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WhoIsHostingThis.com Forum » Web Hosting Q&A

1. Toni
   

   I didn’t leave my last VPS web host because I was un-happy with their service. I left because after being a customer for 3 years, they expanded and bought fancy new servers with all new hosting plans. That should be a good thing, except — they didn’t offer these new servers or plans to existing customers (or at least not me). They offered these newer, cheaper + more feature plans only to new customers….

   I contacted customer service and asked to be upgraded to the new server/new hosting plan. I was told I would have to:

   1. make back-ups of the VPS and cancel my current account
   2. sign-up for a new account
   3. transfer my files over to the new VPS

   Hmmm… those would be the same steps to sign up with a brand new host.

   I asked them if they could set-up a new server first, transfer my files there, and then let me know so I could propagate my domains with no downtime. To me, this seemed like a reasonable request… but they said “no” there was no way to do it that way.

   I went back and forth with support trying to get a way to get upgraded for free and with no downtime — I figured being a long time customer (3 years is a life time in hosting), they would be happy to help me out. Nope.

   I actually liked that host enough, I stuck around for months, and would just stick a new support ticket in every once and a while hoping that someone in sales,support, or management would realize they should be helping make their existing customers happy. Nope.

   I figured, why would I stay with a host that wasn’t willing to make upgrading my plan easier than getting a brand new host?

   So I got a brand new host — and they transfered my VPS over for me (gladly, btw), without downtime. 😛

   So why did you leave your last host?

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. WhoIsHostingThis
   Key Master

   Interesting topic, and it just goes to show how a little respect for your customers can make or break an ongoing customer relationship.

   One thing DreamHost do very well is making sure all customers get rolled up to their latest offering when they upgrade (although I don’t think their VPS offering is great value).

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. Toni
   

   Yeah, my previous host didn’t seem too eager to keep me as a customer, and I’m an easy going webmaster — the only support tickets I submitted where when my server was down.

   DreamHost ran a promo a few months ago… where you could get their VPS offer for only 5 bucks/mo (plus the standard 10.95/mo fee). I was tempted… but that was for 150mb of resources. I figure that can’t be much better than shared hosting 😛

   Posted 2 years ago #

4. WhoIsHostingThis
   Key Master

   I use DreamHost PS for a number of smaller sites, and to be honest I see little or no difference in performance over their shared hosting (which I do think is great value). On the upside:

   1. DreamHost PS Server capacity is instantly scalable
   2. They have an API
   3. There are apps to scale automatically if, for example, your site gets Dugg and hit with a traffic tsunami.

   Posted 2 years ago #

5. Toni
   

   Come on, doesn’t anyone have any good nightmare host stories to share? lol. (you don’t have to name names). 😉

   Posted 2 years ago #

6. ian
   Member

   I had a hosting package with 1and1 but had to leave there hosting because of the 100mb Database limit the put. I moved to Hostgator which has no limit.

   Posted 2 years ago #

7. WhoIsHostingThis
   Key Master

   Interesting, I didn’t realise 1and1 capped DB size. That’s quite a restriction.

   Posted 2 years ago #

8. vkw91
   Member

   I was my old host, and I worked out for the amount of sites that I was hosting, it was cheaper to get a dedicated server with another ISP. Fixed IP, Electricity, Cooling system – It all costs money!

   Not really a horror story. Although I could exaggerate and say that the server blew up causing terrible consequences …but I would be lying 🙂

   Posted 2 years ago #

9. mbanks
   Member

   I left my old host because of lack of support. It was supposed to be a manged server, but they would only keep the box online and make sure you could connect to it. If anything broke the standard response was we can re install for a service charge!?! Anyways moved to Server Intellect 3 months ago. I wish I would have moved sooner cause SI is a true managed server. The network is **** fast too. I don’t care about cheaper prices or the newest cpu that goes 1 second faster. For me support is what I want when things go wrong.

   Posted 2 years ago #

10. WhoIsHostingThis
    Key Master

    On this very topic, Jonathan has just done a great blog post on how to change hosting companes the easy way. Definitely worth a read if you are considering a move.

    Posted 1 year ago #

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