Hi,

I would like to know some opinions about Hostrocket?
I am interested in the features that they are offering for Economy Plan.
I have asked their support team and they seem pretty good.

Thanks for any opinions.


__________________
Regards

I'm hosted on HR and I'm really annoyed :angry: because I mainly use my account for email. Now I can't check mail, can't reach rocketsupport.com or the forums, and a message to comments@rocketsupport bounced. I chose HR on the basis of all the reviews at hostsearch.com, boy was that a mistake!

Your login for rocketsupport.com is your original login/pass you got from us. Both that and the forums are up and running and have been... If you continue to have problems feel free to email me at bbrader@hostrocket.com. Im not sure where you got that comments@rocketsupport.com email address but we do not use any email address @rocketsupport and our ticket system is how you normally would contact support not through regular email. If you are having trouble getting into rocketsupport to send in a ticket, you can do it right off of our main site as well through this url: http://hostrocket.com/support/account.htm

-Brendan

I want to know ... the people who choose not to recommend HR, will you also please tell me the reason why? 17 out of 23 people seem to have problems with HR, yet only one expresses it out here ...

cheers,
:beer:

HR offer great bandwidth, hosting space and features. Their control panel, while having a few functional problems, is one of the best around.

However, their support is the WORST I have ever seen.

I have had very few problems where I have received a reply and a fix in under a day. The worst one being almost THREE WEEKS.

Often, you have to wait AT LEAST a day for a reply, and THEN it is only to ask another question - only to wait at least ANOTHER day for another reply!

Their trouble tickets, when working (or are they just ignoring them?), are not 'owned' by any individual. So if you have an ongoing problem (and I have had many), and if the support rep does not READ the whole ticket, you end up wasting even MORE time by explaining and re-explaining.

You can be well on the way to a fix, then a new person takes over and you are back to square one (or two).

They have no hierarchical reporting function, so that if you are unsatisfied, you have no recourse. Brendan seems to simply ignore any emails that are sent to him.

It appears they are understaffed and/or suffering (in a few cases) with a total lack of customer service knowledge.

In summary, whether I would recommend them - I'd say try them (but ONLY because they are pretty reasonable value, with a lot of features), but be very aware that you may not get even ADEQUATE support. To be fair, I have had some accounts setup without a problem - ever. But its the ones that DO have problems that will waste hours and hours of your valuable time.

If they sorted out their support, and that may mean a review at the top, because that is where staff take their cues, and if they fixed a few of their technical problems, then I would say they would be on the way to being one of the best hosts in the World!

But until then - buyer beware!

Originally posted by dektong
I want to know ... the people who choose not to recommend HR, will you also please tell me the reason why? 17 out of 23 people seem to have problems with HR, yet only one expresses it out here ...

cheers,
:beer: I'd wager, many that voted have not used them. :rolleyes:
If they have; a lot of HostRocketeers hang out here.

I haven't used them; so I'm not about to vote just on things I've read.

Why include an email address on your web site (http://www.hostrocket.com/home/contact.htm) when you merely have an autoresponder attached saying "use the trouble ticket system".

It's my impression your company is about wasting as much of the CUSTOMER's time as possible.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I'd wager, many that voted have not used them. :rolleyes:
If they have; a lot of HostRocketeers hang out here.

I haven't used them; so I'm not about to vote just on things I've read.

Well, I HAVE used them - for MANY accounts - and I have given you a fair and honest appraisal.

I believe *you* have, Bob.:rolleyes:
And I believe you express your experience.
I, still, seriously doubt *all* of the other twenty six voters used them.

If te servers are working they offer great hosting for a really low price. But...

When I signed in about April VDI and they had some big troubles. So the servers where down all the time. Far away from 99.5% Uptime.

Then I had problems connection to FTP. Not allways but about 2 months again and again. As I said in numerous TT I tried it from different networks, OSes, FTP-clients. If it works, it worked from everey client. If not it did work only from the FTP built in in IE and from WSFTPpro. With Leech FTP, CuteFTP; Win2k, Linux, Solaris built in console FTP it did not.

Now the server I'm on is completely overloaded or has another problem. Yesterday I noted 24 downtimes (1 - 2 minutes each) within 33 hours (not counted the ones when I was not working at the computer). The problems first occured 2 months ago. But now they are really extreme.

Support: Sometimes they reply within minutes (once I got two answers from different people within minutes!!!) But then TT are simply closed or remain unanswered. And they make a great mistake: No matter how many questions you ask in TTs (trouble ticket) you usually get a one sentence answer where maybe one question is mentionend. And then they wonder why they get so many TTs . Another thing is they are not honest: For example when I mentioned the short downtimes they told me to send in traceroutes during the downtimes. Later I found out that I'm not the only one having this troubles. I mean they must know that load averages of 4.38 3.44 3.56 (late evening Mid Europe) may cause problems. (now it's 1.51 1.19 1.16 ) Why don't they say: we have problems with this server. Would you mind moving?
Ok, now they finaly offered me moving to a new more powerful server, but my OK-Response was 3 days ago, and my users are more and more blaming me for staying with this host...

Another small but time consuming thing with trouble ticket: They may only have a certain length: If you exceed the limit you can't simply submit the ticket (maybe some javascript stuff). But this is mentioned with no sentence (at least not near the trouble ticket-form)

The reason why so many customers are satisfied and some are not is, that they have different servers. Some work fine (probably) and some (few I hope) have problems. If you have only standard trouble tickets, everything is ok. But else it seems you are lost.

I hope they will answer on my TTs soon and transfere my accounts to a faster newer server with now load problems. If this works fine, I'll stay. But else I have to move. Although this is always the problem with the nameserver updates. And the question is if I get back my already payed money.

The strange thing is that something still keeps me believing in them.

nòóx, www.dh-rangers.com, www.downhill-board.com

<<MOD NOTE: please set up a signature (see profile)>>

Thank you guys for sharing your valuable opinions.

Great responses!

I am reconsidering my decision :)

Cheers

I'd wager, many that voted have not used them. If they have; a lot of HostRocketeers hang out here.

There are a lot of HR customers and former customers here. HR used these boards to grow very effectively. For those of you who have been coming to these boards for a while, remember back to last year. It is similar to the way the Host Search results are for them.

This is not a negative post, just a post to point out HostRocketeers hang out here, including the most famous one of all - Kylecool. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Bob ONeil
Why include an email address on your web site (http://www.hostrocket.com/home/contact.htm) when you merely have an autoresponder attached saying "use the trouble ticket system".

It's my impression your company is about wasting as much of the CUSTOMER's time as possible.

In all fairness - we do the same thing with our support@ email address. The reason, while not obvious to our customers, is because we were getting around 100 emails per day to support@ - I would say AT LEAST 50 of those would not include the basic information we needed to even begin to help them.

Here is an actual email we rec'd: 'site not working. help.'

Since we have 3000+ customers and about 1000 different things that COULD be wrong with any given account at any given time (most support issues are actually customer caused) - it is impossible to figure out what the customer needs from that limited information. We have a HelpDesk setup to make things easier on everyone.

We decided to take the support@ email address off our website - however, people still continued to send email there. Now, we have an autoresponder setup to point them to the HelpDesk. The HelpDesk asks for username/domain/desc of problem/error messages. It has cut our support response time dramatically and has made helping our customers alot more efficient.

--Tina

Originally posted by AffordableHost


In all fairness - we do the same thing with our support@ email address. The reason, while not obvious to our customers, is because we were getting around 100 emails per day to support@ - I would say AT LEAST 50 of those would not include the basic information we needed to even begin to help them.

Here is an actual email we rec'd: 'site not working. help.'

Since we have 3000+ customers and about 1000 different things that COULD be wrong with any given account at any given time (most support issues are actually customer caused) - it is impossible to figure out what the customer needs from that limited information. We have a HelpDesk setup to make things easier on everyone.

We decided to take the support@ email address off our website - however, people still continued to send email there. Now, we have an autoresponder setup to point them to the HelpDesk. The HelpDesk asks for username/domain/desc of problem/error messages. It has cut our support response time dramatically and has made helping our customers alot more efficient.

--Tina

You missed the point Tina - WHY waste people's time by having an email address on the web site, when it is only an auto responder.

I deal with clients every day too, most not being aware of even basic Internet procedures. However, my trouble tickets to HR are ALWAYS information rich, as I want them to fix a problem after the FIRST message, not have to constantly email me for more info - wasting my time and theirs.

Another point is, whether it be an email support or trouble ticket support, both are as useless as tits on a bull (sorry - an Aussie colloquialism :-) if the recipient FAIL TO READ THE ENTIRE MESSAGE!

As mentioned by another person, HR, no matter HOW much you tell them, usually give you the absolute MINIMAL information in return - often prompting yet ANOTHER ticket, leading to delays.

Again, as I stated before, procedurally they are ineffective, wasting both their client's time AND their own.

Ha, you want to know why I hate Host Rocket? You'll regret it once you get me started...

OK, well here's the brief version....

1. Support tickets are often completely ignored.
2. When they are answered the tech support people don't know what they're talking about and try to fob you off with nonsensical advice.
3. Bandwidth/webspace indicators never update.
4. Domain support is nonexistant - you have to ask tech support to make the changes (see point number 1).
5. Constant MySQL errors.
6. Constant connection errors.
7. Too much downtime.
8. Removal of sensitive topics on their support forum.
9. Avoidance of sensitive topics on support forum.

I could go on all day but I'll spare you all the ear ache.

We provide several means - phone, trouble ticket, email, snail mail, and our forums, as a method to get support from us. If you are having a problem and would like it resolved, contact us through one of the means listed below, or email me directly and I will handle the problem personally.

Phone, Snail Mail: http://hostrocket.com/home/contact.htm
My email: bbrader@hostrocket.com
Forums: http://forums.hostrocket.com
Trouble Ticket System: http://hostrocket.com/support/account.htm
Main Support Site: http://www.rocketsupport.com

www.hostrocketsucks.com

I was a Hostrocket customer for about one year until August 22, 2001. During that time numerous support requests were ignored and those that were addressed often received terse and somewhat rude response. Complaints about such service fell of deaf ears. In July they had major down time and some of the e-mail issues that were still unresolved upon cancellation. Their trouble ticket system left some trouble tickets for literally hundreds of hours without response.

Must to my surprise I looked at my credit card statement yesterday and found they have continued to bill my card for the accounts for which we used them! In fact though we canceled on 8/22, they billed on 8/24, 9/7, 9/10, 9/17, and on 10/8!!! Our issues with Hostrocket are apparently long term! I am having ZERO luck getting any meaningful communication from Hostrocket on this issue! Would you like to be in the same boat? Think about that before you sign up!

As to Mr Brader’s remark, “A group of people are trying their hardest to make sure we never see another signup from these forums by posting a bunch of BS every chance they get, this is just another example of that.” This is incorrect. There is no conspiracy to destroy Hostrocket or Mr. Brader. Do you really want to do business with a company who deal with complaints by calling them BS? I think a good number of people have had some bad experience with Hostrocket and voice it here. That Mr. Brader chooses to dismiss such criticism is most telling to those considering becoming a customer. My final experience on Hostrocket and of others at the time is well documented at http://sitepointforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30985&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 and perhaps it shows some historical issue, in that the problems presented then and more recently here are similar, indicating they are on going.

Mr. Brader replies to a list of complaints about Hostrocket in this forum with, “Not quite sure how you respond to something as ridiculous as this other than to say its just plain not true.” Do you really want to do business with a company who deal with complaints by calling them ridiculous and BS? Regardless, the thread above and messages here support Only Me ‘s complaints and bring into question the veracity of Mr. Brader’s comments. I myself can verify at least some of Only Me ‘s complaints. Support is an issue, as presented, and Hostrocket does remove complaints and requests for help from its forums. It would appear that it is Mr. Brader who may not be presenting a clear picture leaving one with the myriad of other information available about his company.

Myself, I left Hostrocket and Mr. Brader alone for a while. I posted my displeasure to where is made folks sick! There was no conspiracy then nor now. But, this credit card thing is just the last straw and I could not remain silent. If you cannot trust a company to bill you correctly, to handle such transactions honorably, then they must be avoided.

Take care,

Dennis

I've been with them since jan and only had a few problem that were fixed. There support is above most oth hosts that I hosted on. Just my 2 cents.... HostRockets fourms are for help not to complain! I read them daily and see alot of complaners. you send in a trouble ticket it will get fixed. I think there really quick compared to some hosts that don't reply to you for over 24 hrs!


Bigtiger

Brendan - so now you want to add libel to your list of misdemeaners do you? I fail to see how that's going to help you win back customers, but then your judgement always has been a bit lacking. What I said was fact and can be backed up by a number of disallusioned ex-customers (see above), whereas your claims that I'm "posting a bunch of BS" is just pathetic.

Maybe if you spent more time answering your customers support tickets than coming here to post slanderous propaganda you would be able to provide a better hosting service.

That every day one can, “see alot of complainers,” supports that there are those who have issue with service and support at Hostrocket. Keep those complaints in mind when you do run into trouble.

Myself, I was often unable to receive support and the forums were the only way to get any answer. There I was able to learn the often the issue I had encountered was not mine alone but that others were experiencing the same thing. Occasionally some of them might have some communication from Hostrocket and they’d pass that on. Often such threads were deleted from their forums, often very quickly as more time was spent dealing with the venting of upset customers than correcting the issues.

I called my credit card company today. In addition to the above errant changes since 8/22, Hostrocket has also billed me on 10/11 and 10/18. The owe me nearly $90.00 so far and now we have to devote extra time and effort to correcting this. This is time I could use for other tasks but because of Hostrocket’s incopotence I have to devote it to their errors.

I have sent Hostrocket copies of the cancellation confirmations from 8/22, left trouble tickets, sent e-mails and as yet they have not addressed the errant charges or refunding them. These have even gone to Mr. Brader’s e-mail but Hostrocket is continuing their policy of ignoring such things! Is it above them to communicate when they screw up? Anyone could be next and that is the point. Buyer beware! In my opinion there are plenty of reputable and responsible hosts out there that negate the risks involved with Hostrocket.

That is neither ridiculous or BS. This information is not posted here as part of a conspiracy or needless revenge. Such accusations by themselves indicate a certain lack of communication skill and even integrity that should make one very wary of doing business with them since it would have been so much easier to address the issues, which are very real and true, directly.


Take care,

Dennis


--

Mr. Brader has edited out his derogatory comments in his reply to Only Me in which Mr. Brader said, “Not quite sure how you respond to something as ridiculous as this other than to say its just plain not true.” And, “ A group of people are trying their hardest to make sure we never see another signup from these forums by posting a bunch of BS every chance they get, this is just another example of that.”

Unable to stand by his words, which were obviously untrue, he edited this to say, “We provide several means - phone, trouble ticket, email, snail mail, and our forums, as a method to get support from us. If you are having a problem and would like it resolved, contact us through one of the means listed below, or email me directly and I will handle the problem personally.”

Keep in mind I have repeatedly attempted to contact Hostrocket, both when a customer and having trouble, and more recently with the billing errors and received little or no response. I used all the paths listed in his message and found them useless. I have sent all information directly to Mr. Brader who has yet to “handle the problem personally” and further reflects on the verasity of Mr. Brader’s remarks in general.

It should be noted that the original text presented here was the bulk of his reply. I wanted to be sure the record was straight here in relation to Mr. Brader’s edits. Folks should know what they are dealing with!

Enjoy!

Dennis

Hostrocket is very bad. no support and rude. The worst I ever had and I hope others do not use them.

Originally posted by HRBrendan
We provide several means - phone, trouble ticket, email, snail mail, and our forums, as a method to get support from us. If you are having a problem and would like it resolved, contact us through one of the means listed below, or email me directly and I will handle the problem personally.

Phone, Snail Mail: http://hostrocket.com/home/contact.htm
My email: bbrader@hostrocket.com
Forums: http://forums.hostrocket.com
Trouble Ticket System: http://hostrocket.com/support/account.htm
Main Support Site: http://www.rocketsupport.com
Brendan,

You bring on yourself this tirade of dissatisfaction.

I HAVE emailed you direct - THREE times - and you ignored me.

That Melissa seems pretty distracted - she needs to actually READ trouble tickets and respond accordingly.

I have called the number advertised (even though I am in another country) - a recorded message greeted me upon which i left a detailed message and my email address BEGGING for help - no repsonse.

You either need to employ someone who is CUSTOMER SERVICE ORIENTED, or wield a big stick yourself and employ more people.

Havent you got the point YET with all the many many messages I have read in your forum, this forum, and others? Then there is that guy who is THAT unhappy with your service, he has actually registered a domain name and setup a web site to express his disgust (the address is mentioned in this thread).

Dont you realise, that if you FIXED your customer service, employed a few more people, and actually LISTENED to your CUSTOMERS, you would kick ass and make HEAPS more money through more referrals and repeat business - basic business practice i guess!!

That Melissa is seems pretty useless or merely distracted - she needs to actually READ trouble tickets and respond accordingly.

Bob,

I'm sorry that you feel I am "useless or merely distracted," I'm not exactly sure what situation you are refering to and I couldn't necessarily go back and check since you do not have your domain listed. I find it very unprofessional that someone would take the time to directly insult a person who was only trying to help them. I can assure you that I receive emails everyday from customers just saying thank you for the knowledgeable, amiable and expedient support that I provide to them and I have to admit I was quite shocked to see my name on here only to be slandered. Also, I don't think that this is an exactly appropriate place to drag this discussion out and would look forward to hearing from you at melissa@hostrocket.com to discuss what problems you may have endured because of my support.

And, on a different note... it seems as though this would be a tricky place to post a poll asking if you would recommend a certain hosting company. I don't hang out here very often, this is my first post (though, I may start to frequent it more often), but I would guess that most of the people who do hang out here are other hosting companies and why would one hosting company recommend another? Just a thought to ponder. The overwhelming majority of our customers are happy and satisfied with our services and tell us so everyday. As with any company, there are going to be people who are unhappy, I'm sure there isn't a company that exists where 100% of customers are 100% happy. It seems that people sometimes tend to be most expressive when they are unhappy and do everything in their power to let everyone know just how unhappy they are. If there was a certain company that I was completely happy with I don't think I would take the time to go to every single message board there is and tell everyone in the world how happy I am. I bet people would think that is strange, though, if I wasn't happy and complained in a bunch of boards, that wouldn't seem so strange... kinda sad.

Anyway, just my $.02.

- Melissa

OK, usless was somewhat harsh - sorry - but DEFINATELY distracted! I shall edit that comment out of the text in deference to your feelings.

You have managed to cost me literally HOURS of time trying to sort out at least two problems. Do you know how frustrating it is, when HR screws up right at the very start, then, as always, I supply a DETAILED account of the problem, only to have you compromise the security of the account, ask questions already answered (keeping in mind it take 24 to 72 hours for you to reply), and fail to fix a very simple problem.

Brenden says to email him direct if there are any problems - HA - what a joke! I have, almost BEGGING for some resolution, but no reply - only that bloody "use our trouble ticket system" response.

Cant you people get it through your heads? DEAL with the customers - thats what you are there for - dont ignore them - for every one customer you piss off, how many do you think they will tell? I mean GENUINE customers with genuine problems by the way.

I have multiple current accounts with HR, so, knowing how vindictive your hierarchy appears to be, i choose not to divulge my domain names. I am only thankful that probably 75% of the accounts have little or no problems - but the other 25% costs me more time than they are worth!

Oh - hey - you are wrong by the way - people DO tell others how good a service is - but people tend to be more vocal when they are annoyed and feel that they are hard done by. Note (again) my comments earlier in this thread where I mentioned HR COULD be one of the best hosts around - if it were nt for their customer service. All hosts have problems - I am ok with that - but the efficiency with which they deal with the customer to reach a solution is what sets one apart from the other!

Thats MY nickels worth!

I can support Bob’s comments. In the very beginning even Mr. Brader was helpful, though terse boarding on rudeness. But, I seldom needed assistance from Hostrocket. When it was required, Mr. Brader’s snappish nature permeated all other support personnel with whom communication was initiated. Usually these rare communications contained very little in helpful information, often one line such as “we are working on it” and then nothing more. However, eventually most problems were corrected and we stayed with them.

In the course of these few interactions I had to ask why the communication lacked substantive value and were sometimes somewhat discourteous. I asked Mr. Brader these questions in direct e-mail and subsequently support became worse and deteriorated further as system problems became more severe. In July-August they did not provide any support and limited communication for our accounts for a month! Many others were in a similar situation and posted such on Hostrocket’s forums (Hostrocket deleted them all). We left.

That Hostrocket employee Melissa “would guess that most of the people who do hang out here are other hosting companies” and would therefore be prone to speak poorly of Hostrocket is an incorrect “guess” similar to Mr. Brader’s comments that infer some conspiracy against Hostrocket! Rather than look at the problems inside their organization, Hostrocket chooses to point the finger at the customers and former customers that have had bad experiences with them because of the lack of proper support.

Melissa also states that, “If there was a certain company that I was completely happy with I don't think I would take the time to go to every single message board there is and tell everyone in the world how happy I am. I bet people would think that is strange, though, if I wasn't happy and complained in a bunch of boards, that wouldn't seem so strange... kinda sad.” However there are hosts who get glowing reports on this and other web based bulletin board systems. That Hostrocket is not amongst these is something Hostrocket should address. Why are there all these unhappy customers? That is the issue! Their issues with Hostrocket are very real!

My current situation, Hostrocket charging our credit card, has elicited no substantive information from Hostrocket to date. They are obviously aware of the problem but have allowed this completely “vindictiveness” to supplant what should be the moral code that says, “you do not take that which does not belong to you!” Violating that is indeed “kinda sad” and not communicating and working to correct it is disgusting behavior that hopefully others can avoid by reading about it here.

Regards,

Dennis

And, on a different note... it seems as though this would be a tricky place to post a poll asking if you would recommend a certain hosting company. I don't hang out here very often, this is my first post (though, I may start to frequent it more often), but I would guess that most of the people who do hang out here are other hosting companies and why would one hosting company recommend another?


That is where you are completely WRONG Melissa!

I do not belong to any hosting company, I am just another "webmaster", and we come to places like this to find out which hosts we should use, and which ones to avoid.

If HR is getting this type of posting from customers or former customers, it will definitely hurt your future business.

So, my advice is to take this pretty seriously, and not with a grain of salt under the false assumption that only "hosting company people" come here to bash each other.

Originally posted by HRMelissa
. . . . . . it seems as though this would be a tricky place to post a poll asking if you would recommend a certain hosting company. I don't hang out here very often, this is my first post (though, I may start to frequent it more often), but I would guess that most of the people who do hang out here are other hosting companies and why would one hosting company recommend another?. . . . . . .Sure there are a lot of hosts here.
Hence the name WebHostingTalk :rolleyes:
There are a lot of non-hosts here too though.
I find the hosts that frequent this board often will recommend other hosts.

Originally posted by HRMelissa


I can assure you that I receive emails everyday from customers just saying thank you for the knowledgeable, amiable and expedient support that I provide to them and I have to admit I was quite shocked to see my name on here only to be slandered.
- Melissa

Hey - just had a thought: Do you actually know the definition of "amiable"?

Amibale implies friendliness - how can you purport to be friendly, when ALWAYS I say "Hi", and "Thanks" in my original messages, only, as mentioned many times here, your replies come back as single sentence, no greeting, salutation or anything, no "sorry about that", or ANYTHING?

Also, if I said you were stealing shoes, or taking home servers without permission, THAT would be slanderous - especially with no evidence.

However, my comments on your performance are based on my experience with you, the literally HOURS you have cost me (can you imagine if I wrote: "ftp doesnt work - fix it" which, is in the same style as your replies, you would be a little put off to say the least. Well treat me with the same courtesy as I treat you - give me more than a few words, and make sure the words you DO write are technically proficient, and respects the fact that I am your customer, and it is ME doing YOU a favour by giving you my business - time and time again I might add - for what reason........ ???!!!

Get the picture YET?

Originally posted by Bob ONeil
. . . . treat me with the same courtesy as I treat you - give me more than a few words, and make sure the words you DO write are technically proficient, and respects the fact that I am your customer, and it is ME doing YOU a favour by giving you my business . . . . I believe this to be the number one reason that hosts lose customers. It seems to always come down to a matter of respect. People can put up with occasional downtimes. But, when you treat your clients (the ones that in essence sign your paycheck) like little incompetent children :rolleyes:

Hi All!


Interesting thread ;) . Its always good to have feed back (negative or good). I would like to apologize on behalf of HostRocket for anyone who feels they were mistreated as this is not our goal at all. If you are having, or have had a problem, please include at least a domain name so we can go and research the issue to see if all necessary steps were taken to meet your expectations.

Look forward to hearing from you!

-Justin Mazzi
justin@hostrocket.com

Originally posted by HR Justin
Hi All!


Interesting thread ;) . Its always good to have feed back (negative or good). I would like to apologize on behalf of HostRocket for anyone who feels they were mistreated as this is not our goal at all. If you are having, or have had a problem, please include at least a domain name so we can go and research the issue to see if all necessary steps were taken to meet your expectations.

Look forward to hearing from you!

-Justin Mazzi
justin@hostrocket.com

AHHHHHH.... now THIS is a customer service response - congrats Justin - now if only you would rub off onto your fellow workmates :-) Do you know, after all the time and difficulties I have endured getting not only fixes, but simply trying to elicit a response, this is the first time I have seen an apology

I'm going to give you guys one more chance and set up ANOTHER account (ok - call me a glutton for punishment) but if you screw this one up - adios amigos.

People may ask WHY on earth would I continue to use HR after all the bitching I do about them.

Well, to move all my accounts to another host would be time consuming to say the least, plus, I dont have problems with all the accounts. Its only a few which have given me grief. As I stated before - problems I can handle - unprofessional customer service I cannot.

Again, good work Justin.

HostRocket has been good to me, I have been a customer since October 2000. Being on their older servers from back when they were the new hit host, I must be lucky to not have downtime or troubles. The main concern here seems to be technical support. HR is trying, and I appreciate that, but from my conversations with them, they need to work on being a little more caring and friendly - that says a lot about a company. For the price, the service is excellent.

One of my domains is hosted by HR since May of 2001. I signed up due to word of mouth (or word of type, rather). At first there was much downtime. This is mainly due to the fact that I was on the dreaded Host12. I decided to stick it out instead of moving to another server. After a while, Host12 became more stable and to this day I've had no major trouble. Once in a while there is occasional 1-2 minute downtime. I do appreciate that HR takes the time to put up expected downtimes on their forums.

Support has been overall, excellent. One time around 11:30 PM EST my domain was down and I send in a TT and support answered in a few minutes! They were doing a server reboot. I guess the only thing I disliked most about HR was the constant server reboots. Now there are fewer reboots, and I for one am glad. As for TTs, it is true that responses are often short phrases...HR should look into that. And sometimes, if you have a specific problem, such as a php-related question, the TT goes unanswered if the person specializing in php isn't in.

I should tell you that the mailing list software HR uses doesn't work (when I try to add from my cp), and they do not provide support for it. If you are looking for a host and a mailing list is an important factor, you should look elsewhere. Also the disk usage portion of the cp is not accurate. For example, it says I am using around 40MB and I have -40MB remaining, when I am on the 300MB package. However, a screenshot of a newer version of the control panel looks promising.

My advice would be, for personal domains, HR is perfect. Many of my friends and acquaintances are hosted by HR. They provide great packages at reasonable prices. Great for students such as myself. Support could be friendlier. It seems to me that when people start mass-criticizing only then does Mr. Brader does something about it. If current customers are having major problems because their entire site is php/mySQL, then maybe they should consider another host. In my case, I use just html, ssi, cgi, and one php forum, and everything runs as it should.

Overall, I am a satisfied customer, and when people ask for host recommendations, HostRocket is the first word that flies out of my mouth.

He works for HR! :)

Originally posted by Mr. Anonymou
He works for HR! :)

Who work for HR and do you have any facts/prove in the first place?

Just curious ;)

Choon

Originally posted by choon
. . . Who work for HR and do you have any facts/prove in the first place? . . .That's what I'd like to know too.
Beause, if it's Lain (who's post was followed with that statement) it wouldn't matter to me.
Because, although they recommended HostRocket, it was a less than flattering and seemingly honest recommendation.

The people who posted in this thread that work for HostRocket are: HRBrendan, HRMelissa, and HRJustin.

-Brendan

Originally posted by HRBrendan
The people who posted in this thread that work for HostRocket are: HRBrendan, HRMelissa, and HRJustin.

-Brendan


Brendan,

I really hope you take this post serious! I have been reading a lot of negative feedback from your current, and former clients.

This guy even went thru the trouble to dedicate an entire website to you: http://www.hostrocketsucks.com

That really speaks loud in my opinion.

Do you really think that you company is going to do well in the future with this much negative feedback going around?

Word-of-mouth is a huge part of a business's success.

You, or your company better get it's act together, QUICK!!!

Well, I've seen quite a few good comments as well. If you are just reading comments (as it seems you are) and don't have an account, then consider everything, and forward your private comments to Brendan via PM/email please.

The ex-customer who runs that website has tons of information on the site that is not true, and has not been a customer of ours for well over half a year. The time when that person and most of the people here complaining was a customer of ours we ran out of a home office, had 2 employees, and were 20% of the size we are now. We now host 9,000 sites and have our own 3,000 sq. ft. datacenter and a full time support staff. We are a very changed company and for the better, and we are continuing to work in that direction.

Our company generates more than half its sales through word of mouth and has many many thousands of happy customers, despite what you may think after reading the opinions of a few unhappy ex-customers (some rightfully so) on this board.

Im not saying we're perfect now or ever have been, but we are a growing evolving company and constantly learning and improving as we go.

-Brendan

Though I cannot verify when the owner of that site was a customer, I can, as I have of other’s comments here before, support his views on Hostrocket’s support that he has posted on his site. In August I considered starting such a site (sorta’ wish I had now)!

These issues cannot be brushed, avoided or rebutted with, “They’re not true” or the more telling, “Not quite sure how you respond to something as ridiculous as this other than to say its just plain not true (Brader 10/25)” because they are common amongst those who complain about Hostrocket (even some who don’t) and therefore, have some substance (they are true). Poor support, unanswered Trouble Tickets, lack of timely and consistent communication and unfriendly interaction are issues voiced many times here and ones I myself am still experiencing (while not even a customer).

I attempted to bring these issues to the attention of Mr. Brader a few times and nothing changed. In my opinion these are consistent long-term problems that one should avoid.

Take care,

Dennis

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
Sure there are a lot of hosts here.
Hence the name WebHostingTalk :rolleyes:
There are a lot of non-hosts here too though.
I find the hosts that frequent this board often will recommend other hosts.

I agree... the beauty of this board is that one host recommends another. But in case of poll (when identity is hidden) there is always benefit of doubt.

IMHO - these types of poll should not be allowed and why we need polling when users can write the whole experience, which will be more helpful.

Note: Mods please do respond to my suggestion. Thanks

This is a web forum, not a tyranny(sp).

Well the poll is...

"What do you think about HostRocket?"

And your choices are...

Yes / No

If you can manage to answer that type of question with either yes or no then I must either be an idiot or it doesn't even make sense and should be disregarded.

Yes . . . . The poll makes no sense.
Throw it away. :cartman:

About polls. Keep the votes and polls. If you don't think they mean anything then ignore them. If you think they do mean something then don't ignore them. Anonymity does not make it valid or not. You vote for president anonymously.

Originally posted by Joe Tracy
You vote for president anonymously. So perhaps the polls should be given all the characteristics of a US presidential election. For the next poll, the answer with second highest vote total should be declared the winner!

I am currently a member of host rocket. I am not happy at all with them. It all started about 2 months ago they started having serious downtime. For the past 3 days i have not been able to get into my shell. I have complained about the downtime before through their troubler tickets. All i got was a long e-mail for a while then they just stopped replying after they tried to convince me it was my fault their was problems. I have looked at their forums many people are having the same problems. For example my stats have been lost sine July when i signed up for Host Rocket. Today i posted a similar message to this on their forum the thread was deleted within 15 minutes. How is that for service? I would switch servers but i paid for a year of this the day it goes off I am switching. The person who refered me quit using them 2 weeks after i joined. I agree with them i would never ever recommend Host Rocket to anyone.

1 to much down time
2 support ticket not working
3 my site has been deleted 2 times for no reason (over lapping accounts or something )
4 I asked to get moved & they did to a faster server but that lasted a week then they started moving accounts off that server to another server in the mean time crashed the hard drives!
lost my site again grrrrr

so I'v been with them 6 months & have only payed for 2 months
because I'v been though 2 crash's & they credit me 2 free months each time .

so would I recommend them I'll have to think about it .

there servers are fast when they don't over load them !

what gets me the most about HR is they don't plan ahead ! they work on the servers when they feel like it with out telling there customer there will be down time


but I guess for the price you can't beat them

As you know from this thread, Last month we found that despite my having canceled all accounts with Hostrocket in August, Hostrocket continued to charge my credit card four times a month. Mr. Brader eventually became involved and promised that these fraudulent changes would stop. He sent a check to reimburse me for the fraudulent charges and for my mailing costs. As it turns out, Hostrocket is still charging my credit card! On 11/20/01 Hostrocket made two charges to the card for 9.95 each, presumably for two of the four domains for which we’d used their services.

All of the down time issues and such are minor compared to NOT BEING ABLE TO TRUST A COMPANY WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION! I can not warn people enough!

Don't forget about the security leak in their billing system either (Click (http://forums.hostrocket.com/showthread.php?threadid=6522)). In the Email to their customers, they stated, "there are many other hosts out there that run the same software package who's information will need to be protected as well". This prompted me to Email my current host, VenturesOnline, to determine if I had anything to worry about. The response was:Absolutely not. Hostrocket is most likely using a web based billing software such as Billadmin or WHNBillingPro which are simply php/mysql based scripts.

We use a billing software which runs on a NT server, has no webserver/ftp server/etc.. running on it, is locked down behind a firewall, and is not accessible from the internet, so you have nothing to worry about.So in my five or so months with HR, I experienced: A major hardware failure after being with them for only a few weeks. Resulted in complete data loss! Was promised a 2 month credit for this crash. Didn't receive it after submitting a trouble ticket (was ultimately resolved after a second trouble ticket) Was double-billed two months in a row (was ultimately resolved and refunded). Never could rely on the Webalizer stats. I would see random days at very low visitor level (never resolved) Experienced a lot of downtime in the last month or two with them.I finally ditched HR and they're still haunting me with this billing system security leak. Stay away from HR!

As for alternatives, I couldn't recommend VenturesOnline (http://www.venturesonline.com/) highly enough. They're a little more expensive, but I'm a firm believer in the "get what you pay for" theory. I'll gladly pay the 5 extra bucks a month more for excellent features, service, reliability, and a secure billing system. Another host that I've seen recommended here a lot is Aletia (http://aletiahosting.com/). They're about the same price as HR. I considered them too. Hope this helps!

I was a customer at Hostrocket about 7 or 8 months ago. I had problems with down time, and support tickets that took forever to be replied to. Why is that?? I see hostrocket employees posting here so I'd like to know why they have such horrible trouble ticket response time?

Anyways...I left HR after only a few months because of constant problems and them never responding to TT's and if they did it was more questions. Also when I would post in the forums about a problem I had they would post to say submit a trouble ticket. So I dont see the point of their forums at all.

My opinion: Avoid them if you can.

I was customer at HR until 3 weeks ago,when they transferred my site(without notice or warning) and forums to another server,and lost EVERYTHING in the process,all files,forums,everything gone.
The worst that could happen,happened.
And now there's this security leak.

Anyway,now I'm on Aletiahosting.net,and it's the best host i ever had.
Incredible support,fast servers,practically no downtime.
The perfect host.

Anyway,now I'm on Aletiahosting.net,and it's the best host i ever had.

Well if you do a search here, you will find some who would argue this too. It just goes to show you, eventually all host will lose a customer who leaves upset. You can't please everyone.

Am I the only one who have received this email from HR? As a previous customer I am concerned that my credit card information still was on file and tried to contact them. I was asked to use the trouble tickets, but never received any reply.

<email>
Dear Customer,

This message is in addition to the one about the billing problem that occured earlier this week with the 3rd party billing software that we originally used for accounting.

We now have reason to believe that the card information has fallen into the hands of people who should not have it. We have already contacted all of the credit card companies involved more than 2 days ago reguarding the situation so they have had plenty of time to take the necessary steps to protect you the customer.

We do however urge you to contact your card issuing banks yourself just to make sure they have acted in a manner to your satisfaction regarding the situation.

The company who wrote the billing software has been informed of where the security leak is, and how to fix it by our programmers, and told to notify the many other hosts that use the same software package as us. The FBI is now very involved in apprehending the offending parties involved.

Mastercard and Visa asked us to remind you that in the unlikely event that your card is used fraudulently you will not be responsible for any of the charges made.

The details regarding this policy implemented by Visa are located at: http://www.usa.visa.com/personal/secure_with_visa/

The details regarding this policy implemented by MasterCard are located at: http://mastercard.com/general/zero_liability.html/

The billing system was heavily modified to be more secure and moved to a new more secure server in a new physical location and locked down with no outside connection to the general Internet available for the affect backend system, which has also been completely recoded. Along with this, all account passwords have been changed and new passwords sent to all current HostRocket customers. Other security policy changes are as follows.

-3 digit confirmation code on the back signature panel of all cards to be submitted with new orders.

-All new orders to be confirmed by a live person on our staff before account activation.

-All telnet access to all hosting servers and requiring customers to use SSH (secure shell).

-IDS (intrusion detection systems) are being installed on all of our hosting servers.

These additional security measures are to help cut down on possible security breaches on other servers of ours in the future.

We thank you for your support during this, look forward towards serving your hosting needs in the future, and will keep you informed of any further updates reguarding the situation.

-The HostRocket Staff
http://www.hostrocket.com

</email>

Yes. I received this as well. I cancelled the credit card I had on file with HR. Like I said, they just keep haunting you...

:angry:

HR getting worse and worse, on my site, suddenly FTP stopped working for no reason, emailed them serveral times, no reply. After poisting comment on SitePoint, they replied extremerly fast :confused:. But everything still the same way. I could access my CP but couldn't access FTP, how can I suppose to edit the file? Using File Manager? Please...

I was a happily HR's customer, not anymore. Now I'm with HostMatters.com, great host.

I used HR for about 6 or 8 weeks, had to leave cause my site grew too big, but - they were great while I was there.

I maxed out my account and the server still performed great, support was quick enough. A few "tiny" teething problems, but for the price - Hell yeh I recommend them.

LMAO how long ago was this lol
1 server 14 crash lost everything
2 they deleted my account for no reason (turns out 2 account were over lapping)
3 server 19 crash while moving my account that they never said anything about!

now the credit card thing lol

I'v been with then 6 months

:angry: again grrrrrrrr

I can't believe some of the complaints in this thread.

I'm sure they're ficticious and there must be must be some sort of conspiracy after all. No company could have possibly acted this way so often!

hey i got moved to server 22 then server 23 becuase server 22 was not complete before they moved account to it lol all this with in the last week double fun in a week
& server 23 has all kinds of problem with the control panel

oh there all true
pop on to there support site LOL :cartman: but you have to hang out a bit because they delete threads so they don't look bad

but your right about one thing NO COMPANY SHOULD BE THIS BAD TO THERE CUSTOMERS

some time support is on there game other times they plain don't get back to you at all

but hey every host has some trouble right ? I just happen to be moved to the server that have trouble or about to have trouble , WHAT AM I THERE TEST CRASH DUMMY? LOL
hey there slowly geting it together ;)

I'd just like to know (and I'm not pointing at anyone here) if the 72 people that are saying NO have they actually hosted with Host Rocket?

Yes (although I don't vote) , but if I vote, then yes. How about their friends got problem , and they share that experience?

Originally posted by netsolutions
I'd just like to know (and I'm not pointing at anyone here) if the 72 people that are saying NO have they actually hosted with Host Rocket?

What purpose would it serve? Just curious.

The poll amounts are worthless, this was stated earlier in the thread.

The mere fact that there are more posters complaining than promoting.

And mixed in with some of the promoting posts are the "Some teething problems" comments.

Which shows some users are more patient to the "Problems"

Looking over the various informative posts on the various host forums out there hostrocket is losing big time when it comes to the amount of aggrivated users, compared to the absolute happy user.

While my post may be a bit generalizing its obvious that it is indeed true that Hostrocket needs to smooth over their "way" of doing things. Thats being nice about it =)

well I'm still with hostrocket I have 2 free months for all the crazy crash's & what not
but I'm not going to use both the free months up I'm moving at the end of this month
they can keep the other free month

lol in 6 months I'v got 4 of them free whats thats tell you

How ever I will state that they are working on it I'v just been unlucky is all they do have other customer that are very happy with there service:eek:


that said HOSTROCHET I do wish you the best of luck I'm sure you will get it all worked out soon :pimp:

Doorslammer,

I will agree with you that your account with us was about the worst case I've ever seen with bad luck. If I were you I wouldn't looking at it from your point of view I would probably change hosts too, like I have said there are several people who have reason to not want to host with us, we are not perfect. Your account definatly had some strange stuff happening with it, did you ever figure out what was up with that one IP hitting the site?

-Brendan

ip hitting was opera refreshing every couple of seconds the user had it set that way or had no idea when she set it .
well atleast thats what I think :)

Definatly something strange.. I didnt really know what to think of it because it doesnt happen real often... or ever that I can think of. It definatly led to some miscommunications between us though as neither of us knowing what was going on, we couldnt believe how much traffic the site was getting and you couldnt believe that we thought you were getting alot of traffic. Either way I apologize for us not figuring it out earlier on.... it would have averted alot of annoyance on both of our parts.

-Brendan

hey well better late then never ;-)
we live we learn .
well I can say server 23 is runing stable so I'm happy with that once you get the couple small bugs worked out in the new control panel then everything is back to 100% :D



well I was an unhappy customer till couple weeks ago when you discovered that ip that was over loading my account , now I'm not unhappy at all this same verything could have happen on any host. before all this took place I was a very happy customer as long as server stays stable <with in reason> I'll stay becuase if it gets back to the way it was the first couple months of service with HR then what more can one ask for .