Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com) • Hacker News Board

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#91

Post by shabble » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 1:37 PM UTC

aeden wrote: post #46

samarudge wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhoIs lookup shows him as the domain owner Registrant Contact: ThisWebHost Jules Robinson () Fax: South Building Upper Farm Basingstoke, HAMPSHIRE RG23 8PE GB Administrative Contact: ThisWebHost Jules Robinson (domains@thiswebhost.com) +1.5555555555 Fax +1.5555555555 South Building Upper Farm Basingstoke, HAMPSHIRE RG23 8PE GB Technical Contact: ThisWebHost Jules Robinson (domains@thiswebhost.com) +1.5555555555 Fax +…

Technically you are not allowed to provide fake information, although you may use an identity proxy as long as they provide the means to contact you in case of a dispute. In reality, enforcement of valid identity information is essentially non-existent.

I'm personally aware of at least one incident in which someone who had their domain revoked for 'joke' contact details in the whois db. Then again, istr they did piss off an old-school sysadmin (in the a.s.r sense).

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#92

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:01 PM UTC

pseudonym wrote: post #77

xiaoma wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to redditors as in educated, technical and young? Or is this some sort of reference to the liberal bent of the site's users? I really can't tell what exactly you're alluding to.

I'm assuming it's the "demographic of people who know how to make a blog post and submit it to a popular news aggregator". But that's just my read of the comment. Edit: Oh, and pitchforks. 80% of the Reddit demographic keeps a pitchfork in their closets for internet mobs.

[deleted]

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#93

Post by vitalysh » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:21 PM UTC

Isofarro wrote: post #87

1.) Monthly web hosting invoice unpaid 2.) Customer informed and appropriate action taken for unpaid accounts (suspend account for non-payment) 3.) Customer's friend makes a public complaint on Twitter 4.) Web host responds badly (but perhaps with some justification, outside parties getting involved in disputes, where a simple pay-the-outstanding-invoice would have resolved the situation) 5.) Non-payee gets abusive 6…

This is the story from the guy who originally had a dispute with hosting provider.

http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_f...

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#94

Post by davidandgoliath » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:30 PM UTC

It's easy to see where both sides originally began from: As a web hosting provider owner myself, I can see where the default assumption that paypal disputes automatically equal fraud originates. Sadly though it's not the correct stance to really take -- and one has to distance themselves emotionally from every situation (particularly as 'Director', in this case, like Jules) otherwise it'll turn into a shitstorm just about 100% of the time.

Allowing it to descend to the point where backups were deleted is just an absolutely appalling situation though. I've given clients the boot before, but descending to the point where removal of their backups occurs after suspending them is just wrong.

As a provider you're the technical link between someone and their content, and your goal is to protect that content with everything you've got: Destroying it yourself is simply disheartening.

It's sad to see that thiswebhost* has arrived at this point, but the good news is all it will take is some effort & 'emotional distancing' to really improve. I know not many years ago I was in the same position as a fledgling company owner where it's very easy to take things to heart.

Hopefully thiswebhost* can dig through some backups (assuming they still have some) and provide the users with their content.

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#95

Post by GvS » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:33 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #43

samarudge wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_f... He explains that there was a valid reason for not being able to pay the bills (I.E. PayPal having a problem). This* then suspended all of his accounts (Including the ones that had already been payed for) and, from the looks of it, were very unhelpful in resolving the situation. Yes, if the PayPal payment didn't come through the domains should probably ha…

> there was a valid reason for not being able to pay the bills (I.E. PayPal having a problem) // It's an excuse, but it's not payment. Continuation of the contract would presumably require payment. A clients inability to pay ends their right to receive service. Sure a larger company can usually manage to give grace in such situations (but often won't) but small businesses, as this appears to be, seem to suffer a lot…

I'm using linode and I've had problems with payment once. They contacted me and we solved it within day or two. I don't know details of this story, but suspending account immediately seems like overreacting.

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#96

Post by ZeSmith » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:34 PM UTC

thomaskerr wrote: post #64

Hates_ wrote: post #2

One of the hardest things when communicating with customers is not taking it personally. Don't take criticisms or complaints as personal attacks and above all else resist the temptation to try and "one-up" your customer. Loads of times we've received pretty insulting emails, but done our best to be polite and helpful back, more times then not we've received a really thankful and praising email back in response. A lot…

Scared of the truth? http://pastebin.com/9rHuWFGw I bet you're going to c e n s o r this hn mods are pathetic

What's that even doing here?

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#97

Post by davidandgoliath » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:38 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #52

There are better ways to handle one's customers than displayed by the CS employee here, but be that as it may: think long and hard before you get into the business of taking $3 a month from people who are demographically similar to Redditors.

Note: This was a company director, not CS employee.

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#98

Post by davidandgoliath » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:40 PM UTC

Isofarro wrote: post #87

1.) Monthly web hosting invoice unpaid 2.) Customer informed and appropriate action taken for unpaid accounts (suspend account for non-payment) 3.) Customer's friend makes a public complaint on Twitter 4.) Web host responds badly (but perhaps with some justification, outside parties getting involved in disputes, where a simple pay-the-outstanding-invoice would have resolved the situation) 5.) Non-payee gets abusive 6…

Odd, from what I've read all the accounts were paid up to date -- but paypal had taken a particular payment back for some new service (a domain name or something to that effect).

#6a) Hosting provider deletes the backups as well.

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#99

Post by BrandonM » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:41 PM UTC

Isofarro wrote: post #87

1.) Monthly web hosting invoice unpaid 2.) Customer informed and appropriate action taken for unpaid accounts (suspend account for non-payment) 3.) Customer's friend makes a public complaint on Twitter 4.) Web host responds badly (but perhaps with some justification, outside parties getting involved in disputes, where a simple pay-the-outstanding-invoice would have resolved the situation) 5.) Non-payee gets abusive 6…

That was my first thought, but it looks like this company has a trend of poor customer service: http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_f...

Re: Stay away from This* (thiswebhost.com)

#100

Post by ecounysis » Tue, Aug 16, 2011, 2:46 PM UTC

anthonyb wrote: post #38

pseudonym wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends entirely on how it's handled by the actual owner, assuming this is just an employee. If you're good at spinning PR and responding correctly, the right apologetic stance can flip this from a PR nightmare to free good PR. The trick is responding fast, responding apologetically, responding honestly, and more than making up for the original mistake. "We apologize for the lack of respect our CS rep has shown yo…

Not very likely. Go and have a look at the rest of their Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/#!/thiswebhost https://twitter.com/#!/thiswebhost/status/102087912497221633 https://twitter.com/#!/oscargodson/status/102092891979132929

That is amazing. Based on their twitter stream you know they are bad news. They would be better off if they spent less time "defending" themselves, and more time making their customers happy enough so they don't want to make "incorrect public statements."

https://twitter.com/#!/thiswebhost/status/102089336509562881