would either change their policies or leave the market…
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Thomas Says:
November 29th, 2006 at 10:54 amSo, assuming you haven’t switched hosting companies since your post, you’re with a company that has an excellent reputation for shared hosting, and charges very reasonable prices. Their TOS document is fairly short, and is very clear in this regard: “if your processes are adversely affecting server performance disproportionately [hosting company] reserves the right to negotiate additional charges with the Customer and/or the discontinuation of the offending processes.” If you’re relying on this site being up to generate (some of) your livelihood, then maybe a shared hosting environment isn’t right for you, or you need to make arrangements to receive notification of outages around the clock.
I had a host do something similar - I had an old ColdFusion application that was running on an MS Access db, and the host took it offline by renaming the Access file because it was generating too much of a server load. I converted the application to MS SQL, and was back up within a couple of days. But I never dreamed of punishing the host for protecting the greater good of many of their other customers by taking down the misbehaving application of a single customer.
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Dave Gray Says:
November 29th, 2006 at 10:41 pmFrom my point of view this says that your provider is not really geared up for the traffic that you are generating. Or that they are unable to scale accordingly. Either that or they have no idea. Any of these leads to one course of action - change providers to one that can do what you need it to do. Under the circumstances I would not hesitate changing.
Name them and shame them.
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Xodus Says:
November 30th, 2006 at 5:13 pmIf you are generating enough traffic to your site and you are currently hosted under a shared hosting plan, then it may be time to think about going to a dedicated server. There are many hosts out there who will supply the equipment and you will be the only site hosted on the box. If your site makes the server run slow then it is only your site that is affected.
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P. Bautista Says:
December 2nd, 2006 at 5:32 pmDid somebody just recommend Bluehost? Bluehost’s support is TERRIBLE. My tickets with them have remained unresoolved, unasnwered and ignored for weeks now. They even closed a ticket without bothering to resolve it or informing me.
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Andrew Martin Says:
February 21st, 2007 at 12:53 pmSpeaking of bad hosting companies, the one that surely top them all is the Roundberry/Hostedtoday/Advantages1web consortium. It’s the same company and the same crappy hosting solutions. They’ll literally make you lose your mind and they’re a bunch of filthy liars. With them all the “cliché” about bad support customer services become a reality, meaning a n-i-g-h-t-m-a-r-e. And when you have reaches the point of no return they’ll start messing with you knowing that you won’t renew your hosting plan with them. Also, you’ll realize very quickly that the “99.9% uptime” they guarantee is a misrepresentation. If you expect a site that will run smoothly, takes this advice; STAY AWAY from Roundberry/Hostedtoday/Advantages1web consortium. Especially if you’re putting lots of efforts to run a successful business and paying for advertising.
A typical answer I remember from their miserable “support department” after they had made an unauthorized transaction on my credit card was “Please hold tight until we get back to you.” That says it all!
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Brian Cook Says:
August 31st, 2007 at 7:34 pmI think the best thing you can do, and apparently have already done, is to optimize this page for search engine phrases like “worst hosting company”, which is what I came in on. I was researching the competitiveness of this term because I’m considering trying to get Freehostia to be #1 for that term. After several days of frequent outages, they directed me to delete my database an error on their side meant I couldn’t get it back again (I’m on a paid plan as well). SEO is a very powerful tool and a great way to spread the word about injustices like this. Of course, it’s more effective if you actually name the hosting company.
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Crazy Penguin Says:
January 13th, 2008 at 9:24 pmI will second that on Bluehost being the very worst hosting company in the business. I would avoid them at all cost.
Bluehost=excessive downtime
Bluehost=nonfunctional email
Bluehost=not being able to effectively run dynamic content.More on Bluehost problems
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bluemirrow Says:
March 4th, 2008 at 12:08 amOne of the worst hosting service provider I have come cross is “globat.com” excessive downtime,not being able to effectively run dynamic content,and your problems will not be resolve it so stay away from globat.com
