My web host is Superb!
Published Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
In Feb. 2006 I moved my website to a new server. I moved after nearly 5 years with my previous host. 5 years ago I signed up for a Windows based hosting service (I don’t think I should mention the name). I chose this service because it had features I couldn’t find elsewhere. I signed up for their “enterprise” service to get all the features I needed.
For the first couple of years I was happy with the service. Customer service and and the CEO himself were very approachable. I received monthly newsletters from the CEO explaining new features and new hardware upgrade plans. The servers were fast and fairly reliable. When the server would go down a quick e-mail to support would fix it right up. It was everything I needed.
However, over the years the newsletters stopped and and customer service became more unapproachable. And while other hosting services got better and cheaper my “enterprise” service stayed the same price and features that I liked were taken away. For example anonymous FTP and unlimited e-mail accounts. Features that I was paying extra for (like domain parking and third level domains) became standard included features in most hosting plans. Eventually I realized my account was no more then a basic low cost hosting account at “enterprise” prices.
I began to look for alternatives. I noticed that my host now offered “low cost” accounts. Not only were these hosting accounts cheaper they also included “free of charge” many of the features that I was paying extra for with my enterprise account. In other words my hosting provider was offering more for less.
Trying to be loyal I called my host and requested to switch to their new cheaper plans. They were less then helpful. I could not change my account to the cheaper hosting but needed to cancel my account with them and open a new account. After 5 years of high end service at a high end price you would think that they could offer me a discount to match the budget hosting fees or something. Out of blind loyalty to my host of 5 years I decided to stick with them and switch to the cheaper service.
I soon became very disappointed with the quality of service I received with their budget hosting. The technical support staff were not been able to stop periodic shutdowns of my website. I submitted more trouble tickets in my first fours months at with the new cheap hosting then I did in my 5 years with “enterprise” hosting. In addition by this time tech support had moved completely out of the country so all support tickets would take overnight to receive support. I presume because we had to wait for the day shift in India.
Well, that was the last straw. I packed my bags and moved on. I even ate 8 moths of prepaid hosting fees. After a lot of research I switched to DreamHost. I haven’t mentioned DreamHost before on this blog because I wanted to give them time to suck. Luckily for my they have not disappointed me in the least.
My up time is great and I don’t need to submit tickets on the rare occasion when my sever goes down (they already know, like ESP!). The price is comparable to the budget plan from my previous host plus unlimited domain names and third level domains. And domain registration for 9.95 a year! DreamHost offers so much bandwidth and storage that my current usage usually reads 0%. And my storage and bandwidth limits increase every week! If DreamHost keeps up the great work after 5 years I’ll have over 1 TB of space. After 5 years with my previous host all I got was shitty service. What can I say… DreamHost really is Superb!
This rant is not even half of the great features they offer (do I sound like a sleazy car salesman?). If you decide to signup for DreamHost enter the promo code: HYPERCUBED50 for $50 off. That’s right thanks to Hypercubed blog you can get $50 off your first year fees. Aren’t I great?
