Same Site, New Home

Pardon any errors or downtime the past couple of days, but I’ve finally moved hosts.

I stayed with the last one for twelve years. I probably should’ve left after five or six, but it took a while to realize how bad issues had become because I don’t typically need to make a lot of inquiries or requite customer service When I first signed up with Lunarpages, I did so after reading a few reviews and hearing they had good customer service. And, indeed, when there were some technical issues during signup and moving my domain from Yahoo, they were quick and responsive.

That went downhill. Fast. Increasingly I received cut and paste replies to any inquiries that suggested they only read keywords. It was frustrating to have to ask several times for clarification or be upgraded to a next tier support staff (who could actually answer me in English–and no problem if your staff doesn’t know English, just disclose that up front, because with technical stuff it is imperative that communication between both parties is clear–they need to know what I’m saying as much as I do them). The cost of my hosting never went up, but it probably should have if it meant customer service would not have drastically declined.

The last few communications from them included the upsell of other services–for $39.95 a month, I could get two hours of administrative support.

The last time I received a message, it was regarding “exploited scripts” in my files, and a list. There was also some out of date installs of old CMSs–that was absolutely true, as I’d tried to clean it up the best I could, but I no longer had a webmaster and missed things. But even after removing those old databases and files, there was still a list of exploited scripts I simply couldn’t find.

I mean literally. They did not exist. Not even in hidden files.

So I asked several times–after they threatened to suspend my account if I didn’t remove these files (which they would do themselves…for $39.95)–where they hell the files were since I couldn’t find them.

I was then informed oh, we looked, and you’re right, the files don’t exist.

So…WHY DID YOU THREATEN TO SUSPEND MY ACCOUNT OVER SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T EXIST?

Well, it was automatic, and sometimes the system throws false positives.

I pointed out this was bullshit, that I’d been a customer for twelve years, and that I was going to change hosts (opportunity to retain my business!). I got: “We value you as a customer here at Lunarpages and we thank you for being with us from such a long time.”

Um…yeah. Fuck you, then.

In addition, around the same time, something got flipped with the permissions of my site, and I hadn’t done anything–it happened right after their last email to me, and the site was gone for two full days. I inquired. It took another THREE DAYS for them to reply. By that time the site was inexplicably back and their response was: *shrug* “Looks fine for us!”

Double fuck you, then.

I used Canadian Web Hosting for the non-profit site I managed, and moved Aunt Judy’s there a few years ago, so I said fuck it and bought hosting there. They also offer free site migration and compensation if you leave your previous host early.

Their emails have been prompt and responsive–and there have been a lot of them, because I ended up needing to upgrade, and there were some technical issues to iron out. Clearly they read what I ask and answer accordingly. When I’ve run into issues, they’ve addressed them. Everything is loading faster now. Their services are exactly what they say on the site. I’m paying a bit more money but it’s already worth it.

There are a few bugs to work out–when I was cleaning out old files before moving, I deleted a few things (specifically images) that were in use, so you might find some broken images I haven’t gotten to yet. I’ve regenerated thumbnails so there shouldn’t be too many problems. Next test will be what happens when I post this–fun!

Otherwise, I am greatly looking forward to having this stress off my head–I already have enough of it between work and kittens. (Speaking of…SEE MY BABIES BELOW.)