Is this a good offer and I don't understand it?

[crislem]

I've been recently invited by a friend to attend a workshop about how to start and promote a business on-line. I kind of expected what was going to happen, but I said, oh well, I get to see a new city and let's just see what these guys have to sell.

This company (I will not name it here) was offering to the people present there the "chance" of having 3 websites. They were going to built them based on the customers' preferences/content each customer provided (I've seen some examples; basic websites, nothing fancy) for $2800 each (this was a special offer; if somebody wanted only one, it would have been more). They were going to host them too, 500Mb of storage (nothing said about data transfer) for ONLY $25/month!!! I found that to be outrageous and I saw people in that room so into it because they didn't know what other options are out there. How can you say ONLY $25/month for 500Mb of storage? (and without saying how much data transfer is included in that package)

Has anyone seen presentations similar to this one? Are companies out there still taking advantage (in a blatant way) of people's lack of knowledge? Is there anything that can be done about it?

[SiteHostCity]

Yep. I heard about this.

A friend of mine told me about a 'deal' her mom got, and basically she paid this $25.00 fee every month, they designed her site, and it was $25.00 for the first year. After the first year, the price goes up. Supposedly the disk space was like 500Mb or so and the bandwidth was low.

I guess for $300 a year to some its not a bad deal, but to me - it sounded like a ripoff.

Craig

[Montypaks]

WOW!!! That's what you call a RIP OFF!!!
Those guys definately don't have souls.

But then I see this everyday. People getting ripped off because they don't know any better. That's why the wise people say
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Also remember the saying Jack of all trades, master of none??
Well now it should be changed to "Jack of all trades, Master of All"

[shanee86]

 I have seen some site's that offer like hosting and design and even manage your site. But they charge alot but what can you expect to basically have them do all the work for you. But alot of bussiness pay way to much for just hosting because they don't know any better or just have the money to spend. I don't in anyway charge enough probably but then again some people probably are cheaper.

[Tetraboy]

It's easy to get jaded by the web hosting forums. For many brick and mortar businesses, $10, $20, $50 a month isn't going to make much a difference at all. As long as they don't have to fool with it, it's worth the money to save their time. They also have someone local they can call or meet in person if a problem arises.

A lot of local businesses are not very tech savvy. I know of some who had websites designed and hosted, but did not even have e-mail/internet access. They just wanted to be "on the web".

[ldcdc]

They just wanted to be "on the web".

Yes, I suppose there is a market for "business card" websites, with what will be a relatively high markup.

[Exmasters-Mark]

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Indeed. Before buying any deals, the comparison should take place. See what is offered for the same deals by the competitors by googling or by asking people.

[BeZazz]

I was going to say I remember this going around here in Australia years ago then I looked at the date on the OP and realized it was probably about then lol

And yes it was a rip off.

[1paket.com]

Before choosing any host, one has to compare different plans to bet the one which suits the needs of the web master best of all.

[1d1p]

Agreed with @Tetraboy. People like us who know too much tends to compare to the last $0.01. For a profitable business few dollars different monthly isn't a major concern.

Knowledge is power. Too much knowledge could be a waste of time.

[mwaraitch]

Well i guess its a lot of money to spend on, we provide free hosting and domain name for one year with 1gb space and 10gb bandhwidth, when ever we have a client, the development charges are also very low, so why people spend too much.