Sorry about the poor quality of today’s comic, it’s not even really a rant. It’s just a reaction to an email I got from James who noted that the characters I draw don’t have thumbs, and yet they are still able to work phones and guns. Yes, James, you’re right. How stupid of me! And here I was thinking I was just drawing a simple webcomic!

Anyway, the excuse for the crappiness of today’s post is due to the fact I’ve been rushed off my feet (weird phrase) trying to get a client’s site done before I go back to university, which is in a few hours.

Ok, so for those of you who don’t know I do freelance web design to help pay my way through university. And up until now it has been a fun way to make a bit of much needed cash and get a the experience in web design that I’ll need if I want to make a career out of it. However, this last week has been hell, and all due to one company.
I had the site all ready to go on my test server, worked great, lovely. So, ordered a hosting package in order to finalise the project. Now, I didn’t just chose a company willy nilly out of now where, I went with one that I have been with before, more times than I could count of two hands. And I’ve never had a problem with them.
Turns out some of the scripts that I wanted to use didn’t work under their environment. That’s ok I thought, I’ll create a php.ini to override some of those settings, which I always thought was standard practice. But oh no, can’t do that, can’t interfere will the holy hosting settings! The server basically ignores php.ini files, meaning if you don’t like the current server settings, tough.
Obviously I sent in a couple of support tickets, but after I got only single sentence unhelpful replies I tried to call. But apparently that’s a big no no as well, they don’t like accepting phone call, they only offer support via a ticket system. Probably don’t want to talk to their angry customers in person. Finally I ask for a refund, after all, I’ve only been using the hosting for a few kilobytes for a few days, and the host doesn’t actually support what I want to run. And they refuse. No refund. Their terms and conditions state that if you have “used” the service then you are not entitled to a refund, and by using they mean any file transfer at all. So, if like me, you upload your files, IT DOESN’T WORK, and then remove them, you are not entitled to a refund because you have “used” their hosting. So I pay for two years hosting, use two days and they refuse to give a penny back even though I won’t be using the package any more.

Yes I should have read the T&C, but come on! No refund after two days of attempting to use the server? That’s bloody ridiculous. Moral of the story? Never use streamline.net hosting.