Gator Happenings
The Harbor has been secured.
HostGator is now Safe Harbor Certified. Safe Harbor is the name of a policy agreement established between the United States Department of Commerce and the European Union (E.U.) in November 2000 to regulate the way that U.S. companies export and handle the personal data (such as names and addresses) of European citizens. The agreement is a policy compromise set up in response to a European directive that differed from traditional business procedures for U.S. companies dealing with the E.U. In 1998, the E.U. established the European Commission Directive on Data Protection, which prohibited data transfer to non-European countries that did not adhere to stringent criteria. In effect, because the guidelines were very strict, they made it illegal to transfer most citizens' personal data outside of Europe.
If you are still awake after reading that, let me summarize this for you. Basically this means that we follow strict privacy rules agreed upon by the EU(European Union) and US and allows personal data to be transferred. We figured our overseas customers would be interested to know that we are now certified. (This really is a big deal).
Desperate times, call for desperate measures.
I want to apologize for starting this month's newsletter off with legal mumbo jumbo. There were some exciting things that happened here at HostGator this month besides the Safe Harbor certification. We have a new member to the HostGator tattoo club! Below is a picture of a tattoo that was received in Las Vegas, NV. The person in this picture received this tattoo for 2,000$ in gambling money and a trip to Vegas with Brent. Which raises the question, would you do this for the same price? Fill out our online poll here:
http://forums.hostgator.com/would-you-do-t71561.html
This is the second person to get a HostGator tattoo, the first was Billy the human billboard. You would be surprised how many people ask about getting our logo tattooed on their bodies.
If you are in the US then you more than likely have seen our billboards in any major city close to you. We have also sponsored numerous UFC fighters and will continue to look for new exciting ways to advertise our business.
We'll give you $50 without getting a tattoo.
The only catch is... You have to rate your ticket responses. We strive for top notch customer service here at HostGator and when you rate your ticket responses it helps us improve on this. So we’re going to be entering everyone who rates a ticket into a drawing for a $50 service credit. Rating a ticket takes less than a minute and can save you some money on your next hosting bill. Details can be found here.
HostGator is Expanding.
In our last newsletter we announced that we are expanding and opening a brand new support center in Austin, Tx. I wrote a blog post about the expansion with a little more information;
http://blog.hostgator.com/2010/05/13/hostgator-is-expanding/
Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions in this blog post as I know it doesn't cover everything regarding the expansion.
Staffing is one of our biggest problems here at HostGator, and has been since our Boca days. We hire 24 new employees every two weeks and this is simply not enough to cover our expanding customer base while maintaining the customer service HostGator is known for. Having two support centers will help this as we will now have two cities to pull candidates from and more space. We will basically be doubling our staff and are looking to have around 300-400 employees in Austin within the next year or so. We currently have 387 employees here at our Houston headquarters.
-- Josh Loe &The Team at HostGator
VOIPo Updates
HostGator is now eating up phone bills with VOIPo which is a VoIP
provider founded by HostGator executives in 2006. Here are some
updates:
1) For a limited time, you can use coupon code GATORNEWS when ordering VOIPo services to get 3 months free (added to yearly package) or 1 month free (added to monthly package).
VOIPo’s Home & Home Office package offers unlimited calling to the US/Canada and includes over 40 features for just $8.25 per month with free activation, a free phone adapter, and free shipping.
2) New lower international rates and all VOIPo plans include 60 free minutes of international calling to select destinations each month. Example: Calls to India are now just $0.02 per minute.
HostGator is now eating up phone bills with VOIPo which is a VoIP
provider founded by HostGator executives in 2006. Here are some
updates:
1) For a limited time, you can use coupon code GATORNEWS when ordering VOIPo services to get 3 months free (added to yearly package) or 1 month free (added to monthly package).
VOIPo’s Home & Home Office package offers unlimited calling to the US/Canada and includes over 40 features for just $8.25 per month with free activation, a free phone adapter, and free shipping.
2) New lower international rates and all VOIPo plans include 60 free minutes of international calling to select destinations each month. Example: Calls to India are now just $0.02 per minute.
