[ditlev]

Hi Guys,
We, at UK2.net, have gone through quite a lot of web design work throughout the last 6-8 months - from the (uk2.net/indexold.htm) old design made back in '99, through our "middle" designphase with lots of confusion or what products we were providing to whom, to our current design that is more to the point.

Our crazyegg mainpage image is interesting though, as less than 5% actually click on our product offerings? See our crazyegg at: tracking.uk2.net/uk2.jpg. Its based on around 8000 clicks, about 15% of our daily traffic.

Our conversions has gone up significantly and our inflow of new clients has seriously never been higher. However, I would love your input on what we could do better?

Are we pushing it to much? Would you be looking for more "general" info before getting the product splashes thrown in your face?
More than 50% of our visitors are "new" (as in not returning) to uk2.net, and would come to us looking for services that we provide, but why dont they click on the main products then?

Thanks for your time and input

Best regards,

Ditlev

[Dusteh]

I know for a fact that in years gone by we have had severe problems getting you to release the domain names of clients moving away from you. I hope that part of your service has been overhauled as well. UK2 was a swearword in our office. Making it hard for clients to leave your service (a BT tactic if ever there was one) damages your wider image, because disgruntled ex-customers will happily moan to their friends. But hey this was a while ago so maybe I'm moaning for nothing.

As for the design, I can't fault the product layout, its a very generic - a bit grey - but it gets to the point.

If so many people are using the domain checking system, perhaps its best to concentrate on catching those people on the following pages. Keep advertising how cheap you are and the benefits of registering with you. At the moment you seem to have cleaned up your frontpage, but the horrific off-yellow tables on the results page hark back to old UK2. If this is where most of your traffic is going surely this page should also look cleaner, more modern and promote your products more clearly without having to scroll down?

[cam]

Try making the whole of the blocks 'domains', 'web hosting', etc an anchor rather than just the right-hand arrows/buynow. Won't encourage people to click that wouldn't have otherwise, but it'd feel nicer.

props on posting the heatmap, interesting to see that

[ditlev]

Thanks for your fast input

Originally Posted by Dusteh

I know for a fact that in years gone by we have had severe problems getting you to release the domain names of clients moving away from you. I hope that part of your service has been overhauled as well. UK2 was a swearword in our office.

Yes, I get that a lot
I have been MD here for the last year or so, and support has been top of the agenda since then - we still have some way to go, but we are getting there. It was quite scary how it was (not) dealt with earlier. I have 4 doubled our support staff, and today our telephone support will actually go live out of our UK offices (yay!).

Originally Posted by Dusteh

As for the design, I can't fault the product layout, its a very generic - a bit grey - but it gets to the point.

If so many people are using the domain checking system, perhaps its best to concentrate on catching those people on the following pages. Keep advertising how cheap you are and the benefits of registering with you. At the moment you seem to have cleaned up your frontpage, but the horrific off-yellow tables on the results page hark back to old UK2. If this is where most of your traffic is going surely this page should also look cleaner, more modern and promote your products?

Thing is that domains is sort of a "loss leader" for UK2 as it is for most webhosting companies, which is why most of us tend to push other products a bit harder.

Thanks again for your input though...


ditlev

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by cam

Try making the whole of the blocks 'domains', 'web hosting', etc an anchor rather than just the right-hand arrows/buynow. Won't encourage people to click that wouldn't have otherwise, but it'd feel nicer.

props on posting the heatmap, interesting to see that

thanks for your input

[datahound]

Much nicer site, looks great, and seems the 101 popups and popunders on entering and leaving the site have gone.

I can see how to transfer in but I cannot see a link to how to transfer out? Or reference to transfer out charges.

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by datahound

Much nicer site, looks great, and seems the 101 popups and popunders on entering and leaving the site have gone.

I can see how to transfer in but I cannot see a link to how to transfer out? Or reference to transfer out charges.

thanks for your input

yes, like any other webhost we are not promoting ways leave our business on our front page...I don't think you will see many companies doing that

[freelancr]

ditlev, is it actually possible to transfer a domain away from uk2.net, without having to pay about £50?

A client I am working for has bought a domain name through you, which has suddenly stopped working even though it has not expired according to the WHOIS result.

So then, for us to get the domain off of you, we have to pay for another year of your Web Diversion services to actually get into the account. Then upgrade to the highest level control of DNS, then (and only then) can we change the ISP tag to get it away from you.

Instead of looking at how you can improve your website, considering improving the quality of service and value for money. I should think most professionals avoid you because your practices are underhand.

If there is an alternative, preferably free, method. Please do enlighten me, as your website isn't forthcoming with the information.

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by freelancr

ditlev, is it actually possible to transfer a domain away from uk2.net, without having to pay about £50?

A client I am working for has bought a domain name through you, which has suddenly stopped working even though it has not expired according to the WHOIS result.

So then, for us to get the domain off of you, we have to pay for another year of your Web Diversion services to actually get into the account. Then upgrade to the highest level control of DNS, then (and only then) can we change the ISP tag to get it away from you.

Instead of looking at how you can improve your website, considering improving the quality of service and value for money. I think most professionals avoid you because your practices are underhand.

If there is a alternative, preferably free, method. Please do enlighten me, as your website isn't forthcoming with the information.

wow - tough crowd. Since you ask so nicely I will answer your question even though this really isn't a UK2 support forum (sorry mods).

Yes, like nominet themselves we charge for moving domains away from uk2 if you have been with us for less than 2 years.
After 2 years moving away is free, before that there is a move away fee of £12.99.


ditlev

edit: a link would be helpful i guess , you should go through the process at amail.co.uk/moveaway.htm (still a part of the old scruffy design, sorry)

[sub]

Originally Posted by ditlev

wow - tough crowd.

By all accounts you had some very constructive criticism.
Unlike your transfer out policy, this is free of charge.

Btw. the question put to you be freelancr isn't technically a support query.
This should be something that is stated clearly somewhere on your terms of service.

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by sub

By all accounts you had some very constructive criticism.
Unlike your transfer out policy, this is free of charge.

indeed, and I thank you for it.

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by sub

This should be something that is stated clearly somewhere on your terms of service.

It is?
uk2.net/tandc.html:
"If domain name is transferred or canceled, a fee of twelve pounds ninty-nine pence plus VAT will be charged."

Granted, it could be put on the indexpage in big bold fonts.
Since I have been on board at UK2 I have been putting a "leave all clients happy or refunded" policy in place, and if anyone was feeling cheated, I have been dealing with it personally and made sure they have been refunded or given extra services.

Listen, I know UK2 has been sort of tough to deal with. I am not trying to deny that.
Let me give you an example: When I started here at UK2 we had a form where clients could leave support, feedback or critisism, it was called the "rant-box" internally, as this was where clients left their aggressions and anger. Everything put in that form ended in a black hole as it was simply deleted every 24 hours (not kiddin).
Our general support forms were very well hidden, and the avg. reply time were above 72 hours. Now we have 24/7 support (local, not outsourced like most other 300k+ client webhosts) with an avg reply of 1 hour and 18 mins in december.

As mentioned earlier, we are not there yet, but its getting better by the day.

edit: Again, I thank you for your input, and invite anyone here to contact me directly: ditlev(at)uk2.net with any problems you may have using our services. We are all working so hard to turn it around, and your input, be it positive or negative, is very welcome. I might not answer all mails right away, but I will made sure any problems in there are dealt with by my team leaders urgently, and follow up accordingly.

[freelancr]

Originally Posted by ditlev

a link would be helpful i guess , you should go through the process at amail.co.uk/moveaway.htm (still a part of the old scruffy design, sorry)

I recall trying that before the account expired, and it didn't work, here is the error message I get.

Domain not in our database, please try again
Remember to include .co.uk etc. on the domain name

I entered the domain like: domain.net, and the password that gets me into the control panel for that domain.

Then I went through all of the FAQs I could find on the website, and most seem to be telling me I needed to have the highest web diversion and DNS services on the account before I could take this step.

Seems like this is going to cost us more than £12.99

[ditlev]

could you send me the domain and your email, then I will have someone deal with it!

[freelancr]

To renable the account, we have to pay:

Originally Posted by UK2

thefireplacegallery.net - £22.95

Show details Hide details

thefireplacegallery.net £22.95
Move back to UK2.NET £2.99
Domain name Hosting £4.98
Nic fee 2 years (com/net/org) £14.98
Subtotal £22.95
VAT £0.00
Total £22.95

Why are you wanting to charging us 2 more years of domain registration, just to use the domain name, when there is still another year left to go on it???

Originally Posted by WHOIS

Domain Name: THEFIREPLACEGALLERY.NET
Registrar: COMPUTER SERVICES LANGENBACH GMBH DBA JOKER.COM
Whois Server: whois.joker.com
Referral URL: http://www.joker.com
Name Server: NOT-RENEWED.JOKER.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientHold
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 02-feb-2007
Creation Date: 31-jan-2001
Expiration Date: 31-jan-2008

This is not personal towards you, but since ive finally found access to a human being that works at UK2.net, I thought I would rant a little.

I would consider forcing someone to pay for 2 more years, when there is clearly another year running, unfair to say the least. Actually surprised that UK2's methods aren't illegal in law, or by the rules set out by the regulators.

UK2 preys on the naive, and seems to be getting away with it.

[ditlev]

no idea how you got to these numbers, I am not a support tech at UK2, and hence can't help you through the details. Feel free to call our customer service, its local rate, and they will help you right away.

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by freelancr

This is not personal towards you, but since ive finally found access to a human being that works at UK2.net, I thought I would rant a little.

Its not that hard actually, if you submit a ticket to us, it will be answered within a few hours by a human being - or give us a call, and a human being will help you through it.

[freelancr]

Originally Posted by ditlev

no idea how you got to these numbers

Logged into the account, clicked the domain to get to that control panel, got the message:

We deleted this domain from our system on 01-Feb-2007. We had asked you to renew your domain, but by the time it expired we had not received payment from you.

How do I get my domain back?

Lies

click here to move back to uk2.net

More lies, you still have it.

Move back to UK2.NET £2.99
Domain name Hosting £4.98
Nic fee 2 years (com/net/org) £14.98
Subtotal £22.95
VAT £0.00
Total £22.95

Oh really, you want nearly £22.95 now, then some more money to upgrade the account, then some more money to transfer away? that sounds almost as fun as being mugged.

[ditlev]

Originally Posted by freelancr

Logged into the account, clicked the domain to get to that control panel, got the message:

"sorry your domain name has expired"
- LIES

"click here to move back to uk2.net"
- MORE LIES, YOU STILL HAVE IT

"now bend over and drop your trousers"
- Oh really, you want nearly £25 now, then some more money to upgrade the account, then some more money to transfer away? that sounds almost as fun as being mugged.

If you want my help, feel free to contact me, give us a call, send us a ticket - we will help you. To the rest of you, thanks for your input on the design.

Sorry guys, thats it for me.

[Dusteh]

Thing is that domains is sort of a "loss leader" for UK2 as it is for most webhosting companies, which is why most of us tend to push other products a bit harder.

I think you misunderstood me, I mean you should push the products that you do make money from alongside the domains, really tie them together. If domains are the thing thats pulling people in, offer them high profile incentives to book the hosting alongside the domain name.

I'm basing this on your clickthrough map - it clearly shows where everyone is going, so continue to target those people on the following pages. Currently your results page for the domain names is really ugly, clashes badly with the front page.

Well played on the reforms though.