Looking for a good webhost - suggestions?

[jilly]

I've been using A Small Orange, but after my recent crashes and downtime, I am looking to switch. Any suggestions?

here's my tech support chat from today that made me change my mind. Am I wrong to think that 22 hours is an unreasonable amount of time for a website to be down before tech support looks at it??

Ashley B. Thu, 12/03/15 08:59:34 pm America/New_York

Hello Jill . How may I help you?

Jill 09:00:06 pm

I have a website that's been down for 24 hours. need help escalating this
LWE-668-19105
ticket number

Ashley B. 09:01:17 pm

Just a moment.
I'll see what I can do, Jill, but we do process our tickets in the order they are received. I do apologize, but it may be a bit of time. Also, if you reply to the ticket more than once before we do, it bumps it to the back of the line, causing further delays, just FYI.

Jill 09:03:15 pm

this is unacceptable. my ticket has been in for over 24 hours.
this is unacceptable customer service

Ashley B. 09:04:25 pm

22 hours. Less than 22 hours, actually, since you submitted the ticket, and as I said, if you reply to the ticket before we do, it bumps it to the end of the line (looks like you replied twice after you submitted it). I do apologize, I'm only telling you this for future reference. I have notified someone of your ticket and they will look into that just as soon as they can.

Jill 09:04:54 pm

do you think 22 hours is a reasonable amount of downtime for a website

Ashley B. 09:05:19 pm

No, Jill, but as I said, the reason it took us so long to see your ticket is because it was bumped to the back of the queue twice.
I do apologize for the inconvenience, I have a tech looking into your ticket for you now.
Was there anything else I can help you with tonight?

Jill 09:10:49 pm

that's it - I just really want the website back up

Ashley B. 09:11:37 pm

Okay, we'll get that done as soon as we can.

Jill 09:12:12 pm

I replied the second time because the tech sent me an email about MySQL processes, but it was not an answer, and the site was not back up. how am I supposed to NOT respond?
i didn't respond for 10 hours, as I thought he was still working on it
and i finally realized he wasn't, and had to respond.
how can responding to a ticket that isn't fixed, that i get no status on, a bad thing?
how can asking what is going on knock me to the back of the queue? that's a terrible system

Ashley B. 09:13:26 pm

You responded twice before the tech sent you that is what I said, Jill. You had replied to the ticket you created twice before my tech even got a chance to.
I apologize, but that's how it works. Replies move to the back of the queue.

Jill 09:15:13 pm

how much time passed, from your view, between when the ticket was first created, and when I inquired about status?

Ashley B. 09:15:35 pm

Looks like about 6 hours or so, which is pretty typical for our tickets. I've seen tickets take longer than 24 hours for a response depending on the size of the queue


Jill 09:16:31 pm

well i can tell you what, I'll be changing hosts
that's an unacceptable amount of time to respond to a ticket

Ashley B. 09:17:11 pm

I'm sorry you feel that way, Jill. I wish you luck in finding a host that takes less time than that to answer their tickets.


Jill 09:17:34 pm

you guys used to answer in 15 mins. but that was back when Tim Dorr owned it

Ashley B. 09:18:38 pm

I really do apologize that we don't meet your needs or expectations for our ticket turn around time, Jill.
Was there anything more I can assist you with tonight?

Jill 09:20:24 pm

no that's it

Ashley B. 09:20:31 pm

Have a good night

Duration: 20m 59s
Chat has been opened from website: https://asmallorange.com/

 

[Neutral Singh]

Depending on your server loads, you won't be disappointed with https://www.knownhost.com
You can pick and choose hardware as you go along... i have been with them for 3yrs... never disappointed... all the best!

 

[Kevin]

I have not had to use their support very often but of the 1/2 dozen or so tickets that I've submitted to Knownhost their team have have responded to me within minutes, even on the weekends/after-hours. I'm an SSD VPS with them and will let others give input on the VPS features versus other hosts but for support at least I've been really happy with them.

 

[briansol]

I've never had a ticket take longer than 15 min to have a response from servint

 

[Amin Sabet]

I've been using A Small Orange, but after my recent crashes and downtime, I am looking to switch. Any suggestions?

here's my tech support chat from today that made me change my mind. Am I wrong to think that 22 hours is an unreasonable amount of time for a website to be down before tech support looks at it??

Ashley B. Thu, 12/03/15 08:59:34 pm America/New_York

Hello Jill . How may I help you?

Jill 09:00:06 pm

I have a website that's been down for 24 hours. need help escalating this
LWE-668-19105
ticket number

Ashley B. 09:01:17 pm

Just a moment.
I'll see what I can do, Jill, but we do process our tickets in the order they are received. I do apologize, but it may be a bit of time. Also, if you reply to the ticket more than once before we do, it bumps it to the back of the line, causing further delays, just FYI.

Jill 09:03:15 pm

this is unacceptable. my ticket has been in for over 24 hours.
this is unacceptable customer service

Ashley B. 09:04:25 pm

22 hours. Less than 22 hours, actually, since you submitted the ticket, and as I said, if you reply to the ticket before we do, it bumps it to the end of the line (looks like you replied twice after you submitted it). I do apologize, I'm only telling you this for future reference. I have notified someone of your ticket and they will look into that just as soon as they can.

Jill 09:04:54 pm

do you think 22 hours is a reasonable amount of downtime for a website

Ashley B. 09:05:19 pm

No, Jill, but as I said, the reason it took us so long to see your ticket is because it was bumped to the back of the queue twice.
I do apologize for the inconvenience, I have a tech looking into your ticket for you now.
Was there anything else I can help you with tonight?

Jill 09:10:49 pm

that's it - I just really want the website back up

Ashley B. 09:11:37 pm

Okay, we'll get that done as soon as we can.

Jill 09:12:12 pm

I replied the second time because the tech sent me an email about MySQL processes, but it was not an answer, and the site was not back up. how am I supposed to NOT respond?
i didn't respond for 10 hours, as I thought he was still working on it
and i finally realized he wasn't, and had to respond.
how can responding to a ticket that isn't fixed, that i get no status on, a bad thing?
how can asking what is going on knock me to the back of the queue? that's a terrible system

Ashley B. 09:13:26 pm

You responded twice before the tech sent you that is what I said, Jill. You had replied to the ticket you created twice before my tech even got a chance to.
I apologize, but that's how it works. Replies move to the back of the queue.

Jill 09:15:13 pm

how much time passed, from your view, between when the ticket was first created, and when I inquired about status?

Ashley B. 09:15:35 pm

Looks like about 6 hours or so, which is pretty typical for our tickets. I've seen tickets take longer than 24 hours for a response depending on the size of the queue


Jill 09:16:31 pm

well i can tell you what, I'll be changing hosts
that's an unacceptable amount of time to respond to a ticket

Ashley B. 09:17:11 pm

I'm sorry you feel that way, Jill. I wish you luck in finding a host that takes less time than that to answer their tickets.


Jill 09:17:34 pm

you guys used to answer in 15 mins. but that was back when Tim Dorr owned it

Ashley B. 09:18:38 pm

I really do apologize that we don't meet your needs or expectations for our ticket turn around time, Jill.
Was there anything more I can assist you with tonight?

Jill 09:20:24 pm

no that's it

Ashley B. 09:20:31 pm

Have a good night

Duration: 20m 59s
Chat has been opened from website: https://asmallorange.com/

22 hours, and if you reply you go to the end of the line. Wow, that is terrible!

I can highly recommend ServInt and Hivelocity.

 

[WSWD]

Am I wrong to think that 22 hours is an unreasonable amount of time for a website to be down before tech support looks at it??

That's outrageous, to be honest. In case you weren't aware, A Small Orange was bought some time ago by EIG, who is infamous in the hosting industry for buying successful company and then running them into the ground. A Small Orange was one of those, that was formerly a great VPS company.

 

[msibm]

Which shared hosting is best for running xenForo?

 

[WSWD]

Which shared hosting is best for running xenForo?

You're going to get a multitude of different opinions on this. There is no universal best host. The best host is the one that works best for you...offers the support you need, the specifications you need, etc. What might be "best" for somebody else might not be the best for you.

@Mike Edge here does a great job with xF shared hosting.

 

[Mike Edge]

@Mike Edge here does a great job with xF shared hosting.

Thank you kindly sir

 

[CTXMedia]

No host to suggest, sorry, but what a crazy ticket policy - reply before them and it goes to the BACK of the queue?

 

[WSWD]

No host to suggest, sorry, but what a crazy ticket policy - reply before them and it goes to the BACK of the queue?

Believe it or not, that is how almost every commercial billing/ticket system in existence works. They are normally sorted by last reply, with the oldest/stale tickets at the top of the list. We don't really have an issue, as we usually don't have a large amount of tickets in the queue at any given time, but I have personally seen this happen in some of the very large companies, and it's a complete mess. This is why if you have a ticket submitted somewhere, you really never want to bump it or add more information until a tech. replies. It's stupid how some of the major host billing software out there think that this is somehow good design, but it is what it is. Can't really fault the host for that.

 

[MasonK]

I suggest @The Dark Wizard /Velocity IO. I have had no downtimes, out of this world pricing, amazing server load, customer support responses within less than 24 hours, and tons of awesome benefits you would usually only get on a dedicated server.

 

[rdn]

I suggest @The Dark Wizard /Velocity IO. I have had no downtimes, out of this world pricing, amazing server load, customer support responses within less than 24 hours, and tons of awesome benefits you would usually only get on a dedicated server.

But your site is slow and broken for me.

 

[MasonK]

But your site is slow and broken for me.

I'm not having any problems.... Try again.

 

[rdn]

Same issue for me until now.

 

[Mike Edge]

Same, hard re-fresh fixes it, but if you then refresh normally again it messes up once again. When it does load correctly, I only get a single image about the site being rebuilt.

 

[WSWD]

Same as @RoldanLT and @Mike Edge

It just times out. Sometimes it loads a partial page, sometimes it loads everything but the CSS, sometimes it doesn't load at all. Refreshing a few times fixes it. Currently took over 10 seconds to load, on a 1Gbps connection.

Also just to note, 24 hour response time on support tickets, is considered horrendous in this industry. Most are 30 minutes to an hour or less. Not really sure I would advertise a 24 hour response time as a plus.

 

[MasonK]

Should work now I accidentally activated the firewall somehow, so it's my fault.

 

[Mike Edge]

Should work now I accidentally activated the firewall somehow, so it's my fault.

That's a major security flaw if a shared host allows clients to make changes to the firewall

 

[NetDoc]

I went to Amazon this past December. WHAT A GREAT HOST!!! I have a fairly large forum and it got very quick after that. Now that I'm on xenForo, it's awesome quick.