Comments on: Robbing Your Customers?

By: Adam Dachis

Adam Dachis — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:30:31 +0000

To preface this, I don’t host all my sites with Dreamhost because they do have a large number of problems (or, at least, things I’d like to see done differently). I’ve been with them almost ten years (maybe it has been ten years now?) and they’re really not any better or worst than anyone else. I’ve been with other hosts who have had just as many problems. I can’t say anything about Lunar Pages because I haven’t tried them yet, but in my experience there is no perfection when dealing with people and technology. Mistakes happen. Servers go down. Things get screwed up. It happens with everybody. Dreamhost has nonetheless done right by every mishap they’ve been responsible for (and even some where they have not). They paid the overage charges for those that incurred them, in this situation. They did the right thing.

I’m not saying this to keep people at Dreamhost or defend their mistakes specifically, but in hopes people will realize that there is no panacea of a web hosting company. People tend to remember the blunders over the good service every other day. The reason I host my e-mail with Google rather than Dreamhost is because the every day e-mail service is not reliable enough for me. The reason I moved a few web sites over from Dreamhost to Media Temple, or another host, is either due to upload speeds slowing down (significantly) or the need to use another technology Dreamhost can’t/won’t provide (ColdFusion, in one case). These are reasons to switch. Well, these and the very clever offer Lunar Pages has put forth.

I would bet money, though, that Lunar Pages will have other kinds of “major” problems from time to time as well, just as Media Temple has. Amazon AWS went down last month. Limelight and Vitalstream, both major CDNs, have serious trouble from time to time (much more than Dreamhost or any of the shared hosts I’ve used). It’s technology and it happens. My feeling is to let it go. Of course, if you don’t have much to transfer and you’re looking to save some money, I can certainly understand Lunar Page’s deal being very attractive. I just hope that is (or several other every day problems are) the reason for switching from Dreamhost, or another host, and not a properly corrected though very significant billing issue. It’s just bound to be a set up for disappointment.

By: Abbas Khan

Abbas Khan — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:38:21 +0000

I had a very bad experience of hosting with Dream Host. Simply to say, its only a “dream”!
:D

By: GregR

GregR — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:43:46 +0000

Mmm, caged basketball…

When and where

By: Lunarpages

Lunarpages — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:11:15 +0000

I’m picturing more of a UFC/Hoop type of event.
you know, like a cage with a basketball in it?

By: Ong

Ong — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:22:48 +0000

I feel very bad for the situation and customers of the dream host and wish them best to get money back soon.

By: ThaTopDogg

ThaTopDogg — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:36:33 +0000

@ Are You Serious

I’m sure the reason why people aren’t seeing their money yet is that most refunds take a few days to process (depending on your bank). Even at retail chains (Target, Best Buy, etc..) a refund will take a few days to process.

Basketball game, huh? I would love to watch that ;D

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:19:30 +0000

I just signed up and I’m awaiting account activation so I can switch everything over.

I’ve always appreciated Dreamhost for being up front with customers about problems, even really nasty ones like this. But the consistent downtime and other issues were already taking their toll. This pushed me over the edge.

I know it was a mistake and I know they will do what they can to fix it. But if all of this is from one mistyped character, what other problems are there to look forward to?

I’m giving Lunarpages a chance to prove they’re more reliable.