I've worked at a hosting company before, and yes, it sucks when your site goes down. They know that, and it reflects badly on them if your site is down. It's qu

I've worked at a hosting company before, and yes, it sucks when your site goes down. They know that, and it reflects badly on them if your site is down. It's quite possible that there's a problem which isn't just an easy fix. Once, the data centre where half our servers lived had a fault... well... explosion. And the fire department forced them to shut everything down for several days. It sucked, but it happens. They're not deliberately dicking you around. Yes, you are paying for your hosting, but you're betting your business on a budget supplier. These companies work by selling to lots of small clients and cramming them onto a server as tightly as they can. Even so called "business plans" from them often don't come with any actual SLA. You are paying for the hosting space and bandwidth. Service is an added extra which they're giving you. Just because you're paying money doesn't mean that you're their most important client; you're just one of thousands of clients who are also paying them money. If you're serious about running your business, you should go with a proper business host. It may be more expensive, but any one worth their salt will 1) have better, personalized support, and 2) will often have guarantees or insurance in case something horrible happens which takes your site offline for days. One last thing - don't be too trusting of "99% uptime guarantees". They sound great, but your site can be offline for three whole days a year without them breaking that guarantee.