Well it's been six weeks of worrying about my pattern site.
You will have noticed that I use 'freeservers' as my web host and I bet a few of you thought 'good old Jane, she's got it for free'!!! Well that's not the case!! I pay for my space every two years (this time it's £105.00) and I usually hope to raise that amount from people clicking on adverts on this blog - hint, hint. Lately that hasn't happened as much as people seem to have migrated to Facebook.
Anyway, I had an email from freeservers about six weeks ago telling me to check my billing status as they were going to take money from my account on October 11th. Well I checked and horror of horrors the card I'd used two years ago was now obsolete. No problem, thought BC3, I'll just change it to my new card.
WRONG. I got a big red sentence at the top of my page telling me - well you'll see below. I tried another 12 or 13 times and each time Freeservers appeared to take 72 pence out of my bank account. Actually that didn't really happen as they turned out to be ghosts and disappeared from ‘pending’ in the account after a few days. I tried from time to time over the following four weeks and each time I got the same message. I didn't ring them (too expensive from the UK) but did email but those were only answered once a week and were no help at all.
Finally at the beginning of last week I thought I'd have a final try at updating the billing information again and much to my surprise it appears to have worked.
Yesterday dawned (11th October - pay Freeservers day) and I got a text from my bank saying that a company was trying to debit an amount of £105 from my account and told me to follow instructions - which I did very carefully as I knew who and what it was. Blow me down with a feather but my bank saw fit to decline to pay even though I’d told them to. I rang the bank and am now waiting for Freeservers (remember they don’t answer emails very often) to try again and the lady at my bank who I spoke to said that the payment would go through if requested again. So if my website disappears then you’ll all know why.
8:15 this morning and an update to the last paragraph. PAYMENT HAS FINALLY GONE THROUGH!
Meanwhile I'd decided that the winter would be spent moving the whole caboodle over to another hosting site. That's probably nearly 400 pages with at LEAST two links per page etc etc. What a waste of valuable crafting time!!!
Keep your fingers crossed that it’ll all get sorted.
11 comments:
Oh my goodness, these things are always nerve wracking and waste precious tatting and designing time! I hope it's sorted, we wouldn't want to lose your tatting patterns!!
Wow! I think I would have given up long ago. The idea of moving to a new crafting site is intimidating, especially when you consider that I haven't sorted some of the files on my computer in years!
It must have been very stressful! I had no idea that your website was so expensive.I am one who migrated to Facebook, and usually reach your blog from there these days, but after reading this I will be clicking on all the advertisements I can see!
Jane, it’s all sorted but it was a nightmare I don’t need to repeat for another few years, thankfully. The card I’ve got on there is sound for a few years!!!
Maureen it’s actually not that bad when you boil it all down. It works out at a pound a week but I do like to think I can cover it by running the adverts.
Yes the thought of all those hours just changing links on all the pages was making me wonder if I’d even bother, Diane. I’m glad that it’s now all sorted and back to normal for a few years!!!
Technology, got to love it. Sorry to hear you have had problems. Your site is my first go to and highly recommend. Glad everything is working.
Jane, we are so grateful that you offer your patterns to us at no cost. You have done beautiful and whimsical work that makes tatting fun. I will definitely click on those links.
Bless yer cotton socks, Phyllis. Thanks.
That’s kind of you, Lenswyf. Is your name Welsh? It sounds like it.
Well there we was thinking it'd got sorted...
Silly bank charge them for your time of moving everything
Maybe it's time for a crowd funding as we all use your patterns site???
SueH
It was one hell of a roller coaster ride, Sue!!! I thought it was hilarious that at the last fence my bank were being ultra cautious!! Still all sorted now. No need for any crowd funding - just click the adverts whenever you remember. It's always been fine until stooooooopid Facebook took people away from blogs.
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