HostNine.com | Sharp Practice, Stupidity or Both?

The HostNine Transfer Experience

Recently, in an effort to streamline my admin, I decided to transfer two domains from the Network Solutions and register then with the companies hosting these domains (HostNine and Namecheap). One of the hosting companies was HostNine where I have 6 sites (including the one I wished to transfer) hosted. The other site would be transferred to Namecheap.com.

Armed with my EPP number (issued be Network Solutions) the first transfer (to Namecheap) was completed in less than half an hour and only needed confirmation (after 5 business days) from Namecheap & Network Solutions.

I then turned to the HostNine website fully expecting a similar user experience and a relatively easy process. I have always loved the HostNine website for it’s very minimal design, which makes it easy for users to see all options offered, quickly. On this occasion however I was unable to find any information relevant to transferring my domain registration and so after numerous attempts and searches I finally sought help from the support team and sent a support ticket to them.

As sometimes happens the first answer I got did not answer my question at all and it seems the agent had misunderstood my query. However after replying and pointing out that my initial question had not been answered I did get very detailed instructions (thanks Matt R) on how to proceed with the transfer.

Having found the correct page, filled out and submitted the transfer request form I was redirected to a page informing me that I had been deemed a “ high security risk” and that this request would therefore be reviewed manually.

This message saddened me and I felt somewhat hurt to be so considered by a company with whom I had been doing business for over a year. Added to this was the fact that I had spent over two days organizing this transfer (as opposed to ½ an hour with Namecheap) and it seemed that there were to be further delays. I therefore decided that in order to stop wasting further valuable time that I would just cancel this transfer request and transfer the domain to Namecheap also. However seeing another email from HostNine I saw an invoice for the transfer in my inbox. It was not that this invoice was for slightly more than the transfer to Namecheap that annoyed me but rather the “Cancellation Terms and Conditions” attached to the invoice (see screen grab below).

HostNine Invoice

As can be seen this invoice was issued on the 07/30/2010 (the day I completed the transfer request form). Below that in the “Cancellation Policy Reminder” was the statement “ If you wish to terminate service for any item(s) on this invoice, you must complete our Cancellation Form at http://www.hostnine.com/cancel/ at least forty-eight (48) hours prior to 07/30/2010”

So not only did HostNine view me as a “high security risk” but any rights to cancellation had also effectively been removed, as I would not be able to complete the required Cancellation Form 48 Hours before completing the transfer request form for the service. J

My point in writing this post is not to denigrate HostNine, who in my estimation do a fabulous job hosting some of my domains at a very reasonable price. Rather it is to show that even with larger companies like HostNine, reputational issues can exist in areas oft overlooked like the Cancellation Terms, or the Transfer Request Confirm Page. I have since been made aware that all transfer requests made to HostNine are processed manually, so what was the purpose of that message on the confirm page or is it perhaps just and oversight. It matters not whether these errors are a mere oversight or a conscious attempt to deny customers their rights, the resulting damage to a company’s reputation is the same. These problem areas may exist in services that represent less than 5% of a company’s business (like I suspect is the case with HostNine) and yet the resulting reputation damage affects the whole company’s image and thus inevitably will also affect their profits.

Happily the customer service department is fairly switched on and I hope that these issues will be resolved by HostNine shortly, and when they have I will write an update post.

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