I've been with my current blog host for a little over four years now. I originally switched because I had issues with the service and reliability—not to mention the corporate philosophy—of my previous host. I don't think I need to name this Phoenix-based company; they're infamous.
My current host, while not cheap, has been rock steady, lets me post whatever the fuck I want (obviously), is very WordPress friendly, and when things have infrequently gone sideways, they've been fixed almost immediately.
That being said, they are a business whose job is to sell, sell, sell. Their website is confusing as hell to navigate and find what you're looking for. My current hosting plan was due to expire in two days, so Friday night I logged in to renew my plan for another three months as I have been wont to do for these past four years. This time, however there was no "renew" button available, just "upgrade." Oh great, I thought, they've changed their pricing structure.
Sure enough, clicking "upgrade" took me to a page with horrifically priced plans, all billable only on a yearly basis, none of which was in my budget.
I didn't relish the plan of switching hosts because of the hassle of actually moving the website, but I asked Ben what host he was using because I couldn't afford to stay where I was if these "upgrade" plans were my only choices.
I checked out their plans and they were dirt cheap in comparison to what I had been paying. I got signed up with them and with Ben's help we transferred the domain name and hosting without issue. We ran into a problem, however, when we engaged the company to actually move my WordPress installation. I received a very curt email from their technical support:
Hello Mark,
Thank you for contacting [Hosting Company] Support Team.
Per our check, the voenixrising.com website violates our Hosting Acceptable Use Policy that you may find at https://www.[Hosting Company].com/legal/hosting/aup.aspx , namely Paragraph 8, Prohibited Activities:
'By using any Services, provided by [Hosting Company] You agree: not to use [Hosting Company] services to host any website, other content, links or advertisements of websites that contain nudity, pornography or other content deemed adult related'.
Thus, before we assist you with your website migration, we would ask you to delete the content that does not comply with the above.
Feel free to contact us back anytime.
Well fuck that. I replied to the email telling them that was their prerogative and it was also my prerogative to spend my money elsewhere because of it. I asked that my hosting be cancelled. They responded with a link to cancel the service (which of course turned out to be a hot mess), but I eventually found what I needed and cancelled the hosting. I understand I'm stuck with the domain registration through them for 60 days because of ICANN rules, but I can live with that.
Seeing that I was growing increasingly angry and frustrated, Ben discovered another host that didn't limit what could be posted. I checked them out, but they were the same price as my original host's new plans and also could only be billed in yearly installments.
Reluctantly I returned to my original host's website and looked at my renewal offer again. This was when I noticed that next to the "upgrade" box, there was also a link under what was showing as the price of my current, soon-to-expire, bill-3-months-at-a-time hosting.
When I clicked on that, it took me to a page that gave me the option to simply renew my current plan. Clicked and done.
Why couldn't that have been on the original landing page, clearly marked?
Because they're job is to make money. That's why.