Hosts that are soo not hospitable

[michellek]

i was approached by someone who said they wanted help with their website. i have some experience with adwords and copywriting so i thought "sure!". well i think i spoke too soon.

she has what the host company called a 'management template'. basically, she can add inventory to the shopping cart, can change certain content but that's it. no access to code. she's been paying them for SEO for the last two years and i'll be damned if i can see any evidence of that at all. plus, they are charging her $55 a month to host the site!!

please take a look and see if you can spot any sign of SEO - the website is winecountryimages.com.

so, anytime i contact the company to ask how we can make edits i get an auto response from support saying they've received my message & reminding me to stay abreast of the rates for support. so, i thought to change some of the graphics myself and asked for files .. they responded saying that they "cannot find the source files". so that now leads me to believe that they do not backup the site.

what can i do? it took them three weeks to get back to me with a solution to a webmail problem and now they 'can't find' files? they have recommended more than once now that we host elsewhere and actually had the nerve to say "you get what you pay for". well, considering what's been paid every month for the last two years, the client should have a fantastic site! problem with moving it is shopping cart etc .. they will only provide the front end pages. i believe she paid $2K for the initial design.

i'm not a developer or designer .. i'm not technical. my client does not understand technology in the slightest and i think she was ripped off. but she now expects me to be able to 'fix' things when i can't. she's not angry but constantly asking me to do things that only the host has access to and that she needs to pay them even more to do.

does anyone have a suggestion or insight on how they handled a similar situation? i don't know how to advise this woman as i've never had such terrible customer service from a host company. btw - they are called ArtAffairs.com.

[imsickofwebpro]

Hi MichelleK,

I looked at the website as you requested.

$2K for the initial design: That's a pretty low number for a custom shopping cart application! But, the ArtAffairs.com shopping application really does suck..lol... And they don't do SEO by the looks of it. (LinkBacks: YahooDirectory, 50 pages indexed, <title>) --> Who cares, there's no text in the main pages!

The most valuable SEO you can do is create new content pages. That's the big secret, no matter what anyone says! And luckily enough, Michelle, you're a copywriter so this should be easy.

Her best bet is to leave ArtAffairs.com, sign up with a low cost webhosting provider (4.95/mon) and buy an OScommerce/ZenCart template (under $100/sometimes free). After that, have a freelance developer set it up in a couple days. It's pretty easy work and she will be much happier.

There are fantastic pre-made OScommerce templates available... Monstertemplate.com or search for "OScommerce Templates" and you'll see.

My company has set up a few of these for clients in a matter of hours. They look good and they work.


Hope this helps.


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Jacksonville website design - Websites and web systems (http://www.jacksonville-website-design.com)

[imsickofwebpro]

Forgot to mention...

Sell her images on places like gettyimages.com or istockimages.com. This may get her some immediate sales.

Really, at the end of the day all the customer wants to see is cost-benefit.

Also, the company can't lose the source files for images, or you would have no images to display. And the website is using .asp not .aspx which means they can't lose the source files for the webpages either.

Good luck.

[quickcreative]

>Also, the company can't lose the source files for images, or you would have no images to display

By source I'd assume psd or png containing layers. So yes, they can "loose" them.

[imsickofwebpro]

Hi Robert,

>>>By source I'd assume psd or png containing layers. So yes, they can "loose" them.

Gee, thanks for correcting my spelling error "loose" instead of 'lose'... lol, dimwit.

It's obvious this company is ducking the customer and you know it.

You don't need PSD or PNG files to fix pictures, that's why we use Photoshop not Illustrator. Any newbie designer can enhance an existing website image, if not, get the image dimensions and replace it.

Your comments are very counter productive in this situation.

[michellek]

imsickofwebpro - the images are almost the least of the problem at this stage and yes, it is so obviously a case of the host company not giving a damn about the customer. i'm concerned about advising this person to move the site elsewhere for the following reasons..

How is current site/content going to be retrieved?
How is site/content going to be placed on new server?
Will new host help manage the transfer process and do any or all tech work?

experience to date suggests that the current host company will do little if anything to facilitate the move..

thanks for the sales suggestions. these are not images that the client owns however .. it's not actually photography - the images merely represent art work that she legally reproduces and sells as print or canvas ..

ultimately tho, i think you are right that she should try to terminate the relationship with ArtAffairs. i am meeting a developer next week and will research some eCommerce sites in the meantime. i'm just worried about the things listed above ..

is there any legal recourse in a situation like this?

[imsickofwebpro]

Hi Michelle,

My comments are in red.

How is current site/content going to be retrieved?
it depends whether the site content is stored in flat files(html pages) or a database. If the content is stored in a database it can be easily retreived and re-uploaded to a new server in less than an hour. If the content is stored in the flat files you will have to ask ArtAffairs.com for the files, which they probably won't supply, or cut & paste text/images from each page, put them into a Word document and re-enter the information into the new website.

Either option is better than staying with ArtAffairs.com if she really feels like she's getting screwed. But, i'm still wondering what other marketing benefits ArtAffairs brings to the table? Do they have brand recognition and promote companies, or do they send out monthly newsletters? What does this company do to justify charging $55.00 per month.

The issues with going solo is she may have to invest more money in order to market her new website location.

How is site/content going to be placed on new server?
Either uploaded to a database or entered manually. For the size of the site, either way won't take very long.

Will new host help manage the transfer process and do any or all tech work?
Typically not. Hosts will point you in the direction of tutorials where you can learn to do it yourself. You will need technical expertise.

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Depending on your customers budget(you must get your customer's budget), you may want to do a quick search for other online shopping centers that specialize in the selling and distribution of Art. There must be tons of places out there, it's not a new industry.

Selling Art on her own requires time/effort and lots of marketing... my apologise; lots and lots of marketing! Unless she has a recognizable brand name or a reasonable customer list, she may run into negative ROI. Research and statistic-backed justification is always recommeded.

Eitherway, OScommerce or ZenCart are the best solutions available for your type of ecommerce store. Godaddy and Netfirms, though aren't the best host's, they are low cost (5.95/mon) and do provide excellent add-ons like free shopping-cart systems that can be installed with one click of a button.

If you need anything else always feel free to ask.

-Scott

[michellek]

thanks again scott. i believe that the $55 a month hosting fee included a $40 per month SEO charge .. yeah, ha!! so i advised her to have them suspend their 'efforts' in this regard and her hosting should now be considerably less.

i think she's so disillusioned at this stage tho that she just wants out.

thanks for your comments in red. i will use those when talking next steps with whomever wants the project!

all the best,
michelle

[hostBrain]

michellek:
I don't think it's as much of a host issue as it is a Web Provider problem.
It's not terribly uncommon for a web developer firm to not want their clients going in and editing their site on their own.
As for SEO, it can easily cost thousands of dollars per month.. but it's so wide-ranging that it all depends on what exactly is being done.. and at $40/month, I don't think you can really expect much.

ps, looks like the provider's office is near me, shall i lean on them for you ? :)