British Users Troubled with Hosting Service

British businesses are progressively ‘failed’ by their Web hosting services, leading to offline websites and upset customers, says according to the results of a new survey.

Carried out by technology blog IT Pro, the survey asked British companies about their Website and hosting experience. Companies alleged that websites are among a company’s “most important assets” by providing an informational resource for customers, a marketing tool for the business and a retail outlet.

In spite of these findings, 20 percent of companies said they only have contact to customer and technical support from their Web hosting provider throughout regular office hours. IT Pro called this deficiency of 24/7 support “ludicrous”, bearing in mind the peak times for Web traffic fall during weekends and evenings. Consumers characteristically log on at these times in search of information, entertainment and shopping services.

The study in addition established that 40 percent of those with access to out-of-hours support are generally put on hold for “exceptionally” long periods. Another 70 percent of businesses said they have no service level agreement with their Web host, rendering the provider entirely unaccountable when their website is down.

Lastly, 10 percent of company sites said they have a total of two days of downtime a year.