On this page, I record my observations as I research church websites, as well as offer general comments. Please let me know about special features on your website that you feel are unusual or specially well-done. These must be features on a website that you've developed yourself.
I've used IX Web Hosting since 1 January 2007. Frequently I've been disappointed with their service. Here are the problems I've experienced:
1) I've been waiting for almost five days now to get an email problem resolved (support ticket #556749). Trying to get honest answers out of the tech support staff about this issue has been difficult. I even faxed a letter of complaint to the company's manager of tech support, Drew Sanford (that's supposedly his name; it's always possible I was given a false name). It hasn't helped.
2) Several times a month throughout the summer, when I tried to upload a small jpg to my site, my FTP client would inform me there was no room left on the server. My hosting plans includes 3G of server space; I've used 153M. Thus it seems absurd to get an error message about no space left on the server. The problem is that the company has grown so fast that they couldn't get a new data center online in time. Thus, they've kept adding more and more customers to the same servers. Clients think they have 3G of hard drive space (or whatever their plan guaranteed). In fact, the company's servers are filled to almost overflowing. Seems like a case of false advertising to me.
3) Average wait time for tech support by phone during the day (in the U.S. time zones) is 18 callers. (That is, you are 18th in line to talk to a rep.)
4) So then, you might be tempted to use their "24/7" support ticket system. Don't. It's their lowest priority of all. (I learned this from a phone tech support person.) And be sure not to add a comment later to your own ticket. That will put you back at the bottom of the queue, as I learned the hard way.
5) So, you might be tempted to turn to their 24/7 online chat help. Don't, except for lower priority matters. The online chat just connects you with an offshore call center. The folks try hard to help, but it's apparent from the wait times that they don't get any better access to IX's support staff than you or me. But at least with online chat, you don't use up your phone minutes.
6) Their shared mySQL server frequently crashes (due to activity on some other customer's sites).
So, I want to switch hosters next week. Can anyone suggest a good, reliable hoster with good tech support?
Sincerely (but unhappily),
David Gillaspey
posted by David Gillaspey @ 8:09 AM
Comments:
What you say here makes me very worried. I have promoted them as affiliate on my free Christian web templates site since a while and now you make me wonder if I have made a mistake.
posted by "Christian": Monday, April 14, 2008 2:40:00 PM PDT
Hi "Christian,"
At the end of March 2008, the company moved all client sites to a new, expanded data center. In theory, this should resolve many problems with the company's hosting services.
posted by "David Gillaspey": Monday, April 14, 2008 2:52:00 PM PDT
