Downtime

[Conan the Host Provider]

I am a reseller and I am not happy. It seems if there is downtime in my package, there is no credit towards my payment for that time. A double-whammy; it costs me money to upset my customers! Surely this can't be right. Is it?

CTHP

[country-tyme]

I would read the tos to see what the terms are. Refunds/credits are something that you have to request from your host and it is usually prorated. Sometimes it just isn't worth the few cents you might receive back unless the downtime is excessive.

[Martie]

Yes I agree with country-tyme. Its all going to depend on your upstream provider and alot of hosts nowdays are a reseller of a reseller of a reseller. HOPEFULLY thats not your situation but Im not sure from the sound of your post.

[1PlanHost]

No doubt a good hosting reseller provider should offer some level of compensation for their resellers and many reputable ones do just that. Check around and investigate fully your next provider and I am confident that you will find a reliable host for your customers.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[IceBlueHost]

As someone else already mentioned, check their TOS. If there is nothing mentioned about some kind of uptime guarantee, then I'm afraid you can't do much about it. Nevertheless, it never hurts to ask them, mail them and ask if they can give you a refund for your downtime.

In future though, when signing up with another host, ALWAYS check whether the host has an uptime guarantee. Hosts which do not offer such a guarantee cannot be trusted. And don't believe those who offer 100% uptime guarantee, because that just is not possible.

[Hippohost]

I would say, you need to ask them for all question that you are unsure. Also check in the forum about their host somehow.
Not sure if www.bbb.com can help you.

[1PlanHost]

And don't believe those who offer 100% uptime guarantee, because that just is not possible.

I would of course challenge this statement. True it is impossible to provide 100% uptime due to scheduled maintenance and other issues.

However, many reputable hosting companies including ourselves offer a 100% uptime guarantee. It is called taking care of the customer and providing real monetary credits to their accounts for any downtime outside of the hosting companies control.

For an example of how we do this see http://www.1planhost.com/uptime.asp

In reality, an uptime guarantee may only mean a small refund or account credit for you, but if your web host is refunding or crediting every client on their server $5 - $9.95, this could mean significant losses for them. For example, we have a server maximum of no more than 400 accounts. If one of our web servers went down hard, and we took our time in getting it back up, that would translate to a loss of $3,300 (assuming the server was not restored in 48 hours) for the month on that server alone. Obviously it is also in our best interest to get the troubled server up and running as fast as possible.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

The problem is that getting a credit for the downtime doesn't improve the uptime of your service. You need a better hosting provider...

[1PlanHost]

While that may be true, there is no host that can absolutely guarantee ZERO downtime for the kind of prices that normal customers can afford. It would depend of course for the original poster of this thread exactly how long was the downtime experienced and how often this happens. For a reseller not to receive compensation credits for downtime is not a good thing but unfortunately many host do not go by common customer service sense.

For clarification, the original poster is not with our company.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

Darrell,

I agree that nobody can guarantee 100% uptime and that the resellers have to be compensated for downtime. To make decent money offering reseller accounts you have 2 choices:

1. Put lots of resellers per box, which usually results in poor server performance and/or downtime.

2. Put restrictions on the number of resellers per box and put restrictions on the resellers' resources (domains, mail accounts, data transfer, etc.). This approach requires charging higher than average per reseller account and makes you uncompetitive.

That's why we do not offer reseller accounts.

[Host Capacity]

Anyone can gaurantee 100% uptime however they must be prepared to honour that gaurantee when it fails (which it will). It really is just a marketing tool.

[peter phillips]

The 100 % uptime guarantee is a marketing tool adopted by some hosts to gain customers. There may be some hosts who honour that guarantee and this is not just a strategy to gain customers for them. I think the hosts who offer 100% uptime should provide a money back guarantee in case they are not able to offer 100% uptime.

[1PlanHost]

True some companies do indeed use it as a marketing tool and have no intentions on backing up their guarantees with real monetary credits. These companies will soon go out of business as their reputations will eventually destroy them. I have seen numerous companies big and small jump in with ridiculous claims over the past 10 years and then fold under the pressure of negative public reviews, chargebacks and legal troubles. It happens far too often and consumers get the raw end of the deal.

The other side of the story is that there are reputable hosting companies that do honor their guarantees very well, have excellent reputations for customer service, integrity and stability. These companies usually have been in business for many years and understand that keeping a customer happy is the key for long term growth. It is not quick profits that will make a hosting company great, but the happy customers who renew month after month and year after year. These are what define success.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

Conan,

What happened? Did you ask for credit?

[Page-Zone]

It is a matter of preference for the hosting company. I have never offered an uptime guarantee, and it hasn't hurt business. If you find a web hsot that has an uptime guarantee, read the fine print. Many times the fine print gets them out of ever paying.