24/7 support - Don't LIE to me!

johnegood · 04-04-2008, 05:36 PM

Am I the only one who gets irate over vendors who advertise 99.95% uptime and 24.7 support, when it's just not true!

I haven't yet left some of the vendors who are lying to me but I did get rid of Webstream so I'll use them as an example. They're a local web hosting company who advertised 24/7 support and 99.9% uptime?

After a few months, when I pointed out that the server had been down for a total of several days, I asked how they could advertise 99.95% uptime? They pretty much laughed at me and then said it had nothing to do with the servers not crashing.

I also bitched at them about the fact that they advertised around the clock support but that in fact, their offices only answered email and phones from 8am to 7pm. Their answer was that we could send emails to them at any time.

I was so happy to ditch them. I'm now in the process of getting rid of another hosting vendor whose reality has nothing to do with whats on their website. Then I'll name more names.

Anybody else?

zelphics · 04-05-2008, 08:19 AM

Yea A lot of web hosting companies say they have 24/7 support and they don't. But most reputable web hosting companies don't tend to lie about their uptime.

damien_ls · 04-05-2008, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelphics

Yea A lot of web hosting companies say they have 24/7 support and they don't. But most reputable web hosting companies don't tend to lie about their uptime.

I would also argue the same about 24/7 support - i.e. reputable hosting companies advertising 24/7 support will actually respond to your support requests at any time day or night.

The ability to send an email to a mailbox or access a knowledgebase etc. is NOT any reasonable person's idea of 24/7 support; it should mean that you can actually receive quality assistance which is specific to your issue at the time the assistance is required regardless of day or night, weekday or weekend.

If this is an important requirement for you (and it should be!) then my recommendation would be to ask any potential hosting provider you're considering using to clarify this point very carefully and precisely.

johnegood · 04-05-2008, 02:02 PM

I've been looking around for good hosters. My criteria:
- 24/7 support
- WHM / Cpanel based (we're used to it)
- Cheap
- "degrees" of shared hosting. This last one I'm still thinking about it. Basically, I don't need a dedicated server or the $150 and up expense every month. But I don't like how having hundreds of us on the same server tends to work out either. And my new site - spellingcity.com - seems to be a big hit so I'm looking for a home where there won't be interruptions.