retroblog.net

here’s an update on my ongoing struggle with my former webhost. They still haven’t responded to my emails, support tickets or my formal request to cancel my account via their client area. can it get any worse than this? they should at least have the decency to address their paying clients on what’s going on? Apparently I’m lucky to have been able to get my websites off their servers.

and I’m NOT alone in this situation. there are others in the same boat. check out some of the comments left in various discussion forums about this company –

from webhostingtalk –
pkingtom: I have been a client of SolidInternet for exactly 7 years back since they were Myacen. I was able to deal with the fact that their customer service was less than desirable. It was a little better as Myacen but SolidInternet seemed to adopt the philosophy that customer service was less needed.
I was never able to access their forums because it would not allow me to register. For months ever since they changed their site I have not been able to access my account page. So they started to automatic bill me. I did not make a big deal of it because for the most part my site was staying up.
NOW, there is a BIG problem. My site has been down since early Monday evening. TWO of their servers (server 4 and server 8 ) were down in red on their server status page when I checked up until Tuesday night. Since then, they have removed their support page (and server status page) and replaced it with a page that says “Back Soon.” They have also removed their live chat which didn’t work once you entered it anyway.
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just to update those that are wondering.. retroblog.net has finally made it over to the new webhost. It would have been MUCH easier if my former host allowed cpanel backup/restores but like I mentioned before, they “conveniently” had the feature disabled. to make matters even more difficult, they disabled access to the mysql databases as well. So essentially, I had to manually transfer all my files via FTP and then transfer all my archived blog posts using the WP import/export feature. It took a lot more time and effort, but at least NOW I’m no longer hosted on that “sinking ship” of a web hosting company.

It’s absolutely bizarre. support tickets go unanswered. no replies to emails. Their client support area on their company website doesn’t properly work either. what is the deal?? I couldn’t get a straight answer from these people. weird stuff. So it was definitely THE TIME to jump ship.

I did put in a request to cancel my account but I suspect my request will go unanswered as well.

well, guess what. I successfully moved two of my sites to my new host but retroblog is still stuck with the old host for the time being. apparently since I’ve got a ton of posts here, I’ve got to directly copy the mysql database and dump the info on the new server. problem is that the server application that allows me access the database on the old host is currently “down”. not only that but the customer support ticketing system is ALSO DOWN!! WTF!! and I’ve tried emailing support last week. nothing. who are these incompetent idiots AND why did I stay with these people for SO long???

..stay tuned.

it has been long overdue!! but I finally decided to switch webhosts. I’ve been with my current host for over seven years. They started out very reliable and had a great reputation. but in recent years customer service went to hell and downtime has become too frequent. I’ve been giving them the benefit of the doubt this past year but seeing that they’ve been unresponsive to my recent inquiries pretty much tells me that they really don’t give a crap about me and my websites.

With SO many webhost providers available, I’m very surprised that they aren’t willing to assist their long time clients.

I went ahead and purchased a new hosting plan with another host and will be transferring my websites over to the new server one at a time.

hopefully the transition will be smooth. just so that you all are aware, things might get “wonky” during the switch over.

see you on the other side!

apparently an overnight billing system glitch caused hundreds of webhosting accounts (including mine) to be shut down. The glitch caused the system to view our accounts as delinquent and in turn, automatically switched our websites off. I’ve been trying to contact my web hosting provider all day but since they’re located in Australia and I’m in the eastern U.S., it’s impossible getting a hold of someone there during EST business hours since it’s night time on their side of the world. So, just in case any of you were wondering, that’s why the site was down today. Everything has been sorted out, I think. The support team is still investigating why the billing glitch occurred in the first place.