Warning re unsolicited web hosting offer

MOH

A friend registered a new business name last week. Yesterday she got a letter through the door addressed to the "Managing Director" of <business name>.

It included a fairly professional *looking* leaflet suggesting possible .ie domain names she might want to register, and hosting offers. I'm not going to name the company, but they're based in Dublin 2.

Basic hosting was offered for free for the first year (once you bought a domain name for €29), and a mere €109/year after that. This included a massive 200MB of disk space*, 10GB of bandwidth* , a basic one page template, and such wonders* as the ability to upload your logo, FTP access to your site, and the ability to make changes to your site for free. It also appears to include one domain only and no subdomains.
(*these are not typos, and yes I am being sarcastic)

This is a very, very poor deal. Compared to the basic offers from the likes of digiweb and blacknight, even their "standard" package is weak - and that costs €220 per year.

I also wasn't very impressed by the fact they kept referring to "your company" when a simple CRO check would show it's not. If they're going to scrape CRO records, they could at least do it properly.

I know some people might be only looking for a very basic web presence, but I can't see how you could do much worse than this deal (unless you're planning to set up for 1 year only and then fold, in which case the €29 for domain + a 1 page site might be appealing).

But I can see how someone might fall for their well presented "offer". As always, shop around, and especially don't trust unsolicited mail.

arctictree

Ah - I get one of these everytime I register a business name. They make good fuel for the stove.

mneylon

Not sure which one that offer was .. I can think of at least two companies offering them

The main thing to be careful with is their terms and conditions. One company has this:
"The Customer shall be responsible for any costs and expenses incurred by the Company in respect of the relocation of the Website or Domain Name(s) to a third party or to the server of a third party (as the case may be) or the transfer of the Domain Name(s) to a new registrar of the Domain Name(s) (with or without a change in the ownership of the Domain Name(s)). The Company shall levy a standard administration fee of £25/ €35 in respect of the costs incurred in assisting in such a change of ownership or transfer. The Company shall be entitled to refuse to relocate or transfer such Website or Domain Name(s) unless such costs and expenses and all other Charges due under this Agreement have been paid in full by the Customer. The Company accepts no responsibility for the Website and any issues surrounding the Website and this Agreement shall be terminated automatically on such transfer, in respect of that particular Service provided by the Customer, but for the avoidance of doubt this Agreement shall continue in respect of all other Services which remain to be provided by the Company to the Customer."