# What is the biggest mistake that you have seen a web host make?



## KMyers (May 3, 2015)

Hello All,

I have been lurking around several web hosting forums for almost 10 years and have seen A LOT of silly mistakes made by web hosting companies. I have seen web hosts do some pretty stupid things, without naming any names (except for the infamous mtwiscool when needed), what is the stupidest thing you have seen a web host do. This can be from personal experience as a customer or something you have seen them do on a forum.

My answer is accidentally disclosing confidential information in a public location. I have seen several hosts do this. It normally starts out with a customer posting a thread on a web hosting forum complaining about a host not properly answering tickets. The web host decides to go on the defensive and foolishly fight back by posting screenshots or logs containing sensitive information on the same thread. The best ones I see is when the web host posts the customers root passwords within the ticket. 

The close seconds are when a web host posts screenshots and forgets to close any "adult" web pages that are open in other tabs.


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## MannDude (May 3, 2015)

Well, recently thought it was quite silly when CNServers started posting pictures of their helpdesk with their customer's full name and IP address shown and refused to answer questions about their shady past.

Beyond that, anything GVH related.

Dewlance paying for fake Fiverr video reviews was comical, but even more comical was the 'follow up review' that the same Fiverr girl posted saying Dewlance sucked.... Anything for $5, I guess. 

The industry is full of jokes sadly.


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## KMyers (May 3, 2015)

MannDude said:


> Dewlance paying for fake Fiverr video reviews was comical, but even more comical was the 'follow up review' that the same Fiverr girl posted saying Dewlance sucked.... Anything for $5, I guess.


Actually the best part of that was the Dick who paid the same person on Fiverr to create a follow-up review on how the service degraded shortly after she signed up.


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## MannDude (May 3, 2015)

Original (The review Dewlance paid for):


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## souen (May 3, 2015)

Not the biggest mistake maybe but a big turn-off nonetheless -- hosts taking templates (same graphics and stylesheets) and ToS (large sections/entire page, just changing the name) from other companies and passing it off as a custom design commissioned from a firm. As if people wouldn't notice a template by a well-known designer.


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## KMyers (May 3, 2015)

souen said:


> Not the biggest mistake maybe but a big turn-off nonetheless -- hosts taking templates (same graphics and stylesheets) and ToS (large sections/entire page, just changing the name) from other companies and passing it off as a custom design commissioned from a firm. As if people wouldn't notice a template by a well-known designer.


I don't personally have an issue with this as some start-up hosts may not be able to afford a custom site until they get a few customers under their belt. I do however have an issue when a host rips a template from another host.


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## drmike (May 3, 2015)

I am not naming any names.  Pissing contests and mad folks just aren't fun on a thread like this.

1. Months of downtime in a row just to discourage annual plans from renewing.

2. Lots of accidental container wipes.  Surefire way to lose customers you don't deem financially viable.

3. Backups that didn't work, let alone as advertised (this one is so common someone should write a book on the topic with solutions and samples and lots of horror stories).

4. A provider who dinged another provider's WHMCS only to be found out on his corporate VPN in the act.

5. Fiverr testimonials.  Fiverr videos... One provider thanked a community with one of those to be dinged by the natives yelling Fiverr.

6. Providers who talk bad on IRC and pretend it's some private club.  What happens on IRC, ends up... Oh that is Vegas.

7. Migrations across the ocean just cause.

8. Unannounced migrations just cause.

9. Avotons as overloaded VPS nodes.

10. Top of rack switches playing the role of router.

... and about 500k instances of lack of helpdesk / underpaid slave labor getting to tickets this or next week, maybe... Or with some, in a few months.

... and companies that fail with no explanation and come back a year later like all is fine and the industry and customers will blindly accept them --- with the very same company name, and site, and plans.

... and 'senior' 'hires' with great CV, but who in reality haven't made it yet through high school.


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## telephone (May 4, 2015)

Too many to mention, so I'll just go with the latest facepalm from Dewlance:
 



DewlanceVPS said:


> Do you ever get a error "Your OS is not genuine"? on your Ubuntu or Linux OS?
> 
> Why linux is not showing some type of error or warning if OS is modified?


 
Link: http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/1015887/


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## KMyers (May 4, 2015)

telephone said:


> Too many to mention, so I'll just go with the latest facepalm from Dewlance:
> 
> 
> Link: http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/1015887/


My intentions was not to turn this into a Dewlance thread but after reading that... I am at a loss for words...


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## DomainBop (May 4, 2015)

MannDude said:


> The industry is full of jokes sadly.


The segment of the hosting industry that relies on hosting forums is full of many very inexperienced business owners, and hosting forums often have the negative effect of reinforcing bad practices that will prevent these clowns these startups from ever becoming businesses that will generate enough income to enable their owners to give up their day jobs and concentrate full time on their businesses.



> I am not naming any names.  Pissing contests and mad folks just aren't fun on a thread like this.


Me either, but I will provide one of my favourite links that I often recommend startups in any industry use (and I recommend they familiarize themselves with all of the topics on the page because I see far too many hosting companies who don't know the first thing about running a business): https://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business. 



> I don't personally have an issue with this as some start-up hosts may not be able to afford a custom site until they get a few customers under their belt.


I'm being nice tonight  so I'll resist the urge to say if they can't even afford a f**king template _"until they get a few customers"_ then maybe they should have waited to start their business until they saved up some money because it's pretty obvious they launched with an extremely under-capitalized business which 9 times out of 10 is a recipe for failure.



> What is the biggest mistake that you have seen a web host make?


TL;DR rushing to start a business without knowing the first thing about running a business and compounding the problem by launching without enough cash reserves to survive the early months when low revenues and losses are to be expected.


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## drmike (May 4, 2015)

DomainBop said:


> TL;DR rushing to start a business without knowing the first thing about running a business and compounding the problem by launching without enough cash reserves to survive the early months when low revenues and losses are to be expected.


What are these cash reserves ye speak of?  My parents give me allowance every week.  There will be more VPS server money next week.


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## souen (May 4, 2015)

KMyers said:


> I don't personally have an issue with this as some start-up hosts may not be able to afford a custom site until they get a few customers under their belt. I do however have an issue when a host rips a template from another host.


I don't mind hosts using templates, but there's no need to pretend otherwise. It was a case where a host announced the launch of a new site promoting it as a custom site by a design firm and then when someone linked to an identical template, later claimed not knowing friend pulled a template, made a few changes and passed it off as custom work. Iirc host tried to downplay it (short of saying "no big deal, everyone does it") after making the custom site an advertising point.

There was also one (can't recall if the same host) that supposedly hired a lawyer to draft up their TOS, but you can easily find the same document on 2-3 other sites..Painfully obvious as the jurisdictional country wasn't changed and didn't match the company address.


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## Aldryic C'boas (May 4, 2015)

I recall a west-coast "provider" that knowingly sold to criminal spammers for a tidy profit, and simply blocked all of their outgoing mail to prevent listings.  Same provider had this recurring habit of hardware randomly vanishing off the racks to be resold, with no word/explanation to the hardware's owner.

Still surprised that he never received mafia visits over that.


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## KMyers (May 4, 2015)

Aldryic C said:


> I recall a west-coast "provider" that knowingly sold to criminal spammers for a tidy profit, and simply blocked all of their outgoing mail to prevent listings.  Same provider had this recurring habit of hardware randomly vanishing off the racks to be resold, with no word/explanation to the hardware's owner.
> 
> Still surprised that he never received mafia visits over that.


I am shocked they were not taken down by chargebacks


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## drmike (May 4, 2015)

KMyers said:


> I am shocked they were not taken down by chargebacks


I'm not.

There is tons of bark in the industry and hardly any examples of folks getting bitten for bad behavior.

Probably could set up a pretty profitable debt collection agency + legal suit firm focusing on this industry.


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