Initial Impressions of IPS Hosting Signup Process
I just signed up with IPS Hosting to have a hosted Invision Power Board account, what follows are my very first initial impressions of their service, after being a customer for maybe... 25 minutes.
- Sign up was easy and I got an invoice emailed to me before the final confirmation page even finish loading. (This is good)
- I promptly got a welcome email that explained they would install my forums and that if I hadn't seen anything within 30 minutes to contact support. (Also good)
- Nine (9) minutes after having paid them I got an email with the administrator details for my forums. (Very speedy and thus good =))
- Sadly, this email didn't have any information regarding their client area, how to get support, etc.
- The forum was installed improperly and gives PHP errors. (Front and back end) This is bad. I do realize that such things happen, and that this is probably an automated process... but there should be some kind of quality control that checks that everything worked.
- I replied to their support@invisionpower.com address that sent me the welcome email to tell them something went wrong. About 6 minutes later I got a reply stating that no ticket was found in their system and that I would have to log into their support area to open a new ticket. Fair enough, but silly. (Also, this is the first I was told where the "clients" area is... You know, where you can see invoices, get support, etc)
- I've just put in a ticket (and got a confirmation that they received it instantly) to get everything fixed up. Sadly, my forums wont load at all right now ("This server is taking too long to respond." type errors)
Current overall thoughts: The IPS Hosting new customer welcome experience needs improvement. About 30 minutes rewriting the welcome emails and things would feel much better for new customers. Also, they really should do some QA checks on new forum installs.
Updates: After exploring the clients area, I found where I can access cPanel. However it looks like I already got my IP banned by their server while I was trying to guess my password in it earlier. On the bright side, their security is good enough not to use the same password for cPanel and your admin name on the forums. I suspect the ban is temporary and am waiting for it to expire or for them to clear it based on a support ticket I put in.
It also appears the errors with the forum are because the forum wasn't installed correctly. Using my 3G connection I was able to get into cPanel, resetup the DB, and then install the forums manually and they seem to work.
So at the end of the day, I think the instructions provided in the initial emails they send you really need to be improved. I'm a smart guy and I am deeply rooted in the web hosting industry, but it took me a while to connect the dots and I imagine many other users would have more issues and be more frustrated than I am/was.
The end, for now.
PS: Still no reply to my support tickets, but it has only been an hour or two and I think it is after hours for them.
Second Update:
Shortly after posting my last update their support staff got around to helping me. They promptly unbanned my IP, helped me get my domain working, and gave me instructions on how to change the domain settings in IPB. (I had already finished reinstalling the forum myself at this point.) Overall I would say their support was very helpful, very prompt (2~3hr wait after hours isn't bad at all).
Those welcome emails still need work though.
The end.