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Seeing as nobody ever checks this forum anyway to get feedback from the customers, I doubt they'll ever see this...
Still. It may help a few people from making the mistake of signing up.
It's got to the point now where their service just seems to be taking the p*ss in some cases.
Like when I had about 25meg worth of stuff deleted from my site, they didn't bother to contact people about it, they knew of the problem as Snuggly said he'd talked to people about it but there was no update on the service page.
It later turns out that they had uploaded an index.shtml page to the account of everyone who was affected telling them what had happened. This would be great but my index.php page didn't get deleted, so I wouldn't have seen the page uploaded. (monkey_man, could you see if you've had the page uploaded next time you log onto your site please?)
Now I phone up to change the nameservers on a domain, this is where things get stupid, they want me to fill in a form telling them the details now. I can't do it by email, even if I tell them EVERY BIT of my details including my passwords because someone may be lying, pretending to be me... I personally think it's because they can now charge me a £3.51 admin charge for doing this! It's also per domain! That's the higest admin charge for changing a couple of words I've ever known!
Other hosts do it for free, or even let you do it yourself. But, FREEola charge for this service as it's another way to get money.
Oh, you've gotta dial-up still to access your webspace and pay extra for MySQL. Really good deal there. Why don't they understand or listen to the countless number of pleas I've seen on here for them to launch a new service. I'm pretty sure that if they were to charge £100 to let people access their space all the time from any connection and keep the unlimited deals, plus add the MySQL into it, they'd get far more than they currently do.
OneandOne.co.uk do hosting, for £8.99 a month you get:
1 GB Web space
300 Email accounts
10,000 MB/month traffic
25 sub domains
MySQL databases
£100 a year from Freeola would be £8.33 a month and would easily beat that, apart from the subdomains. There are other things like log files which could be included too to attract people to the service but as far as webspace and bandwidth goes, this package will easily beat some of the other paid for packages...
Maybe they could introduce other cheaper paid for packages?
As for the deal with Freeola broadband, they've got something good there at least...
Still, they need to carry out some MAJOR changes with their service to attract more customers. Being cheaper and attracting more customers will benefit them far far more than just increasing their prices to force all the existing customers into debt...
Still. It may help a few people from making the mistake of signing up.
It's got to the point now where their service just seems to be taking the p*ss in some cases.
Like when I had about 25meg worth of stuff deleted from my site, they didn't bother to contact people about it, they knew of the problem as Snuggly said he'd talked to people about it but there was no update on the service page.
It later turns out that they had uploaded an index.shtml page to the account of everyone who was affected telling them what had happened. This would be great but my index.php page didn't get deleted, so I wouldn't have seen the page uploaded. (monkey_man, could you see if you've had the page uploaded next time you log onto your site please?)
Now I phone up to change the nameservers on a domain, this is where things get stupid, they want me to fill in a form telling them the details now. I can't do it by email, even if I tell them EVERY BIT of my details including my passwords because someone may be lying, pretending to be me... I personally think it's because they can now charge me a £3.51 admin charge for doing this! It's also per domain! That's the higest admin charge for changing a couple of words I've ever known!
Other hosts do it for free, or even let you do it yourself. But, FREEola charge for this service as it's another way to get money.
Oh, you've gotta dial-up still to access your webspace and pay extra for MySQL. Really good deal there. Why don't they understand or listen to the countless number of pleas I've seen on here for them to launch a new service. I'm pretty sure that if they were to charge £100 to let people access their space all the time from any connection and keep the unlimited deals, plus add the MySQL into it, they'd get far more than they currently do.
OneandOne.co.uk do hosting, for £8.99 a month you get:
1 GB Web space
300 Email accounts
10,000 MB/month traffic
25 sub domains
MySQL databases
£100 a year from Freeola would be £8.33 a month and would easily beat that, apart from the subdomains. There are other things like log files which could be included too to attract people to the service but as far as webspace and bandwidth goes, this package will easily beat some of the other paid for packages...
Maybe they could introduce other cheaper paid for packages?
As for the deal with Freeola broadband, they've got something good there at least...
Still, they need to carry out some MAJOR changes with their service to attract more customers. Being cheaper and attracting more customers will benefit them far far more than just increasing their prices to force all the existing customers into debt...
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Tom wrote:
> Just because BTOpenworld and the like don't let you do all these
> things, doesn't mean freeola shouldn't.
... but at the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean they should.
> Being an ISP is not an excuse for being incompetent!
Where do you get the 'incompetent' bit from?
> Just because BTOpenworld and the like don't let you do all these
> things, doesn't mean freeola shouldn't.
... but at the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean they should.
> Being an ISP is not an excuse for being incompetent!
Where do you get the 'incompetent' bit from?
Miserableman wrote:
> Tom wrote:
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
>
> ROFL you got him there!!!! It is, afterall, commonplace in all ISPs
> to let their customers tinker with all aspects of their email and web
> hosting packages. Check out those superstars AOL, BTOpenWorld and NTL
> - all of which treat their users like MENSA members - if they do it,
> it must be right!
You do realise, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?
Just because BTOpenworld and the like don't let you do all these things, doesn't mean freeola shouldn't. Maybe freeola should set the trend, not follow it? Also, freeola have a NEED to let people change these things - there's not really a lot that I'd want to change with my .btinternet.com account.
And another thing, I don't see BTOpenworld creating a forum, then constantly referring to their customers as "kids" or unable to do even the simplest thing that other hosting companies let you do. I've seen companies set up forums, but they always have the highest amount of respect for the customer, even to the point of saying sorry for things that weren't their fault.
A certain amount of trust is needed between freeola and the customer - just customers trust freeola to know what they're doing. If the customer screws up, they phone the support line...that's what it's for! You could even, perish the thought, consider setting up a help section for these new settings.
Fact of the matter is, even though Freeola is an ISP, the hosting aspect is a major part of the company. Infact, they even refer to a Domain *Hosting* service, so they are in fact, a host. Being an ISP is not an excuse for being incompetent!
For the record, I now get MYSQL free on my free host.
> Tom wrote:
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
>
> ROFL you got him there!!!! It is, afterall, commonplace in all ISPs
> to let their customers tinker with all aspects of their email and web
> hosting packages. Check out those superstars AOL, BTOpenWorld and NTL
> - all of which treat their users like MENSA members - if they do it,
> it must be right!
You do realise, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?
Just because BTOpenworld and the like don't let you do all these things, doesn't mean freeola shouldn't. Maybe freeola should set the trend, not follow it? Also, freeola have a NEED to let people change these things - there's not really a lot that I'd want to change with my .btinternet.com account.
And another thing, I don't see BTOpenworld creating a forum, then constantly referring to their customers as "kids" or unable to do even the simplest thing that other hosting companies let you do. I've seen companies set up forums, but they always have the highest amount of respect for the customer, even to the point of saying sorry for things that weren't their fault.
A certain amount of trust is needed between freeola and the customer - just customers trust freeola to know what they're doing. If the customer screws up, they phone the support line...that's what it's for! You could even, perish the thought, consider setting up a help section for these new settings.
Fact of the matter is, even though Freeola is an ISP, the hosting aspect is a major part of the company. Infact, they even refer to a Domain *Hosting* service, so they are in fact, a host. Being an ISP is not an excuse for being incompetent!
For the record, I now get MYSQL free on my free host.
Valentino Rossi wrote:
> Your service would be excellent if we didn't have to use the Freeola
> dial up, but that's going to change so we'll have to call it quits.
>
> And before you mention Freeola BB, you charge
>
> 512K - £26.99
> 1 Mbit - £49.99
>
> NTL prices: 600k £24.99, with free activation and 1 free month
> or 1 Mbit £34.99, again with free activation and 1 free month
>
> So if a new customer signed up for 1 Mbit a month for a year they
> would save over £250 by going with NTL, not a small difference
> is it ?
But don't forget Freeola is ADSL and NTL is cable. £49.99 for 1Mbit ADSL is pretty good at the moment considering BT havent released any proper 1Mbit ADSL connections for home use. Most ADSL companies would'nt give you much change at of £50 a month for 1Mbit. BT are trialing some proper 1Mbit ADSL in a few months so hopefully 1Mbit ADSL will be in the same sort of range as NTLs 1Mbit Cable.
> Your service would be excellent if we didn't have to use the Freeola
> dial up, but that's going to change so we'll have to call it quits.
>
> And before you mention Freeola BB, you charge
>
> 512K - £26.99
> 1 Mbit - £49.99
>
> NTL prices: 600k £24.99, with free activation and 1 free month
> or 1 Mbit £34.99, again with free activation and 1 free month
>
> So if a new customer signed up for 1 Mbit a month for a year they
> would save over £250 by going with NTL, not a small difference
> is it ?
But don't forget Freeola is ADSL and NTL is cable. £49.99 for 1Mbit ADSL is pretty good at the moment considering BT havent released any proper 1Mbit ADSL connections for home use. Most ADSL companies would'nt give you much change at of £50 a month for 1Mbit. BT are trialing some proper 1Mbit ADSL in a few months so hopefully 1Mbit ADSL will be in the same sort of range as NTLs 1Mbit Cable.
You know, I think everyone has a point here. Who do freeola think they are for charging a tenner a year, yet not providing services that match or exceed what other companies charge £100pa for?! How DARE they charge extra for mysql support even though no other hosting company on the internet does? What gives them the right to try and make a bit more money on admin charges - a tenner a year for a web service that gets hundreds of hits a day is bleeding me dry as it is!!!!?!?!?!?
Here I've highlighted some of the most valid criticisms:
Valentino Rossi wrote:
> (a price comparison with NTL)
Indeed, how could freeola dare to charge more than NTL - as we all know, NTL are the best ISP IN THE WHOLE WORLD and they NEVER have network collapses, you can ALWAYS get through whenever you try and phone them and they are the only ISP that don't have a website devoted to how useless they are. That 12 month unbreakable contract is only peace of mind, and the additional requirement of having to pay for cable TV that VR forgot to mention is bonus entertainment all the way!
Phi11ip wrote:
> And how just asking for my password/email/address over the phone won't
> work?
Any ISP that doesn't give out user details/passwords to any tom, dick or harry over the phone is asking for bankrupcy!
Tom wrote:
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
ROFL you got him there!!!! It is, afterall, commonplace in all ISPs to let their customers tinker with all aspects of their email and web hosting packages. Check out those superstars AOL, BTOpenWorld and NTL - all of which treat their users like MENSA members - if they do it, it must be right!
Here I've highlighted some of the most valid criticisms:
Valentino Rossi wrote:
> (a price comparison with NTL)
Indeed, how could freeola dare to charge more than NTL - as we all know, NTL are the best ISP IN THE WHOLE WORLD and they NEVER have network collapses, you can ALWAYS get through whenever you try and phone them and they are the only ISP that don't have a website devoted to how useless they are. That 12 month unbreakable contract is only peace of mind, and the additional requirement of having to pay for cable TV that VR forgot to mention is bonus entertainment all the way!
Phi11ip wrote:
> And how just asking for my password/email/address over the phone won't
> work?
Any ISP that doesn't give out user details/passwords to any tom, dick or harry over the phone is asking for bankrupcy!
Tom wrote:
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
ROFL you got him there!!!! It is, afterall, commonplace in all ISPs to let their customers tinker with all aspects of their email and web hosting packages. Check out those superstars AOL, BTOpenWorld and NTL - all of which treat their users like MENSA members - if they do it, it must be right!
TGMbloke wrote:
> Oh - and one of the main reasons I stay with Freeola? The Freeola 1000
> thing. I can set up loads of addresses for one site - this is a
> fantastsic feature.
>
> One improvment that im sure is harder to do than say but would still
> be great though, would be if differant Freeola domains would loacte
> differant folders within the site - you know, so
> www.XBOXStuff.Ukgamers.net points to www.Mystuff.ukgamers.net/XBOX
> and www.GCStuff.Ukgamers.net to www.MyStuff.Ukgamers.net/GC or
> somthing like that.
Why not just put the different sites on different accounts? Then it would work how you want. You could in fact also do what you want using PHP (if you are familiar with it).
> Also - sometimes the email would be nice, but I would not want the
> URl as Google counts that as a multiple URL and can blcok your site
> completly if it thinks your spamming up the internet with lots of
> addresses. It would be nice if you could choose for the URL&Email
> address or just one of them...
Google won't even know about the other URL if you don't use it anywhere. You could even block the domains you don't want to be used - again, if you are familiar with PHP.
> As said - I know this is most likly harder to do than say, but it
> would be a nice feature in the futrue.
> Oh - and one of the main reasons I stay with Freeola? The Freeola 1000
> thing. I can set up loads of addresses for one site - this is a
> fantastsic feature.
>
> One improvment that im sure is harder to do than say but would still
> be great though, would be if differant Freeola domains would loacte
> differant folders within the site - you know, so
> www.XBOXStuff.Ukgamers.net points to www.Mystuff.ukgamers.net/XBOX
> and www.GCStuff.Ukgamers.net to www.MyStuff.Ukgamers.net/GC or
> somthing like that.
Why not just put the different sites on different accounts? Then it would work how you want. You could in fact also do what you want using PHP (if you are familiar with it).
> Also - sometimes the email would be nice, but I would not want the
> URl as Google counts that as a multiple URL and can blcok your site
> completly if it thinks your spamming up the internet with lots of
> addresses. It would be nice if you could choose for the URL&Email
> address or just one of them...
Google won't even know about the other URL if you don't use it anywhere. You could even block the domains you don't want to be used - again, if you are familiar with PHP.
> As said - I know this is most likly harder to do than say, but it
> would be a nice feature in the futrue.
Rosalind wrote:
> Tom wrote:
> CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> If we let customers do it themselves, most of them would muck it up
> and complain that we let them muck it up.
>
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
>
> Touche!
Jerry! Jerry!
> Tom wrote:
> CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> If we let customers do it themselves, most of them would muck it up
> and complain that we let them muck it up.
>
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
>
> Touche!
Jerry! Jerry!
CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> As someone who used to work in Freeola Support, I am merely speaking
> the truth. Some people would be fine with it, but the majority would
> not.
Fair enough, but you should still accomodate the people who are fine with it.
> As someone who used to work in Freeola Support, I am merely speaking
> the truth. Some people would be fine with it, but the majority would
> not.
Fair enough, but you should still accomodate the people who are fine with it.
phi11ip wrote:
> Like when I had about 25meg worth of stuff deleted from my site,
> they
> didn't bother to contact people about it, they knew of the problem
> as
> Snuggly said he'd talked to people about it but there was no update
> on the service page.
CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> We didn't contact everyone because we didn't know who was affected.
> There was a message on the status page at the time, and on our phone
> system too.
I checked that service notice for a week after my site had been affected and nothing appeared. The person on the phone didn't know of any problems either when I asked him if there were any backups.
As with the DNS changing. £3.53 per domain to change the DNS is expensive. The fact that other companies allow you to put the names into two boxes and have the whole thing done in under a minute shows how simple it is. If the user can do it just by entering a couple of words into a box and having the change take affect instantly, why is it so much harder for you?
And I wouldn't be moaning like this normally, because I am moving to another host, it's just the way that this charge to change the DNS has come in when its completely unnecessary.
Can I just ask how people were abusing the service? And how just asking for my password/email/address over the phone won't work?
> Like when I had about 25meg worth of stuff deleted from my site,
> they
> didn't bother to contact people about it, they knew of the problem
> as
> Snuggly said he'd talked to people about it but there was no update
> on the service page.
CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> We didn't contact everyone because we didn't know who was affected.
> There was a message on the status page at the time, and on our phone
> system too.
I checked that service notice for a week after my site had been affected and nothing appeared. The person on the phone didn't know of any problems either when I asked him if there were any backups.
As with the DNS changing. £3.53 per domain to change the DNS is expensive. The fact that other companies allow you to put the names into two boxes and have the whole thing done in under a minute shows how simple it is. If the user can do it just by entering a couple of words into a box and having the change take affect instantly, why is it so much harder for you?
And I wouldn't be moaning like this normally, because I am moving to another host, it's just the way that this charge to change the DNS has come in when its completely unnecessary.
Can I just ask how people were abusing the service? And how just asking for my password/email/address over the phone won't work?
Tom wrote:
> CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> If we let customers do it themselves, most of them would muck it up
> and complain that we let them muck it up.
>
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
As someone who used to work in Freeola Support, I am merely speaking the truth. Some people would be fine with it, but the majority would not.
> CaNdYfLo$$ wrote:
> If we let customers do it themselves, most of them would muck it up
> and complain that we let them muck it up.
>
> I think that alone sums up the amount of respect you have for your
> customers.
As someone who used to work in Freeola Support, I am merely speaking the truth. Some people would be fine with it, but the majority would not.
phi11ip wrote:
> Like when I had about 25meg worth of stuff deleted from my site, they
> didn't bother to contact people about it, they knew of the problem as
> Snuggly said he'd talked to people about it but there was no update
> on the service page.
Admittedly, not contacting your customers and informing them of their site being deleted isn’t good at all. I wasn’t one who was affected by the problem, so can’t comment to any hig level, but would certainly find it down hearting if my host didn’t bother telling me. Placing an index page on the customers site saying “We are a host who has lost your web site” doesn’t look to good to visitors of that site, who would quite easily decide not to come back. A simple customer notification E-mail would have been expected, would you have to agree?? After all, not all people update or view their web site for weeks at a time, so how are they to know?
Not backing-up customer sites isn’t really expected when you’re not a dedicated web host though. Although it would be nice, no doubt it would cost too much to be profitable.
> Other hosts do it for free, or even let you do it yourself. But,
> FREEola charge for this service as it's another way to get money.
No doubt you are talking about 123reg?? What you may not know is they are not a single company, but a subsidy of Web Fusion, one of the largest UK hosting companies to date ... who are in turn a subsidy of Host Europe, one of the largest hosting companies in Europe. They can offer really cheap domains and domain tools because they have the power and financial backing to do so (as well as it being its core business). Freeola maybe big, but I don't think they could compete with that, especially as they are really an ISP with Web Hosting/E-mail additions (or so gives the impression).
> Oh, you've gotta dial-up still to access your webspace and pay extra
> for MySQL. Really good deal there.
Well, actually it is quite a good deal. You don't have to have the MySQL if you don't want, and what you get is a Database with no set limit to how much information you can store. While it may not be the cheapest, £3 a month isn't really asking all that much when you consider how useful MySQL can be. Still not forgetting the unlimited web space. I'm happy with what I'm getting through my Freeola account. It doesn't cost me the world and gives some great features which I use.
Just remember they are an ISP, Internet Service Provider, so their offerings will be hard to match dedicated hosting companies. But then, what they offer now is certainly good enough for me, and for many of their customers it seems (otherwise they'd have gone out of business a long time ago). If you can find a better host, go for it, but you can't expect them to alter their services because a couple of people don't like it compared to hundreds who do.
> Like when I had about 25meg worth of stuff deleted from my site, they
> didn't bother to contact people about it, they knew of the problem as
> Snuggly said he'd talked to people about it but there was no update
> on the service page.
Admittedly, not contacting your customers and informing them of their site being deleted isn’t good at all. I wasn’t one who was affected by the problem, so can’t comment to any hig level, but would certainly find it down hearting if my host didn’t bother telling me. Placing an index page on the customers site saying “We are a host who has lost your web site” doesn’t look to good to visitors of that site, who would quite easily decide not to come back. A simple customer notification E-mail would have been expected, would you have to agree?? After all, not all people update or view their web site for weeks at a time, so how are they to know?
Not backing-up customer sites isn’t really expected when you’re not a dedicated web host though. Although it would be nice, no doubt it would cost too much to be profitable.
> Other hosts do it for free, or even let you do it yourself. But,
> FREEola charge for this service as it's another way to get money.
No doubt you are talking about 123reg?? What you may not know is they are not a single company, but a subsidy of Web Fusion, one of the largest UK hosting companies to date ... who are in turn a subsidy of Host Europe, one of the largest hosting companies in Europe. They can offer really cheap domains and domain tools because they have the power and financial backing to do so (as well as it being its core business). Freeola maybe big, but I don't think they could compete with that, especially as they are really an ISP with Web Hosting/E-mail additions (or so gives the impression).
> Oh, you've gotta dial-up still to access your webspace and pay extra
> for MySQL. Really good deal there.
Well, actually it is quite a good deal. You don't have to have the MySQL if you don't want, and what you get is a Database with no set limit to how much information you can store. While it may not be the cheapest, £3 a month isn't really asking all that much when you consider how useful MySQL can be. Still not forgetting the unlimited web space. I'm happy with what I'm getting through my Freeola account. It doesn't cost me the world and gives some great features which I use.
Just remember they are an ISP, Internet Service Provider, so their offerings will be hard to match dedicated hosting companies. But then, what they offer now is certainly good enough for me, and for many of their customers it seems (otherwise they'd have gone out of business a long time ago). If you can find a better host, go for it, but you can't expect them to alter their services because a couple of people don't like it compared to hundreds who do.
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