This past week I dealt with a lot of business people who really don't understand the the first thing about building a long-term, thriving business. In this fast-paced world, success is all about referrals. Word of mouth advertising has been the buzz for a long time but now, it has more of an impact then ever before. Said another way, if you piss me off, I'm telling my 3,000 FB friends, 15,000 Twitter Followers, and making a blog post :).
Okay, so I believe in Karma so I'm not going to name names. However, writing about my experiences and what I learned is at the heart of blogging - so I have to share my story. The first issue was with a hosting provider that I've been with for many years. In the last 5 or 6 years, one of my websites (the one they are hosting) has been compromised. Through no fault of my own, the attacks resulting in the host shutting down this site.
After I resolved the security issues, I was able to get the host to reactivate the site. I reacted instantly when these issued occurred and quite honestly wasn't totally to blame. The host informed me that if a breech was ever to happen again they would yank down my site without notice. Since my site is starting to generate more and more traffic, and has been in good standing for over two years, I recently reached back out to the host to see if they would put my account back in good standing.
My conversation with the vendor
When speaking to the provider, I reminded them, that when their site was hacked - impacting my site as well for almost 3 days, I continued to use them through it all. Given all of these factors I felt the provider should put my account back in good standing. Their response? I received a nasty email from them saying that my site wasn't there problem and they wouldn't remove any strikes against my account. Well, guess what host provider, not only am I taking my site off of your hosting plan, but I'm going to let my entire network know just how lousy you are!
The second issue was with a freelancer I was using. He's been doing some work for me but I've definitely felt as though I've been "nickeled and dimed". Every time I send this guy an email - even to fix things he broke, he proposes to charge me or hold the work hostage until he receives payment. Really? Dude, there are millions of freelancers out there and I'm no longer using you.
Whew... sorry to lay it all out but come on people. We live in the 21st century and each of us has the power to choose. We can choose who we work with and have lots of options. I encourage each of you to share your experiences when working with others and keep looking for those vendors, freelancers, and providers who charge a fair rate for their services and with whom you enjoy working. Power to the people!
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