Dear Site5.com
This is a copy of a letter sent to mlightner@site5.com, hopefully reaching Matt Lightner, the CEO of Site 5 web hosting.
Dear Mr. Lightner,
Your site came so highly recommended. From what I could tell you were the best of the best. The cream of the crop. I showed my boss your site, told them you were the bees knees, and after comparing you to Dreamhost, you were the winner by an easy margin (it was the disk space that sealed it).
So I go to your site and signup for an account. Easy-cheesy right? I get back an email confirmation tell me DNS settings and then I get a copy of the bill. In the interim I had gotten a little panicked because you don?t actually show the bill after signup (this is bad, but not the end of the world), only afterwards through email. Billing contacted me immediately after an email and sent me a copy just as I got the Official one. No big deal there.
After signing in to your custom interface at my.Site5.com, I was impressed. Some very nice tools here. But why can?t I administrate my web space?
I hop on your impressive support forums and send a message. It gets prompt replies and I get help. That?s good stuff there. Kudos.
Then I?m informed via email I need to recreate my account. Why? Apparently it was corrupt for reasons unknown. Also, my timing was bad for some reason or other (I think you?re replacing some servers?). I?m informed to backup my files (which I have none because I never actually accessed any space) and send an email to let you guys know when to rebuild the account.
I inform Billing@Site5.com immediately, on August 23rd, that I?ve never even accessed the space, to get me a new account.
Then I?m told I need to signup again and you guys will move over the billing. Okay?
So yesterday I do. I then get the same emails, consisting of DNS information only. No IP addresses to be found. Word from one of the nice folks in Billing, Taylor H., says he?ll see to it that I personally get my account setup.
Another day passes, no dice. That?s enough for me to make the decision you?re really not interested in my business.
I?ve notified Billing@Site5.com that I?d like to credit my card and cancel the account. It seems preposterous to me that it takes 2 days, two different signups, forums, and support emails to setup a basic web sharing account. No frills, no extras. Just your basic service. I didn?t even try any billing tricks, just the vanilla signup process.
And you guys screwed it up. And I don?t know why, and I?ve heard nothing from you about the process or the problems.
Congratulations, you lost a customer. This letter is also being posted on my blog, www.misterorange.com. If you have any comments, I?d love to hear them and will gladly put them up on the site as well.
Thanks for nothing, though I?m sure Dreamhost appreciates the customer.
Yours,
Evan Erwin
www.misterorange.com
UPDATE 9/8: Read Site5's Official Response (and my own) in this post.
5 Comments:
Ouch. Go with Dreamhost. Really.
Oh, and when signing up, be sure to use "PAUL" as promo code. It will give you 70$ off of your bill.
Or take a look at DreamHost Promo Code to find an even better offer...
Mr. Erwin:
Matt Lightner, Site5's CEO forwarded your email to me & I'd like to take a few moments to address your concerns.
First, let me thank you for your candor & apologize for the service issues you encountered. Site5 clearly dropped the ball on your account. Your description of the events with your account are accurate I am sorry to say. This is certainly not the service that Site5 is known for nor is it something we're willing to let slide.
In response to your remark regarding our ordering process. With our existing checkout process the total order is not confirmed on the 'success page', however, when placing your order the total amount due is calculated right above the section where you input your credit card information.
Fortunately, we are developing a new version of our billing system which will eliminate the issue of no confirmation page with the ability to edit & no order confirmation page with full order details.
Secondly, being required to contact multiple departments within Site5 isn't right. Our customer service representatives should be doing the work for you or assigned your ticket to a technical support rep who could provided an absolute solution to your issue(s).
That being said, I'd like to prove to you that your choice to select Site5 for web hosting was right. I'd like to offer you two (2) months of hosting on the house. To take me up on this offer, simply email me, Todd Mitchell / tmitchell@site5.com, reference this post and I'll get you all setup.
Again, please accept my most sincere apologies for the service you experienced. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Sincerely,
Todd Mitchell
Chief Operating Officer
Site5 Internet Solutions, Inc.
Don't go all crazy with Dreamhost promo code, you can create your own 97$ discount code on their website.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home