How does selling customers make you...

F

Freckled

New member
You know I see on several forums, companies going out of business and so they are selling the business, which by the way I would much rather see than a company that just disappears. Then you see responses "Hey will you sell just the customers?"

I always wonder how that makes the customers feel, I mean do most of them generally stay with the transfer or do they find a new host on their own?

And I wonder how seeing all these companies doing this if it tends to make people stay aways from the small to medium sized hosts for fear they will just go out of business.

Any of you ever been one of those customers? Or any one of you been one of the buying hosts? Really how well does that work out?
 
I was a customer when Verio bought Webcom. The service levels took a nosedive. I jumped ship.

I was there when Interland bought Communitech. The service levels took a nosedive. I jumped ship.

[ Anyone sensing a pattern here? :D ]

I moved to an el-cheapo host for a year because I had just about had enough of the buyout-sellout foolishness...but didn't have any concrete plans yet.

Ten months later, Scribehost opened its doors.

I might have stayed a little bit longer with Webcom if there hadn't been the extreme fluctuation in service levels. Don't know if I would have eventually moved on or not. (At that time, the Webcom office was a few blocks from where I lived, so that was kind of nice.) I don't know if I would have continued with Communitech much longer, as more and more hosts were offering more flexibility and features for a better price.

My biggest beef with any utility company being sold out from under me (sort of) is the dip in service levels. Just like when Yahoo took over Geocities and Webring, there was a period of instability, both technical and personality-wise. There seemed to be an expectation that this was not only acceptable, but desirable.
 
I sold my clients - kind of easily as the demand was high. Unfortunately the buyer was stupid or naive. He did not bill the clients for 4-5 months and was only half-hearted following the whole thing. Later on I received an email that he was no longer interested in web hosting.

My lesson learned: no matter how thorough you research a buyer - there is always the unkown.

Chris
 
Good grief!

You've really got to wonder about some peoples' children! What - did the person just think that the money would magically appear in his bank account?
 
You know I see on several forums, companies going out of business and so they are selling the business, which by the way I would much rather see than a company that just disappears. Then you see responses "Hey will you sell just the customers?"
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I think it is a lot better for a company to sell their business if they are going out of business, but I also know a lot of people are now starting hosting companies, getting signups, and then selling the business to make even more profit.
They are doing this on a recurring basis so their business is actually selling clients, or a business.
I don’t think this is very fair on the customers as it could mean they will have downtime for a server move or that their support won’t be with the same company they signed up for.
They will lose trust in the hosting industry if they are being “sold”, like a product, after just signing up with a newly created company.
I think this can bring down the hosting company as a whole as people will get a bad impression of it.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with hosts asking if someone going out of business will sell just the clients though, I guess it’s just how it works out as most people interested in buying will already have everything setup for a business.

I always wonder how that makes the customers feel, I mean do most of them generally stay with the transfer or do they find a new host on their own?
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I think this depends a lot on how they are being treated by the old and new company about the transfer.
I think that if the new company is very helpful and keeps them updated, they will most likely stay. If they are being kept out of the loop and maybe just being sent an email saying they have been sold and will be moved either to a new server or just a new company/support team then it would make it far more likely for them to move.

And I wonder how seeing all these companies doing this if it tends to make people stay aways from the small to medium sized hosts for fear they will just go out of business.
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I think that is a very big problem that can have a very bad effect on small-medium hosting companies.
 
I don't know about you guys, but my mortgage has been sold at least 7 times.

Always irritates me, and not just because I have these old fashioned ideas about trying to develop business relationships.

I get annoyed because service levels seem to drop dramatically every time, my check NEVER ends up in the right place at the right time....

Anyhow, I imagine that's how hosting customers feel when they are sold - by the way, anyone have any customers they want to sell cheap?

:)

John
 
SSH-RAJ

Hmmm, I'll have to carefully consider my offer, I'll get back to you by the second Tuesday of next week.

;)

John
 
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