Things You Don’t Want in a Web Hosting Company
Last updated on Nov 15, 2023
I received promotional emails last week from BlueHost (“It’s been a while since we last saw you. Can we convince you to come back?“) and HostGator (“We’ve missed you at HostGator and we want you back.“)
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It’s like that cold feeling when you get a text from an ex wanting you back…
Just for purely demonstrative purposes these are fake text messages using the language from each email.
All fun aside, these emails got me thinking and I decided to come up with a quick list of things you do not want in a web host. Some of the items listed below might only relate to larger web hosts like the two EIG owned web hosts that emailed me last week. Other things you might only find with some smaller hosts that are unprofessional and unreliable. Some are possible signs of quite rare trickster/scammer hosts that are only looking to make a quick buck and then either do not provide what they promise, or worst case, close up shop and disappear. These are things you want to look out for regardless of the size or perceived stature of a web hosting provider.
A lack of support.
Long ticket response times. With some EIG hosting brands customers experience days or even weeks without a response to their support tickets. A recent example of tickets going unanswered by an EIG host comes from a once decent provider of customer service, A Small Orange. Here are some ASO customer’s tweets from the past few weeks:
@asmallorange my site still isn’t live with you and it’s been 2 weeks. Support ticket submitted last week, but no response. Please help.
— Trent Gillaspie (@trentgillaspie) June 22, 2016
@asmallorange – support ticket # KNH-935-77831 has been open for 9 days now with not one single reply from you. Can I get some help???
— Brushy Mountain Golf (@BrushyMNTGolf) June 21, 2016
@asmallorange hello, you guys still haven’t answered my support ticket even though i have sent it half a week ago
— indian summer (@quihieu) June 16, 2016
@asmallorange How long does it normally take to get a response on a support ticket? Submitted one over 2 weeks ago and still nothing
— Emily Chaumont (@HoneybeeJoyous) June 15, 2016
@asmallorange my support ticket has been open for more than a week with no reply. Ticket ID: QQA-715-82181
— Aayush Shastri (@aayush_shastri) June 14, 2016
Hey @asmallorange , why is your support service so bad? I’ve been waiting about 10 days on a ticket response, still no response!
— Aumkar Prajapati (@DasStranger) June 10, 2016
@asmallorange What’s going on with Tech support? I’ve had support tix in the queue for a week and nothing is getting done on them.
— Nick Shoob (@NickShoob) June 10, 2016
@asmallorange What’s your normal ticket response time? Going on 9 days with no help now.
— Alex K. (@LexickDesign) June 9, 2016
.@asmallorange how long does it take to respond to an open ticket #RVK-244-17326 – it has been 6 days?
— Charlotte Thompson (@CharCharT) June 8, 2016
.@asmallorange how long should it take someone from your support division to get back to me re: an open ticket? It’s been 5 days?
— Red Umbrella PR (@RedUmbrellaPR) June 8, 2016
if @asmallorange made a movie about their ticket response times it’d be called 28 Days Later
— jack durden (@jackdurdencom) May 30, 2016
Never ending waits for live chat. Although having live chat support is not a deal breaker for me personally when choosing a web hosting provider because I prefer submitting support tickets.
Just waited 30 minutes on the bluehost live chat, then when i got to 1 minute it reset back to 23 minutes??? #bluehost
— Ellie Jane (@desperatelySLS) June 2, 2016
I´ve been waiting more than an hour and ur Live Chat Resets everytime it has a minute left… @bluehost #startup pic.twitter.com/N6R59rcEYp
— JULIO CÉSAR (@julsquintanilla) April 18, 2016
No notifications of planned server maintenance activities, account migrations, or other changes.
No 24/7 technical support. The billing department does not need to a be a 24/7 operation but technical support does.
No ticket support system.
GoDaddy stopped ticket/email support years ago. BlueHost and HostGator no longer do support tickets for technical issues now.
@HGSupport @HostGator When did Host Gator decide to do away with their ticketing system + only do live chat now?
— Alive Support (@alivemedsupport) June 7, 2016
You may not think this is a big deal, but it is. Having only chat and/or phone support isn’t the best way to provide support in an efficient and timely manner. Having a ticket with all of the information gathered from the customer and support staff in it is the best way to solve technical support issues. For quick questions using live chat can be great if there isn’t much of a wait, but for more complex issues the ticket system should be utilized.
No money back guarantee.
If a web host doesn’t offer a period of time where you can get your money back if you are unhappy with their service, that’s an unnecessary risk for a consumer to take. I’d question the confidence the web hosting company has in the quality of service they provide. Some web hosts will even do pro-rated refunds after their money back guarantee period is over.
No uptime guarantee.
It’s true that all an uptime guarantee really provides is a service level agreement that if there is unscheduled downtime for more than a stated amount in a given month you are eligible to receive some amount of an account credit. A host could have a typical uptime guarantee of 99.9% and only deliver 98% uptime every month so it’s really not a guarantee that your website will not experience downtime. However, regardless of how meaningless such guarantees can be in determining how much uptime you can expect, not seeing any mention of an uptime guarantee would raise a red flag for me. This is especially true if it’s an unknown company with little to no presence or history.
No background story on the company.
When you can’t figure out who owns or operates the web hosting company from reading through their website it’s definitely a good idea investigate further. Ask them for more details about their business before trusting them with your personal information, payment details, data, etc.
A company with a huge customer base but not enough staff or investment in infrastructure to provide quality service.
Just because a web hosting company has a ton of customers and has a huge presence on the web it does not necessarily mean that they are good. Too often advertising and marketing budgets to increase new subscriber numbers over shadow money allocated for hiring and retaining quality employees or a solid infrastructure. Growth is good so long as it doesn’t negatively impact the quality of web hosting provided.
Best of luck out there folks and remember to always have your own regular backups in a safe place, no matter who your web hosting provider is and whatever the level of confidence you may have in them, backup up your websites.
Makes me wonder why those people stay with them? They complain, fuss and gripe about how bad support is but they end up staying but for what? To get put on a never-ending ticketing waiting list or to be treated less then a human?
Because most times average users don’t know better and think everywhere is the same: they never tried any other provider – more often then not they refuse to try, in order to avoid possible worse scenarios (finding an even worse provider) – or, when they do, they end up with another EIG brand….and the loop starts again.
I agree about the lack of a support ticket system – I wouldn’t go near a host that didn’t have one. I don’t care to spend minutes/hours on hold for phone or chat support, and then have to spell everything out to some hapless first-line support person. Let me write it down, so you can escalate it if it’s not a simple fix, before you even get back to me. That saves time on both ends.
I’m currently with Site5 (the EIG rot hasn’t really set in yet, at least not for the shared hosting), and they have a habit that makes me a bit leery. Their solution to many, many server problems (“the server has become unresponsive”) is simply to reboot the sucker, without going any further to figure out why it seized up in the first place. A properly-configured server should be able to run for months or even years without being rebooted (other than to install new software, perhaps).
Hi,
Good stuff! For me, when I see SUPER CHEAP prices I run for the hills LOL. Many bloggers brag about paying $3 a month but when these hosts overload servers and your blog is down half the time, or super slow, they ain’t bragging no more ;) Learned this lesson the hard way. Now it’s $10 to $15 or more monthly, depending on currency exchange rates and my blog is stupid fast. Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
I’m having a very bad experience with BlueHost right now. So happy to see your post. Now I understand. Working with BlueHost has been extremely frustrating and Support blames everyone from the user to WordPress for Bluehosts own technical issues that arise from using its interfaces. What a nightmare! They used to be great and I wonderered what had happened. Now I know.
No ticket support system.
with video site like youtube i can see why most company are shut down support system you go there and look it up yourself.
it kind like going to college wish is pointless nowaday considering you can learn almost anything online are go to vocational and trade school if you want to better your skills.