Hi,

I just want to share with you my experience with hostgator.com when i'm inquiring a while ago.

First, I ask them the hardware specs of the system which the customer rep provided. Second I ask if I can do multiple hosting per acct and the customer rep answer is yes. In my last question, I'm really disappointed and somehow offended with the attitude of this representative and it seems that hostgator.com is somehow over-confident on this area.

Here's the portion of the transcript that I'm pertaining:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Me: you also mentioned that your backup is weekly, why don't you have daily backup?
Justyn: We have too many servers for that to be feasible
Me: what if the client update the website yesterday and suddenly the system got kaput whats gonna happen to his/her update?
Justyn: It would be lost.
Justyn: We do backups as a courtesy, you should still backup your own work too
Me: Yah obviously, so that's it? I mean you are the first hosting company that only backup weekly especially for reseller accounts. Having many servers is not a concern since you are not doing a manual copy and paste. I mean you can use the cron.
Justyn: But the space that 800,000 backups take is huge
Me: anyway, i will just think about it first
Me: thanks to your time and have a nice day
------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it true that nowadays backing up our files or our client files is just a courtesy? As far as I know this should be part of the service. This is the first time that I encountered a company who is not backing up daily. Especially if the client is a reseller. Hostgator.com is so complacent and over-confident on this area for them to just do weekly backup.

And my experience with this customer rep or sales person Justyn is very unpleasant. This person obviously need more customer service orientation. He/She obviously don't care with the client. He/She can maybe think of a better way saying it. Some script that will make their future client be more confident in subscribing to their company. Do you think this person is receiving good salary or underpaid?


Thanks for reading this topic.

Ultimately, it's the responsibility of each site owner to backup their data on a regular basis. While I agree that perhaps she could have put things in a more diplomatic way, it really is a courtesy when a hosting company provides any backups at all. The hosting company's main responsibility is to ensure as high an uptime as possible and that everything runs smoothly from their end.

I don;t like HostGator at all because they are overselling host and at the same time they claim they are good. BUT you are not on the right side in this conversation.

You're reponsible to do back-ups on your own website. How much do you pay for hosting... $5 - $8/month? If "yes" you can not expect the web host to do daily backups?

Go for VPS or expensive shared class hosting and you will be in position to require daily backups.

You get what you pay for. If you're looking for plans, where data is critical, you must consider hosts that charge higher prices so they may provide these services.

A down-side to daily backups is that if the files are corrupted on a Monday and it isn't discovered until Wednesday, the backup from Tuesday is likely to be corrupt.

Considering the aforementioned, it's best to have daily, weekly and monthly backups. This equates to at least twice, maybe even three times, the storage per account. It is preferable to have this data on a separate hard drive or even a separate server, so the cost increases even more.

Well, they may not be perfect (at their size, some customers will be unhappy), but their service has been remarkably stable in the 4 years I've used them, despite the overselling.

As most would be - underpaid, overworked (and many times, no idea what they are talking about). I don't deal with HG or GD for those very reasons. I called Go Daddy once for a friend of mine who was at wits end, the rep actually told me "I have no idea what I am doing or what you are talking about, I just follow a script".

Many places do weekly as a service that is free, but still always tell the clients to make their own as it is their responsibility. There is a big difference between paying for cheap hosting that is good, and paying for someone to take care of your own backups when you can do it yourself with a click of a button.

I would have to agree that unfortunately if data is important you should take care of your own daily back ups. The old saying holds true that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right, and honestly the only person you can trust is yourself.

Cut price services are fine, but it's a cut price service you get in return.