When Web Hosts Drive You Crazy
I’ve been waging an on again and off again battle with a web hosting company regarding a website I manage for a client. Turns out, the account expired and my contact information hadn’t been updated in some time. No way to notify me and everything disappeared. Or so I thought. Turns out that a paperwork calamity (no better words to describe it) resulted in them losing what I faxed to them, information needed to help me regain control over the account. Worse, a language barrier (technical support is in India) made communicating difficult which likely contributed to the problem. I believe the worst is now behind me as I was finally able to access the control panel today, no thanks to Powweb (the web hosting company).
I realize “you get what you paid for” when it comes to shared hosting. Still, I can’t imagine too many people forking over $129 monthly for a dedicated server. On the other hand, GoDaddy has worked well for me and every new site I have created over the past year is hosted with them. I know not everyone is thrilled with GoDaddy (their control panel takes some getting used to) but the sheer size of that company seems to keep things on an even keel.
The last thing I want to do on any given day is to mess with administrative tasks. I’m not the best person when it comes to confronting as I either back off or I go for the jugular vein. Powweb has seen both sides of me so far and I’m hoping that very soon they will see a third side: me running far, far away from them!
Tags: domain server, FTP, GoDaddy, internet, Powweb, shared hosting, web access, web hosting
General | Matthew C. Keegan, 23 Jan 08
By Bobbie, January 23, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
Wow, Matt! You sound really annoyed. As you know, I use Powweb for some of my stuff, too. So far so good — but maybe because I have not yet had a real problem to work out with them. On the other hand, we all know that there IS no perfect. Good luck getting (and keeping) everything sorted out.
By Chris Hartwell, January 24, 2008 @ 1:52 am
Sounds like this terrible company I used to deal with called Aplus.net. Deja Vu…
By Matt, January 24, 2008 @ 6:53 am
Bobbie: I am annoyed. I don’t like being told one thing and then not having someone follow through. Powweb has constantly dropped the ball with this problem — their technical support is awful. I’m still using them for one other site, but everything knew is strictly GoDaddy.
Chris: Deja vu is right. Many of these shared hosting companies have similar problems. Ugh!
By Tim E., January 24, 2008 @ 11:19 pm
I have had good luck with GoDaddy, but you are right about their c-panel leaving something to be desired.
By Matt, January 25, 2008 @ 10:20 am
I like GoDaddy, especially their discounts. Never a problem with up/downtime and their staff is professional and knowledgeable. Thanks Tim!
By Honeymoon packages, January 25, 2008 @ 10:51 am
Sounds a little strange. Commonly I would not use a Indian or Asian web hosting company in general as some of them have old hardware and the downtimes can be fairly critical because the infra structure in India is really Sh…. My web host is a German company, excellent service, 99% uptime and really competitive pricing. I wanted something changed so I sent them an e-mail on Xmas eve 11pm and believe it or not the setting was changed 20 min. later. Now thats what I call service.
By we host, February 19, 2008 @ 5:18 am
This is really a terrible company.I probably use the number one web hosting company named start logic for best service.