WE'VE MOVED!

We are proud to announce our NEW community destination. Engage with resident experts and fellow entrepreneurs, and learn everything you need to start your business. Check out the new home of StartupNation Community at startupnation.mn.co
Options

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

  • Options
    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...
  • Options
    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...
  • Options
    SilenceDogoodSilenceDogood subscriber Posts: 9
    I am thankful I was able to come on here and vent a bit...
Sign In or Register to comment.