SBI! Is Absolutely Amazing

[DavidDavidDavid]

Oh, where to begin...how about at the most recent incident:

Simple onMouseOver/onMouseOut image-swap doesn't work when uploaded to them, even though it works perfectly on my end. Yes, the image files involved were uploaded to their servers.

It took three days and just as many different tech support reps before the company would even acknowledge that it's a problem they should, well, provide support for! Evidently they had the usual tech support "keyword-mentality" and as soon as they saw the word "JavaScript" they immediately slammed the brakes on their brains and informed me that they do not provide computer programming help -- even though I wasn't asking them to troubleshoot my code, I was asking them to investigate why perfectly fine and simple code that runs on my machine does not when uploaded onto their servers!

Well, finally, after the third rep, L., acknowledged that the situation was indeed something which SBI! should investigate, it took another two days for that rep to receive my files. Even though all files are already on SBI! servers, they apparently couldn't access them and needed me to e-mail the files to them as attachments. Which I proceeded to do and which the rep could not receive for some reason. Finally she did receive it, and then it was her day off and so another rep took over the case (one that had formerly denied my case being their responsibility at all, C.), and I had to explain the whole thing over and e-mail this rep the same files.

Then the next day L. answered again and said she did see what I was talking about and was referring the matter to her supervisor. Five days passed without further word, and only at my incredulous insistence upon an answer was I told to please be patient and that their "programmers" are looking into it.

The day after that, C. came back on the case and informed me that they've determined that my not using an absolute file path name was what prevented the image-swap from working -- even though SBI! instructions are precisely to use *relative* file path names! So I asked for a link to where in their instructions they say to use absolute file path names...and then D., a fourth rep now, answered, stating that mine was a "special case" and that there had been no instructions to use absolute file path names, but that absolute paths names must be used with images used by an image-swap "because that's just how SBI! works"...which they evidently never knew, since the company's founding in 1997, as it took them two weeks to tell me this!?!?

And just why does SBI! work this way? "SEO," for lack of a better term (it's a term they don't use and even decry but they promise the same [or better] results as SEOers do). SBI! isn't just a webhost -- as they very proudly proclaim, they go beyond webhosting. To that end, they have, in effect, their own CMS on their servers which, apparently, causes weird little anomalies like requiring absolute path names for images involved in an image-swap -- and, I guess, not supporting common file formats like .ani, .bmp, and .cur (I say "I guess" because they don't say why not, except to beg the question by answering "it was a policy decision that was made" or "it's just how SBI! works").

In my three months with SBI! I've been continually amazed with them -- first positively, because I was learning so much, and now negatively, because of little weird things like this image-swap mystery. It's making me wonder just what more "surprises" await. It seems that SBI! is riddled with hidden costs, from financial ones like having to pay extra for having a forum on your site (we're talking a good $200+ here between SBI! and another webhost -- yes, you will need to subscribe to another webhost as well as pay SBI! more money in order to host your very own forums) to odd little curiosities like the company itself not knowing that images used by an image-swap must bear absolute file path names (for those "smart people" who know HTML, absolute file path names are a bad practice, particularly regarding code portability).

Now I haven't decided yet to "cash out" on their pro-rated money-back guarantee -- though I'm afraid of more "hidden details" popping up if I should try to -- but the only thing keeping me around now is their promises of "SEO": that is to say, their claim that somehow their CMS helps out your site WRT getting listed highly by the search engines.

Which, to take a critical (as in "critical thinking") look at it (now that my "willing suspension of disbelief" has been totally shattered), seems a bit odd, too: they are most emphatically against SEOing, but one of their main sales pitches is that their sites are highly ranked by Alexa, suggesting that they have some kind of SEO magic!

Which sales pitch itself is problematic: Alexa ranking means almost nothing; it's extremely low-res, and subject to manipulation. That's on top of the fact that their much-touted "Top 1%" claims mean little *even if* Alexa ranking (which is the *sole* basis for their "Top 1%" claims!) actually meant something, since "Top 1%" out of 56 million sites still means "within 500,000"...and how many visitors (as defined by unique IP addys, which is not an unambiguous metric either) does a site with even an Alexa rank of 99,000 get per month?? Remember, click-through rates are commonly 1-3% and each click is only anywhere from a nickel to a dollar, typically, depending on, i.a., the advertiser-bidden keywords involved....

I have to conclude that SBI! probably isn't for smart people after all. It's one thing to pay for food from the restaurant because you don't feel like cooking tonight; it's quite another to imagine that food only comes from restaurants, or that restaurant food is necessarily good food! Yet it's precisely that kind of logic that SBI! uses in their claims...which is suspect to me now if this company can't even get a simple image-swap to work with their CMS!!

Is SBI! a "bad" product? No. But it's like that routine cup of coffee many New Yorkers get every morning...not that hard to make your own, and not much better either. If you absolutely don't want to get involved with HTML/SEO/general website mechanics, well, guess what: even SBI! requires at least a rudimentary understanding in order to use their online widgets, which do automate a lot of the typical site-building processes involved but which also have their own (only slighter) learning curve.

Anyway, I'm taking the next few days to ponder whether to remain with them...if what I've experienced so far is all the "surprises" there are, then maybe I'll stick around for the "learning experience"...but right now, SBI! is feeling like a very awkward date...as time passes, more and more odd little details are coming out and it just makes you wonder, geez, what else could be around the corner (and how many corners are there to turn)....

Not looking to debate anyone (especially any vigilantes from the SBI! Rapid Response Group of volunteer cyber-militiamen and women [I kid you not]) , so please take this post for what it is: a public service advisory. I know SBI! is a gigantic money-maker for Steve, rivaling all income from this site alone (well, depending on accounting practices, anyway!), so I'm not looking to steps on his toes, either: just providing info on the product/service for others. Good luck to everyone looking to do niche websites, SBI! or not.