The ubiquitous blog was down for almost a week due to a technical fault, sorry about that, during this time over 200 hits were lost. The experience of being Blogless was an unexpected one, at first it was a bit like going cold turkey, I had a real craving to sit down and write something for the Blog, more ideas than usual seemed to bubble up. Being a rather lazy writer, I didn’t sit down and bash something out in Office and store it for the time when the Blog was back up. So the addiction is to the immediacy of writing something and having it posted up straight away, it is the same thing with posting to a forum, only with a forum you are more likely to get a reply.

The other effect that being Blogless has had on me, has been to shake my confidence in my ISP Freedom2surf. A year ago I was quite happy to recommend Freedom2surf to friends and relatives, as I had always had good service from them, and they had a good reputation for customer service. However, over the last year the comments I have seen have been less and less favourable, but the real test is when things go wrong. As soon as I found I was Blogless, I logged the issue by e-mail with Freedom2surf Technical Support, as recommended. A few days later there was an acknowledgement of my e-mail but nothing more, so I tried phoning the Technical Support help line (0870 242 3759). It took me three days to get them to answer the phone. When I finally got to talk to Technical Support, they were very good and the problem was sorted out in under 20 minutes, but why did it take a week for me to get a response?

At the present time, I would be reluctant to recommend Freedom2surf to anyone, and I am thinking of moving to another ISP. Obviously, moving ISP is a hassle and not something to rush into. First I would need to move my web site to another domain, maybe something like kimharding.net. This is risky, as there can be a major loss of traffic and a drop in Google ranking (as I have good reason to know), but with care and a suitable overlap it can be done. So if you are looking for a recommendation for an ISP, try Zen Internet. When I was first looking for a broadband ISP, Zen was highly recommended by friends (who are still enthusiastic about it), but more expensive. Since then, Zen’s satisfaction rating has – if anything – improved, although the cost is still the same. If you are looking for web hosting, Zen are also highly recommended, which is useful if they are already your ISP. However, if you are just looking for web hosting and not looking for an ISP, then Memset is the one to go for, they are dedicated to web hosting, and provide a very high level of customer satisfaction.

So, Freedom2surf, before you send me another e-mail offering me one month free if I recommend your services to friends and they sign up, pull your collective finger out and improve your customer service!