Written by Mark Uttley
CEO/President - HadleyDesign.co.uk
CEO/President - HadleyDesign.co.uk
At the start of each day hundreds of us venture around the internet on to sites like Web Hosting Talk and fall headlong into a long winded complaint about a web hosting company disappearing or taking money without producing any service. So I beg to ask the question, How can we avoid it? and What can we do about it?
How can we avoid it?
I guess the simplest answer to this is to check out the hosting company throughly before you send any payment whatsoever. I am going to give you several recommended steps that can help keep you and your hard-earned cash safe.
1) Search on search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN . Check out forums such as Web Hosting Talk and search for the name of the company that you are thinking about handing your cash to. Usually it should bring up a bunch of messages with feedback about the company. If anything there doesn't look right my best advice is to cross that company off your list.
2) Once you have a list of three or four possible companies email them and ask questions about the service, when they reply check the language that they have used to see if they sound profesional, and cross-check any details they give you with the details on their site.
3) Do a WHOIS check on the domain by using http://www.whois.sc. This will check the registerent details of the domain which allows you to see when the domain was registered (to work out the age of the company) and the nameservers which can show you whether it is reselling off of another web hosting company.
4) Avoid companies that advertise for Unlimited services, nothing is Unlimited. However Unmetered is possible, but I would advise you not to sign up for accounts like that, as they will often end in heartache.
5) If it's too good to be true it probably is. Don't always be fooled by cheap offers. Companies that offer hosting for a few dollars arn't really going to stay around for that long.
What can we do about it?
Well if you don't want anymore trouble I would suggest that you don't do anything about it. Complaining and trying to get your money back is a painstaking process.
I have already discussed about how you can avoid it but if you have been caught out there are several methods of getting your money back.
1) Complain on public forums, for example Web Hosting Talk . If small companies get a bad reputation their it could mean that they struggle with their sales, so they might be pressed into giving you a refund.
3) Lawsuit - If you have lost a lot of money get an attorney on it to try and sort it out, probably expensive and not worth it but it depends on how far you want to persue the matter.
4) Report to authorities and other governing bodies in your local area.
I have discussed prevention and how to deal with bogus web hosting companies but what it all boils down to is YOU. You need to scrutinise possible webhosting companies carefully and make sure that your money is safe from these fraudsters. www.hostpapers.com
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