Hello,

Just doing my part for the community. I was just serving my small website on aplushosting.com. I took the A+ deluxe package because I work with php and mysql. I do lots of downloads of old time radio shows and streaming media. Of course, this package comes with "unlimited bandwidth" which in reality translates to 35 gb (which is still very good)

I had six months of uninterupted service until my website slowed to a crawl this last month. When I contacted tech support, I was informed my website was taking up too much bandwidth and I had better lower my downloads, or upgrade to the high traffic 150$ a month plan lest I be shut down.

Ouch.

So I checked my stats provided by aplushosting and I was informed I had only used 15gigs of traffic. So I contacted tech support again. And they said those stats were wrong. The sysadmin had the "real" stats and he said I was using at least 50gigs in downloads.

So I was cool with that. I said I would upgrade to the higher priced plan if you show me the proof.

They said they couldn't release that information.

So I explained to them I would gladly choose a higher priced plan with a different company. No prob, they replied. You can cancel your account from the control panel.

So I switched hosting companies, did the domain switch, and after a few days of monitoring web traffic, I saw my traffic was right on the money - I was doing a half gig a day of downloads with around 100-150 vistors on a daily average. That's it. :rolleyes:

'Jeez. I was pretty irked at trying to be strong armed. :nuts: But I guess the lesson in all this - you learn from the bad hosts on how to appreciate the good ones. :beer:

Be wary of aplushosting. The price might seem low, but trust me, you'll be paying in the long run.

aplushosting = :puke:

phew... I almost went with them too. Instead I chose apixhosting and haven't had a problem yet. Well unless you include that router failure at Verio, but they had no control of that.

Good day everyone!

My name is Peter, system administrator at A+ Hosting, replying to the post above.

I've been posting on this board, and others, for years, under other aliases. One pattern I've always seen among web hosting users is that, when they don't get what they want, they go around saying "web host x sucks".

Last month we had a client paying for our low $6.95/month account. She was the type of client that wanted everything served in a silver platter. We got questions from her every 15 minutes, asking anything from why her Internet connection dies to how to design frames. We helped her, as we had time to help her out. Until she requested us to install a shopping cart she bought. We of course said we couldn't, as any web host would have done. Plus, her hosting plan didn't had CGI capabilities. Well, days later, we find dozens of postings everywhere, from newsgroups to sites like this, saying how terrible our service is in a very rude fashion. It was her.

Situations like this happen just about every week, to every web host. We personally know staff from other competitors. A customer yesterday said using our service was too complicated and we didn't helped her out. She was just trying to use CuteFTP and we told her, within 5 minutes of sending us an email asking for help, step by step what she needed to do. She said our tech support just sucks. That it should be easier.

That FTP is complicated is really not our fault. But well, customers bad mouth when they think their point of view is right and ours not. They tell their stories the way it best fits their convenience. I can probably point dozens of situations like that within the last few days in this board alone.

Another one I remember from about a week ago. The user manually deleted his site's FrontPage extensions instead of using our automated way of doing so, as we instruct. Well, he didn't delete FrontPage's .htaccess, causing 403 errors on his web site. The user replaced the 403 error page with a message saying "we are down due to bad service provided by our host A+ Hosting", so all his visitors, a high traffic site, saw that for a little while. He also posted messages in web hosting directories warning about our terrible service and servers. After he went through that trouble, then he contacted us about the problem. We fixed his problem in a minute. Attitudes.

Same situation again, customers tell the story to their convenience.

In the case of the gentlemen above, he of course, fails to mention that his web site had very frequent daily peaks of 1.5 to 3GBs per day. He asked us if he could cancel the account, and of course, we said yes. We don't force him to anything. He has choices. He won't "pay more in the long run" as he says above. He has the choice to leave anytime.

Our policies on bandwidth are clear: spend as much as you want. But after years of experience, of course, those sites with videos, music files, etc, just come to abuse that. Why do they do it? Because their other web hosts just kick them out.

Our policies are: spend as much as you want, but as soon as most of your bandwidth are large images, videos, music, etc., it defaults to 1GB per dollar you pay. In the case of the gentlemen above, 35GBs.

So a suggestion to every one around, don't trust people's comments on a web host, unless of course, you see dozens complaining about the same company.

Still, we are switching to providing specific bandwidth to each account once we change our site's look for a new one in two weeks. For example, A+ Basic I might have 8GBs, A+ Deluxe, 30GBs, etc. It's less confusing for people.

We were one of the few hosts to *really* provide unlimited bandwidth to users. But, well, it can be abused. No web host can host a few dozen, or hundred, web sites consuming more than 150GBs each for $10-$15/month. It's just impossible.

To Jezner, sorry about this situation. I wasn't really aware of what was happening anyway. I didn't "refused" to provide stats as one of our customer service people said. I'll take care of him.

I think I'll hang around here for a while... got a few people to help around.

Peter :)

We were one of the few hosts to *really* provide unlimited bandwidth to users. But, well, it can be abused. No web host can host a few dozen, or hundred, web sites consuming more than 150GBs each for $10-$15/month. It's just impossible.

If this were true, then there would be no use for the word "abused" which you used. Unlimited can't get abused, because there is no *limit* to abuse to start with. :blush: How can your customers "abuse" something with NO limit?

Are you seriously looking for understanding about offering unlimited bandwidth then getting screwed because people use it? You offered it up, I'd be just as ticked if you cut me off. Sure people will complain - happens to all of us - but you deserve every bit of bad press you get if you try to throw unlimited bandwidth around as a feature then either small print a new definition for unlimited or put restrictions on users.
If I've misunderstood, my apologies. If I haven't, then I hope all your users come around and talk smack about you if it is warranted.

Hi,

There is no fine print on our sites... our bandwidth policy link is posted everywhere on our site, even before they click "pay".

And yes, it is offered, with conditions. Ever seen a web host with no conditions? I don't think so.

Just wanted to clear things up with Jazner. As other customers, he went through the trouble of bashing a company instead of talking it out. We didn't do anything wrong to him, like charging him for that excess bandwidth without his permissions.

We just gave him a choice. You can either upgrade, or look for another solution. He has no contract with us, nor does he has any obligations to upgrade and stay with us.

And yes, bandwidth can be abused. Ever seen a server skyrocket to 25mbps/second of bandwidth because of a $6.95/month account? That's abuse.

About the person saying he would be ticked off if he were cut off, we didn't cut off the customer. We controlled his site to about 50GBs/month, more than the allowed limit. Of course, his site would slow down as soon as it peaked to more than 3GBs/day.

After the 25mbps/second experience above, we had to enforce such safety limits. Every web host enforces them.

Peter :)

Originally posted by Jezner
I took the A+ deluxe package because I work with php and mysql. I do lots of downloads of old time radio shows and streaming media. Of course, this package comes with "unlimited bandwidth" which in reality translates to 35 gb (which is still very good)
I checked your site and it does indeed state UNLIMITED bandwidth. From what was posted above, it sounds as if this customer (due to downloads of old time radio shows and streaming media) actually used some of that and was cut off. It's like a broken record. If you won't offer it, don't offer it.

If I'm missing something here, well, feel free to explain.

Originally posted by aplus
Ever seen a server skyrocket to 25mbps/second of bandwidth because of a $6.95/month account? That's abuse.

We controlled his site to about 50GBs/month, more than the allowed limit. Of course, his site would slow down as soon as it peaked to more than 3GBs/day.

After the 25mbps/second experience above, we had to enforce such safety limits. Every web host enforces them.
Peter, with due respect, 25mbps is far far far from unlimited, as is 50GB's a month. I get the feeling you have your own definition for unlimited which is fine and good, but if you used the one in the dictionary, you'd see why people aren't going to be on your side with this one.

This confusion is why we post a link to our bandwidth policies everywhere.

In fact, read the top of our order page:

https://secure.aplushosting.com/english/order1.phtml

It's quite simple... all customers follow these policies. We've never had any problems with them, except for an anime site some time ago consuming about 300GBs of bandwidth per month.

The policies are there gentlemen. As in any web host. They are repeated again at the end or the order process, they are posted on our products page, everywhere. We just followed the policies and gave a choice to the customer. He was *given* a choice. His choice was to look for another web host.

It's quite simple actually... we contacted the user about it, he took a choice. Then he bashed us. As if we had force him to something.

Many of our customers go over the limits. For example, our $7/month account have a limit of 2GBs/month, but we don't monitor it. Same with all other hosting plans. We just check our web server's graphs (Zeus web server) daily. When we see high peaks, then we take action. It's rare, but it happens... specially with new accounts using fradulent credit cards to temporarily post porn movies, warez, and things like that.

That happens a lot... can't stop it unfortunately. :(

Peter

uttal to Mr. Aplus is simply the emails we exhanged prior to my negative encounter. Please note the very civil tone between us. Also note, I told them I would reccomend them to my other clients but after reviewing my new server logs and seeing the lack of any such traffic spikes as the reason I was penalized, I wouldn't advise anyone to use them. If you can't provide accurate stats to your customer, I ask, what's the point?

On an aside, I cancelled my acount today. There was a box which asked me the reason I cancelled, and like a gentleman, I pointed them to this thread so they could know why I found them so difficult.

Now onto the emails.


On Thursday 24 January 2002 03:25 pm, you wrote:
Hello,
Since last night, I have been experiencing a bunch of web problems.
First and forthmost, the website has slowed to a crawl. Its now taking a relatively small page a long time to load images and such. It's like the server is being bogged down.
Secondly, my phpBB forums have ceased to function. I have not made any changes whatsoever to them. I just surfed to the page and it read, phpBB was unable to connect to the database. please check $dbhost, $dbuser, and $dbpasswd in config.php.
So this morning, I telnetted into the server and fired up mysql and saw it was running fine.
Any help with these problems would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Brian

************************

On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 15:37:03 -0400 wrote:
Hi Brian,
I have now noticed why the site is running slow. Seems as though your consuming TOO much bandwidth and therefore you'd need to upgrade to an A+ High Traffic I or reduce your bandwidth consumption.
Regards,
Omar
A+ Customer Service Department

************************

On Thursday 24 January 2002 03:56 pm, you wrote:
Hi Omar,
I just received the high traffic plan .pdf from aplus right before you replied. So it looks like I'm going to have to prune some content. My question - although my account reads unlimited bandwidth - how much bandwidth per month do I have to realistically play with?
Thanks for your time,
Brian

************************

On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 16:10:19 -0400 wrote:
Hi Brian,
You have an A+ Deluxe, so your entitled to around 35GB/month on data transfer. For more information, go to our Bandwidth Policies at: http://www.aplushosting.com/english/bandwidth.phtml

Regards,
Omar
A+ Customer Service Department

************************

On Monday 28 January 2002 01:31 pm, you wrote:
Hello,
I've cut my bandwidth down for my entire site yet it's being bogged down. If you look at the site logs you will see that the bandwidth is back at normal levels. Is this still a problem? Or am I on some sort website probation?
Thanks for your time,
Brian

************************

On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:28:43 -0400 wrote:

First, are you aware your domain is not pointing to your account?
Domain Name: JENZER.COM
Registrar: ASCIO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Whois Server: whois.speednic.net
Referral URL: http://www.ascio.com
Name Server: NS1.NAMECENTER.CH
Name Server: NS2.NAMECENTER.CH
Updated Date: 17-dec-2001

You're been given well over the allotted bandwidth of a Deluxe. Unless you trim the content even further, or go to a HT1, you will keep experiencing the lag (the fact that you are seeing it so slow it is because it is still over the limit).

Regards,
Edwin

************************

On Monday 28 January 2002 04:20 pm, you wrote:
You need to help me out here because I've been receiving very mixed messages from your company.
First off, according to the control panel, I've only spent 16 gb of bandwidth for the entire month of January.
You are telling me that I am over budget pertaining bandwidth.
Yet, another person told me that I am entitled to 35/GB a month (see below in the email).
Do you see the reason for my confusion?

Please explain.
Thanks for your time,
Brian

************************

On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 17:14:37 -0400 wrote:
Hi Brian,
Before controlling your bandwidth, you were consuming 50GBs/month in which the stats does not display a lot of criteria based on analyzing bandwidth consumption
What changes have you done to control your bandwidth?
Let us know!
Regards,
Omar
A+ Customer Service Department

************************

On Monday 28 January 2002 05:34 pm, you wrote:
Hi Omar,
Thanks for getting back to me. I host an content media site which streams video productions and also old time radio shows. Because I thought I was well within my bandwidth limits, I started posting 7 old time shows a week with an archive page of seven shows (plus an Orson Welles page and some turkey shows).
Since I received notice, I limited my old time radio shows to only five shows a week, plus one other turkey. In a nutshell, this is the exact setup I've always had, and I've never had a problem with it.
Now we have the problems of my site consuming too much bandwidth which is a realistic concern. But how can I limit my bandwidth if I have no clue how much I am taking? If your control panel does not produce correct stats, then I'm in the dark and I have only your word that I am taking up too many resources.
If you can point me to something which accurately monitors my bandwidth (aka not the control panel), then I'll make some more cuts in my content. But for the moment, I'm helpless.

Thanks for your time,
Brian

************************

On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:10:50 -0400 wrote:
Hi Brian,
Regarding information on your account, only our system administrator has access to such information.
The information in your stats is not update, because your bandwidth was controlled for you not to goes over your limit.
In order to see any changes which are truely working, you'd need to limit your radio shows until you notice the change.
Regards,
Omar
A+ Customer Service Department

************************

On Monday 28 January 2002 06:37 pm, you wrote:
Hi Omar,
Thanks for your quick responses with the current issue.
Unforunately, I am flustered in achieving any type of resolve. Currently, you tell me that my bandwidth is too much. You also explain that my stats are not accurate. And further more, you explain that I cannot have access to my bandwidth logs. So it comes down to two options. Either prune my content, or go to a higher priced hosting plan.
If I had any proof that my bandwidth was reaching the limits of your explanation, then I would expand my plan. But since I have no gaurantee, then unfortunately, I must endure my current bandwidth limitations until I find a more accomodating web host, even if that means paying more money. If you can work something out to get me some accurate statistics, I'd appreciate it. I'd like you to ask around before you send a response. Your company has been very good to me, and I'd hate to think that you are penalizing me for taking advantage of your services.
In any case, thanks for your time with all this.
Brian

************************

On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:49:11 -0400 wrote:
Hi Brian,
I like our customers, since I really enjoy helping them out. If I -could- provide you with accurate information regarding your account, believe me, I would have already indicated you.
Problem is that I'm just passing information from our system administrator onto to you. The bandwidth limitation placed on your account is for you not to exceed your limit. If you see that your site is slow, that the reason, since it's trying to grab more bandwidth than the one your provided with.
I'd reconsider the web radio station issue, and maybe make a schedule around it, to allow bandwidth to free up a bit.
Regards,
Omar
A+ Customer Service Department

************************

On Monday 28 January 2002 09:03 pm, you wrote:
Hi Omar,
Thanks for your time with all this. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be resolvable. It all boils down to this - I don't believe your sysadmin. Simply put. And if he doesn't want to show me the numbers, then I'll find another host who will. As you know, the market is saturated with them.
In any case, aplus has been really cool and you might be surprised to know I'd still reccomend you to any clients or friends.
Thanks again,
Brian

************************

Hi Brian,

Thanks! Now, if you'd like to submit a cancellation, please do so through your Control Panel under Accounting - Special Services - Account Cancellation.
Once you submit the cancellation form, we will process it as soon as possible.
If you have any other questions, just let us know!

Regards,
Omar
A+ Customer Service Department

By the way, it seems the person above did not understood what 25mbps is.

25mbps = 25 megabits per second, in other words, half a T3, 16 times a T1.

Peter :)

Mr Jezner, be aware that traffic spikes can be caused by anything, and are not something permanent.

If XYZ.com site links to one of your videos for a day, you will get higher traffic. The next day, you might not. That's why they are "spikes".

Be aware that at some point, you will have them again. Unfortunately, sites with media files on the Internet get linked a lot. You will get spikes again sooner or later...

I'm just giving you a bit of my experience.

Peter :)

This is one reason why we have been debating over the last few months whether to change to strict-bandwidth plans. We will be taking that decision here in the next few days before our new web site comes online.

<<Please request a review in the appropriate forum, danke.>>

Peter :)

Peter just so you know, I (the person above) fully understand what 25mbps is.

I'm glad Jezner posted that exchange as it show people exactly what you get, and what to look for when signing up with unlimited hosts. Check that TOS, as there will be many more restrictions (read: limitations) on that unlimited account than other hosts I'd personally sign up with (I'm trying to keep it general as not to favor anyone or not favor anyone).

People are much better off going with a host that clearly states the limits of transfer you'll get, unless your site somehow fits the terms of the average unlimited host. To me, I don't like playing silly games and being so restricted that I can't even host a video of my son for people to view or an MP3 of my friend's band. Even the crappy sites I have wouldn't qualify for these hosts' plans. Sure I could have these files, but lordy have mercy, if enough people actually started viewing them, I'd be throttled/capped.

Ugggghhh... anywhoooo....

I agree with you Chicken... that's why we've been arguing this here in the company for months. It's just easier for the customer, and for us, to just put limits on them.

Still, with limits, you would still be capped if a lot of people start downloading your files.

It's the same... same effect. It's just presented in different ways.

We'll probably go with limits on bandwidth... but this affects too many customers. A large part of our customers do go over their limits, we just don't notice it. But I guess we'll apply these new bandwidth offers to new customers only, and let the old customers choose to follow whichever policy they like. What do you say?

Peter

Sure people will complain - happens to all of us - but you deserve every bit of bad press you get if you try to throw unlimited bandwidth around as a feature then either small print a new definition for unlimited or put restrictions on users.


Reply from A+


There is no fine print on our sites... our bandwidth policy link is posted everywhere on our site, even before they click "pay".

And yes, it is offered, with conditions. Ever seen a web host with no conditions? I don't think so.


Okay, lemme clear something up here, Peter. I don't know what dictionary you use, but here is a pretty standard definition of a few terms related to your post.

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary

un·lim·it·ed (adj)
1 : lacking any controls : UNRESTRICTED
2 : BOUNDLESS, INFINITE
[b]3 : not bounded by exceptions : UNDEFINED[b]


mis·in·form (v)
to tell [someone] information that is not correct


Now, if you reread your post, you'll see that you misinforming not only your clients but this forum as well.

I'm sure it happens wherein customers bash you guys because they are cheap and not so bright. But I'd be angry if I were them too, as you *misinform* (I'd put outright lie, but I think that you really believe yourself when you say you offer unlimited ^_^)

And if you offer stats to your customers (I may be mistaken here from Jazner's post, please forgive if I am) to say that they are that waaaaay off (15-30 versus over 50Gig) means that you don't really offer stats.

Lastly to say that you post under aliases makes me wonder too. Why are you hiding on these forums? Trying to post good information about A+?

Sorry, but I think that your post was the most the damning post on this thread. Jazner stated his experience, and if someone had a site that didn't come close to the bandwidth that Jezner had, they'd probably just ignore this thread. However, you're post "bashing" your customers and offering unlimited bandwidth is enough to flash the warning signs to *all* webmasters looking for hosts to steer clear.

I hope I don't sound rude in this post (it's easy to come across as such online) but I won't apologize for misunderstanding anything because regardless of whatever the deal was with Jezner, your post shows that A+ is wasting perspective customers time (there is nothing worse than signing up for a host and then finding out you were bamboozeld :angry: ) Customers and I'm sure this board will respect you more if you stop trying so hard to sell your services with false information. Just be honest. It makes life easier for both you and your customer.

bleh.
ochiba

Originally posted by aplus
This is one reason why we have been debating over the last few months whether to change to strict-bandwidth plans. We will be taking that decision here in the next few days before our new web site comes online.

Peter :)


I'd suggest you do think seriously about changing the 'unlimited plans'.... Esp if you want a good name here, many of the members here hate unlimited hosts, mainly because they lie so often. I don't see why you would offer unlimited bandwidth, since its not possible, and all it looks like you just try to deceive.......


damnit, 5 posts while I was just writting this one.... oh well...

I'm not promoting anything here! I use another alias because long ago, these sort of sites did not allowed any user from web hosting companies.

So, I just use something else, like DarthPeter, JediMaster, things like that.

But since I now see that many hosting firms hang around here, I'll just keep using aplus.

Don't assume...

Peter :)

Years ago, when we started, unlimited bandwidth was possible. Sites were low traffic, there wasn't much access to video production/sound software, etc. People had 28.8K modems so users would not design heavy sites.

MP3s were still just a novelty... many customers consumed large bandwidth, but those with low traffic covered the expense.

It used to be: 1% = lot of bandwidth, 99% = low bandwidth.

These days, it's around 10% versus 90%, and that 10% consumes what the other 90% consume.

Years ago, there was no need to put limits. If you've been around long, you would remember that just about all hosts had no specific bandwidth on their plans.

Times have changed... and all of this will serve good to make my point at the company tomorrow morning.

Peter :)

Originally posted by The Prohacker
Esp if you want a good name here...
I don't really think it has much to do with around here per se, (though I don't think it would be popular around here heh), rather the health of your business and the expectations of your customers.

I don't want people to bash you, or any host, so that isn't the point. I do not feel however, that your pages reflect what you offer, or are willing to offer customers. As you said, times have changed and while everyone used so very little in the past, there are going to be some higher bandwidth sites, coming from some very surprisingf places (ie: bob's little home page suddenly pulls 25mbps :D)

I don't think the answer is to restrict it (in terms of types of files), rather it should be restricted other ways (either in terms of bandwidth or transfer), though it should be clear as to what the true limitations are. Custoomers need to be aware that while they can get this for this much, they aren't going to get to get the entire farm, the chickens, all the cows, plus grandma for $4.99/mo. It is fair to you, and fair to them.

2GB/month Unlimited Unlimited 6GB/month Unlimited Unlimited

http://www.aplushosting.com/english/products-shared.phtml

That's on your shared hosting page.

S'true times change, and so do webpages. Update your webpage if you "can't" provide the unlimited service anymore.

That's all I'm saying. You posted that your company does offer unlimited (which hopefully it's cleared up now that's impossible as unlimited means no conditions) Now you've posted that with the changin' times your company can't offer the service. However your webpage (the one at which consumers are currently viewing and signing up for your services) has unlimited plastered all across the plans.

Good luck at your meeting tomorrow ^_^ You should print out this thread and let them see *exactly* why their customers bash them and why other consumers won't give them a second glance.

hehe.
ochiba

Chicken types faster than me -_-;;;

*LOL* Grandma is an extra fee...

The company's management is reading through the post and they have finally agreed to put specific amounts of bandwidth on our hosting plans.

It's the same as it is today, the only difference being that no one will be able to go above the specified amount. We were allowing that in the past...

Thank you all for your insight. It has been really helpful. Have a nice evening!

Peter :)

Peter-

Afraid you guys screwed me too...

I was late on payment and my account was cancelled, then i got my new CC in because my other was INFRINGED upon.

When attempting to give you my new info you informed me that if i would like to keep my account with you, i would need to pay an additional $25 because my account was cancelled.

This really pissed me off, i never intentionally never paid you guys, and i did inform you that i would have new info soon.
(I have copies of the emails - spoke w/ Omar)

So, after this i figured, you know what, screw this, im moving my site. "Can i please have a copy of my site I ask."

Sure no problem was your response, but were going to charge you $35 for it. Gee Great business on your part. (I lost my hardcopy due to harddrive failure)

So now, i need to completely reconstruct my website.

Truthfully, I THINK you guys are running some shady business over there and I will never do business with you again.

Originally posted by aplus

It's quite simple actually... we contacted the user about it, he took a choice. Then he bashed us. As if we had force him to something.



I would hardly call his post a "bash". In fact, I thought his tone was quite calm and rational.

I do have one question however - why wouldn't you provide him with proof of his supposed abusive bandwidth usage?


-Bob

Hi,

Unfortunately, our policies are strict and detailed. We give customers 15 days to pay after their payment is due. We don't extend any period beyond that.

I remember your emails since this was very recent. I remember having cancelled your account a few days later after the 15 day period.

Tell your phone company or credit card company you will pay a few days after the last due date. You know what their reply is. They'll charge you a overdue fee, same as we charge a $25 reactivation fee, or a bank charges you for not paying your loan on time.

For those that don't know, we send 2-4 emails to customers for a few days before we charge their credit cards to announce it so that they make sure their cards are ready, and we send emails when credit cards don't go through, every single day for a 15 day period. All these emails warn about the reactivation fee if your account gets cancelled.

As for the $35, we have a $35 fee for restoring backups. Just about every major web host charges something for that. It's a time consuming process.

Still, you should have backups of your own. That's just the right way to go...

Sorry... if we do a favor to one customer, it would not be fair if we don't do it to others.

Still, we should have a backup of your site in our archives from the last two months. The fee would still apply though.

Let us know...

Jason

Hi,

Peter and I are the only ones with access to that data. As Peter said before, we didn't received a request from customer service about his stats data.

We took care of the person at support that did this and penalized him for giving wrong information.

We also corrected the problem as to why his stats were reflecting only 15GBs instead of the right amount. Part of his log data was being compressed into archives for the user to download instead of going straight to our stats software for processing.

In our next version, the data will be processed by our stats software and also made available for download.

It's a feature we call "direct log access". When it's enabled, that data does not go to our stats software. We don't know if the user enabled it or not, or someone else with access to the user's control panel did.

I hope that answers your question Bob. Have a nice evening. :)

Jason

I think aplus are chickens "NO PUN INTENDED"

If you offer something called unlimited bandwidth then it is unlimited bandwidth regardless of anything, otherwise it should not be unlimited.

Daaa.

Anytime a restriction is placed on something unlimited it can't really be unlimited.
That’s what unlimited is no limits if you place a limit you’re a liar or your company is because it does not reflect the word unlimited

I hope all you people out there offering unlimited bandwidth learn from this.

Thank God, for the old USA, Freedom of speech, Freedom of Opinion

Peter-

The amount of time required to get my backup is not too time consuming. It would be practicing good business to let your customer leave on a good note, so you dont run into things like this right here.

I wouldnt be here complaining if i wasnt givin something to complain about. If there is one thing i've learned, its dont burn any bridges.

Just my opinion.

XTNet


I agree

Peter and I are the only ones with access to that data. As Peter said before, we didn't received a request from customer service about his stats data.

We took care of the person at support that did this and penalized him for giving wrong information.


The most frustrating part of this whole experience was the you were not able to come to me with this information. The only way to get your attention was to post a warning on a board. But I wouldn't just punish Omar. You guys radiate a prima-donna attitude which might be fine in the sysadmin world, but in customer transactions, it really creates bad blood.

We also corrected the problem as to why his stats were reflecting only 15GBs instead of the right amount. Part of his log data was being compressed into archives for the user to download instead of going straight to our stats software for processing.

This was the root of all my problems. You see, I would have upgraded to your high traffic plan if you only showed me the proof. But you wouldn't. So If I can't trust your stats on a $30 plan, what makes you think I'd trust them on a $150 plan? I was very dissappointed because up until then, I thought you were a decent hosting company.

But the real kick was when I changed hosts and checked my stats. Wow, did they sing a different story from what I was told from you guys. 1.5 gigs a day? 1,000+ visitors? My site is lucky if it cracks 200 visitors with 500mb being downloaded daily. This entirely proved my gut feeling that you guys were being dis-honest. Or, as I like to think for the benefit of the doubt, you truly do believe bad data.

So when I bumped into this board doing my research for my new hosting company (www.phenomient.com - the jury's still out, but their response time has been amazing - I sent an email at four in the morning over the weekend regarding a mysql problem - which they promptly - five minutes later- returned with the fix - I was expecting a Monday morning at the earliest), I thought I'd do my part and tell people of my experiences of you. I have a feeling you didn't know about this board until I linked you to it during my cancellation process, seeing you are newly registered. But even so, you do have a right to defend yourselves in a public forum.

On an aside, your responses, in my opinion, seem much more damaging than my original post. My advice, nod your head, say you're sorry, and let this post sink.

- Jezner

Sorry, that's

www.phenominet.com

type-o

aplus, your whole attitude towards this is really annoying. Did you expect to roll in and explain how your unlimited offer is not truly unlimited and we'd all understand? Here's what I understand - your company offered unlimited - there isn't such a thing as unlimited with limits as you seem to think. You offered people 1000GB of traffic if they want - then whine because someone bashes you for not delivering. Management has to come read a thread to understand why this is wrong? Quit bitchin' like you'll get some support and suck it up. You screwed this guy over and anyone else who you place limits on for bandwidth usage. It's like getting unlimited soda refills and being told no more after 2 - it's flat out false advertising and lying. You're lucky this industry is regulated - the gov't would be slapping you around.

Alright, for starters Aplus, you hit a sore nerve with me with your initial arrogant thread accusing your customers of just bashing you because they couldn't get their ways. No client likes a snotty webhost! At least here in the US, we'd like to think that our middle-class wages entitle us to the rights of Kings and Queens. If you can't treat your customers right, there are several hosts that can and do.

From the way you present yourself on this board, it's not hard to imagine you being unsympathetic to your customers' needs and requests.

So, it is true! *Your* stat program was crud. As far as I'm concerned when you were informed of that you should have compromised with the client for that month immediately (even if they were over the stats) since technically it was your fault they weren't able to monitor their own bandwidth usage.

Now, for real reason I'm posting. Just visited your page...

Remember this?

The company's management is reading through the post and they have finally agreed to put specific amounts of bandwidth on our hosting plans.

It's the same as it is today, the only difference being that no one will be able to go above the specified amount. We were allowing that in the past...

Well...

Data transfer limit (per month) 2GB/month Unlimited Unlimited 6GB/month Unlimited Unlimited

http://www.aplushosting.com/english/products-shared.phtml

So, I'm guessing this means that your customers who signed up today aren't allowed to go over their unlimited amount right? And what is that amount again? Are we going by Aplus' meaning or by the defined word? And just what is your unlimited with limited conditions? This?!

http://www.aplushosting.com/english/bandwidth.phtml


Pshaw... now basically you're saying that your *unlimited* plans mean HTML text pages only which probably won't use more than 1-2Gig a month (no image intensive sites? multimedia sites? no doubt half of the PHP/CGI boards and other sites online are also excluded for resource abuse, right?) What else drains bandwidth nowadays other than image intensive multimedia and script sites? Get real, posting that crap after talking a board of experienced clients and webhosts. Tell it to the poor innocent customers who fork over 20/month to receive services they could get for free to a couple bucks. LAME.

After reading your final post on this matter and then seeing this generic disclaimer with the word 'unlimited' still plastered all over your site, I say this loud and clear for the board to see:

You Are a Fraud

double bleh.
ochiba

ps. Jezner, I want to say hats off to you for how you've handled your dealings with Aplus. You have been incredibly civil about this... kudos, for your attitude, man, because I would be trying to collect enough 2 cents donations to hire the bad webhost hitman. BTW: Did they ever send you your stats? If they did were they really over 50Gig?

Hi Ochiba,

Thanks for the support. They never did give me the logs. I guess they figured it'd do no good. Even if they were right, I'd still leave them. They shouldn't expect their customers to jump through hoops to get the "correct" information regarding their site. I understood their supposedly "unlimited" bandwidth policy, but according to the information provided me, I was well beneath it. They are not to be trusted and I am gratified that this forum provides any of their future customers with a warning.

The most irritating thing was how self-righteous they appeared on this forum. They weren't even open to the idea that this whole mess could have been diverted had they provided "correct" information. And I'm willing to bet that they didn't seen anything wrong with their actions. Though, I think this is a problem with sysadmins in general. Most of them (in my experience with IT) seem to be in utter contempt of the people whom they service. I have never understood this. If the sysadmins at aplus were more open to the people who pay their salaries, then they just might avoid embarassing posts on high traffic message boards such as this. Alas. :rolleyes:

- Jezner

Hi,

Let me clear a few misunderstandings on this post before this keeps up:

Here it goes:

- first, apologies to Jezner. As we said a few times before and seems like we'll have to keep repeating it over and over again, we were not aware of the situation until this post. Had Jezner contacted our CEO, whose address is on our site's contact page (http://aplushosting.com/english/contactus.phtml) with the description "email him with complaints", we would have solved this a long time ago. Unfortunately, on any web hosting company, customer service employees sometimes make mistakes. We are all humans after all.
- Second, we didn't provided Jezner with stats since, as we said before, we found out about this through this posting. Jezner had already cancelled his account by then. Those stats are now gone. We only have the last 2-3 days, which we used to test the software. They were probably deleted by our software anyway.
- Third, about management having decided to put bandwidth limits and the gentleman above assuming everyone would not be able to go above limits and we would violate our own policies: sir, that was an assumption without facts. As we said before in previous posts, we are launching new hosting plans and a whole new web site in two weeks. *THOSE NEW PLANS* will have specific bandwidth allocations.

Our policies have been, until they are changed soon, that users can go above their limits whenever they want, and we have customers doing it, as we don't monitor bandwidth allocations. But as soon as the Zeus web server reports bandwidth spikes, we then monitor it. If any of you own web hosts, you know that such spikes are signs of huge downloads. In our experience, most of them, porn related material, WAREZ, game ROMs. We don't allow that, thus, we get warnings on such spikes.

As Jezner has indicated, he knew our policies. Unfortunately, our staff didn't gave him all the details. The fault of one employee is not indicative of the company's entire philosophy.

To prevent any other further problems, and to monitor our staff better, we will establish a "manager@aplushosting.com", where people can send in complaints. The CEO usually takes care of that, but we'll now set someone to do that.

Many of the comments in this posting are based on lack of facts on this whole situation. If you want any details on our procedures, feel free to send us an email. We are always here...

We work to keep our service at a very high quality level. You can ask any of our thousands of clients (you can see a few off our site's testimonial page), and you'll always get good comments. Of course, there is always a customer that, well, can't be satisfied.

Jezner, our CEO will be contacting you soon. About the guy that lost his data because he couldn't recuperate it, email him too. He's quite flexible. We can't find your email address. But hurry before our old backups are gone...

Have a nice day everyone,

Jason

Ouch sorry, please read post below for explaination :o

Mester, you are confusing the two companies. You signed up with websolo, a division of APlus.net - A division of Abacus America, Inc.,

Everyone here is talking about aplushosting.com. Two completely different companies.

Originally posted by aplus
Good day everyone!

I've been posting on this board, and others, for years, under other aliases. One pattern I've always seen among web hosting users is that, when they don't get what they want, they go around saying "web host x sucks".

That's a bummer, make sure you have TOS displayed front page or before they sign contracts. Make sure they know what they get.



In the case of the gentlemen above, he of course, fails to mention that his web site had very frequent daily peaks of 1.5 to 3GBs per day. He asked us if he could cancel the account, and of course, we said yes. We don't force him to anything. He has choices. He won't "pay more in the long run" as he says above. He has the choice to leave anytime.



From what I am reading he did mentioned about high traffic, media and such...

What about the logs he had or you guys had...



So a suggestion to every one around, don't trust people's comments on a web host, unless of course, you see dozens complaining about the same company.



I sometimes wish I found out about this place sooner and take user opinion. I am bummed out about my hosting company. I didn't find any inputs on them at all, blank, none, empty. That does not mean that they are good or they got a clean record. You also find good reviews.


We were one of the few hosts to *really* provide unlimited bandwidth to users. But, well, it can be abused. No web host can host a few dozen, or hundred, web sites consuming more than 150GBs each for $10-$15/month. It's just impossible.


Auch there... Unlimited! Can I host with you?

Originally posted by Chicken
I checked your site and it does indeed state UNLIMITED bandwidth. From what was posted above, it sounds as if this customer (due to downloads of old time radio shows and streaming media) actually used some of that and was cut off. It's like a broken record. If you won't offer it, don't offer it.

If I'm missing something here, well, feel free to explain.

Very well said...

ps. specially from a sysop

Ages ago, like over a year ago, I was doing lots of research into shared web hosting accounts. aplus was one that I came accross and tried to do some background reading on.

From memory, there seemed to be a lot of happy customers who were happy with the quality of service. Then I also found info about customers who got pissed because they took aplus at face value on the "unlimited" thing and got pissed when they were asked to upgrade or pay additional fees or leave or whatever because their mp3 downloads or what-ever where chewing up the bandwidht and/or hardware resources.

I must apologise and state that I have not read all the posts in this thread, but most of them :p

I do remember, that when I went to the aplus site I did find the information about the "real" deal with bandwith/resource usage on the site, but only because, after having read around, I had done my reseach and had an expectation that I should track down the info on the site. Well, like I said, this was a long time ago, maybe 18 months ago.

But the thing is this aplus. There is a consentual common wisdom in general on these forums about offering "unlimited" bandwidth. You will be [rightly] dissed for giving that impression amongst the contributers of this forum. Even if you do provide more realistic information about acceptable usage off on ancillary pages, or fine print somewhere, you must accept that people (the general public and novice website publisher) are not going to understand or seek out or expect that there is more to the deal than what you promote as the main selling point. In short, people generally hear what they want to here. If you tell them "unlimited" and that is what they want to hear because they are ignorant of the realities of hosting, then when you get to telling them the fine detail, it will be cognitively diminished by your having re-enforced a myth with them in your initial pitch.

Um, a short hand way of saying all that is, don't promote "unlimited". Get your customer's expectations right from the get go.

You will find that regular posters here are just as harsh on hosts as they are on unreasonable customers. Reality and common sense are what you get on a forum such as this, which is the whole point of such a thing, to counter-balance the hog-wash you get elsewhere online.

But, yeah, "unlimited" is something that is just not doing anyone justice. It does not set reasonable expectations with customers who are not savy enough to know better, and it leads to the sort of lengthy thread such as this one.

All the best!
:)

Isn't there a standard or control over that. I mean you don't see that [unlimited] on Verio, Sprint, Verio or WorldCom,
but some of these small or sudden hosting companies have it.

That is a sales pitch. A false one. I work with someone in the morning and they advertise on pricewatch.com, they spend over 2,000 a month just to list items there. IF ONE PERSON COMPLAINS about false pricing or the price there does not match the site by 1 dollar web get whacked. If you advertise something that's too good or below "standard cost!" you loose your account. You play a double game of being 2 companies. One wholesale than retail you are out.

It's purely false advertisements and I personally dislike that. You can always give unlimited bandwidth but 'cap the bandwidth' than it's impossible to go over 65 gigs or 100 gigs a month.

I am actually surprised that I haven't herd stories or actual (internet) news about lawsuits and such about incidents like this or disputes. I also noticed that 'small' hosting companies usually advertise that and or mid-size. I really don't know how big A+ is and such...

Sorry I had to resurface this again, but:

Posted By APLUS via Jason
----------------------------------------
About the guy that lost his data because he couldn't recuperate it, email him too. He's quite flexible. We can't find your email address. But hurry before our old backups are gone...
---------------------------------------

I emailed the CEO last thursday and i have YET to receive a reply. I also had my client email tech@aplushosting yesterday about the issue, NO REPLY... To all who dont know already, A+ has really fast support responses... In my opinion they are avoiding myself and my client.

Whats up with this APLUS? Ignoring us? Dont want to deal with it?

Originally posted by aplus

- first, apologies to Jezner. As we said a few times before and seems like we'll have to keep repeating it over and over again, we were not aware of the situation until this post. Had Jezner contacted our CEO, whose address is on our site's contact page (http://aplushosting.com/english/contactus.phtml) with the description "email him with complaints", we would have solved this a long time ago. Unfortunately, on any web hosting company, customer service employees sometimes make mistakes. We are all humans after all.


well then perhaps u can tell me what to do since i am currently in the process of being kicked out? due of having 16 GB of transfer in january. and currently 9.5 and going in febuary...

i was not told that i had WRONG STATS on the stats page, that in fact it is 16, and i have also not violated anything else, the only reason i take up a lot of bandwidth is because i have a site that averages about 170-200 people a day. i offered to delete some of my things to slow down the bandwidth but was told that i have to upgrade or be kicked out, period. upgrade to what? 5 gigs a month of transfer for $25? does that not make any sense to anyone else? ok, they offer 750 mb of space, but if i am getting a 500 mb account with 16 gig transfer... what am i gonna do with 750mb and 5 gig?

that's alright, i have already found hosting elsewhere

Here's a question for Peter at Aplus.

You say you offer unlimited bandwidth. Notwithstanding any comments made by others, I have a question to ask.

Does YOUR upstream provider give YOU unmlimited bandwidth or do you have a finite limit as to the total amount of bandwidth you can use before you max out or are charged extra fees?

The bottom line is that since YOU can't buy unlimited badnwidth (I don't know of ANY major upstream provider that will offer unlimited bandwidth) you can't SELL unlimited bandwidth.

This reminds me of my experience with dial up internet just after the net went commercial. Netcom in Canada was a 'new' company, and offering "unlimited" dial up accounts. However, their 'unlimited' actually turned out to be limited for heavy users. They refused to define 'heavy' and would kick off those users.

Well I took it upon myself to get the government involved in investigating their misrepresenation since they refused to provide what they advertised. The government agreed that you can't put limts on 'unlimited' so Netcom was forced to change the wording to "bulk access'.

Moral of the story is that there are people like me all over the place, so companies like Aplus should be careful to not have their business practices investigated because they mislead people into thinking they actually offer "unlimited" anything.

Regards,

Savant

Note:
All accounts now have clearly marked limits.