slindo
30th September 2003, 03:59 PM
I am leaving Rochen after giving it a 2 week or so trial, during which time my new site has never actually worked! My feeling is that while Rochen may be a very good host for the experienced - make that very experienced - user (I have been designing and maintaining my own ebiz websites for several years, so I am not exactly a novice, but can't claim to be very expert).
For one thing, Rochen lacks the sort of manual that most other hosts have, telling the basics or setting up and operating an site with Rochen. They have a great control panel, but as terminology and usages differ from host to host, it can be very hard to figure out just what to do with it unless one has had a lot of experience on a lot of different hosts. Some of this info is on the forums, and other available from support, but it's like playing 20 questions to get an answer to even the most basic questions, a slow and agonizing way to try to extract basic info item by item that should be somewhere in any easy-to-find an access form.
Finally, tech support. OK, its better than some other hosts I've used, but not great. It always feels a little brittle to me - like they are doing the minimum to respond rather than go the little extra distance to solve the problem for once and for all, and are irritated at being asked an obvious question. It's the 20 Questions syndrome again. OK, I may be asking dumb questions, but isn't that part of their job? Also, if you ask two questions in one ticket, it always seems that only the first is really answered. The final straw is having a workticket unanswered after 3 days - it's like the support people have given up on me but can't even be bothered to tell me.
Actually, all these probs are not different to any hosting service, and I like the multiple domain thing enough that I would probably stay if it was not for one thing - I just can't get my website, a fairly simple one which has worked on several other hosts without probs - to work, and Rochen hasn't been able to either. With a 12 to 20 hour reponse time, what I am sure is just a minor problem is escalating into a major waste of time, and it's time to cut my losses. Support has tried to help, but too often with suggestions that show they haven't really tried to understand what the problem is - like telling me the reason my NMS FormMail script didn't work was because I hadn't put anything in the recipient line, when the instructions say to use that only as a last resort since it compromises security (security, BTW, being the whole reason Rochen says to use that script!).
It'll be interesting to see how Rochen handles this post - whether they just disappear it, or reply that I'm a whiner who was impossible to please, or actually try to fix some of the problems I've mentioned. I hope its the latter, there are a lot of good things here which make the deficencies all the more irritating.
For one thing, Rochen lacks the sort of manual that most other hosts have, telling the basics or setting up and operating an site with Rochen. They have a great control panel, but as terminology and usages differ from host to host, it can be very hard to figure out just what to do with it unless one has had a lot of experience on a lot of different hosts. Some of this info is on the forums, and other available from support, but it's like playing 20 questions to get an answer to even the most basic questions, a slow and agonizing way to try to extract basic info item by item that should be somewhere in any easy-to-find an access form.
Finally, tech support. OK, its better than some other hosts I've used, but not great. It always feels a little brittle to me - like they are doing the minimum to respond rather than go the little extra distance to solve the problem for once and for all, and are irritated at being asked an obvious question. It's the 20 Questions syndrome again. OK, I may be asking dumb questions, but isn't that part of their job? Also, if you ask two questions in one ticket, it always seems that only the first is really answered. The final straw is having a workticket unanswered after 3 days - it's like the support people have given up on me but can't even be bothered to tell me.
Actually, all these probs are not different to any hosting service, and I like the multiple domain thing enough that I would probably stay if it was not for one thing - I just can't get my website, a fairly simple one which has worked on several other hosts without probs - to work, and Rochen hasn't been able to either. With a 12 to 20 hour reponse time, what I am sure is just a minor problem is escalating into a major waste of time, and it's time to cut my losses. Support has tried to help, but too often with suggestions that show they haven't really tried to understand what the problem is - like telling me the reason my NMS FormMail script didn't work was because I hadn't put anything in the recipient line, when the instructions say to use that only as a last resort since it compromises security (security, BTW, being the whole reason Rochen says to use that script!).
It'll be interesting to see how Rochen handles this post - whether they just disappear it, or reply that I'm a whiner who was impossible to please, or actually try to fix some of the problems I've mentioned. I hope its the latter, there are a lot of good things here which make the deficencies all the more irritating.