opinions on overselling!!

[ashish]

Very recently a client asked us about overselling and that made me think a bit... so I just wanted to get your opinions on it….. Do you think overselling is justified? Still thinking about what to answer

[administrator]

Originally Posted by ashish

Very recently a client asked us about overselling and that made me think a bit... so I just wanted to get your opinions on it….. Do you think overselling is justified? Still thinking about what to answer

Can you clarify what you mean by overselling?

[ashish]

This is a very informative article about overselling, and it explains what it is all about, maybe you should take a look at it

http://whreviews.com/overselling-hosting.htm

[tresfun]

I think overselling can either mean, selling one client too many features of at too high a price point (ie selling a 61 inch wide screen Plasma to a guy looking for a 27inch tv) or it could mean overselling your own capabilities to the extent that you can't keep up with demand (ie the line up for ice cream is around the block with only one person scooping it out - customers leave frustrated never to return).

In either case i think it really depends on the intention of the selling vendor - if he/she has the support and service to back up the increased sales then it can be a good thing as it can relate to an economies of scale and a price reduction for all existing and new customers. If its in a situation where you are overselling features than you better be ready to replace that customer or handle the cancellation as there post-purchase satisfaction could be very high

[UnitHosting]

Overselling can be alright, but as long as you are providing 24/7/365 server monitoring, and full-time support.

[dasp]

Hosts that oversell count on their customers not to use up all the resources that is promised.

However, I do see a problem as many of these hosts also do multidomain hosting. That is, they allow customers to point many domains to their site and host multiple sites.

So my question is, doesn't this set up a situation where a successful "reseller" customer will use up a lot of their alloted resources? Doesn't this mean that over time, the hosters servcies will be degraded the more successful their "reseller" customers become?

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[Graphicism]

I would only consider overselling if you plan on the rapid growth of servers and unexpected expense when the clients quickly out-grow the current server. Problem with this is you charge customers less because you oversell, then you cannot justify additional expenses. This would be the second reason that most hosts close, second to no business at all.

[Gregory-Eric]

Overselling has become the new 'unlimited bandwidth'. By that I mean, many customers now expect unreasonable numbers (space/bandwidth) for the price they pay.
I do think the points that Graphicism made are very good ones. If you plan to oversell, make sure you can handle it when more resources (manpower and otherwise) are needed.

[ashish]

yes true... customer expectation is very high.... they want more for less... but they do not seem to understand the one basic fact.... every web host is here to do business... and to run a business successfully.... they need to make profits....

if a company is providing cheap hosting plans with promises of unlimited space etc.... then there has to be a compromise in service and quality somewhere... no one can afford to give customers, services at low price and still have high quality staff.. servers and other infrastructure.....

[monster]

The problem is compounded by the existence of a plethora of shady companies that offer great packages at low prices but don't actually deliver on their promises - the prices are just low to get people to sign up.

When a customer is prospecting ISPs they see these low prices and expect low prices from _every_ host - not realizing that once they sign on with a shady host they would actually be getting much less than they expected, whether it be decreased uptime, service or functionality.

As with any other product - (in most cases) you get what you pay for!