Hosting Issues: Would you have to rebuild? A Must Read...
Every once in a while I've got to put aside all the niceties and be a professional you-know-what. I don't like it, and issues with service providers should never have to come to blows. If you're running an online anything, and you have a host, you can learn from my own client's alleged mistake.
What should have been a 10-minute phone call (with my client, myself and a host's tech support team) turned into a one-hour tirade over access to data, responsibilities of services and what is or isn't included with the monthly hosting plan.
The short of it: The client runs Miva Merchant 5 on a shared hosting environment. The host, without any real notice, gives ZERO access to MySQL data, ZERO access to store data and exported data (i.e. orders to be imported into Quickbooks) and ZERO access to obtain .html files created by a proprietary web-based site-building software.
The long of it: After running into a "no access to files" problem previously, the client ordered a new hosting plan on the phone, confirming many times over that she would have ftp access to ALL files. The entire site was rebuilt from scratch.
Due to proprietary measures setup by the host (I call it a force of marriage) the client is unable to gain access to files she needs to continue offline development, including eliminating the web-based .html software.
Several calls were made to the host, each one longer, and more frustrating than the prior; each time the client was told she could not have access to any data on her site.
Enter... me. Now, I make money whether the client gets these files or not. In fact, I make more if she doesn't. The fact is, the client shouldn't have to pay for what's already hers, and who am I to support her outlay of thousands of dollars when the site and store content has already been created? No, I'm ticked and I'm willing to fight for the site for all it's worth.
After being bounced around a bit, my client sits back and lets me do the talking. After all, I'm a Miva Merchant partner, I wrote a book on the software, and I am fairly well-known in the community. People know that I make recommendations every day, and they're always based on experience. You'd think a host vying to corner every market would care, but they didn't.
After pulling teeth to get the exact location on the host's site to read the actual details and terms and conditions for the hosting plan, and after the client's review of the hosting contract, I ask plainly, "Where on here does it say you cannot access your files? Where does it say that data this client owns can legally be held hostage by you?" The Tech Support Manager referred me to the bulleted list of plan features, then asks, rather sarcastically, "You see FTP listed on there?"
FTP access clearly wasn't listed, and I suppose this guy thought I'd finally bow to stupidity and say, "Alright, so we made a mistake." Wrong.
In all my years of working in ecommerce I've NEVER run into a hosting account with a legitimate partner where at least the minimum of FTP access was not granted. I have run into issues of hosts not defaulting to giving store data access (i.e. only providing it by request), or developers acting as hosts trying to force clients into staying with them, but this was ridiculous. Ten years ago I'd ask if FTP access was included. Today it's so standard you barely even think about it, until it's too late. Then again, there was nothing written anywhere that said the client could not retrieve such data.
Pay or Forget About It! Yep, that's what tech support said. The manager? It was impossible, he said, to do anything unless a directive came from sales.
Off to sales we go, where a rather accommodating rep explains that the client does have FTP access, but only to limited information. She could obtain flat files exported manually, but not the actual data that makes the store function and report records or orders (products, categories, customers, order records, etc.). After several minutes we find that she could get that data, ONE TIME, if she pays a $149 backup recovery fee.
And this, folks, is where I lost it. "Excuse me, but she didn't LOSE her data. She's not refusing, nor is she incapable of transmitting this data. Instead, you are holding it hostage. Are you telling me that you expect small business owners to host with you, yet never have access to the files need to actually function as a business?"
The sales rep put me on hold, and returned several minutes later to explain that his manager will waive the fee - this once - and will ZIP the data and provide it - gulp - via email. Well, it's better than nothing.
If that weren't enough, we find that the proprietary web-based software that makes creating html pages oh-so-easy has a most major downside. The ONLY way to open the files is with the software (I'm hearing more wedding bells here...). The only option is to save all the pages from the front end (i.e. the browser) so they can be manipulated in Dreamweaver.
I wont' spend too much time telling you how the client was unknowingly double-billed for months. When they upgraded her to Miva Merchant 5, they left a domain pointer on a prior server and billed each account, as if she were running two separate stores, combined as a single, line item total... Or how no matter what method I try, I STILL cannot get to the data directory they say is accessible... Or how the host was contracted to perform some work on the live site and after lengthy delays finally told the client they were not cable.
There IS a lesson here... Several, actually. My best advice to ALL site owners who are not 100% positive about what access they have is simple: Stop what you're doing, right now. Log into your site via the control panel, FTP, secure shell, however you can and make darned sure you can not only see all the data files you could possibly need, but that you can also transfer them to your own computer. While you're at it, make yourself a backup.
Keep in mind that you should always be able to relocate your site to a better-suited or more efficient host. The cost really should be further down the list of importance, because if you can't get what you need when you need it, what good is the money you saved?
And if you find you're not able to reach those ever-important files you need (and you might need them desperately one of these days)? Then by all means, pick up the phone and ask why. Then remember this - no excuse for holding store data hostage is really good enough.
