Edit: So, I’ve cancelled my PH account and today I think made peace with Jonno. I understand where he is coming from but still don’t agree with how he is running PH. This is probably the best solution.
So it turns out that my first ‘hosting me’ experience was less than ideal. Initially, the support was great and I felt so at ease going with Parade Hosting. Unfortunately, being so excited about the idea I didn’t investigate enough. I didn’t take the time to find out the owner was passing Parade over to someone else or what their reputation was, I just jumped on in!
I signed up and was told 24 hrs and an invoice I’d have… but I didn’t. Everything just took so. long.
So I was finally a member of Parade and transferring everything over and getting it all sorted out and everything was working and then it went down… and came up and went down and up, down, up, down and oh my how painful!
I got banned from accessing my own Cpanel, I couldn’t add additional domains and when logging a ticket I received one word replies. It was so disappointing to see the lack of support Parade had considering the community the forums appeared to have.
Then I found out more about Jonno, the new owner. Jonno who had multiple jobs and other hosting companies and more other responsibilities than I can count. Every time Parade went down another job or responsibility was revealed but they were never excuses… never! How could we ever think that? How could we ever think anything other than perfection about Jonno? For he had lovingly taken over Parade and kept the support forums even though he detested support forums! Should we not bow down to him?
Apparently we should. All of the mods on the forum do. Here is just a few of the replies I received when questioning the service or getting frustrated with its unreliability:
@Everyone else: What people fail to realize is that Jonno is human, too. And unless we replace his brain with a computer and install some sort of satellite internet access in his body, he can’t possibly be online 24/7.
If the service isn’t satisfactory, you can leave when you wish. No one is forced to stay with services they’re not satisfied with.
Either stick it through until services are repaired or go on your merry way. I’m so very tired.
I believe it’s down.
:O
Nobody’s complained, so I doubt he knows.
Closing the topic, to prevent complaining.
I felt so supported! There is so much bias over there! No talking about other hosts, no negative comments about the service, no complaining… unless you’re Jonno of course. Jonno can complain about everyone else and how they’re being so very unfair to him because he’s just so very important and so very, very busy!
I dealt with most of it time and again with promises of a better service and a new server and this and that but they never came.
Then, the last straw, the site was down and as advised by the mods I email Jonno and receive no response. The site is down for hours and yet, nothing. I leave it be and come back the next morning and the site is up! But the SQL server is down again… for days but I should be patient. Just be more patient! No, I don’t think so.
Thankfully, I was noticed by rival hosts and Brad from HostCrave gave me an excellent deal and helped endlessly to get me transferred over as fast as possible! Less than 24 hrs and everything was changed! However… the SQL server was STILL down over at Parade and I had to play the waiting game.
Finally it came back up and I backed up my database as fast as I could. Phew, especially considering that Parade is down again and has been off and on for the last few days apparently… and where has the fearless leader been? Missing.
All in all, what have I gotten out of this experience? Do more investigation of your host! And especially? don’t go with Parade!
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