Generally speaking when it comes to web hosting you get what you pay for. If you pay a small annual fee for a shared hosting account then don't expect lightning quick responses when you lodge a query or complaint. For instance, despite what a shared hosting company might claim on their website, don't expect a response out of office hours. If you send them an email on Saturday, you may not be acknowledged until Monday morning.
If you chose a virtual or dedicated host then a quicker response would be expected. You are not just paying for the use of more advanced hardware, but also the support that comes with this extra financial levy; particularly if you are paying for a managed environment.
Reading the online reviews of many shared hosting companies it is clear that many of the negative comments come from a misunderstanding of what a shared hosting company will offer.
Likewise, no matter what hosting package you go for don't expect the company to sort out your web design and development mistakes. They are not there to either advise or take action on the configuration of your script or site.
However, I do demand a certain level of customer care.
Just recently a client emailed to me details of a hosting package. It was this company that had sold him the domain and he wanted to know whether their list of specifications would be suitable for his needs.
As it was only a small four page PHP-based site (with out a database) their deal looked fine.
I uploaded the clients finished site via FTP on a Sunday and straight away I noticed that the mod_rewrite rules in the .httaccess file were not working. I spend about two hours playing with the code before I decided that the problem lay with the host.
So I asked the client to email them and ask them to turn mod_rewrite on. They emailed back stating that it was on and working.
I then took over and emailed them on his behalf:
I'm having trouble with mod_rewrite and I can't pinpoint why. Has it anything to do with the way the server is configured?
As you can see, it works perfectly here: http://www.cartrader.suburban-glory.com/ but not here: http://www.cartradermail.com/
The code is a regular syntax in the .htaccess file, ie
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^style.css$ style.php [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^index.html$ index.php [NC,L]
They replied a day later (note a trend here):
I can advise that it is not configured in any different manner so there is no reason the site should appear differently to the one that does work for you.
I then emailed and asked them whether I had placed the files in the right folder. The next day they responded that I had.
Still stumped as to what problem was I asked them how I could manually change the file permissions as there was no control panel and I couldn't do this via my FTP client.
Eventually they responded that it was not possible to change the file permissions (!) but having to wait a day for a response is ridiculous and by now I was really getting fed up with this slow customer care. It was clear that an email conversation that should have taken just a couple of hours was going to take all week.
I snapped and send them a directly worded email informing them that as the client had paid for a managed server then they need to fulfil their duties and get this sorted.
After 48 hours and they still had not responded I emailed the client and recommended that he claim a refund and look elsewhere.
The website was up and running as soon as my time allowed and can be seen here.
What are the lessons that we can learn from this?
- Don't recommend to a client a hosting package that doesn't come with a control panel or even, as I was to find out, the most rudimentary provisions such as the ability to change file permissions.
- Hosting companies: Don't have a policy of only responded to emails once a day. This is the 21st century. With that kind of customer care policy I may as well write a letter to you and put it in the post.
- Don't use Easily (easily.co.uk) web hosting company. They are frigging useless.
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