Web Hosting Companies
... are everywhere - or at least so it may seem by the loads of spam sent everyday. For every new host that appears, one goes out of business or into bankruptcy and leaves their customers without service.
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Web Hosting Scams Exposed!
Web Hosting Scams Exposed!
In today's hosting market, competition is fierce. So fierce in fact
it drives some companies to practice less than respectable business tactics
and others to downright fraud. With so many hosting companies
going bust everyday and leaving their customers hanging, how can you be sure
you will not be one of those customers? The truth is you can't be sure
- no one can, but you CAN know what to look out for when searching host providers
or when being tempted by a fancy ad or e-mail promising greener pastures
for less money.
The anonymity and the lack of personal contact makes any Internet business
an ideal candidate for a scam. Please keep in mind when reading this list
that some very legitimate and respectable hosts use some of
the marketing tactics below. The difference is, the respectable ones
deliver what they promise. Here are some of the more common "scams" practiced
by fly by night web hosting companies.
- Deceiving Price Advertising. Some hosting providers
will advertise a very low and attractive monthly price. You will be
lured to their site and overwhelmed with flashy graphics and follow the order
links only to find out that in order to get that low price, you must prepay
3,6, and sometimes 1 year in advance.
- Yearly / Advance Payments. Some hosting providers encourage
and heavily promote advance payments for hosting services. Some even
offer such tempting discounts that it is hard not to give in to their ploy.
This can be done for one of two reasons. 1) the hosting company
is barley hanging on financially and needs all the money they can get to
pay their bills for the month or 2) they know that their service is less
than acceptable and without an advance commitment the customers are sure
to leave.
- Hosting Term Contracts. This is where you sign your life away
for a long-term commitment hoping the service you expect is everything you
were told. See reason #2 above. With the exception of very custom
high-end dedicated server solutions that are build especially for the customer,
term contracts in this industry are history so don't be talked into signing
one.
- "Unlimited" Bandwidth. Or unlimited anything for that matter.
Think about this, with the exception of space itself (and
perhaps love), everything has a limit. Without being too literal the
word "unlimited" in the hosting industry really means that there is no set
number that can define the limit, and the real limit is determined by other
factors. Most providers who advertise unlimited bandwidth use that
"feature" to suck prospects in and make a quick sale knowing that only about
1% of Websites will ever use a large enough amount of bandwidth to cause
problems for them. These unfortunate 1% are simply told that their
sites are either "killing the server" or given another excuse as why they
cannot host them.
- 24 Hour Support. This is one of those features that every respectable
hosting company must have, after all, your site is (or should be) online
24 hours a day. Some hosts define their support as an answering service
taking messages that are never returned from irate callers. Other hosts
use complex voice mail systems only to return the message "I am sorry, all
lines are busy now, please try back later" (later being 9-5 when the one
guy who does support is actually in).
- "Free" Hosting. Ahhh, the word "free", used so often and abused
even more. Why would anyone give away free hosting? In most cases,
your site is required to display some banner ads and generate revenue for
the host provider. That is fine and many customers, especially customers
with personal Websites who can live with that sacrifice. However in some
cases, signing up for free hosting is like selling your soul to the devil
(ok maybe not that bad) and here is why. Your personal information
and your e-mail address is sold to many, sometimes hundreds of "opt
in" spammers. You have essentially opted in to receive all their spam
when you signed up for the free hosting and pretended you read the host provider's
26 page of terms and conditions. At times, the service is so poor it actually
costs businesses large amounts of money in loss revenues. The same
can be said for very cheap hosting.
- Host Provider Registers Your Domain For You. This has got to
be one of the biggest scams going. If a host provider registers YOUR
domain for you, make certain that their information only appears as the technical
contact at most and NEVER as the domain owner. If a host provider controls
your domain you are theirs for life and are held hostage.
By no means is this a complete list and we will most likely be adding to
it as we discover more. You really need to do your homework and talk
with salespeople, customers, or others who have experience with the Webhost
you are looking into. Don't associate top positions in search engines
with respectable companies or companies that have been in business
a long time. Most top positions are bought and those that are not still
have nothing to do with the stability of the companies. Look for telephone
numbers and contact information on the Webhost's site. Never do business
with any company that hides telephone numbers. Remember, if it is too
good to be true it probably is.
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