I have been using superuser networks to host my site and I have been trying since mid September to renew my account for an additional year and they are completely unresponsive. My site is down and my back-up site got trashed. So, I either have to re-do the entire site and find another host, or somehow get a response from superuser network. I have tried contacting them at least 10 times through various emails with no response. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Why would you want to renew with a host that's been down for a month? It could be that they are gone for good. Did you try calling them (if their whois info is updated)?

Try contacting them from different email accounts, yahoo, hotmail, AOL and give them different reply addresses.
your ISP might blocked the traffic of thier IP. as a result, you can't get thier emails or reverse.

This may be a little off-topic, somewhat, but don't you have a hard copy of your site on your hard-drive?

In any case, I agree with what has been said here.
1. Renewing with a host that has been down that long, is simply asking for more trouble.

2. Do they have a telephone number?

I didn't see the name of the company you are dealing with but go online and do a WHOIS lookup on their information. Maybe in Google as well just so you can find alternative contact numbers and email addresses.

If all else fails then your stuck with going to a different host.

Originally posted by cas9
I have been using superuser networks to host my site and I have been trying since mid September to renew my account for an additional year and they are completely unresponsive.

Completely UNresponsive for 30 days or longer should answer your question. It sounds like you had no backup of your own (just another reason you should keep a local copy on your own computer!) I would re-do my site FIRST and assure you have your own copy and choose a new host ASAP.
Good luck :)

I think it's time to move on. Make sure that they are not charging your account!

Thanks for the input. I only want to renew to save the aggrevation of rebuilding the site. The copy on my hard drive is trashed so I have nothing else. Their phone is disconnected, but they are still in business. Looks like a completly automated operation. Tech support in the past has been totally useless, goood thing I can figure things out for myself.

Just wondering but why are you still paying for this? The hassle of moving the site can't be anything compared to extended downtime and unresponsive support. It must be at a really good deal or something...

My very first paid host, was really not much better than your host, and the up-side of that was that it pushed me into hosting because I new I could definitely do it better than that.

With a disconnected phone, over a month of downtime, and hopeless support, they do not deserve your money, no matter how hard it might be to recreate your site.

Have you checked Google's cached sites. Sometimes you can retrieve the basic static html from there. Also your images may have been googled as well. This could be a first step.

Re: your harddrive have you explored all options. Temp files, files in different directories, etc. Try doing a a word search in your 'Windows Explorer' (assuming Windoze) for a phrase that you know was in your website files. You might be surprised with what you find.

If all else fails rebuild. 12 months down the track your site was probably due for a face-lift anyway. Learn from the experience...back-ups in multiple locations are a must.

THEN find a better host. One that can truely support you, and not give you the run around.

NOTICE:

Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 01:26:39 -0400
To: am***e@c***er.net
From: Superuser Networks Support
Subject: Account Past Due Notice (na****sh.net)
Cc: na****sh@na****sh.net

Dear Mr. Casa****,

Your account natureflash.net with us (paid on annual basis) is currently past due. In order for us to renew your domain and continue hosting service for this domain, we must receive your payment for the next year of domain hosting service. Once the payment is received we will automatically renew your domain for the next year.

Upon attempting to secure funds from your credit card #**** we received errors. The cause could be any of a number of things:

1) Your card has a new expiration date.
2) Your card may be maxed out.
3) Your card may be canceled.

We provide a convenient way to update your billing information securely. To do so, please browse to our Secure Credit Card Update form which can be found at this location:

https*********update-cc.html

Once you submit your new billing information through this secure form, we will update your account's record in our billing system. Unfortunately, we cannot accept new credit card information over the phone.

Please note that non-payment of the domain hosting fees may result in account termination.

Regards,
Superuser.Net


RESULT OF THE NOTICE: No response from the user Whatsoever!

FINAL RESULT: Account Closed.

We are sorry, but we do not provide FREE web hosting services. If he was looking for free hosting, he should have gone with one of the free web hosters that will slam that banner on every page. If he wanted to continue hosting his domain with us, he should have responded to the Past Due notice to AT LEAST let us know that he plans to pay the past due amount and continue hosting his domain with us. He didn't.

CASE CLOSED.

slowuser:
Did you reply to his repeated attempts to e-mail you?

tell me about it.. i think eery 13 year prick and his mate are starting web hosting services.. now days..

they set it up.. and then get customers and go off playing on their skateboards.. meanwhile they have a crap load of emails coming in in need for support.. and they are nowhere to be found.. ...

I think people need to understand webhosting services isnt a autopilot service.. they have to be there... or else i move on.. i just cant afford to piss about...

Gosh, I can be glad one of my hosts in my early days didn't do that.
I was paying by check, every month. One month I got a notice I didn't pay. I emailed back the check # & date...long story short they let me go a month (since I had never been late before) and I finally sent another check with the assurance they would return the first if it showed up.
3 Months later my check came back unopened. Although all the info on the envelope was correct it had a half-dozen USPS stamps on it from all over the country. Not my fault or the host, just the post office. BUT my host responded to all my emails, gave me a reasonable benefit of the doubt, and we continued happily on. I was a totally satisfied customer the entire time I was with them.
In this case I can understand a credit card problem but I can't understand a host that doesn't respond to emails or has a disconnected phone for whatever reason.
I agree with some others. It may take a while to re-build your site (now you have learned to keep current backups) but it's not worth dealing with a host who does not respond to emails and has a disconnected phone (even if all they could do was tell you on the phone you had to "update" your info on-line).
I think the response posted here by the host would have served everyone better if it had been made with an e-mail or call to the customer who could have then came back here and said it was all worked out rather than posting a form E-mail response here as if that constitutes good customer service.I have tried contacting them at least 10 times through various emails with no response.
You may not offer free service, neither do I, but the phone works and Emails are answered promptly.

Just my 2 cents...

IncognitoNet, What attempts???

We all had our fair share of problems with USPS. Real and imagined. We all KNOW how irresponsible USPS can be when it comes to checks in the mail.... Just when you need them to DELIVER!

The point is, the DDT's USPS story is not really that believable. Why should I believe your story, if you can't believe that non-paying client was cancelled for, umm... NON-PAYMENT? There is a simple test you can run: why don't you try not paying your local phone company for a year, and try calling your mom (or dad) in 12 months? We are all SURE that your phone company will be understanding, since IT MUST BE the Post Office who is screwing up with these checks-in-the-mail, AGAIN...

DDT, as I understand, your own new web hosting company newideahost.com does not send "form E-mail responses" to clients who are past due. (What exactly do you send?). Since your domain was created 4 months ago, in July 2004, maybe you just don't have past due clients yet? However, you will find out really soon that non-paying clients really suck! You give them all the discounts you can, they take your server space, bandwidth, your time, in other words, you are paying for the services you provide to them. And in the end, you are getting screwed by them because they for some reason think it should all be free. The client who wrote here, never responded to the 2 past due notices we sent to him and never paid us to renew the domain hosting service he had with us. His actions speak for himself.

Bad business. Host shows up a year later and posts a response
:( and digs up the old thread. :confused: