Today, I received an email from the company which hosted my blog about a promotion – get 2nd year for only RM100. It’s quite a good deal, to be honest. But I’m not going to pay for it. Why?

Because the package is not meant for me. It’s meant for advanced users who have high traffic and need a lot of memory & space. I don’t need those. I only use my hosting service for my blogs. The price is just too expensive to me.

Then I asked them about the standard package which I am using now. They replied something like this “I’m sorry that we do not offer that standard package anymore. The only standard package we have now is this RM350 for 2 years package. The first year is RM 250 and the second year, we’re giving the special discount of RM 100 but the discount ends this month”.

Notice the problem?

They discontinued the standard package without informing the customers. If I were to continue, I need to fork out much more for the new package. I used to pay only around RM 100-150 per year, including domain renewal. Now, I need to pay around RM 100-200 more each year. They are indirectly “forcing” the clients to upgrade.

Secondly, they charge an additional RM 20 upgrade fees.

First, they stopped the plan, and now they want to charge the customers for upgrading the package.

Sadly, this is not the only company I know who is using such a tactic. Such things do happen a lot to the customers. They just don’t really care about the customers when making changes. Do you think this is the right way to do business? Is this the right way to treat the customers?

Your customers are not your hostages. More and more businesses are dying off everyday and to be able to keep your customers happy might be your last hope of staying alive. If you cannot even do that and are trying to held them as hostages, do you think they will stay with you happily and let you do all you want?

No.

Businesses should only do things which the customers allow you to. In other words, if the customers give you the permission to do that, then you can. If you don’t follow this simple rule, your customers will go away – the smart customers will leave VERY soon.

Unless, the new changes bring a lot of benefits to the customers.

That’s why businesses should always plan ahead and know the consequences. By not hearing your customers (your source of income), you are indirectly killing your own business off. If you think you can survive without customers, kudos to you.

p/s…. the fact that this hosting company does not provide credit card payment (except PAYPAL, which not many Malaysians are using), doesn’t help too. It’s just so weird to have a hosting company which focuses on Internet….not to have online credit card payment method. I’m happy with the overall service so far, but I will most probably start looking around in 2009 for another hosting company.

p/s…. I recently wrote a poem for the girl who I courted for 3 years. It’s my first attempt in poetry. Check it out when you’re free The end of our chapter.