Things that set off warning lights

J

JamesCWilson

New member
When looking through the various web hosts out there, what kind of things set off warning lights for you?

The following are some of the things that I watch out for:

1. no money back guarentee

2. any claims of unlimited space or bandwidth

3. an insanely low price for what you are getting

4. too much small print and conditions

There are some other things, but there's an idea. How about you?
 
Lack of contact method (phone, support ticket, live chat)
No Knowledgebase or forums
No customer reviews in google (good or bad)
Very few links listed in google

I base many of my decisions on google, the whois listings, and what's listed in www.webhosting.info
 
I also like to see a postal address. It adds some credibility in my mind. Forums aren't really a big deal to me. I'm not a huge fan of a forum for a web hosting company whether it's for support or not. I haven't seen any other type of companies that have forums for themselves. It certainly wouldn't turn me off to a company, but it wouldn't encourage me to buy.
 
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Along with the above, a badly-written web site. Everyone can forgive a small error here and there, but a site that has tons of mistakes and poorly written text looks amateurish to me.
 
1) Companies that have all these idiots creating "top ten list sites" (Fake Review Sites) that run around the web spamming everyone with there sigs in forums. If a company is that desperate to gain customers by these means, they tend to cut corners else where. I avoid all companies that use such techniques.

2) I check the forum of the prospective hosting company. If there are a lot of complaints of server performance issues from users on the forum, it is a good indication this host is not for me. If the forum moderators are rude and delete posts to try to hide problems as opposed to find solutions to the problems, this hosting company is not for me.

3) Test drive tech support. If they can't pass the correct answers for the simplest of problems or if they take forever to respond, this host is not for me.

4) Search WHT and HD for user reviews. Too many negative reviews from customers means this hosting company is not for me.

5) If the hosting company web site doesn't render well in all browsers, this hosting company is not for me. I hate it when I go to a hosting companies web site in Seamonkey (for example) and it is so garbled I can't even read it. Such companies reek of being amateurs.
 
handsonhosting said:
Lack of contact method (phone, support ticket, live chat)
No Knowledgebase or forums
No customer reviews in google (good or bad)
Very few links listed in google

I base many of my decisions on google, the whois listings, and what's listed in www.webhosting.info
Click to expand...

I would highly agree with "lack of contact method" and "lack of reviews" points. For me if the only contact method is an email address or a simple web-form, I stay away immediately.

I would probably just add those hosting providers whose domain is very young. By young I mean 3-4 weeks old.

Spelling and grammar is a big issue for me as well.
 
I can't believe I forgot to mention some of these things, but nice answers everyone :)

Customer support and contact information is obviously very important, since you need to be able to reach somebody when your having problems, and reviews help you get a better idea of how others feel about the host.
 
I always contact them before signing up. That way you can get a feel for the company (if they actually answer) and the knowledge of their reps.

Reviews (real) and recommendations are another key. Forums (like here) are really helpful for the later two.
 
Being tied to a host for a year at a time, not having the option to buy on a monthly basis instead worries me too. I know plenty of legitimate companies use yearly only plans but I have lately come to dislike them, however that is of course personal choice.

The biggest red flag for me, the most glaring one is a site full of grammatical and spelling errors.
 
As a client I have never liked the idea of (for an ER mind you) not being able to have an account bumped up during mid billing cycle, for some reason that just bothers me in case you end up getting digg.com and a huge load of traffic at some point (or anything else that would cause a large spike).
 
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