When I started out this blog, I searched the cheapest web hosting package available. Like most newbies on a budget, I was led to Philhosting who claims to be the number 1 hosting company in the country or something. I didn’t bother with that since everyone claims that they’re number 1 anyway. What caught my eye was the price they charge for what other hosts provide (domain, storage, and bandwidth) at twice the cost.
For nearly two years I endured constant downtimes and horrible technical support. For you guys hosted by Philhosting, I’m sure you know the horror stories of finding your site down without any prior notice when you most wanted to blog. Try contacting their technical support and they’d reply with technobabble that wouldn’t fix your problem. Try calling their number and they basically don’t answer. This list can just go on and on. I have another story about them but I’ll reserve that for another time.
Getting tired of their horrible service, I finally decided early this year to move this blog to a new host (MSWeb). They might charge around Php 500 more in a year for what I was getting with Philhosting but having great people to talk to and get warned days before server maintenance and downtime is enough for that added price, I believe. Amazingly, my uptime meter almost always at 100%. And by God, MSWeb did apologize once for not being able to fix thing on time even if it’s just a spillover of an hour or so! I remember Philhosting always acting high and mighty for failing to deliver just about every time. Good thing I now have the luxury of spending that additional Php 500 a year.
Too bad, I wasn’t able to migrate all my websites just yet. Having gone the lazy route and just paid for the renewal for Sugoi Stuff, I let it fester in the bowels of Philhosting’s servers. We really don’t get to update it as often as we’d hoped since Team Sugoi has been quite busy with more profitable endeavors.
I woke up thinking “What the heck. My brain’s not functioning for thesis anyway. Might as well blog.” I was about to update Sugoi Stuff this morning when I got a database connection error. Since Philhosting never ever warns people, I just checked their site out for any “announcements.” Found out that they were upgrading all of their hosting packages to larger capacities (guaranteeing zero-downtime architecture) for literally fishball and gulaman money.
With the money I paid recently for their hosting package of 200 MB space and 8 GB bandwidth, they’re now offering 1 GB space and 25 GB bandwidth. I wouldn’t know if other hosts will be able to match this scheme (scam?) but I now factor in after-sales and technical support when it comes to purchases. By experience, Philhosting fails miserably on all accounts even with what they claim with their hosting packages as well.
Now I’m weighing the decision of blowing the Php1200 I spent renewing Sugoi’s domain and hosting and just move it out or try to weather this crap storm and just move it come December when my subscription lapses.
With three sites on a more expensive host, that figures to Php 5700 a year. I haven’t really tried making money out of my personal sites (though I’ve got AdSense working here and there) since I make my money problogging. But hey, Php 5700 isn’t cheap. I got to make money out of this.
I myself was a victim of this company, I was duped by this company last year when I decided to transfer my domain registration with them from another domain registrar based in US. Please see the link below regarding my rant on this company.
http://www.normandb.com/2009/03/unreliable-philhostingnet.html
They didn’t even say or feel sorry for their mistake and they don’t even have the courtesy to inform their clients on a timely manner that the service we requested from them was unsuccessful, I felt being duped, ripped off or scammed.
Regarding your comment on this site:
Alex, Aaron and Roan, that’s not true, you can transfer your domain to any registrar, not able to transfer your domain is a complete lie. They just deactivated the feature of your domain in which you can modify nameservers and create a transfer code. My company is a registrar too and we give our clients a total control over their domain. email me at sales@hostingphil.com for more details. We we’re able to move domains like acaramba dot net, noelevz dot com jennyo dot net
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Yup. Philhosting sucks bigtime. Horrible service. Here’s my own experience with them.
Anyway, Aaron. Don’t bother Philhosting with this. I went directly to ONLINE NIC (they’d entertain you as your registrar, Philhosting is their reseller) and they said that they are upgrading their services. No definite time period when it would be resolved. That’s why transfers are currently being rejected.
17
Hello,
This is a good news for those customers of registrar OnlineNIC/ Philhosting.net who had problems with previous transfer requests should now be able to transfer their domains to a different registrar if they wish. Please see this article on ICANN (there is already a court ruling dated May 15, 2009) Please see the link below
http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-15may09-en.htm
Cheers to all
You tried, they failed. Seems right and fair on moving out. Though, we’ve made a few post on basis for choosing local web host around here
http://www.pinoyblogosphere.com/2009/12/08/basis-for-choosing-a-good-web-hosting-platform/
Our business name could be new to you but we are not new on this field and expertise.
We even pay your domain registration and yearly domain renewal just for you to try our 30-day money back guarantee with 99.9% guaranteed uptime and sign up with us. Get 20% off on yearly payment and true 24×7 is only part of our aim to provide a long lasting client relationship to local clients and abroad. Send us an email anytime and try our ticket responsiveness to test it yourself.
Lastly, we do not scam and do not practice business dishonesty.
I know Filipinos are well known for hospitality, it does not follow pala we are good at customer service? I have heard a lot of complaints with philhosting, i hope the company is paying attention to this. else, they’d lose a lot of client na, as bad publicity preceded them.
Anyway, im lucky enough not to go trhoug such horror. I simply asked a couple of my friends who also owns some blog sites and they both recommended Philwebservices. these were trusted friends of mine and mas technie pa sa akin, so I took their work.
And I have not regrets naman. Philwebservices has not given me any reason to complain for the past 7 months I am using their service. And I guess I have to be thankful for their patience sa tech support, more than ever after reading this most.
Good luck on blogging guys.