Category
Observation
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05.11.09The WHIR turns 9The WHIR is the voice of the web hosting industry. Over the weekend the WHIR turned 9. Happy Birthday! The WHIR provides online up to date web hosting news, WHIR Blogs, WHIR TV as well as WHIR Magazine. Currently their magazine, published 5 times a year has a total per issue circulation of 25,000. Look out for us in the May 2009 issue! It’ll be circulating at a number of events: Social Networking Conference Search Engine Strategies Affiliate Convention AJAX World Conference & Expo 2009 SOAWorld Conference and Expo 2009 O'Reilly Velocity 2009 O'Reilly OSCON Open Source Convention Digital versions of the magazine are available, backdating all the way ...
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05.03.09‘Administrative fee’ adviceI came across a very sneaky condition in a competing host's terms of service today, the condition refers to their money back guarantee. "We will deduct flat 6% administrative fee before initiating the refund." Generally 6% of a web hosting order won't be a lot of money, that really isn't the issue. It's the principal. 9 times out of 10, the reason a customer decides to leave within the money back period is because they've had a bad experience. Let's say the host did an awful job and caused you nothing but grief, the fact that they'll profit is simply shocking. If you ...
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04.30.09How not to treat your customersI don't usually like pointing the finger, but DreamHost's general way of conducting business is gently swaying from jovial to unprofessional. I previously wrote a post, 'Honest practice' talking primarily about how a number of web hosting companies advertise a certain price, when the actual cost is somewhat different. I used DreamHost as an example. DreamHost doesn't take itself too seriously, a lot of their marketing and pitching takes advantage of comedy. Which is great, we like to be a little silly and colloquial ourselves. The issue is, when problems occur, customers begin to feel as if they aren’t being taken ...
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03.07.09Honest practiceThere is a fine line between playfulness with the truth/truth inflation and deception, is DreamHost crossing it? In 2006, DreamHost generated revenue of $13.1 million and has no doubt increased in recent years. Surely a company of this magnitude has a responsibility to avoid the sales trickery that they’re currently utilizing. Firstly you’ll notice the offer of unlimited everything, which is a matter in itself, but it isn’t that which has caught my attention. It’s the hidden costs and unreasonable numbers used. $5.95 is the monthly cost advertised on the homepage. Navigating to the purchasing stage, you’ll find that you actually ...