Five years

Posted Feb 5 at 03:27 CDT by Remi in General  - 30 comment(s)

> whois python-hosting.com [Querying whois.internic.net] ... created: 2003-02-05 18:54:12

Five years ago I registered the python-hosting.com domain (which later became WebFaction), I put together a simple website for a hosting service and I rented a VPS for $30/month to put my first customer on it.

Five years later we have thousands of customers, almost 100 servers and a great team of people working together. And most importantly, we've been able to keep the quality of service that we had from the start. I think that's not too bad :)

To celebrate our 5 year birthday we're having a special promo: buy 3 years of hosting and get an extra 2 years for free. We've been able to maintain our quality of service for 5 years and you can be sure that we'll still be doing it in 5 years.

If you're not a customer yet you just have to signup for an account, pre-pay for 3 years and use the promo code "5YEARS".

If you're an existing customer you just need to open a ticket and mention that you'd like to take advantage of the "5YEARS" promo and we'll get you sorted.

The "5YEARS" promo is only valid for one month.

Here is to our next 5 years of hosting...

Remi.

30 comments:

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Congtratulations - five years practically makes you ancient in hosting company years...

Very pleased with the webfaction hosting and intend to stay with you for the next five (not sure I can afford even three years hosting in one go though!).

Michael

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Congrats guys. If you keep doing what you're doing I'm sure you'll be around for much longer than 5 years.

Expect my ticket shortly...

Chris.

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Maybe a wider audience needs to know, through ads etc. This is a great deal, my ticket went in already :-).

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Great deal! Just a doubt: what happens if I purchase 5 years? Will I get 7 years?

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Sergey: we have a press release on its way but feel free to tell more people about the deal :)

Gilberto: yes, if you pay for 5 years you still get the 2 free years.


Remi.

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Any chance this coupon works for existing customers who want to renew their accounts OR who want to purchase another plan? =]

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I've been following your work for a few years and I've always liked your "no bullshit, no bragging" approach.
All your hard work seems to be paying off and this is well deserved.

I just put in my ticket...

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Ah, sorry, I should stop posting comments without reading the full article.

Webfaction's services have been great, I'm putting in my ticket now =P

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Hugh: yes, this deal is also available to existing customers. Just open a ticket and say that you want the "5YEARS" deal.

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Congrats guys! Your service is really excellent and unlike any other provider. Keep it up!

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WoW! Your service to the Django and Rails communities is huge. Thanks.

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Please note that you need to update:

the Terms of Service (Finance and Billing 2, 3) http://www.webfaction.com/legal/tos

the lower prices at the bottom of the "Shared hosting plans" page http://www.webfaction.com/services/hosting

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Congratulations! If I decide to upgrade the plan later, can I still get 2 years free?

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Boris: Thanks for telling us, the pages are fixed now.

Jani: Yes, you can still upgrade your plan any time you like. In that case you will have the choice between making an additional payment (for the difference) and keep your account for the same period, or don't make the additional payment and the period will end a bit sooner.

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You have to update another piece of text:

Home page (right up)
"A plan for every budget, Starting from $7.50 per month"

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Boris: Thanks again, it's fixed :)

Remi

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Related to what Jani asked, I just wanted to clarify. If upgrading a plan, would the "difference" still carry the 40% discount?

Just as an example, I'm looking at signing up at 3+2 years on Shared 2 ($360). The difference between that and Shared 3 for five years is $306 ($666-$360). So if I upgraded a year later, the difference I would have to pay would be $244.80 ($306*0.80)?

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Hi - It seems from Remi's answer of 6 February that if you upgrade your 3+2 '5YEARS' account after a while, the two free years will stay free for the plan you upgrade to, and you will have to pay the difference between the monthly price you paid at the start and the monthly price of the plan you want to upgrade to, spread over the remaining time before the 3 years which you're paying for run out. For example, if you want to upgrade from Shared 1 to Shared 2 after two years (24 months), you would pay the difference between Shared 1 and Shared 2 over 12 months, which would be the remainder of your paid term. It seems from Remi's answer that you would then stay on the upgraded plan (Shared 2 in this case) during the two 'free' years. Is this right?

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Andy and Duncan: it's quite complicated so let me take an example (I think it's better than me trying to explain the rule).

Let's say you buy a "Shared 1" with the 5YEARS promo and one year later you upgrade to a "Shared 2":

- when you signup you pay $234 (a "Shared 1" for 3 years), which means that your "Shared 1" costs you each month $234 / 60 months = $3.90/month

- one year later, you want to upgrade to a "Shared 2" and you want to make a payment so that your "Shared 2" lasts another 4 years. At that point your balance will be $234 - $3.90*12 months = $187.20
Since you're still on a "5 year" period, you get the "5-year prepayment" price for the "Shared 2" (ie: $8.50/month). So the "Shared 2" plan for the next 4 years will cost you $8.50 * 48 = $408
But since you still have a balance of $187.20, you only need to pay the difference, which is $408 - $187.20 = $220.80

It's hectic but you asked for it :P


Remi.

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In the example above the customer will pay $ 234 + $ 220.80 = $ 454.80 and he will get 1 year of "shared 1" and 4 years of "shared 2".

But, if he's more far-sighted and buy the "shared 2" plan from the start, he will get 5 years of "shared 2" at just $ 360!

So my suggestion is to try to accurately estimate your future needs and, when in doubt between two plans, choose the more expensive one.

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Hi. I'm a prospect, not a current customer, so I have two Qs about your 2-free-years deal:

1. When does this offer expire? (We only discovered Webfaction yesterday, so we're wondering how quickly we need to rush to judgement.)

2. If we pay you for 3 years and want to cancel our account sometime during that period, do we get a full refund for the unused part of the 3 years? (I assume we would lose the free two years; that's certainly reasonable.)

~ Thanks!
~ Ken Winter

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"When does this offer expire?": The last day to signup is March 4th.

"If we pay you for 3 years and want to cancel our account sometime during that period, do we get a full refund for the unused part of the 3 years?": We have a 60-day money back guarantee but past that period I'm afraid we don't offer any refund.

Remi.

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Remi ~

Thanks for the prompt reply. This begets two more questions.

1. Re the 5-year promo: I'm inferring that if we sign up for that deal and send you a big pile of US$ for it, then if we back out within 60 days we would get back the whole pile of US$. Right?

2. Independent of the 5-year promo: If a customer pays for a long-term contract (say 3 years) and then downgrades at say 1 year into the contract, does the customer get a refund so that they are paying for the remaining 2 years at the rate of the downgraded service?

~ Thanks again
~ Ken

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Ken:

"if we sign up for that deal and send you a big pile of US$ for it, then if we back out within 60 days we would get back the whole pile of US$. Right": yes, if you cancel for any reason in the first 60 days we give you a full refund.

"If a customer pays for a long-term contract (say 3 years) and then downgrades at say 1 year into the contract, does the customer get a refund so that they are paying for the remaining 2 years at the rate of the downgraded service?": sorry, we don't issue refunds past the 60-day moneyback period (unless there are special circumstances like we can't keep hosting your site for some reason or we failed to deliver our usual quality of service).

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Remi ~

Thanks again for your responsiveness. Here is my fifth (and I hope final) question on this topic. It's the inverse of the last question I asked:

If a customer pays for a 3-year contract and, after 1 year, wants to UPgrade for the remaining two years (either to a more expensive plan or to get, for example, more memory), can they do this by simply paying the difference between their existing plan and the upgraded one? If not, how does an upgrade during a given paid-up period get charged?

~ Thanks yet again
~ Ken

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Ken: "can they do this by simply paying the difference between their existing plan and the upgraded one?": yes they can. See my previous response to Andy and Duncan for a specific example.

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Good. My organization has just signed up for a trial run. Thanks for living up to your "helpful humans" motto!

~ Ken

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<quote> "If a customer pays for a long-term contract (say 3 years) and then downgrades at say 1 year into the contract, does the customer get a refund so that they are paying for the remaining 2 years at the rate of the downgraded service?": sorry, we don't issue refunds past the 60-day moneyback period (unless there are special circumstances like we can't keep hosting your site for some reason or we failed to deliver our usual quality of service). </quote>

Just to be clear, does that mean that a customer can't downgrade at all during the 5 years? Or could they downgrade and use up their remaining credit at the rate of the lower plan, but not receive any cash refund? The second situation could leave them with some credit left to use at the end of the 5 year period. Thanks, Duncan

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Duncan: Yes, you can still downgrade your account any time you like and use up the remaining credit at the rate of the lower plan.

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sweet deal! thanks guys!

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Thanks! I've signed up my project :)

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