I have been debating about the issue in regards to uptime/money back guarentees. Do they help drive sales in? Do they do anything? Does it make you look more professional? Most of the uptime guarentees I have noticed have soo many excuse clauses that they practically do not mean a thing.

What is your thoughts and opinions in regards to uptime and money back guarentees?

I think you should not worry about what others are doing and make your own decision based on what you think is right.
If you can back up a guarantee then by all means offer it.

Does offering guarentees increase sales? Would customers more likely go with a hosting company based on having these guarentees in place?

It depends on how you look at things. If you target a market that has grown to expect such guarantees, and you don't offer them, your sales might suffer. If you do offer them, you'd be on par so guarantees would basically not be comparison criteria for the customers. If you push the envelope and go for say a 90 days moneyback guarantee, you might win some extra customers. Unfortunately you might attract more people looking for a free ride as well.

If you target the local market, and virtually none of your competitors offer an uptime guarantee (such a bad name for it), being the first to offer it can give you an important edge, especially in the eyes of a customer who does not understand what it really means.

Guarantees, testimonials, nice web design everything can and will help, more often than not, for no good reason. This is why some love marketing, and some hate it.

Hey,

Personally, I think they are a good idea in any target market. It is one of those comfort guarantees for the customer. Dedicated servers for the MBG I would not recommend though. The FULL SLA on it definitly. It depends on what you want to do. We do them because we have good success and we know we can back it up and not have an issue with them.

Definitely a good idea in terms of driving sales. If you want customers to see you as a reliable and trustworthy provider you need uptime guarnatees and moneyback guarantees, otherwise they will most likely go somewhere else that offers these things.

Hope this helps.

I think offering uptime and money back guarantee is good for attracting people looking for hosting, it may not necessarily get you more sales. It gives the particular company a slight edge over the ones not offering these services. Disadvantage of offering these services is you even get customers looking for free hosting for a few days.