HELP - I've been ripped off, or My Host stinks.

[thomasrau]

All too often in various forums I see someone looking to bash their current host, complaining of being ripped off.  Many times the post ends with; can you help me find a good host that offers the same plan, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases, etc etc. for $4.99 a month or less.
People, WAKE UP.  It costs real money to have real servers in a real datacenter.  It costs even more real money to have real people answering real support questions.  It costs real money to have real administrators keeping the servers patched and running properly.  There is no such thing as unlimited.  And the age old maxim of "If it looks too good to be true" still applies.  If the majority of well known, well respected hosts are offering a certain amount of webspace and bandwidth for a certain price, the warning flag should go up when someone else is offering 10-100 times as much for 1/10 the cost.
Yes, there are deals out there to be had.  There are small "undiscovered" hosts providing great support and service at better pricing than the "big guys".  But there are many, many, more really poor hosts, just trying to separate you from your money.  Let's face it anybody with a credit card or paypal account can get a reseller account and become a "host" in just minutes.  Or possibly even worse, a spare PC and a broadband connection, with the datacenter being the desk in their room.
If I offered you a car, said it did 0-60 in 4 sec, got 100 miles per gallon city, seated 8, could tow 5000 pounds, never needed maint. and it only costs $10,000, you would instantly and correctly holler SCAM.  Yet I can go online and offer equally crazy hosting plans and people sign up and then are amazed that they didn't get what they were promised.
What can you do to prevent getting ripped off?  Do your homework before signing up with a host.  Visit Dan's http://www.whreviews.com/ and learn how to become a smart "shopper".  And most important of all use a little common sense.

And no, I am not a host, just a (hopefully) educated consumer.

[ldcdc]

Indeed Thomas. It it incredible when you see people who have used 2 or even 3 "too good to be true" hosts in the past and got burned each time, still looking for the same too good to be true offers. Sometimes, even though experienced hosts or hosting shoppers try to explain them that it is partly their own fault because they went with the wrong kind of providers, they still refuse to learn.

Yes, price means something to everyone and it will always be a factor in a purchasing decision. It cannot be the only factor though, nor can it be the only major factor. Each user has different needs in terms of service. For those needs to be met, there is a theoretical absolute minimum cost.

Even though that absolute minimum cost can't really be determined precisely, when it comes to hosting, it isn't that hard to realize which prices make absolutely no sense. It is often enough to know the rough price of a server in a good datacenter, to easily realize that the host's business model cannot survive the test of time.

I've had the unfortunate privilege to see incredibly cheap hosts becoming "flavor of the month" at WHT, with threads after threads where happy or content customers were recommending them, and more an more people flocking to purchase from them.

Anyone with experience in the business could foresee what was going to happen though. Months (sometimes even 1 year later), the host is finally caught up by the extreme overselling practice. Service quality starts to deteriorate and at some point the host realizes that there is no chance to make a profit, and the shop is closed, often without warning.

Many, if not most of the customers, some of which don't even have a back-up of their site (or their customer's sites in the case of resellers) are then back searching for a similarly cheap hosting provider and the cycle repeats itself.

I believe it is very important not only to know about and have access to centres of information like the various forums out there, but it is just as important for the shopper to actually take heed to the advice that he/she is given.

[vshosting]

Agreed, there are just so many hosts that get into the business starting of with low pricing and large paackages to attract clients. Of course, to begin with everything is fine, server runs well & the owner if eager to impress by answering support issues as soon as he / she can.

As they attract more clients, the servers become overloaded, problems appear and support starts taking longer.

This scenario just seems to get repeated so often.

I would suggest that clients divide the approximate cost of the server ( good guess would sufiice) by the cost of the package to see approximately how much drive space and bandwidth will actually be sold just to break even.  I believe this gives a good indication of the long term stability of the business.

[WorldHosting]

WHOLLY!
That is not right.

[HostAnd]

I completely agree. People need to FINALLY realize that unlimited disc space and/or bandwidth DOES NOT EXIST! If you get ripped off by a host that offers such, one time, and then you get ripped again by another host that offers that, it's your own fault!

Do not choose your host by the amount of bandwidth or disc space you get for a buck, choose them for what they offer in terms of support, uptime, server speed. If you see a host offering 100gb disc space and 1000gb bandwidth for $3 a month, chances are VERY high that you will be ripped off or at least very unhappy with their service.

[hostparlor]

I liked the compairison on the  0-60 in 4 sec, got 100 miles per gallon city, seated 8, could tow 5000 pounds, never needed maint. and it only costs $10,000....... That is very true on web hosts these days. I have seen so many web hosts offering "unlimited" webspace. It urks me everytime. But yet as i posted in my last post on this forum, most people only use 1-3 gigs of space so they will never even come close to using up the resources they "think" they have. I hate it when i ask friends how much space you have and how much bandwidth and they return with the reply "unlimited"........ and im like how much and there like 5.00 or 10.00............lol i just laugh and say cool.

[crucial-ijan]

Agreed. You get what you pay for.  On the bright side there are a lot of customers that know you have to spend money to get results and do you as a host want the customers who want everything for nothing? Of course not! leave them to the others who offer the world and lets  keep providing great service to our customers

[JohnLee380]

Thumbs up... It does cost money to run a good web host, but if its managed right then I dont see no problem offering web hosting at 4.95 a month. Just as long the Host have a good TOS written up and everything is managed you shouldnt have any problems.