Hosting Direct product reviews

This is a real mixed bag site...

Firstly, you have the availability of hosting plans as low as $2.95 per month for the really basic plans, right up to high-end commercial-grade co-location plans... so why the low score?

It comes down to service... that all-important factor so vital to today's businesses... even the big-boys have clicked that treating customers like lepers doesn't pay off in the long run.

I recently took advantage of a great deal they were offering, to host small websites free of charge for members of a select mailing list. The site I had in mind was small, at a touch ofer 1mb, generating less than 20mb of traffic per month, and requiring only basic PHP support and access to an outbound mail command to drive the 'contact us' page. After hosting the site for about a month, their FreeB servers got hacked and trashed, which caused their servers to fall over and be inoperable for 2 weeks.

These things happen, it's part of the day-to-day risks of running a website, so I wasn't worried... and I left them to do their repair work in peace. Sure enough, after 2 weeks the site was showing again, though all the updates I had uploaded just prior to the crash were gone, with the site reverting back to a state a week before the crash. Again, par for the course, nothing to complain about, and a few minutes of uploading new files fixed that problem.

A quick test of the site proved it was up to date again, displaying properly, and NOT sending outbound emails any more! Hang on... it used to send emails... but there were no notices to say that the SMTP (mail system) had been disabled for free sites... so a quick phonecall to their 0800 number to find out whether this was a problem or a new rule... only to find myself leaving a message on their answering service. "Please call me to explain, and discuss upgrading to a paying account..."

No answer for 2 days.

Ring again, same deal, same message left on answerphone.

No reply after 2 more days.

Ring again, and send an email...

No reply after a further 3 days.

Post a message on the mailing list asking for options for a new hosting service...

Suddenly, a reply from the boss of HostingDirect... "Since you aren't happy, we've kicked you off our network."

Hardly a professional approach to a client who is annoyed that they claim a "...6 hour response time..." and offer a "...7 days response time if you look like you aren't happy..."

With affliations to a national organisation of web designers, this is hardly a very good approach to dealing with customers who wish to upgrade and give them more of our money...

Overall... I was really offended by the treatment. There is no excuse for reacting to a customer's request for service by tossing your toys and throwing them out the door. Though this company has some excellent features on offer at stunning prices, don't expect to get anything in the way of customer service unless you are already handing over cash... I will never discover if they treat paying customers any better... since I will be happily hosting all of my client websites elsewhere. This was a taste-test that they failed miserably.