Being deceitful doesn't pay

I came across a new hosting site (can’t remember the name) that supported Ruby on Rails. I wasn’t on a hunt for new hosting, but noticed the design in a CSS gallery. It went from very attractive to repulsive in the blink of an eye (or as fast as you can say “false advertisement”).

The site design looked good. I thought the information was well presented and it just felt clean. As with most clean sites, it implied quality service. +1 for the site design.

This company promoted their Rails hosting pretty hard, which I liked. That’s pretty much the reason I have personal hosting, so seeing that was a good thing. +1 for the Rails support.

Their prices were strategically placed to get my attention, and it worked. The price that struck me was $5/month. From my experience, that’s pretty cheap. +1 for the price.

However, when I checked out the plans section the cheapest one was $5.99/month (a.k.a. $6, not $5). I realize it’s only an extra $0.99/month, but that’s not the point. I’m planning on seeing $5/month somewhere (anywhere) on the “plans” chart, because that’s what I was told earlier. But it wasn’t there. They led me to believe it was, though, because $5/month is much better than $5.99/month.

If they’re not truth-telling about that petty $0.99, how would I know they’re good with Rails? Or general support? Or anything else they claimed to be? And that’s the point. The only thing they got out of me was a guarantee that I’ll never sign up with them.

Maybe I’m the only one who thinks that way, but I doubt it.