My Tch Experience - It's Been Excellent

[simplyjond]

I signed up for TCH at end of August and I thought I'd wait til now (October) before providing feedback. One of the resons for waiting was to see if the service in the post-sales period and day-to-day activity was any different than in pre-sales.

 

 

Q. How did I hear about TCH?

 

A. I got the initial link via a site called www.yourhostsucks.com (YHS). TotalChoiceHosting was recommended in glowing terms by people who had bad experiences with other vendors. I was using the YHS site to try and reduce my long list of about 25 possible suppliers.

 

 

Q. Why did I select TCH?

 

A. Using a number of sources, I got down to a short-list of 3 possibles - all of which were receiving favorable reviews from the vast majority of current users. The balance was tipped towards TCH by a few factors:-

 

i. the TCH users forum was a major influence. Not only was the community support better than anywhere else I had seen, but TCH are brave enough and confident enough to allow negative postings and show them thru to conclusion (warts and all). No-one gets it right all the time so seeing how problems were dealt with was important. I saw one particular situation where TCH refunded someone their money despite the fact that TCH were clearly not at fault and even the complainant recognised that at the end - but wanted out anyway.

 

ii. TCH provided a low cost, low risk entry level. 30 day money back guarantee and the ability to quit on one month's notice. So even if I made a wrong choice, I could exercise damage limitation quickly and cheaply. My no.2 choice offered the 30 day guarantee but insisted on a year paid in advance contract.

 

iii. I sent a number of pre-sales questions to each of my 3 short-list vendors to gauge the credibility, speed, and helpfulness of their responses. I also investigated up-time commitments and statistics. To be honest all 3 were good including TCH. So the two factors above were what made me choose TCH.

 

 

Q. Did I have any problems getting started?

 

A. Yes, I had a number of minor issues in the course of getting my site up and running. Some of these were my fault (I confess); some were misunderstandings of what was required; some were limitations in systems/software capabilities. The important thing to me is that when I contacted TCH support, I received quick, courteous and helpful replies. This was a consistent experience irrespective of which support person dealt with the issue/query. For example, I had an issue with using TCH mail-forwarding in concert with third-party auto-responder services. TCH bust a gut to get to the root of the problem even though at times it didn't seem as if it was being caused by them. The third-party company gave up helping before a solution was found - it was taking too much support effort. (The problem was system/software limitiations on both sides and required a work-around solution.)

 

 

Q. Were there any major issues?

 

A. No. As I've said above, the problems were all minor. Since they occured, TCH have published even better guides and notes - so I probably wouldn't encounter those again. The proof point for me was that my site was up and running on 1 September, on schedule, as planned.

 

 

Q. Is the level of support related to the level of spend with TCH?

 

A. I was putting up my first site with TCH and therefore was very careful about the financial commitments I was making in case I wanted to get out quick. I only signed up for the most basic package and I took it on a monthly basis, so I could get out easily if I had a bad experience. I think therefore it's fair to say that my $4.00 a month does not make me TCH's most important customer. The level of support I've received has been consistently excellent, from pre-sales all the way thru to on-going day-to-day operations.

 

 

Q. Would I recommend TCH to my best friend?

 

A. Yes, without hesitation. In fact, I have recommended TCH to others and one is in the process of transferring his web site (www.brassmonkeys.com) to TCH. His current vendor was ripping him off and is now being a pain in the **** during the transfer process - further evidence to him that the move is worthwhile.

 

 

Q. Any other comments or feedback?

 

A. The TCH forum has proved to be even better than I had expected - in terms of value to me personally and the support and advice you can give/get. It is a major benefit of being with TCH. I have also taken advantage of the initial free Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) advice from TCH and that has helped me in a big way.

 

 

Q. How much is TCH paying me to say these things?

 

A. Nada, zero, nothing. TCH haven't asked me to write this review - I'm doing it because I want to. TCH doesn't even offer payment for referrrals - but that doesn't stop me from recommending them to others. I have never felt more confident about recommending any vendor.

 

 

Q. There must be something I don't like?

 

A. Only one thing so far - the TCH Search Engine submission facilities that I intended to use are not very good at all. I've dropped that from my plans and made other arrangements to get my site known.

 

 

Q. Last Words?

 

A. I am currently planning further sites and intend to use TotalChoiceHosting for every one of them. If you offered me a different host at half the price, I still wouldn't switch. What more could I possibly say!!

[TCH-Rob]

Wow, thanks John. I am a little speechless at the moment. I have one issue with this though.

 

I think therefore it's fair to say that my $4.00 a month does not make me TCH's most important customer.

 

I believe that to be incorrect. YOU are our most important customer. It matters not whether you are on the lowest monthly plan with one domain or have hundreds on a dedicated server. Without each and every person here this wouldn't be the same family.

 

No favorites, no preferences, just one big happy family.

Edited October 10, 2003 by Critical Mass

[Deverill]

What a great (and honest) review! Thanks for sharing your experiences and views on our favorite hosting company!

[TCH-JimE]

Hi,

 

Wow what a report, its good to know where we go wrong because then we can try and improve our service to make it even more better then it already is!

 

Thanks, and glad to have you as part of the family

 

Jim