solid, no more

retroDan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:09:15 +0000

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.

Ribenagirl:I have two accounts with SolidInternet, on different servers. I have had numerous issues with Server 4, so when it went down I decided to move.
So as their Kangaroo server was still going, I prepared to move by finding a new host. This server is now dead.
Quickest way to stop your customers leaving – unplug the servers.
dnlofcourse: What has happened has been completely outrageous. I had two accounts since quite some many years. I was in generally satisfied with them although occasional problems were never serious enough to push through the laziness of changing host and also face the uncertainty of how the new host would perform.
This year things started become dramatic. Around July (I think) Server6 was down for about 30 hours. Support tickets were unanswered, live support was not there, phone was not answered. The server finally went up but the explanation given was completely false since times and facts did not match with the log I had kept. The company was trying to cheat and I knew it.
Server4 then (with my other account) was the one to go down about a month ago. It had a two day downtime in September (again with no answer of any kind) which was enough for me to urgently switch host for that account. I fortunately had backups of everything. I never know how long the downtime lasted (at least two days) because after that I left from server4.
Then, I knew I had to also move my account from server6 sooner or later but this account was of many gigs and didn’t have the time. I was taking backups often, though. Then server6 crashes too for a whole day a few days later. I realize that the company is very fast going down and I urgently moved this account as well to a different company. Of course there was no reply to any tickets all this time.
Once I did this, I happened to see someone on livesupport after a very long time. I think it was someone called “Jeff”. I connected to live support, asked what the problems were about. I received lame answers that made me smile.
Finally, I decided to ask a last question to them. I had already decided to move and taken most of my data from them but I somehow wanted an honest reply to my answer. My question was this.
“Listen, I have decided to leave from you anyway and gotten accounts to other hosts already. I would appreciate an honest reply to this. Is this company having financial difficulties or going down? There have been some issues that can’t be explained otherwise”.
And the answer I got was:
“Not at all, on the contrary. The company is in a phase of growth with new servers and packages and everything is running great!”
WHAT A LAME WAY TO END A MULTI-YEAR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP. SHAME ON THEM.

and from the whirlpool.net.au forums:
OllieUK: Just thought I would let everyone know that I never got my issues resolved by SolidInternet or LiveRegistry!
It was impossible to contact SolidInternet to cancel my account, and to this day I have not been able to contact LiveRegistry regarding domain transfers. I strongly recommend getting your domains out of there. Best way is to do it directly through eNom and inform them of LiveRegistry’s lack of service.
Last week my credit card was charged automatically by LiveRegistry for the renewal of a domain which is no longer on my account! I didn’t authorise this transaction and I can’t contact anyone at LiveRegistry to rectify this so I’m forced to pursue this with my credit card company.
I can’t find where my credit card details are stored in the control panel so I can’t remove them. I’ve been through every section of the site!! I have just had a warning that another domain of mine will auto renew in a few days time – one which I no longer need. I’ve disabled auto renew but doesn’t seem to have any effect. No doubt I will get charged for that too! Thankfully I’ll be having the transaction blocked.
Not providing a service is one thing, but carrying out unauthorised transaction on my credit card is another. You bet I’ll be taking this further.
As before, Robert has the opportunity to contact me and rectify this but I have little faith he will after his attitude last time. Such a disappointment after 5 years of good service.
gbh: what a bloody nightmare. I can’t get a response from them. I lodged my first helpdesk ticket 5 days ago and have been lodging daily since then…
nothing, zero response at all. so now my dns is unable to be redirected and is pointing the the wrong place. I also tried to contact them via the contact form, looks like the captcha is broken as it won’t let you submit the enquiry.
I thought I’d give solidinternet a call, I’ve been in a hold nightmare scenario for the last 35 minutes.
I’d don’t have the domain passwords on me, if I could get them I’d immediately transfer. Am I totally screwed here?
i-think22: I’m another refugee from server4. Annoyingly my annual fee was taken out about a day before the server went offline.
As people have mentioned, calling is useless. I’ve left a message in their voice mail, but they certainly haven’t replied. I tried sending a fax, but their fax number went to another answering service. Emails and tickets seem useless, the server status page is now showing a 404. If there was an announcement on their page (which is also showing a 404) it might not be so bad. Their previous announcement was on the 23rd of September and I’m curious as to whether anyone has seen activity from them since that date.
If it wasn’t for the fact that they just took a year’s worth of hosting money I would have just figured they shut up shop. Unfortunately it’s going to be hard to convince them to bring back their servers so we can all flee with our data intact.
At this point I don’t think it could even save what is left of their tattered reputation.
—-
Even though I’m off their servers, I’m still concerned because my account with them is “still active” according to their records. What I don’t want is for them to charge my credit card for another year when I have no intention of being hosted with them. we’ll see at the end of the year…

site update – new webhost

retroDan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:45:47 +0000

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.

it just gets better

retroDan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:18:54 +0000

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.

the last straw

retroDan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:25:11 +0000

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!

I'm back!

retroDan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:05:27 +0000

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.

retroblog.net » webhost

solid, no more

site update – new webhost

it just gets better

the last straw

I'm back!