Get rid of the geek at the top...
The way Fasthosts works is like the IT department of yester-year. An arrogance - "WE know best, you're just a dumb user!". Remember those days?
Well, the retard who should have stuck to sitting in a darkened room programming has somehow got to a position of authority and is still acting like those long-gone arrogant IT dinosaurs.
This is not customer-service. This is not good management. This is not professional. It's a sweeping "we will do this because it's easier for us and we know best what is safest".
Well, patently they don't. They forget that they are dealing with IT professionals of equal if not better abilities.
Anyone with a modicum of sense would have thought the problem through and done the important thing which is KEEP THE SYSTEMS UP! A moment's thought would have revealed that sites in this century cannot be offline for several days while the postman does his thing. But then, why should this bother Fasthosts?
I'll tell you why. Because the money saved in cheap hosting is money lost from disgruntled on-line customers. I cannot, and will not, keep my sites in a place where they are exposed to such unimaginative and unintelligent handling of security issues. Can you blame me?
Would it have been so hard to send an email telling all customers of the problem, urging them to have all passwords changed within 24 hours and then putting in place measures to support those who for one reason or another did not change their passwords? Is it really necessary to "validate" authentic owners by posting passwords to the stored postal address? Could not the same validation be done on-line or on the phone using this and the plethora of other data held by Fasthosts? Could not "The Team" call the phone numbers which are also held by Fasthosts to explain and support? A quicker, cheaper solution and as secure as using postal information? If I can sit here coming up with better customer solutions over a cup of coffee, could not those paid professionals at Fasthosts come up with something even more elegant and efficient?
Shoot the dinosaur. Heads must roll at Fasthosts.