I’m currently dealing with a hosting company that has me at my wits end. I’ll refrain from naming names until I’m done with them for fear of not being able to transfer my sites away. I have four sites stuck there and they’ve raised the rates to the level of absurdity. I really think they must be out of their minds, especially considering how limited the plans are!
I use and recommend ASmallOrange, which offers extremely affordable starter plans (Tiny Orange). For $25/yr you get a relatively small amount of space, but unlimited sub domains, databases, email addresses, add-on domains, etc. Their support is extremely fast and helpful and they also have a support forum, FAQ and wiki that answer many questions if you don’t want to wait 10-15 minutes for an emailed response to a support ticket.
A spreadsheet I created to work out my hosting restructuring shows me saving around $500/yr by using ASmallOrange over the other hosting co. and taking advantage of adding on domains to existing accounts, rather than creating separate accounts for each site.
It’s taken several days and I’m still waiting to be able to back up my databases at the old host in order to transfer the sites. Once I get the sites moved and I’m done with the old host, I’ll let you know who they are and why I’m glad to be done with them.
UPDATE: I got a reply back regarding backing up the databases; however, I found that it looks like they only backed up one of the four sites. So, I just reopened the support ticket and asked that they back up each of the four sites. What a freakin’ joke!
UPDATE: I finally got them to backup the rest of the sites and I’m in the process of moving two sites over. For one, I’ve gotten it unpacked, database imported and nameservers changed. I’m just waiting for the DNS to propagate before I get back to work on the second one.
UPDATE: Got the first two sites moved over and trying on the third, which has three databases. I have the site unpacked and one database imported. The second database isn’t making it, so I’m having ASO support look into that. The old host, I believe, is giving me problems and I can’t get phpMyAdmin to allow me to export the third database. What a pain!
UPDATE: It’s been almost a week and every day I think I’ll have the problem resolved. Unfortunately, they don’t offer phone support over the weekend, so I’ve had to wait to call until today. They claim to offer 24/7 tech support, but I have yet to receive a response after hours, and they typically take about a day or longer. I’ve now given all info over to the new host to see if they can log in and figure something out. I’ll also be calling today, but I’ve read from others that it can take about an hour to get through… great…
At this point, I can only think they’re being vague and nonresponsive on purpose. It’s gotten personal. I’ll be posting all support ticket responses with employee names and whatever personal info I can dig up. If they want to cost me money by keeping my site down, perhaps I can cost the company future business and their future employment for their inept staff. I’ll have to weigh the cost of satisfaction vs. the price of _____Sucks.com 
UPDATE: Issue resolved. Site moved. Let the public flogging begin… soon.
