Forced Hosting Migration-What can you tell me?

[usabilitymedic]

Am wondering if anyone has experienced this or has any insight on how prevalent this is and what is commonly done to fight back.

A previous client of mine emailed me to say she was having problems seeing her edited content after uploading it. I told her to check the file names carefully, etc, assuming she wasn't overwriting the correct files.

In the interim, she had also contacted her host (Dell Host) to ask for help. They told her that her site had been "migrated" to another company and gave her the name. She then emailed that company and was told her account had AGAIN been migrated to a company called Purehost. She was never given notification that any of this would happen. If she hadn't been updating some content, she'd still not know it happened.

Emailing Purehost didn't garner any help for her problem. Their tech support was crap. She figured the solution out herself because although mostly internet illiterate, she has a brain. She changed her IP address in her FTP program to the hosting company's URL and voila! She connects and is able to upload her files and see her content changes.

When she emailed me back to tell me the problem was solved and what had happened, I became suspicious that, in addition to them migrating the site without any prior notification to her, they may have put her on a shared hosting plan. (I am assuming this since previously we uploaded files directly to her site.)

If this is true, I told her to raise hell. Although there's nothing inherently wrong with shared hosting, if her site had more sophisticated needs, she might need a unique IP address (usually not available in a shared hosting situation) and at the very least, shared hosting plans cost less and she should demand a price reduction.

Am I on the right track with my suspicions? Does this happen often? What do people do about it?

Thanks for any light shed :)

[cyanide]

Woah !

That's a bunch of crap !
It's really unfortunate that the Hosting Industry has become full of pretty shady operators.
They definitely should have notified you. And the fact that she was bounced again? Unbelievable!

It does seem to me that hosting companies close their doors about as fast as new ones pop up. Seemingly a lucrative business..... but, it's hard work!
Well, there have been some companies that shutdown period. Leaving clients high and dry.

If she needs any assistance, or help in clearing the mud, drop me a line.

[ldyguique]

useabilitymedic --

1) If she could upload her files via an IP address, but not through her domain name, it means that the 24-72 hr process of transitioning her DNS from one webhosting company to another was still in progress; she needs to learn how to do a whois (www.dnsstuff.com if a good place to start)

2) Most WH plans ARE shared IP -- it's far more rare that it's not, especially if it's a UNIX-based system; however, if she'd previously been on a Windows-based system, she would have been assigned a static ip and she needs to verify just what her plan is with the new WH company Purehost.

3) I've never heard of anyone NOT being notified of an acquisition change; therefore, it's likely that her whois information is out-of-date in terms of the admin email address and the notifications didn't get through to her. Again -- the whois will show this information. Also, it is standard practice for a Registrar to notify the domain owner of any DNS change; again, if admin email is wrong, it won't get delivered.

There are a series of beginner's skills that people need to learn to survive:

a) How to find a URL (I typed in purehost.com and hit the site; otherwise, I would have typed purehost into Google to locate it).
b) How to do a whois on one's own domain -- to find out i) who the registrar is; ii) where the DNS is pointing; iii) if the owner's info is current.

[usabilitymedic]

Thanks so mcuh for your detailed responses and for the offer to help.

FYI re: some of the problems either of you suspected...

1) The DNS info is correct. She had changed it per directions she found in some FAQs. It is possible that the 24-72 propagation hadn't finished. In fact, I had mentioned that possibility to her when we originally spoke. But she told me that several days had already gone by...i.e. she hadn't called me right away. I suppose it is possible that the propagation had taken place on the first migration but not the second.

2) Her contact info with the regisatrar is correct...and has never changed.

3) I did tell her to verify her account type, etc with PureHost.

Anyway, thanks again.