I recently called up Digiweb to get a quote for a Windows Virtual Private Server, I got an answering machine the first time I called. The second time I called I got someone who didn’t really seem to understand what we were discussing. I asked him would .net be preinstalled on the machine and he answered “Yes, .net, .com, .org will all work” or something to that effect, I then clarified I meant asp.net and he put me on hold, presumably to find out what I was talking about. Of course while he was away he must have discovered that the VPS he was offering was not yet available and so when he returned he appologised and said that he’d cal when it became available. I got a call just there today from him telling me how unprofessional it was  that both my boss and myself were calling their sales department seperately about the same server.

In contrast, I was on the Rackspace website and used their live chat function and talked with someone who really understood what they were talking about, they even asked what kind of business it was for, not just my requirements. She then took my number and said one of the sales team who was more suited to deal with my requirements would call me. An hour later I recieved a call and was absolutely wowed by his competancy. I’m generally left feeling like I’ve just had a conversation about quantum physics with an 8 year old after a call with most service providers, particularly that guy from digiweb, but on the call with rackspace I felt like the 8 year old. I felt like their managed hosting solution would cost more, but it would save the company I work for money on maintenance and downtime, I felt like they knew more about what they were doing than I did.

And last but certainly not least I got an email from NamesCo, a provider I had only heard of in relation to their take over of register365, the shared hosting and domain registration part of hosting365. They had read my blog on blacknight and when my blog went down due to a logic/usability error* with their cp they thought that Blacknight had taken it down. They offered me 3 months free trial as a rescue package by which time their servers would be upgraded to their new cluster that apparently will blow anything else in Ireland out of the water. I was utterly chuffed, wasn’t even sure if anyone was reading the blog. There was a strong urge in me to say fuck the year worth of hosting I have with blacknight, but the recession is strong with me and so I just asked for more information about the new cluster.

*http://lacy.ie/downtime

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