freelancing
02-14-2003, 07:22 PM
I am currently the customer of another virtual reseller w/ costs and features close to identical to HostforWeb.
I am looking for greener pastures (if there are any) because of the lack-luster attitude, piss-poor support and lethargic response times to serious issues w/ my current vendor.
Because of the really bad experiences I've been having w/ my current vendor for the past 2 months (after one year of being a faithful customer), I'm looking in many places.
Based on this sour experience, please bear with me... I know these questions may sound a bit hostile, but they are things I really have to know before moving myself and all my client sites to another server.
I have the following questions:
1.) I see you have a toll-free support number... is this answered 24/7, and if not, what are the hours?
2.) What is the typical wait time on calling the support phone #?
3.) What is the typical wait time on a response after filling out a support ticket?
4.) Does your "live person" feature work? I had that window open for an hour and gave up
5.) How many servers do you have for your virtual resellers?
6.) Do you have contingency plans (and available servers/space) to place resellers (and their clients) in the event of a server failure?
7.) If an existing customer needs help and posts such in your vBulletin board, is it immediately deleted if it is a complaint or critical, or is there an actual effort to solve the problem in a timely manner?
8.) Where are your servers located?
9.) If a reseller's server/sites are down for several hours or days, do you refund part of the monthly payment?
10.) What is the longest time a customer of yours has had to wait with no access to their site due to some down-time.
11.) What length of time does HostForWeb consider to be an unreasonable amount of down-time?
12.) Do you notify your customers before you upgrade software or do maintenance so that the resellers can intelligently inform their clients before something happens instead of after?
13.) Is there a quick & easy way to copy all sites (and related databases) and move them to HostForWeb so that any inconvenience to my clients is minimal? (I want to have a copy of their site w/ the new vendor I choose, already set up and ready to go before they initiate the DNS change for their domains).
14.) Is there a fee to upgrade or downgrade your account (such as going from HFW-1 to HFW-2 or vice versa)? Either way - how long would such a change take?
15.) What measures do you have in place to prevent hacking from the outside?
16.) How many support personnel do you have on staff? What is the minimum experience level requirement you require your support personnel to have?
17.) Are there any scripts/applications I will not be allowed to install?
18.) Will I and my clients have unlimited MySQL databases?
19.) Do you have myPHPadmin in the CPanel?
20.) What version of CPanel are you currently running?
21.) What version of WHM are you currently running?
22.) How quickly does HostForWeb implement patches/fixes to PHP (et al) when security (etc.) flaws/patches are announced?
23.) What version of PHP & MySQL are you running?
24.) I'm a Mac user, and so far, I can access your site w/o problems. Is there any facet of your site and/or ticket/support system that is not Mac friendly?
That should be enough for now... but I will probably have more questions after I get your reply.
Thanks in advance for reading my diatribe.
I will be selecting a new vendor this weekend, so time is of the essence.
I am looking for greener pastures (if there are any) because of the lack-luster attitude, piss-poor support and lethargic response times to serious issues w/ my current vendor.
Because of the really bad experiences I've been having w/ my current vendor for the past 2 months (after one year of being a faithful customer), I'm looking in many places.
Based on this sour experience, please bear with me... I know these questions may sound a bit hostile, but they are things I really have to know before moving myself and all my client sites to another server.
I have the following questions:
1.) I see you have a toll-free support number... is this answered 24/7, and if not, what are the hours?
2.) What is the typical wait time on calling the support phone #?
3.) What is the typical wait time on a response after filling out a support ticket?
4.) Does your "live person" feature work? I had that window open for an hour and gave up
5.) How many servers do you have for your virtual resellers?
6.) Do you have contingency plans (and available servers/space) to place resellers (and their clients) in the event of a server failure?
7.) If an existing customer needs help and posts such in your vBulletin board, is it immediately deleted if it is a complaint or critical, or is there an actual effort to solve the problem in a timely manner?
8.) Where are your servers located?
9.) If a reseller's server/sites are down for several hours or days, do you refund part of the monthly payment?
10.) What is the longest time a customer of yours has had to wait with no access to their site due to some down-time.
11.) What length of time does HostForWeb consider to be an unreasonable amount of down-time?
12.) Do you notify your customers before you upgrade software or do maintenance so that the resellers can intelligently inform their clients before something happens instead of after?
13.) Is there a quick & easy way to copy all sites (and related databases) and move them to HostForWeb so that any inconvenience to my clients is minimal? (I want to have a copy of their site w/ the new vendor I choose, already set up and ready to go before they initiate the DNS change for their domains).
14.) Is there a fee to upgrade or downgrade your account (such as going from HFW-1 to HFW-2 or vice versa)? Either way - how long would such a change take?
15.) What measures do you have in place to prevent hacking from the outside?
16.) How many support personnel do you have on staff? What is the minimum experience level requirement you require your support personnel to have?
17.) Are there any scripts/applications I will not be allowed to install?
18.) Will I and my clients have unlimited MySQL databases?
19.) Do you have myPHPadmin in the CPanel?
20.) What version of CPanel are you currently running?
21.) What version of WHM are you currently running?
22.) How quickly does HostForWeb implement patches/fixes to PHP (et al) when security (etc.) flaws/patches are announced?
23.) What version of PHP & MySQL are you running?
24.) I'm a Mac user, and so far, I can access your site w/o problems. Is there any facet of your site and/or ticket/support system that is not Mac friendly?
That should be enough for now... but I will probably have more questions after I get your reply.
Thanks in advance for reading my diatribe.
I will be selecting a new vendor this weekend, so time is of the essence.