Damage Control Advice!

SilenceDogoodSilenceDogood subscriber Posts: 9
edited September 2008 in Marketing
Got up this morning, went to my online systems.  They were (and are still) down.
Sent a support ticket to my web host.  They point me to a blog that says maintenance will be going on between 6:30 and 9:30 EDT.  It is now about 10:30.
I say: You should have proactively told me this.  Their response: YOU should have read our blog.
Anyway, I have a number of customer systems running on this web host.  They are obviously down this morning too.  I cannot communicate with them because all of my emails are down.
I dread getting into my support email.  I know I will have numerous queries and complaints.
Any suggestions on damage control with my customers?  It seems that no matter what I do or say it will not look good.
Any sage advice?
BACKGROUND
============
I have been with this same host for over 5 years.  A couple of months ago they were purchased by a large company.  I have had more downtime in the past 2 months than I did in 5 years.  I have a new host but I am slowly migrating everything.  I cannot wait to bail on these people.  Terrible reliability.  Smart*** technical support.

Comments

  • SilenceDogoodSilenceDogood subscriber Posts: 9
    Thanks Craig...
    As much ranting and venting as anything.
    It is easier for me to deal with self-made problems / mistakes than those of someone else.
    One of these days, when my business grows up a bit more, I am going to have my own data center and not have to rely on some unknown 3rd party.
    I absolutely hate this...
  • SilenceDogoodSilenceDogood subscriber Posts: 9
    I know this is drifting away from marketing aspect (damage control)... but ...
    I`ve already "contracted" with a second host (now have a high end VPS instead of shared).  New customers are setup on the new host.  I`m slowly migrating databases to the new host (remote mysql access)...
    After I get all the databases migrated then I am going to migrate all the code and make the switch over a holiday weekend (probably Thanksgiving)... and say Good Riddance Bad Host!
    One problem I have not really solved: the old control panel is H-Sphere and I am going to WHM/CPanel.... the email on the old is squirrelmail and I cannot find any good way to migrate all of that.
    And back to Damage Control: It has apparently been a busy Monday for my customers and they did not notice the downtime.... breaths audible sigh of relief...
  • SilenceDogoodSilenceDogood subscriber Posts: 9
    I am thankful I was able to come on here and vent a bit...
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