Webhostingtalk members,
This is my story with Rackshack. As you may have noticed Rackshack offered a select few of the $99/month $1.00 setup servers today Monday 5/13 Starting at 10:00 AM CST. I just purchased one of these systems for a personal project and the following is my horror story.

Now before I begin I would like to say that I myself have worked in the support industry and I know what it is like to support customers and I was very patient and courteous.

I placed an order at 10:01CST for a Intel celeron 1.3ghz with the 60gig hard drive and was one of the first to do so because there were 18 or more when I began my order. I placed my order correctly and after my credit card was processed I received an error from the final page of the order form and was told to email or call support. I picked up the phone at 8:03am PST and was on hold for 25 minutes until I spoke to two separate tech support guys. They told me to re-enter my order with the RS number I was given and everything should be fine. If not I was told to call back and they would enter my information manually. I spoke to either Michael or another guy there. I don’t recall the first techs name. So when the second attempted failed and the order form gave me another error I called back. This was not a credit card error as there are plenty of funds and the credit card has a generous limit on it. I was on hold for over 1 hour and literally shuffled through 6 more people including a few names I forgot, Laura from sales, Michael again on his cell phone, Leon (rackshack support tech who was very nice), Louis and then a supervisor Angie.

I was on hold for over an hour just on that one support call. Not to mention the 25 minutes with the previous call. Ok to make a long story short after I was passed to one support technician, to sales, to env1 support, to env1 sales, I finally spoke to a supervisor who told me the servers were all sold out and she could do nothing for me but cancel my order. This is ridiculous and I was promised by the first phone call that I would be able to get my order completed or he would do it manually.

Well let’s say I am more than unhappy with the poor hockey puck service I received from the Rackshack support team and would like an answer personally from Robert regarding the sloppy sales job I got. Robert if you are reading this I would like to let you know I was a huge fan of your company prior to this encounter and I understand that every now and then a few people can slip through the support cracks but the service I received was ridiculous and way below the standards of a company of Rackshack caliber.

"Let me put you on hold" - "Let me transfer you" - "Let me transfer you to rackshack support" --- Hearing this for almost an hour and a half can make you pretty frustrated. I am very disappointed by the lack of customer care and the total incompetence of some of the employees. :angry:

This is my rackshack nightmare and I will no longer be recommending this company to any of my friends or colleagues. Sorry Robert, Great deals, Terrible support! :eek:

Originally posted by phpjames
. . . . . would like an answer personally from Robert . . . . . Why not contact him personally, then?

I have. Still waiting for a reply. I'm sure hes busy and will reply shortly.

You're just now finding this fact out?

order form.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49673

And when I emailed and complained about it I got a message back that said don't blame us blame all the crooks in Australia.

You know I have had my differnces with WebReseller in the past but I hope they kick butt and take names. Some people do not deserve the success they have and no mater how big they get someday they will fall, someone some where will take it to them. Just hope I am around to see it.

If that's true it sounds like a case for an immediate apology and a good rectification deal. However, if I'd had that experience I'd be wondering what would happen the next time I had a problem - had I been saved from a crisis in the future!

Bad support and waiting for assistance is one of the most annoying things we experience today.

sounds like a case for an immediate apology and a good rectification deal

I hope so but you never know. There is allways the rule of seven too. :mad:

However, one thing to remember is that everybody does have bad days. Your experience seems to be a very bad one for sure, and that really sucks. But for every unhappy customer, there are most likely hundreds of happy ones.

It's just the law of averages I guess and unfortunately you were the (un)lucky one.

Hopefully Robert does help you out though. Because you certainly got the raw end of that deal...

Thanks. Ya screwed I did get (as yoda would say) but this isnt thread isnt to bash the rackshack product.

I have a few friends happy with their boxes over at RS and support can have bad days but if 8 people cant help you solve simple setup questions and inquiries then there is a major problem. Thanks for the responses...keep em coming~

James,
I am glad you took the time to type out your whole experience because it has saved me from having to do the same. There were 22 available when I started the order process and I Got all the way to the end and received an error as well. No problem I thought I would just call and find out what the problem was. I ran into the same shuffle that you had so while on hold I decided to check my order in the members area on RackShacks website. Sure enough my order was there I had ordered the Server and my credit card was charged, but no IP addresses were sent to me. I waited on hold, got transferred around until finally I was told they were all gone and they would have to credit my card for the charges already processed. Now I sit here and see they have 20 of the Pentium 3 boxes available at a higher rate I almost want to start and order for one, but I do not have an extra 2 and a half hours to waste just to end up with nothing again. Thank you for starting this thread and giving me the opportunity to let off some steam also. Oh and as a side note to those that will reply “It was a sale and you missed out on it” that is all fine and dandy I can understand that and accept it, I can not understand having to wait on hold and call back time and time again just to clear up their mistake of charging my credit card for something they did not have in stock. Take care, Tim…

Tim,
Thanks for the response. Ya we didnt miss out on the sale we were one of the first to get in on it but we both received the missing ip error. I hope you didnt get as tooled around with support as I did. :mad:

My heart goes out to you James, you have helped me out. I hope everything works out for you.

Thanks puggy - Hopefully Robert will clear all this up and instead of screaming at Rackshack I will be screaming for them.

I had similar experience...wanted to get a $1 setup Plesk box, ordered...got to the final page after CC was charged only to have the orderform tell me there had been an error.

called customer service, waited on hold for probably no more than 10minutes.

i realised that i would probably be unlucky and not get one as there were only 3 left when i was trying to order, rep said i was right..they were sold out.

pointed me to members area signup and walked me through signing up for an ensim box instead, made sure my cc wouldnt be charged twice...didn't take long

guess with such a big company customer service experiences can vary hugely...

That's the same exact thing that happened to me when I signed up a few months ago, but that wasn't the end of my story. When I finally did get the server, Plesk didn't even work correctly out of the box. If it's going to come with Plesk, they could have at least bothered to set it up correctly. My server also had severe network connectivity problems. I couldn't download more than 10-15 KB/s from any site from the server. Even pinging RackShack.net from the server showed packet loss! Traceroutes would show failures at random points each time. My telnet connection kept dropping randomly. Speaking of telnet, they didn't include SSH by default.

After all of that, I decided I didn't want to deal with them anymore and tried to get a refund many times but was flat out refused. RackShack SCREWED me out of $500.

I never really posted my story because every negative RackShack post seems to turn into a flame war. All of the people that don't have problems would either say nothing's perfect and bad things happen, or they'd say this is not the way to get support. It's not like anyone's trying to get support. People are just posting their experiences. Sure, stuff happens, but when the same things constantly happen to many people, something's not right. Then there's those RackShack cheerleaders that think RackShack is the best and that anyone who doesn't use them is stupid for wasting their money, and if you have problems, it's because you don't know what you're doing. Those people are just ignorant.

Anyway, that's why I tell people that RackShack is okay if you're lucky enough to have nothing go wrong, but if you do run into a problem, you're going to encounter a lot of headaches.

James,
Most of the people I talked to were courteous but what got me there was real no explanation to what happened or any offer to rectify the situation. This was my first experience dealing with RackShack we were hoping to grab a Ensim box to start hosting our sites and get away from the dreaded *****. Compared to ***** my experience with ShackShack today was positive though at least I got to talk to someone and get it cleared up within three hours of the order LOL. There are 17 Pot luck Servers left, do you think it is worth the chance and extra $20.00 bucks a month to try and secure one of these before they are all gone?

Certainly not. Do not spend more than you were planning to spend to get something a company like Rackshack should provide: Good support.

might as well try, i bought one today.

They say they are tier1 boxes (ibm/dell/etc.) so i figure it wont be as likely that they are problematic like the generic boxes they sell.

that and with the $1 setup fee you can't really lose.. its only $119 a month anyways

Originally posted by bacid
might as well try, i bought one today.

They say they are tier1 boxes (ibm/dell/etc.) so i figure it wont be as likely that they are problematic like the generic boxes they sell.

that and with the $1 setup fee you can't really lose.. its only $119 a month anyways

true

i hear rackshack is coming out with some new servers tomorrow, new deals etc..

Thanks for the speedy replies from both James and Bacid. Being this is going to be my first box I don’t want to jump into anything if the support isn’t there behind the equipment. I do kind of wish they would have offered me the Pot Luck box at the same price as the other one though, even though the pot luck boxes are name brand they have a smaller hard drive and I was a bit ticked they had me jumping through hoops for 2 and a half hours just to end up with nothing.

Our "Bargain Basement" deals have always been first come first served.

Our system gets a little "confused" when we have 4 or 5 last second orders for the same box. We track these errors and refund anyone immediately if there is a signup error.

There are only so many of these deals to go around. Today, for example, we have already sold over 150 servers and are working to make an additional quantity of the 'Pot Luck" servers available.

I'm sorry that you missed out, but these things do happen. Just like my personnel told you, your credit card will be immediately refunded. In fact, it has probably already been done.

We also have a new line of servers coming out tomorrow.

I'd like for everyone that wants one of a particular server to be able to get it. Unfortunately, with these limited quantity deals there are some that will not be able to get exactly what they want.

As far as being transferred around, if you had simply called the Rackshack sales department, they could have assisted you the first time as opposed to going from department to department. With a sale such as the one we put on today, there will be long waits to speak with sales personnel. I'd like for it to be immediate, but that's not possible.

Lastly, you take this matter directly and smash me in public then send me a PM pointing out this thread, but you never sent me an email at headsurfer@rackshack.net.

Please don't expect me to bend over backwards to go find you a "leftover" if you won't contact me personally, FIRST.

Robert, did you even take the time to read James' post? Obviously you didn't, or you would have caught the following:

I placed an order at 10:01CST for a Intel celeron 1.3ghz with the 60gig hard drive and was one of the first to do so because there were 18 or more when I began my order.

This wasn't a "last second order" as you call it, but it turned into one because of your poor ordering system.

Just thought I'd point that out for you.

Was that an apology???

Good grief, my customers would just love that - obviously too successful to care!

btw. not sure why everyone says rackshack support is horrible and slow. i got a reply to an inquiry in a few mins.. maybe its cuz im a new customer and i havent annoyed them enough yet :)

No one smashed RS , this is a public forum , were people can say what they want . Your ex-customer tried to make a purchase , had the website had the correct information and a better billing system in order , this could have been prevented . The poster was very polite as far as im concerned . He expressed his experience with your company in a very tasteful manner (for this forum at least) .

What i dont understand is , why does the poster have to contact you directly , why would you think after wasting his time and money for 2 hours on the phone , would he WANT to contact you directly . Yet again , this person did PM you . I am also under the impression that RS now owns this board . So why arent you checking up on your mails and Pm , you bought it , you own it, use it .On top of that you're a moderator of this forum , so you should be checking up on those everyday anyways. I know it wasnt BIGheadsurfer@rackshack.net , but big deal , you should have qualified staff answering the phone , or at least staff capable of transferring to the right extension . The poster was the person who got smashed here . Anyways i consider your service every now and then , and then stuff like this comes up .and snaps me back into reality . Ill just call you BIGHEADsurfer from now on

Geez, I guess the next time I witness the Blue Screen of Death I should contact Mr. Bill Gates himself directly, and shame on me if I don't!

Next.

Just an update on my experience with RackShack today.

As stated in my earlier post and reply to James, he and I ran into the same exact experience while trying to order the Celeron 1.3ghz 60gb Ensim deal. I vented a bit because of the lack of service that was provided after the ordering mess-up. This venting was not directed at anyone in particular and I am glad to see that Robert took the time to respond to this thread. In my private message back to him about his post I stated I was not trying to bash his company nor was James I do not think, we both were relating our experience nothing more nothing less. The fact of the matter is I did call RackShack sales directly with my three calls over a two and a half hour period; it was the RackShack sales department who transferred me around to the other different departments. I was lead to believe it was an IP address issue not a billing issue that had caused an error in the online order form. It wasn’t until the third call and last person I talked to in the billing department did they tell me it was not an IP address issue, but that they were out of the Servers and I didn’t get one. My order was not in late I do not believe considering there were 22 when I started my order and still showed 1 available even after I got the error message and yes I did a refresh on the page LOL.
I came on here after my experience and still needing a Server so I responded to this thread along with asking a question if I should try and sign up for a Pot Luck Server before they ran out of them. I did end up getting a Pot Luck Server, that ordering process went through without a hitch and my box seems to be up and working now. Granted I am paying $20.00 more a month and getting less hard drive space, it would have been nice if they would have apologized for the mix up and not blamed it on a flawed ordering system that gets “confused”. Next time they may want to only accept call in orders when they run sales with high responses and this kind of thing may not happen. Congratulations to whoever did get in on the Celeron 1.3 GHZ deal, if you got one I would love to hear what time you ordered, if you called in or did it over the web. I am just curious I guess if they did exist or if someone accidentally put “29 available” in the Celeron field instead of in the Pot Luck field and the orders were processed but couldn’t be completed because no such box existed to assign IP addresses to. Anyway, you all have a nice day and a great week ahead, I have to figure out what to do with this new box now, my luck they will have better boxes and cheaper prices tomorrow. Take care, Tim…

Originally posted by DizixCom
Geez, I guess the next time I witness the Blue Screen of Death I should contact Mr. Bill Gates himself directly, and shame on me if I don't!

Next.

Just don't post it on a forum first! Get to Gates first!

On a different note. I think you should count your lucky stars you actually got a responce from HS. I have had to contact him directly ( via email ) on several occasions. A couple of which he personally invited me to contact him. It seems the only person that even cares at all @ RS is Patrick, whom has been more than helpfull after I had exhausted many of my options. So, that said, its really only possible in my eye's to get a responce from HS if you post in the public eye. HS, I mean no flame by any of the above, its simply my experience mate.

Originally posted by headsurfer
Our "Bargain Basement" deals have always been first come first served.

Our system gets a little "confused" when we have 4 or 5 last second orders for the same box. We track these errors and refund anyone immediately if there is a signup error.

There are only so many of these deals to go around. Today, for example, we have already sold over 150 servers and are working to make an additional quantity of the 'Pot Luck" servers available.

I'm sorry that you missed out, but these things do happen. Just like my personnel told you, your credit card will be immediately refunded. In fact, it has probably already been done.

We also have a new line of servers coming out tomorrow.

I'd like for everyone that wants one of a particular server to be able to get it. Unfortunately, with these limited quantity deals there are some that will not be able to get exactly what they want.

As far as being transferred around, if you had simply called the Rackshack sales department, they could have assisted you the first time as opposed to going from department to department. With a sale such as the one we put on today, there will be long waits to speak with sales personnel. I'd like for it to be immediate, but that's not possible.

Lastly, you take this matter directly and smash me in public then send me a PM pointing out this thread, but you never sent me an email at headsurfer@rackshack.net.

Please don't expect me to bend over backwards to go find you a "leftover" if you won't contact me personally, FIRST.

To address your reply I suppose I would have to start of by saying that I am not smashing you at all nor your company. I am simply stating that your company provided me with terrible sales and customer support and dropped the ball, which resulted in your company loosing my business.

Now to answer your "sorry that you missed out" which is not the case, if you read my post I say that I did not miss out on a deal but rather received an error when signing up after my credit card had been approved. I was one of the initial customers to be a part of the sale. If there is an error in your billing system should customers using that system not be allowed to signup or have their orders fixed?

In my experiences with good companies there is every attempt made to make the customer happy but in this case your company clearly dropped the ball and had me on the phone for over and hour and a half without resolve. I did call the sales department explaining my situation to EACH person and as I stated in my original post I received "Let me transfer you" - "Let me put you on Hold" -- I didn’t receive a resolution or an explanation as to why my order was not processed fully. I did however receive the worst sales/support job I have ever had.

As to sending you a private message and an email I will do just that believe me. I was under the impression that this forum was a free media outlet for web hosting professionals but I guess not after Rackshack took it over. Still :mad:

James

I didn't mention before, but I wish my order had gotten messed up like you.. a few weeks ago I got one of the first potluck servers offered. My order went through apparantly and I was emailed the login info with just a few mins.

A couple of hours after the order I got a call from a lady at RS that confirmed my order. Great.. everything cool.

4-5 hours later that I day I get an email like it as trouble ticket email that basically said "request to unplug server sent". I thought WTF??!!

So I checked and the new server was offline. I then check one of my other servers that I've had almost a YEAR and it too was offline!!!!

So I called... remained very polite can calm, and asked what was going on. I was told that the charge for the server didn't go through even though the order page went through I was sent login info. I was pleased though to find out the charge was prorated.. so $1 setup and approximately $46 prorated service. But they claim that $47 and some odd change charge failed so they pulled EVERYTHING on my account!!! Talk about an idiotic and completely stupid move.. I was SO outraged I wanted to jump through that phone but I didn't so much as raise my voice and politely asked why an account that's paid up would be pulled over a NEW order... answer "that's just what they do".

I told the person on the phone that I know the card is good and to please run it manually while I'm on the phone. 10 seconds later "the charge has been approved". I said good... so now after about 2 hours since the ticket had been submitted to unplug the server and me getting the email, I had hundreds of hosting customers offline. So I ask when my servers will be online and I'm told a priority request will be put in to get them back on quickly.

So I'm thinking good... bad experience.. but it's over now. I was already late for a meeting so I trusted what he told me and left. I come back 4 hours later and check and yep the new server is back online!!! My others? Still offline. So I call tech support and told they only received a request to plug back in the new server. I just said thanks and hung up.

People think I have a bad attidude toward RS and everyday my attidude is affirmed by my own experiences and other experiences I read all the time. And do you get an apology? HELL no. You get an arrogant reply from someone who doesn't even read the original posters post. But why should he care? He sold 150 servers today or more. You think if a few of us get pissed and leave it will affect them one bit? Of course not.

Robin,
Great post. I agree with you fully. Also the order form is sloppy, unorganized, and you have to go through 10 screens or so just to place an order. Obviously Rackshack doesnt care about their customers and is just providing a box with a few blue wires stuck in the back of it because thats just about the level of service I got. Good luck.

I too have also experienced a similar problem signing up for a new offer.

What happens is when there are so many people trying to order the same servers, the RackShack system charges and processes the last ten or so orders without any servers actually being available to fill them.

I assume since this was a huge promotion that many people were waiting for with a very limited quantity, even though you started the signup process with 18 servers available it seems that there were 18 others filling out the signup form just seconds ahead of you.

This is definitely a problem that RS has to address if it is to keep having these limited quantity huge blowout deals. If you were to go through the whole signup process only to receive a message saying "All servers sold out" that would be one thing. But to charge the credit card and complete the order without the server being available? Certainly the ordering system is smarter than that. This has happened to too many people at this point and it is starting to affect customer loyalty -- for what, some code problems? Have it put as a priority issue for the programmers to look into. I'm sure they can have it fixed within a few days.