This host's support department has had me running around in circles for the past three weeks with no definite response.

Their support keeps telling me to contact their abuse department. I do and they do not repsond.

I go back to their spuport and ask what else I can do so they tell me to email their abuse department. I do.. and they do not respond.

I create new tickets and ask them if I can get a definite response. They respond with they are working on it and the abuse department does indeed work and will reply to me.

I keep having to reiterate myself. The abuse department clearly isn't working, and I keep being sent there to query.

It's been 3 weeks. My website has been offline for all this time. A website which services 30,000 unique visitors everyday and still they do not respond.

I have tried to be patient as I realize that it may take time for cummication and to sort things out on their end, but I'm at wits end. These people haven't even had the deceny to update me while I wait it out.

This is rediculous. One of the worst experiences I've had... ever.

Unfortunately this is the main problem I see going with low cost dedicated server companies, they have a very low tolerance level to abuse complaints. I'm not saying if you pay more companies will allow you to spam, but they will put more effort in contacting the owner and getting this fixed before disconnecting the server.

I think it's safe to say that if they didn't contact you it's because they're not interested in having you as a customer... so you should look at an other provider.

They disconnected me as a fault on their end.

Update: I made a new ticket complaining and this was the response::

(ahaynes-05/30/04-18:48):
I am forwarding this to the abuse department.

Great... now I can expect a response in *checks watch* never.

Sorry to hear about your mis-fortune.

But I am certain many people will now not make the mistake you made, and well, that is somethign to feel good about.

Thanks for the warning.

That's odd, I've been with ThePlanet (via extension: servermatrix) for about 6 months... They disconnected my server because of abuse, I called them up and got as high as the president of the entire setup... We fixed the isseu in less than one day, but it did require a lot of SSH fiddling on my part :-)

Originally posted by FnArFy
That's odd, I've been with ThePlanet (via extension: servermatrix) for about 6 months... They disconnected my server because of abuse, I called them up and got as high as the president of the entire setup... We fixed the isseu in less than one day, but it did require a lot of SSH fiddling on my part :-)


What was the problem? Why did they disconnect you?

Obviously doesn't want your business. If they did they would most likely reply quickly. Try another host maybe who answers your support tickets.

Originally posted by jpabboud
Unfortunately this is the main problem I see going with low cost dedicated server companies....


The Planet is low cost?

Originally posted by nzbm
Obviously doesn't want your business. If they did they would most likely reply quickly. Try another host maybe who answers your support tickets.

The servers a low cost if you buy from a reseller.

$299 for a Dell with 2000 GB transfer is low cost yes.


Originally posted by cs_gamer
The Planet is low cost?

Yes I agree. Try someone else.

sorry hear about your misfortune...hope good luck for the future...do keep WHT updated about new ventures and the reviews there by associated with it.....

Good Luck
:wavey:

Ha Ha, Lance, are you listening?

Hmm I always thought the PLanet were quite highly regarded....

30 servers and growing with them.

Each situation is different and without all the facts behind it you never know what exactly happened.

If you search these forums they are really popular and highly rated, but there have been a few bad experiences.

Originally posted by jpabboud
$299 for a Dell with 2000 GB transfer is low cost yes.

ok then mr. peer1 :/

But i'd just like to say, there are too many good reviews for theplanet/servermatrix that outweighs some bad experiences, everyone cannot be satisfied anyway. I personally know a couple of gameserver hosts that have servers hosted on TP and Lan centers that use TP as their ISP, all of which have been stable and reliable. I hope people would do their own research before taking advice from others

I don't think he was referring to quality, it was price.... :)

You have to admit atht for $299 a Dell w/ 2GB transfer is low cost. :D

oh lol. :P
i was thinking (low cost = u get what u pay for) kind of deal.

Originally posted by cs_gamer
oh lol. :P
i was thinking (low cost = u get what u pay for) kind of deal.

exactly. jp is right.

i know of several other people where the complaints got botched very badly by the monkeys that were handling them, resulting in boxes getting disconnected for no reason. they do not have their ducks in a row wrt handling complaints.

paul

great deal :o

I disagree. Yes some have had bad luck, but many, as you can read on these forums haven't. Overall SM and TP have extremely high praise across these forums.

This says differen't alone right there.

I'm surprised to see a post like this, almost all posts regarding SM/TP, especially TP, are positive ones, and the company is very highly regarded, even compared with Rackspace and other such pricier more 'reputable' ISP's.

I don't know about you, but I would rather not bring luck in the picture because we're not talking about lottery here. SM and TP are ok for certain type of servers but there are many situations where their level of assistance and support is just not enough.

Especially those running hosting companies off the "low cost" dedicated servers, you place an x amount of customers per server and when one of them does something illegal or wrong your server gets cut along with all the customers you host on that server without notification.

You can't really blame the "low cost" dedicated server providers because the profit margin is so low and they rely on quantity to be profitable so at the end they're not really interested in losing time and money on only 1 server.


Originally posted by ddihosting
I disagree. Yes some have had bad luck, but many, as you can read on these forums haven't. Overall SM and TP have extremely high praise across these forums.

This says differen't alone right there.

Once the planet disconnected my server by mistake.
It was another server in the same subnet spamming that they were suppose to disconnect

It took them 1 day and a half to put my server back online :rolleyes:

In that case you aren't just talking about SM/TP. Many providers do that.

Also, SM/TP usually (I won't say always becuase I have read of instances that they supposedly haven't) attempt to contact the server owner or reseller and give them an opportunity to rectify the situation.

You are welcome to drop sales@servermatrix.com an email with a ticket #. This will allow us to see the what, when, where and why's about the account.

Even if this is related to a The Planet server we should be able to assist you.

Thanks and happy holiday.

Originally posted by ddihosting

You have to admit atht for $299 a Dell w/ 2GB transfer is low cost. :D

Uh, with 2 GB isn't low cost (maybe with 2TB it would be though) :P

Sorry, couldent resist.

What, you mean I could retail servers with 2GB of bandwidth for $299? :stickout:

Originally posted by ddihosting
Also, SM/TP usually (I won't say always becuase I have read of instances that they supposedly haven't) attempt to contact the server owner or reseller and give them an opportunity to rectify the situation.

Yep they've contacted us like this a few times, have always been fine with us. I'd recommend TP to anyone, SM is good also, but not quite TP standard in many respects.

Originally posted by ddihosting
30 servers and growing with them.


Wow, 30 servers since the begining of the year? Kudos to you sir :)

I've been with them a little over a year now and I have had the abuse department contact me once, they didn't unplug the server but they did contact me and the issue was resolved in a matter of hours (if that).

It might be that they just don't want you as a customer - but I think they would have a more professional attitude to it than that to be honest.

HTH

Originally posted by jpabboud
I think it's safe to say that if they didn't contact you it's because they're not interested in having you as a customer... so you should look at an other provider.
And what is wrong with their simply being up front about it with the customer?

Avoiding someone that has a contract with you, due to your not wishing to do any further business with them, is childish. It is also a very bad business practise.

If your suggestion is, in fact, the reason that huynhk is having such a hard time then their business practises are unethical. You don't as a corporation go playing hide and seek with your customers.

Besides, if that IS the case (and huynhk had commercial web sites on the server), they would be openning themselves up for a lawsuit. When you interfer with someone's ability to practise commerce it becomes a civil law matter (internet or no internet). And huynhk would have legal grounds to sue them.

I just had them contact us over a site. Didn't unplug. Gave me IP of the problem and 24 hours to correct it.

That is plenty of time in my opinion to deal with a problematic site.

We just did in about 20 minutes.

Then why is it taking weeks for huynhk's problem to be resolved? On top of the fact that the abuse department appears unresponsive.

I don't know the situation so I can't say.

The steps I would take is to get on the phone with them. Either or, after an hour of downtime I would be on the phone and not get off till I get an answers.

I've read every post very carefully and didn't get what is it that ThePlanet stinks of. It is rather this thread that is a little bit fishy...

And how can a $299 server be a low cost?! Are you losing your sense of reality? Or you come from Verio?

Ah, here we go again - people siding against a provider based on nothing more than a vague one-sided story posted by an unhappy client, taken completely at face value. Isn't anybody interested in verifiable facts/details anymore, or is it just that much easier to automatically assume that the provider is the bad guy?

-B

Larry,

Appearently, from his first post he has done that:
Originally posted by huynhk
This host's support department has had me running around in circles for the past three weeks with no definite response.

Their support keeps telling me to contact their abuse department. I do and they do not repsond.

I go back to their spuport and ask what else I can do so they tell me to email their abuse department. I do.. and they do not respond...



Imago,

Read the very first post again, amd then several more of his posts thereafter. His server has been offline for 3 weeks. Due to an abuse problem which we says is as ServerMatrix error.


Fishy or not, someone from ServerMatrix responded offering to intercede. Perhaps they'll get to the bottom of this.

I wouldn't just call support. If you don't get answers from support you call your sales rep, you ask for a manager.

To be perfectly honest I believe there is more to this that is not being told.

TMX,

Nobody is siding with anybody. Where are you seeing that?

Originally posted by Imago
I've read every post very carefully and didn't get what is it that ThePlanet stinks of. It is rather this thread that is a little bit fishy...

And how can a $299 server be a low cost?! Are you losing your sense of reality? Or you come from Verio?
Dual Xeon 2.8s, 2GB RAM, 2 73GB SCSI drives, RAID1, DRAC card, Dell hardware, 40GB NAS backup/storage, FloodGuard, 2,000GB bandwidth, managed services, and no setup fees. If $299/month for that isn't cheap, then I don't know what is. Look at the cost of that hardware, it's probably $3,000 + or -.

- Matt

^^^
True, but you don't get to keep the hardware. Or have I missed something here?

Originally posted by Ishtaria
Imago,

Read the very first post again, amd then several more of his posts thereafter. His server has been offline for 3 weeks. Due to an abuse problem which we says is as ServerMatrix error.


Fishy or not, someone from ServerMatrix responded offering to intercede. Perhaps they'll get to the bottom of this.
This is wrong. He didn't say it was a ServerMatrix error, he said that it was a TP error.

My apologies for the incorrect information in my post. :blush:

Originally posted by Ishtaria
True, but you don't get to keep the hardware. Or have I missed something here?

Yes, but after a year or two the hardware is worth a lot less, count that in and $300 is indeed cheap.

^^^
I suppose from that standpoint it's the same thing as leasing a car.

Yeah, it is somewhat like leasing a car, but you must remember that you pay for bandwidth, support, datacenter facilities(security, building, HVAC, electricity, UPS), the list goes on...

just my guess but are people starting to bash theplanet or where they just over-hyped

Originally posted by z280 Hosting
Yeah, it is somewhat like leasing a car, but you must remember that you pay for bandwidth, support, datacenter facilities(security, building, HVAC, electricity, UPS), the list goes on...
I was just thinking about the hardware when I posted that. And you are absolutely right. it IS more than leasing a car due to the network presence provided (as well as free parts replacement should something like a hard drive or a mother board go belly up).

Originally posted by gilbert
just my guess but are people starting to bash theplanet or where they just over-hyped
I don't think anyone is bashing the planet.

He's having a problem which has resulted in his web site being off line for 3 weeks now. I'd be pretty ticked if that happened to me, too.

I don't think that would be considered bashing, because there is substance (hopefully, anyway) behind his complaint.

Would be great to see TPs side to this story. One sided stories never go anywhere...

^^^
I hope that ServerMatrix posts something about what they found out after they check into it.

It was nice of them to off to do that.

The way The Planet handles tech issues and customer complaints (notice they don't have any department for that) it absoutely terrible. I'm a current customer and will be moving from The Planet. They were over-hyped on the positive side. I've had to have 2 hard drives replaced in a week (sitting here without a server at the moment) and the way they have been handling it is terrible. I don't recommend them.

(I'm not trying to bash them, I'm just extremely disappointed in the way they handle tech issues).

The handle perfectly well all abuse complaints. :-)

Back to clarify some postings.

I did actually call them to speak directly with the abuse department because I wasn't (and STILL haven't) received ANY form of update from them. They told me the abuse department went home and could not be contacted. I asked to talk to someone higher up to complain, they said someone higher up was not available.

I made new tickets asking if the abuse department actually worked. Reply yes. I created an entire new ticket explaining the situation to theplanet and then I also emailed all their support emails just to be sure they received it (they previously told me I could contact them on email). The response? They could not be contacted via email, and the ticket forwarded to abuse, who STILL hasn't replied. Clearly the support department is sending me in circles, giving me a different answer to the same question I ask over and over again because no one on their department can clarify clearly and precisely about what is being done.

In the mean time, I've moved the site in question to another host and there has been no abuse problems.

I thank the person who has posted and told me they could look into it for me. I will definitely contact that person soon.

If you have a ticket number regarding this please PM me. I will make contact with some of the people I know are higher up in SM by Monday and try to help get this resolved ASAP.

Thanks,

Oh, in addition, I also called up again a while later. The response? The abuse department cannot be contacted via phone. They only way was to contact them via email or tickets.

1. They don't even bother replying to tickets
2. They don't accept emails - it appears.

Great isn't it.

I'm sure this company is not the exception, there are many who have poor customer service and policies, etc....... but this sure does not sound very good to me.

I especially am bothered how people take into consideration "gee they got someone up at 3am to help me". Why should anyone care, they claim to provide 24x7 support? I would actually consider that a negative, that if your site goes down outside of the 9-5 timezone then you better hope you can beg them to come in and help you :).

As for the bad hardware, maybe it is not necessarily their fault but they are providing the service and the hardware, and there is no point having a dedicated server without it being up for any reason :).

That's all I can say, at the least. Of course, to be fair, I hope we see more of these posts about these sorts of practices in the industry. I know for a fact it goes on, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Let's hear the good and bad about the rest of the companies.

Good luck to you optimumd. If TP doesn't apologize and take corrective action to ensure this situation can't occur again, I wou pull my server immediately, if it is being used for mission-critical business.

The truth is out there :D

24x7 support does not necessarily mean 24x7 support for all departments. Not all hosts offer 24x7 support for the Abuse/Security department... Ventures Online never has... ? If their security guy happened to be in at whatever hour of the day/night, great, but otherwise clients have had to wait 'til he'd get back in.

I'm not saying right/wrong, it's just an observation.

:D Bailey

^^^
That's true. Every company that I've ever worked with has a skeleton crew on at night. These people can handle basic issues, but anything major isn't addressed until normal business hours.

"gee they got someone up at 3am to help me".
(You're responding to a post I made in the The BEST and WORST Dedicated Server you have had (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=2167875#post2167839) thread)Show me a company that has their lead systems engineer in house at 4:00 am on a Saturday night-Sunday morning.