I’m switching web hosts. Dreamhost, my current host, just doesn’t cut it. They have no telephone support for one thing.
So I checked out the Yahoo! Small Business/Six Apart new hosting deal that includes a super-fast version of MoveableType.
Yahoo! Small Business is advertising Small Business Professional hosting with Moveable Type, for $26.77 a month and up. But if you really want a professional plan, you’ll actually have to pay nearly $300 a month for features available elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. WTF?
I wouldn’t want Yahoo to be part of the url in my store or shopping cart, like it is for small companies like Smiley Gifts’, for example, whose url is http://shop.store.yahoo.com/sendasmile/smbugiba.html, not sendasmile.com/store. If I want my whatsnextonline.com store not to include yahoo in the url, I’d have to pay $299.96 per month for Yahoo! Small Business’ Professional Hosting Plan.
No Service Guarantee
And the $299 a month Yahoo! plan includes no guarantee of how long you might wait on the phone for a customer service rep, nor a guarantee of email response within a certain time. That’s what I was told when I called and talked to a sales rep who told me that her supervisor said they have “no service goals in this area that they can state.”
Can you say deceptive advertising practices? How about bait and switch?
Yahoo! Small Business Hosting’s Deceptive Advertising
BL Ochman | December 19, 2005 | Permanent Link | Comments (7) | TrackBack (
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Moving to Typepad
With some trepidation I’ve finally decided to move my A PR Guru’s Musings blog to Typepad. In doing so I also finally practice what I preach to clients and give it its own URL at http://www.stuartbruce.biz. I’ve experimented with both
I get great hosting service from Net Nation. (www.netnation.com) They have live support 24/7 and to my knowledge my web sites (www.adshift.info and http://www.sunagency.ca) are never ever down.
Ian O’Neill
I’ve used Dreamhost for ages for both personal stuff and small business sites. They’ve had their hiccups but overall I’ve always been pleased with their responsiveness and their customer-facing tools.
I’m curious what else is souring you on them? Have you tried to use their callback service? It’s not the same as phone support, I know, but did it not work right or did you just want something better? I’ve never used it myself.
It all depends on the level of support you need, but I love my webhost!
In 2002 I spent a month researching webhosts and choose: http://www.futurequest.net/
In 2005 I can honestly say it was the best possible decision. Not the cheapest, but definitely the best!
I use a variety of services, in part so I can let readers know how they’re performing. Top of my list is OpenSource Hosting -they do a lot for a little and are eminently patient when things go pear shaped. And they ARE 24×7. A great place to use as a sandbox for technologies you don’t know if you’ll deploy – as long as their OSS. I have a commercial blog hosted there.
Next is TCH – never had a problem with them, when my machine got hosed they helped me work through recovering all settings – no charge – very efficient. OK, phone support is hard to find but it’s there and they’re very accommodating, despite their caution over fraud – which I welcome.
MT on Yahoo! -hmm – i’ve got it but I’m not sure I’m going to use it in anger. All assistance goes back to Six Apart which is fine but it works out incredibly expensive as you say if you want the full 9-yards and…no phone support.
TypePad – what can I say? I’m outta here after they hosed us in Europe for 18 hours. They’re not ‘business class’ – at the moment – though I believe they’re fine for newbies wanting to put their toes in the water and try the medium. They don’t do phone support.
It’s hard to imagine how many people forget this commonsense stuff. Thanks for sharing. BTW – this would make a great tweet, do you use Twitter?