It is fair to increase the hosting price for existing customers?

Hi,

This is actually about ResellerZoom. I have two accounts with them, both on monthly billing cycle.
1 account at $10/monht, over 2 years old
1 account at $7/mo, over 1 year old

Recently the first account became $14, and the second one became $10 (total $24 instead of $17), without any prior notification excepting the increased invoice.

The fact is that they'll be losing the $14 account this month (will be transferred to another host in the next few days) and the other one will be transferred at a later point.

So their income will actually be $0 instead of $17.

Have you ever had any similar experience with other hosts?

 

It is fair, and prices do go up. That's why contracts exist. Unless you have a contract that specifically states that your prices will not change, they can do whatever they want. The cost of IP addresses changes, bandwidth charges change, server part prices change (remember the floods and what they did to hard drive prices?), etc. As a consumer, you are obviously free to go elsewhere.

It might be impossible for them to maintain the same price and still make a profit, just like in any other industry. The price of food goes up, the price of hamburgers goes up, the price of gasoline changes, etc. Either lock yourself into a long-term contract with a company or go with somebody who respects clients more than simply raising the prices without any sort of notification.

 

Usually you do not see your prices increasing for existing customers, I personally would never do that. Even if you increase your pricing it should only be for new orders.

 

I don't think it's wise.

 

Cost of the web hosting services are depends on the many things. So you should not expect the same price for hosting every year. But if you make the long term contract then it would benificial for you.

What should be more important for you, if they value their business, stability of the servers, uptime, availability of the support, professionalism.

If you want something better you have to more.

 

Now hostgator sent me that their hosting plan price will increase shortly. I have been with them for more than 5 yrs. Not the duration that matters but as some said it here, price changes should be only on new customers.

 

Seriously? A few dollars difference pr month, and you're all "ammagad"! You do realise that every business out there is in it to make money, right? If the cost of running the business go up (which it continuously does), then customers need to be prepared to have prices go up as well - it's only logical. As for "only for new customers" - well, most companies do have a grace period where old customers keep their original price, but eventually, all need to be updated, and have the price change.
Of course, there are companies that doesn't do this - however, it goes both ways. I used to work for an ISP that usually changed their packages and plans once every two years or so. Thing is that due to fierce competition, those new plans were almost always faster / better at the same or less cost - hence everyone would like to have the new package, instead of being locked on their old one. There was no automation for this though - if the customer asked, he was transferred, but if not, he just kept getting the same lower speed for more money as before. So, it goes both ways.
However - you pay next to nothing for hosting as it is. Less than $100 a year for an account? That is NOTHING. It doesn't even cover the operating costs (well, of course it does, but that's only because the hosting provider is really big, and have so many customers that a few problems doesn't really take away from profit).
Stop bitching about pennies, people.

 

Well look what Hostgator did.. For several years they was farming customers with cheap hosting plans thanks to overloading/overselling their nodes. And now they are increasing the prices (smart huh?).
That's why I never go with cheap providers. And for months now I'm using linuxssdvps.com and I'm really happy with them.
Just my 5 cents