The dumbest moves that a webhost could make

J

JamesCWilson

New member
What do you feel are the dumbest moves that a webhost could make, either to scare away customers, or just lead to them going out of business for a short while?

One that quickly comes to mind is under-charging, which is never a good idea for pretty obvious reasons.
 
Over-charging for stuff that should be billed. Shared accounts needing to pay to have their site backed up or restored.

Deleting clients becuase for personal reasons.

I have seen these two the most in my time in this field.
 
under charging and OVER charging. There's many hosts that do things as an included service, such as script installations etc, and for some they offer an install fee for certain things (which is fine) but when they try to gouge someone for services, that gets a little nit-picky to the user. A prime example is SSL Installs. If you use cPanel, there's an installation button in the control panel. We've seen web hosts that charge $30 if a user doesn't run the install themselves and wants the host to do it. I've no problem with someone charging, but $30 and more? Seems a little high.

The other item that we see that causes hosts problems is discussion of clients on forums. Users and clients read forums and search google etc. The last thing they want to see is you (the host) bashing them, their business, or how stupid you think they may be. This is something that we see many smaller hosts do when they're starting out and getting frustrated. All I can say is don't do it. It'll live in google forever and come back to bite you in the end.
 
e other item that we see that causes hosts problems is discussion of clients on forums. Users and clients read forums and search google etc. The last thing they want to see is you (the host) bashing them, their business, or how stupid you think they may be. This is something that we see many smaller hosts do when they're starting out and getting frustrated. All I can say is don't do it. It'll live in google forever and come back to bite you in the end.
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So true Conor....That stuff will live in google forever and people and clients will find it sooner or later.
 
handsonhosting said:
under charging and OVER charging. There's many hosts that do things as an included service, such as script installations etc, and for some they offer an install fee for certain things (which is fine) but when they try to gouge someone for services, that gets a little nit-picky to the user. A prime example is SSL Installs. If you use cPanel, there's an installation button in the control panel. We've seen web hosts that charge $30 if a user doesn't run the install themselves and wants the host to do it. I've no problem with someone charging, but $30 and more? Seems a little high.

The other item that we see that causes hosts problems is discussion of clients on forums. Users and clients read forums and search google etc. The last thing they want to see is you (the host) bashing them, their business, or how stupid you think they may be. This is something that we see many smaller hosts do when they're starting out and getting frustrated. All I can say is don't do it. It'll live in google forever and come back to bite you in the end.
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Do you have personal experience with this? :) If your going to be a web host and drink a lot. Make sure not to post your pictures on social network with your company name as an employer. I haven't done this, but I have found some of our clients with very unprofessional social network pages who were trying to sell things online.

If a client is making a stink about a charge, it is probably easier to discount it and make them happy then to find a new client. Profit is profit. Take what profit you can get.
 
I actually DO have experience with this, but positive experience, not negative. People still find posts from forum postings I had made back in 2002 that still hold relevance today. Also, posts by customers recommending us, or writing reviews and they still show up to users searching for our company name.

Pictures and personal views are something that can have MAJOR effect to existing and potential customers. I'm very careful what I post on social sites in particular as just doing a search for "conor treacy" can yield interesting results :)
 
I assume that the customer should get what he paid for as in terms of the support as in terms of the web hosting sources. And then it will never distract existing customer

Cheers
 
handsonhosting said:
I actually DO have experience with this, but positive experience, not negative. People still find posts from forum postings I had made back in 2002 that still hold relevance today. Also, posts by customers recommending us, or writing reviews and they still show up to users searching for our company name.

Pictures and personal views are something that can have MAJOR effect to existing and potential customers. I'm very careful what I post on social sites in particular as just doing a search for "conor treacy" can yield interesting results :)
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Its true, it does work both ways. Many of my customers have come from forums over the years. The great thing is now I sleep at 4:00 AM and get to tell others in the new hosting business my experience.

By the way, no one needed to know about your on camera adventures in your off time. Just kidding!
 
Dumbest moves to put you out of business - the biggest is mismanaging your finances. A big part of that is not having a viable plan to measure and tweak how you're going to get from today to tomorrow and five years down the road. There's no doubt in my mind that a lot of small hosts and start ups are winging it.

Dumbest moves to lose clients, or prevent prospects from signing with you - doing anything that puts your company in a bad light on the Internet. Prospects are so much more knowledgeable today, searching out information on everything, including you - Google and Bing can be your best friend or your worst enemy.
 
JPC-MichelleH said:
There are so many things...

bad tech support
bad customer service
not replying to questions/tickets
deleting personal property
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Add to this list, just being generally unprofessional. Some providers, seemingly, have no customer support skills at all. Those don't normally last long in this industry.
 
Indeed! You can have horrible customer service at a cheap enough price. Everything has a price. Amazingly enough there are enough customers who will put up with poor service for a cheap price. I do not get it.

For example, the government, you pay them and they provide crappy service. When was the last time you had someone answer your phone call in less than an hour? If it wasn't for laws I'm pretty sure everyone would leave every government. :)
 
I wanted to reply sooner, but I am about to read hundreds of posts for the previous month's contest... :tired:

I think that the dumbest move a business in general (web hosting especially) can make is take a customer (any customer) for granted. In the modern day and age the web hosting industry is so competitive that it takes extra good care to retain a client.

Signing a client is difficult and costly, so a lot of young startups assume that their job is done once the first payment is received. Quite the opposite, I think. Its the ongoing good client care that counts. Its a tedious process but it only pays off in the long run if you are up for it.
 
I do not think it would be wise to always be changing company policies and standards. Even though a hosting company may be growing, that doesn't mean they should be transforming into something else. They company grew because of something specific that they were doing right...why would you change that?
 
It's a 2 way street...a hosting service provider gives excellent features with affordable prices while the customer gives them loyalty with the length of webhosting service.
 
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