Today brought to a close a series of obstacles brought on by trying to switch a client’s über-cheap hosting service to a more professional and reliable service, Media Temple. What should have been just a couple of clicks to update the DNS (name server) turned out to be an odyssey across 3 continents, 4 hosting service providers, one confused client, and a miffed designer.
Let’s back up: 5-6 years ago the client signed up for hosting service with a small (maybe someone’s garage) outfit that was sold to a bigger outfit, which was eventually gobbled up by a global conglomerate. Along the way, DNS info, logins, passwords, account numbers, etc were bundled, truncated or vaporized into the thin air of Nepal.
Of course none of these providers have a useful knowledge base within their websites, only trouble tickets to fill out and wait 2-3 days for an auto reply of useless info. I was finally able to talk to a real live human at all three of the previous providers – who incidentally were the SAME company dba separate biz names (I’m sure to alleviate customer confusion!) These nice folks, and they were nice, lead me thru a maze of call centers and help desks that might be featured on the Amazing Race. Each fresh help desk would naturally need the exact same diatribe I’d rattled off to the previous.
After 5 days of 24-48 hr waiting periods for the transfer of domains etc, to take hold, I could finally call the client to assure him that he would no longer need to wait 24 hours for his assistant to receive an email he’d sent from just across the room.
What may have eased the pain of this necessary operation of domain transfers when signing up with a new hosting service, is to have all previous info at my fingertips.
Here’s what I’m recommending for myself and clients to keep all the logins, account owners, contact info in one neat trail:
What might have saved me and client a big headache would be to hire a professional (i.e. not free or almost-free) web host in the first place. There is a reason why it costs $20 (still cheap) a month rather than a year for site hosting: stored records, affable techs that are actually available on weekends, and a usable online knowledge base and support.
