Jun 16 2006
We Promise Nothing so You Save Money
So… Recently I posted about moving off my new host to a new one, and then onto a new server shortly thereafter. I teased it with a note that more information would be coming later when the time was right.
The time is right.
Have you ever noticed that most hosting companies on the web seem to have the same shpiel? They’re offering you enormous power, fantastic uptime, amazing performance, a cup of tea, and a coupon for a trip to the bunny ranch if you’re ever in Vegas, all with a 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999998% uptime guarantee or your money back.
Of course you’ve heard them. But how many hosts really deliver? How many hosts collect your money month after month and return little? Or how many promise 99.9+% uptime, and when you try to collect on it, they tell you that the policy only applies on the third Monday of the month when it’s a full moon and their ranch is paid off? I don’t know about you, but I’ve had one too many of those.
Slobokan was generating a lot of traffic on his site, and was told by Hostgator that he had to move to a dedicated box because he was bringing down some of the other sites on his reseller server. He was making the decision to move and I made the suggestion of moving onto the box with him to defer the costs. Then we had an idea. What if we helped out our friends and family members who wanted to set up sites? Not necessarily as even a business, just a service for those who have had enough with their hosting company.
With that, Second Rate Hosting was born.
Why the name? I think Slobokan said it best on his site:
Our concept is simple. Everyone else claims to be the best. They brag about uptime percentages and they make promises they can’t always keep. We don’t lead people on. Nobody, and no server, is perfect. Why not admit that fact and get it out of the way?
Overall, where would you like to host your website?
With a company that makes a lot of empty promises and claims to be “first rate”?
Or with a company that makes no promises and simply works hard to make sure your web hosting experience is a happy one?
I’m not going to hand out some long line of bullshit here. We’ve had our growing pains, and my recent burst of internet fame wasn’t helping, but things have settled down enormously and will continue to do so. We don’t believe in overpromising and underdelivering, which seems to be the motto of the industry today.
Maybe not being an “industry insider” makes us immune to bullshit as well.
If you’re in need of hosting, check us out. We’ll do our best to make your hosting experience a good one, but it’s promise-free hosting at a very good price. No uptime guarantees. No low price guarantees. No money back guarantees that we won’t honor.
Just good, reliable hosting.
Technorati Tags: hosting, webhosting, second rate hosting, secondratehosting.com
June 20th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Your story and the recording made “squawk box” on cnbc this morning. It was used as the teaser all morning. Their comment was that “John” has a brilliant future in telemarketing and probably has had a thousand offers by now. Expect it to hit other “news” shows.
June 21st, 2006 at 6:56 pm
We actually did the same thing a few years ago and we were absolutely shocked that it worked as well as it did, because we did no advertising, and we promised nothing. We called ourselves “webslum”, and made off-color jokes about our horrible hardware, yet people still paid us for service.
But we’re closing down at the end of the year, so I wish you guys the best of luck in the virtual-hosting space. It’s a fun ride if you have the time to take care of it.
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:13 am
Oh yeah. The same thing happened to me. I asked to be also taken off their mailing lists. Got those damn cd’s in the mail for years after.
Make sure you stay on this. Because I bet some industrious reporter out there will find out that this is stated policy. get your hands on a call center manual.
Yea! so glad you caught ‘em.
Nancy
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:08 pm
hey .vince .
guess u jus got ur 1 second of fame.. man that aol guy was jus doing his job , he is paid for that, well i must admit ur patients hats off … common bro.. what are u getting out of all this.. u could have used all that time to do something better…
cheers vince
June 22nd, 2006 at 2:01 pm
you only thought you got rid of AOL. they will now begin the process of domination…..retention has FAILED BUT BECAUSE THEY HAVE YOUR COMPUTER ID. you will be tormented by pop-ups and diversions and sponsered by aol….do not try to escape…you cannot escape them
June 23rd, 2006 at 11:47 am
Hey Vince,
I got AOL for FREE for almost two years, only because they wouldn’t let me cancel the account. Everytime I called to cancel, they would tack on another 3 free months. I never paid a cent, but when I really didn’t want anything to do with them, they wouldn’t let me close it. In my case, they didn’t have my credit card number, so they couldn’t charge me. After a 1 hour phone call, they finally closed the account. I can guarantee you that AOL trains thier customer service representatives to NOT let any customers cancel or the rep will get in hot water with AOL.
June 23rd, 2006 at 12:26 pm
That was the most amusing thing I have heard in a long time only because it was not me calling to cancel. Not only have you had your snippets on the TV and radio, you are permanantly etched in time at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Ferrari
June 23rd, 2006 at 7:48 pm
I hate AOL! I signed up for a “free” 30 days of internet. On the 30th day, I couldn’t get through to cancel. Finally, i quit and called back on the 31st day. WELL…. to make a long story short…. trying to get through to someone in INDIA to explain the situation was horrific! Finally, I had a collection service after me trying to get me to pay for the month they said I owed. I am sure my credit rating was effected. NEVER go with AOL!
June 24th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Vince
Whining crybabies like you deserve what they get! Have fun with your 15 minutes of fame you walking tub of donut batter, because it’s the last you’ll ever get,…unless you plan on writing a book about your “incident”
AOL is a business, get it? The guy was doing his job and was remarkably courteous about it given your nasty attitude!
June 24th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Congrats on winning one for the little guys. Big corperations only get bigger if people continue to let them go on un-accountable for the actions.
I would love to use your recording and sync it with “Queens, Bohemian Rhapsody” for a radio spot here in Kansas.
E-Mail me to let me know what you think