I was referred by a friend of mine to this board and the hosting company HostRocket. I saw many favorable reviews for them and my friend used them, so I figured they would be good.

I wanted a reseller account, however there was not an option to sign up for one, yet their bulletin boards said they had one and was upgrading it. Point number two, I did not see the TOS page (I did find out later that I need to send an email).

I waited a couple of weeks for the reseller page to appear and when I was running out of time (prior to paying the hosting company I am with for another month) I sent several emails. No answer.

I tried their AIM support. As of the time I typing this, they have been online 3 days and away atleast 2 because I have been doggedly watching it. I tried their live human click thing, and that has leave a message.

Meanwhile, people are starting to complain on their forums...with no response. It seems like they promised a new control panel weeks ago (which does not seem to have anything to do with the reselling), and it is no where to be seen. I thought I understood this hosting thing and I understood they were Alabanza hosts, so doesn't all of that come standard?

So late in the game (Yes, I admit it) it dawned on me that I am not supposed to doggedly looking for them to answer my questions...they are suppose to be there and answer them. On AIM, away for two days? I had AIM set to alert me when they came back...they never did.

So now the friend that recommended me feels bad because I am not getting the treatment they thought I would. They emailed HostRocket, with no response as well. Now my friend is feeling like an idiot cause they really plugged them heavy cause they were really impressed with the service.

So does anyone know what happened to them? It makes me wonder...when a system is so automated, maybe the host feels it is not necessary to be around? I am not saying all hosts. If they were so good last month, why aren't they now? Has anyone else had any problems?

Guess I am back to searching for a reseller account. :(

I forgot to mention...I also have a few friends that their package would be perfect for, but I am hesitant to tell tham because of the service. The servers seem to be up and since the process is automated, I doubt that would be a problem, but now I am leery about them.



[Edited by Alex on 11-11-2000 at 02:56 PM]

Recent problems have been with a router problem that was out of their hands and with servlets that ran amuck, as far as I know and was told.

And I'm waiting for reseller accounts as well, got a domain name sitting around collecting dust in the meantime

I'm with HostRocket right now. They have started to lag a bit with support but i think thats because they are under staffed. The rave reviews sent people flocking to them brendan hired a third guy called steve. That doesnt seem to of made much difference because quite frankly his responses on the hostrocket forum have been cut and pasted from the knowledge base.

They do try their hardest to please but i also feel theres a lack of communication there too. Bredan said it would take a while for the wildcards to be sorted out for my domain has he was waiting for alabanza to get back to him. 5 minutes after reading hos message i went along to the hostrocket site clicked live help spoke to john and boom within 2 minutes wildcards where on and my script worked.

They are a good company though but very understaffed. Support times have dropped from an hour to 36 hours with email support. If they get more staff in commuicate more dont set dealines they cannot keep to then they will turn that corner and get the service upto the speed it was before.

And these servlets thats the only real problem ive had. PEople say there site has been down for nearly 3 hours at a time its only ever affected me for a maximum of an hour.

I do still recommend this company.

How can a company be classifed as "good company" when is is not organized and understaffed?

Simple - They do TRY their best to please you. They don't completly ignore you when you need help like ***** etc etc.... Understaffed but the staff they do have TRY their best to help you which is good enough for me.

You should remember that any company which grows at a rapid rate will at times be understaffed. But this period of staff shortage should never be something that lasts for more than a few weeks, if it does they ahve internal problems.

a webhosting company must not try but do it the customer pays you money for what you promoised and if you broke the promise "TRYING" will not cut it.Its their problem to hire more people for the job and not wait for the last minute.

My experience with this firm was unsatisfactory. Over half of support e-mails went completely unanswered, and the downtime I experienced was far beyond normal expectations.

While I have sympathy for companies undergoing growth, I feel no obligation to lose money with a dysfunctional service while they either find their way or go out of business.

[Edited by etLux on 11-12-2000 at 06:48 PM]

I definitely feel like I am being ignored.

I inquired about their reseller program in Sept. I was told it would be available in Oct. I have been patiently waiting. As the month ran on, I emailed wondering if it would be done in October because if not, I would have to pay another month of hosting fees. I talked to Steve a couple times, and he referred me to Brendan, who did not answer my emails.

On AIM they have been online but away for three days. Someone is at that compute because the computer is not idle for long, but the away status stays on. In total they have been online 4 days, according to AIM.

I even wrote asking if I could sign up with a regular package now, and then upgrade. No response.

My fear is that with the holidays coming up, it is going to get even worse.

Alex....

You might get a better response from
http://www.rocketsupport.com/cgi-bin/board/UltraBoard.cgi

rocketsupport has only been away for about an hour. but they have been online for over 4 days :)

mkaufman - That is my point. If you read my post first post, they had been online for three days and away for 2. I have been patiently waiting for the away sign to go away, but it never does. However, someone is using the computer because it is not idle for too long. So yes, they have been online for four days, but not answering IMs for atleast three because I have been watching it.

Also, sometimes the HumanClick thing says talk to a live person, yet when you click on it, no one responds.

MilkMan - I did post a thread over there. There are already unanswered posts regarding the reselling plan, among others, so I'll see if they respond.

I really hate to give up on them because they came so highly recommended. It's just that I do not know what to think.

And witht he holidays (three of them back to back), don't things get more hectic than calmer? People want time off and when your staff gets short, that is when the problems begin. Murphy's Law :)

Alex,

I feel your pain. I have been asking in vain for over 2 months about their reseller plan. They tell me it will be ready in a week or two, and then when I ask again they say another week or two. This is totally unacceptable that they are stringing people along.

I am going to end up going to hostmatters.com. Oh yeah, Brendan knocked their service saying that they used to use the same backend as Hosting Matters for their reselling, however, they didn't find it good enough, and were totally re-designing it. Well that's great, but if the new reseller CP never comes to fruition it seems like you are stuck with egg on your face, as seems to be the case here.

Just my 16 cents.

Originally posted by Paul_Szymanski


I am going to end up going to hostmatters.com. Oh yeah, Brendan knocked their service saying that they used to use the same backend as Hosting Matters for their reselling, however, they didn't find it good enough, and were totally re-designing it. Well that's great, but if the new reseller CP never comes to fruition it seems like you are stuck with egg on your face, as seems to be the case here.

Just my 16 cents.

I believe Brendan said in another thread that the "new" control panel is the one that will be on their server at VDI or Ultraspeed. They are simply customizing the cpanel that comes with those servers. From what I understand, there are limited things that you can do to the Alabanza control panels and a total redesign is not one of them.

Hello,

I dont know if im supposed to post things about my own company here, but i'm just hoping to clear a few things up here. Reguarding a reseller program, we are working on one, but we dont mention it anywhere on our site for a reason. People keep asking us about it and we're giving our optimistic date of availability, but the project is not top priority with us currently, getting our new control panels up and running is. I have told just about everyone who asks about our reseller program, that our site will make it very apparent once it is ready. Also, I never 'knocked' anyones service to my recollection. I'm pretty sure I stated that we wern't happy with the capabilities of alabanzas reseller system which could have a lot more features than it currently does.

We are doing lots of coding to get the new cp's working and running smoothly with no bugs, before we release them to our customers. The control panel we are going to offer is going to be much better than the standard vdi control panel, so I dont know where Nashoba got that info from. If we were simply customizing the look of it we would have been done a month ago.

Our AIM support, is not how we carry out the bulk of our live support. If it says that rocketsupport has been away for two days, it is most likely the case that I went away for a weekend (as I did this weekend) the other guys do live support via humanclick, and support is done 90% through the trouble ticket system on weekends. I leave our AOL name on away because it contains the emergency contact info to page our techs if something goes awry, and AIM is usually the first place people check.

BTW, I definatly do not ignore peoples emails. I get 100+ a day and I dont think I miss any, but I suppose I could have. Other than a few family issues, and some recent and upcoming exams, there hasnt really been much of a change in our support level, and there wont be in the future either.

-Brendan
brendan@hostrocket.com

<<Admin notice>> Msg by Brendan will be passed by flying colors (excuse the exams pun Brendan :D)

Clarifications on host's own actions and remedies are fine. It's when you start to self-promote that you get the CDS flying on your tail with sharp eagle talons outstretched.... ;)

Well, that definitely clarifies things.

If I had known at any time that the reseller plan "is not top priority with us currently", I would not have been waiting for over a month.

This is from your newsletter dated Oct. 4:

":: Reseller Program going live. HostRocket is going to be starting its reseller program back up again within the next week or so. Keep your eye on our site for details."

This lead me to think you had a reseller program up and running and you were revising it.

Then we waited several weeks. In response to Paul's thread in your forums (he asked when the reseller program was going to be launched) you mentioned the new control panel and gave a sneak peek of what it will look like.
This leads a person to think that the new control/reseller control panel are on in the same. Paul did not ask about the regular panel, he asked about the reseller panel. So once again, we get all hyped on this new panel, and we wait.

And hear nothing.

The whole month of October, nothing.

Now I find out it is not a priority, which is fine. But if I had known it was not a priority, I would not have kept asking about it.

I feel like a royal class idiot right now. I have been waiting for over a month for nothing.

I need another cup of coffee to cool off on this one.

I don't mean to post this in direct reference to Hostrocket and their services, so NO ONE take it that way, please.

In my experience, every host I have ever had, has been overly optimistic about their future plans for someting (except my current provider, but it doesn't apply in this case). In other words, I've heard the 'coming soon', 'we're working on it', thing as well -and it never came soon enough (nor when they said it was going to come). Often there are plans for something, but hosts tend to jump the gun a bit.

Again, this isn't specifically addressing any ONE host, but many, and this is a common complaint.

Oh, well, that's certainly good to hear.

I suppose if everyone does it, then it's just peachy-keen fine for all hosts to announce false dates for provision of services.

You know what makes me laugh. They have one bad month and people like etlux try to make them out to be the worst host around. They do have problems but they are not as bad as you try to make them out to be.

P.S - do i get a prize for being the 10000 person to post on this board :P

The prize you get is for just not getting the point.

When you run a commercial site, if your host decides to "have one bad month" it can put *you* out of business -- for good.

Oh and your going to go out of your way to bad mouth them everytime the subject comes up?.

They had problems with java serlets which was out of there control but worked quickly to fix it and even did something at 3am in the morning if i remember correctly. Thats not the sign of a bad host to me.

In my reckoning they have still managed to be up and online for more than 98% of the time. Which is bloody good.

Originally posted by etLux
I suppose if everyone does it, then it's just peachy-keen fine for all hosts to announce false dates for provision of services.

Ohh no, I don't feel that way at all! Nothing like waiting for something that isn't on its way any time soon. I think it is terrible, but wanted you to know that I've heard and experienced the same thing. My post was more of an announcement to all hosts asking them to watch this, as it tends to drive clients crazy.

Always better to say that it is coming in two months and then shock everyone and roll it out early :)

There is a difference between announcing a false date with the intention of stringing them along, and announcing a date that you believe to be correct, and then have something go wrong which delays the final completion of the project. I want this to be done and working 400X as much as you do trust me : )

-Brendan
brendan@hostrocket.com

This is only my 2nd month with them, and I've had a few minor obstacles, but overall I am really pleased with their service, and their staff.

They are fairly reliable, and I think, it's a good thing to see the guys at HostRocket tackle problems, and they are helpful most of the time.

I'd suggest not giving up on them.

So people like me with a few sites (200) can learn - (yes I know this is a stupid question) how many sites do you host? The reason I ask is that support is starting to acumulate and I am starting to get complanits similar to yours. So yes it is time to hire. I know every host is different, but the fundamentals are the same. You can kind of give me a view into the cyrstal ball. Example, 1000 host 3 support staff. Any assistance to your smaller brother would be appreciated!.

Whats your email address?

-Brendan
brendan@hostrocket.com

.. they're working on it. So they should be up and running soon.