In which technology fails and recovers

[rolanni]

UPDATE: Sharonleewriter.com is back online and, presumably, no longer for sale at GoDaddy.  Thanks to those who suggested alternative hosting services; I do believe I'll be looking into moving.  Because, honestly? What if I had been at Boskone this weekend, which was Plan A, and feeling all comfy and good about the autopay and everything being Right with my little corner of the cyberworld, arriving home to find that the domain was toast, or had been snapped up by a squatter.  Yeah, that've been swell to come home to.

* * *

Sharonleewriter.com is currently off-line.  This is because the automatic payment set up at PayPal failed and because Maiahost apparently has a Zero Tolerance policy with regard to payment.  If they haven't received your payment, the first thing they do is cut off your domain.  Then they send you a email saying that your payment hasn't come through.

I went over to the Maiahost site to pay the bill and rehabilitate myself from Internet Robber Baron to Law Abiding User, which process reminded me why I'd set up the automatic payment, and am in negotiation with Maiahost regarding Certain Assumptions it makes in its billing, and the behaviors of its shopping cart.

No love, Maiahost.  No love at all.

Anyhow, perhaps, eventually, sharonleewriter.com will reappear on the internets.

In the meantime, I apologize for the inconvenience.

Comments

[lagilman]

*headdesks*

If you're in the mood to switch, I've had excellent experiences with Dreamhost, and they're reasonably priced for the service (the only complaint I have is their backup can be...spotty. But they're cheerful, and send out regular amusing updates...).

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

I kept reading that name as Malahost not Maiahost. Given their behavior I think my first reading is more accurate.

[ebartley.livejournal.com]

They deregister the domain name as the FIRST step in response to nonpayment??? Really you should switch. Third parties have been known to hold those things for ransom. This is illegal, but unless it's patently obvious that's what's going on, it still works. I don't think your domain name is at risk, because your domain name is so specific if someone else licensed it it WOULD be patently obvious what's going on. But Maiahost is putting their customers at risk of such things before alerting them to the payment problem. Unacceptable. If the problem is that they need to pay for domain registration and need to be sure the customer is current so that they don't do so with their own money, they need to bill in advance of the time they need to pay the domain registrar so that a single problem doesn't risk a cascading failure.

[timepiece]

Yes, I would take that as a sign to switch hosts. I have had very good luck with NearlyFreeSpeech.net myself, and they can also transfer your domain.