The hosting company that I, historically, have purchased a large number of domains through has dramatically deteriorated with regard to support/customer service. I know the "registrar" they use for the domains I purchased through them and it appears that I can open my own domain registration(reseller?) account with that "registrar". I would like to do that and, then, transfer the domains I purchased through the company that has deteriorated to my own "registrar"(reseller?) account/service/business.

To me it seems like I would be better off eliminating the "middleman" that is my hosting company for domain names. Can someone let me know if I am missing something or if being my own "registrar"(domain name reseller?) would somehow be a hassle.

Thanks

note: Yes, I have moved the hosting accounts I have with that particular hosting company to another host.

Seem like something I would do. However, the transfer might cost you a bit more money - called a "Transfer Fee". All registrars have it.

Now, what's the problem with the host. What have they done?

Thankyou for being gracious enough to respond.

Originally Posted by andrei155

Now, what's the problem with the host. What have they done?

The descriptive term MONSTERS comes to mind. That is what they are.

The host is Ipower. In my opinion, when talking about Ipower, one should not talk in terms of what is the problem one should talk in terms of "Ipower is a problem"; a big one.

Unfortunately, over more than a few years, they have been one of the companies I have purchased domains and hosting through.

Their support/customer service has gone into the trash; especially since they were "bought" by Endurance International Group within the last couple of years.

More than 1 of my valid code websites, on different Ipower servers, started to experience very high "down-time" compared to those site's history of downtime with Ipower. I just moved the last hosting account from Ipower recently.

Ipower switched to a so-called upgraded version of "Vdeck" which is obviously not Vdeck at all, but, essentially, "ControlPanel" which, I have come to realize, many shared hosting providers seem to have switched to because, I guess, it is the cheapest priced. When they switched a number of my websites that had been up and running with Ipower for YEARS broke.

I called technical support after the "Vdeck" upgrade about, in a couple of cases, websites I had not even modified the VALID code on for a good while and they tried to blame me and proceeded to give me some manner of "runaround". Ultimately, I still have technical support emails and phone calls, before and after the "Vdeck" issue arose, which Ipower has not even responded to. I moved the websites to another hosting company, with, essentially, no modifications to the code, and they worked as expected. note: This is a good example of how I typically only contact my shared hosting provider when I am virtually certain that it is THEIR issue that is causing problems with my website. I do not call my shared hosting provider's technical support department and ask them to write or debug code for me. If I have coding problems I, among other things, go to forums like this one for help.

Back in 2005 I contacted them with ample documentation regarding security risks associated with the current PHP version they were running. THIS YEAR(2008), before I moved the last of my website hosting accounts away from Ipower, they were still running virtually the same 4.3.x PHP version that I warned them about and had asked them to upgrade. They did, I believe, upgrade PHP on the server that I complained most about back then.

I realize it is shared hosting, but, considering the warnings about that particular version of PHP, that I provided links and ample documentation of, they needed to do something IF they really cared about their customers. Anyway, Ipower has gotten far, far, worse since 2005 and the fact that they were still running the PHP version I complained about in 2005 on other servers, to me, is inexcusable.

These days Ipower customer support has also developed this horrible habit of getting belligerent when I, WITH PROOF/DOCUMENTATION, complain about something they have done. My experience with Ipower is that their female representatives, which it seems I get on the phone more than 80% of the time, are the worst with belligerent behavior.

When it comes to domain/website administration I archive/keep my emails. I had one female Ipower rep tell me, via telephone and via email, that they would do certain things, within the day, to resolve issues in accordance with my wishes. She emailed me, with her "personal" Ipower email address and her Ipower telephone extension, and said please contact her if the issue is not resolved OR if I need anything else.

At the end of the day what she promised would be done was not done so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited, to my recollection, a day or two. After that I called her, reminded her that we spoke on the telephone for some time the "other day", and explained to her that what she promised was not done two days ago when she promised it.

Catching me almost completely by surprise, since she had seemed so polite and so forth when last we spoke, she adopted this nasty attitude and said something like "...I am not the one who was supposed to do that and you, blah, blah, blah..." Well, after I picked my face up off the floor I politely reminded her that she assured me, on the telephone and via email, that she would take ownership and make sure the issue was resolved, 2 days ago, as we discussed. She gives me some line about getting back to me via email with further information. She does, but the matter still does not get taken care of and I end up calling and asking to speak to a supervisor. If she had not "knocked my face off" with her belligerence and so forth I might not have mentioned her, but since she did she was at the top of my list of complaints when I spoke with a supervisor/manager regardless of whether complaining about her did any good.

The supervisor/manager said maybe she got upset because of this or that or because blah, blah, blah... I offered to forward HIM the email she sent me and explained that, in this particular case, she was the one who took ownership of the matter and volunteered me her direct extension and her email address AND said contact her if the issue was not resolved.

Anyway, that supervisor/manager resolved that particular issue in about a minute while saying "What's so hard about doing this" the right way. These days most of the time you will not even get to a supervisor/manager. They have told me, a number of times, that a supervisor would call me back and I am still waiting after months for that call or for an email regarding the issue(s).

In summary: Ipower and Monsters are, in my opinion and in my experience, one and the same. It is not necessarily that they are being evil rather it is that they ARE evil. Avoid both of them to be happy.

Well, the larger ones always tend to be the harder to work with! It's hosts like them that give the rest of us a bad name.

Anyways, try transferring those domains, and I hope that everything works out. Maybe now you can take your problems to the Registrar itself - and receive some quality support.

I hope everything works out with the new host - and those domains of yours.