If you tried to visit any of my sites over the past few days, you’ve probably run into a giant error screen. This was the weekend of transferring hosting. I’ve actually regressed, going from a dedicated server to shared hosting, and here’s why:
Layered Tech (formerly led by John Pozadzides) increased my monthly fee by $30 LESS THAN TWO MONTHS AFTER I JOINED. Seriously. Who does that? Who defrauds their customers and doesn’t care? I went from $142/mo to $172/mo. That’s insane. No company should be allowed to do business when they don’t even wait until the customer has been around for a year before hiking up the costs. It’s a fraudulent move. Let me explain.
When I was looking at hosting options, I measured multiple factors, including (of course) cost. At $142, Layered Tech dedicated servers were a worthwhile option. The cost was higher than I wanted to spend, but a whole dedicated server convinced me to take on the $40+ increase. But less than two months later, the moment Layered Tech increased my fee without an opt-out period, I felt swindled and deceived. They basically wanted to get me in the door so they could betray my trust and squeeze me for more money as quickly as possible. I have brought this issue to their attention multiple times and have received AT BEST an apology. This is not how you do business.
In my estimation, Layered Tech owes me somewhere in the ballpark of $360 for excessive unethical fees. I will not make any move to collect that small sum. But that is the cost of their reputation. Let them simply be aware of this.
Today I’m back with a shared hosting solution: HostGator. There are probably better services, but there are far worse. It’s a highly recommended shared hosting solution. I’m not calling it the messiah of hosting by any stretch. These past three days I’ve experienced my fair share of phantom file disappearing and seemingly haunted ftp folders. Their online chat team solved nothing for me and referred me to a customer support team who merely emailed me back pat answers that solved nothing.
HostGator is far from perfect. FAR. But it’s also less than $20/month. That’s right. I’m spending $150+ less per month now, and just exchanging one headache for another. Life is all about one exchange or another.
Who do YOU host with, and what do you think about them?