I’ve been hosting with Pair Networks for 24 years.
That ended as of July 31st, 2025.
Why?
They got greedy
First, they more than doubled their annual rates for hosting.
I accepted that, and for only a little more than I paid last year, I was now eligble for 1/2 of the services.
Meaning, 1/2 the number of databases, 1/2 the amount of disk space. All that for a fairly substantial increase in price.
Why?
’cause it’s hard to move.
’cause Pair has excellent customr service.
’cause I just liked Pair.
But then they got greedy.
I woke up on July first to a charge fromPair that was more than double what I was expecting.
They decided, with no notice*, that email accounts, previously provided free as part of the hosting package, would now cost a couple of bucks a month.
And I had 5 of them.
I immediately began taking action. I challenged their bill and got told essentially, “too bad, so sad.”
So I began moving all of my web sites and all of my email to a different provider.
I finished up the email migration last week, and, well, that’s that. Ugly end to a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
Greed.
What I will say about Pair is that they have already refunded me all but the one month of service that I’ve used.
I don’t really hold grudges, but I will smile as I watch them continue to devastate their business via greed.
* They sent a marketing email, which I ignored as spam, and buried in there was the notice of the upcoming charges. Not even 30 days notice.
The proper way to do this is to announce 2-3 months in advance, in a clearly marked message, and to send reminders before the date.
No. Pair Networks got outrageously greedy, so they lost.
I checked archive.org and in early March of this year, they advertised email as free. In late March (or maybe it was April, I don’t care enough to check) they stopped advertising that email was included.
Kitty picture!! Althea expresses her thoughts on greedy companies that make stupid, short-sighed, customer-hostile, decisions.
