Just got this a few minutes ago. Sorry if it was already posted. Here to find another host who can do a whm transfer in the next day or so. :)

I am writing to regretfully inform you that the ServerDivision servers will be taken from us and most likely shut down permanently effective April 1, 2006. This is out of our control and is a decision by The Planet datacenter due to problems perpetrated by the previous owners of ServerDivision regarding services that ThePlanet issued during October and November of 2005. We were notified of this at approximately 3:00PM EST on March 30, 2005. Unfortunately, this is beyond my control and I am unable to prevent the shutdown. Please transfer all content you wish to retain off of the servers before April 1, 2006. No invoices have been generated or will be generated for March, 2006 as a good-will gesture on our part. I sincerely wish there was more that I could do. We are petitioning ThePlanet to leave the servers running longer to allow you time to remove your files but please do not count on it. We have tried our best... and we wish that you the customers and we the current owners had not been defrauded in this way. Sincerely, Peter ServerDivision CEO
Generated by ServerDivision

Sad to hear that. Why not purchase several servers from softlayer.com? They will deliver the servers usually within two hours. They can move the HelmDB and re-build all the web sites and databases using Helm Restore Tool. It is possible to move all servers in one or two days.

They can go to webhostautomation.com forum if they have any questions. A lot of Helm gurus there will help them out. Hopefully Peter can work it out.

Odd that they are not simply renting new servers. I got the same email even though I've not paid for my Windows reseller since before Christmas as I've setup my own Windows box.

Back on topic, you'll find many hosts here able to do a WHM transfer for you, however it will help if you give an indication of budget and resource requirements.

Perhaps take a walk through the offers section.

Odd that they are not simply renting new servers. I got the same email even though I've not paid for my Windows reseller since before Christmas as I've setup my own Windows box.

Back on topic, you'll find many hosts here able to do a WHM transfer for you, however it will help if you give an indication of budget and resource requirements.

Perhaps take a walk through the offers section.

What offers section?
I am a yearly subscriber ... and after so many months of pain ... now I shall hv to move ...
Can you guys suggest a cheap good host :uzi:

I don't buy it.

You think they would attempt to move to another data center. If you made a prepayment for a year I would try to get your money back.

Planned or not, they are going away. My guess is the poor dude who bought the company 6 months ago didn't do proper due diligence and was left holding the bag for the previous owner who probably owes the data center some $$ still.

Quite possible that the new owner has been left supporting hundreds of accounts that he was never paid for and doesn't have the $$ to move to a new provider.

(Took a quick look around at the reviews here and I just signed up with Site5. Hopefully I can have them transfer my information otherwise I will just restore from my full backups that I just downloaded.)

Odd that they are not simply renting new servers.That was my first thought as well... At least they let their customers know.

They didn't exactly let anyone know... They must have known for a while that they were unable to pay the invoices from the planet... I got the e-mail tonight at 5pm, at 5:30pm I was no longer able to access Helm... And now I see some of their subdomains disapearing...

I'm unable to backup sites, etc, and from what I can see they've already disabled most of the services on the helm servers...

Oh, and I too payed a year in advance, because I have been with them for over 2 years, through 5 different owners...

They didn't exactly let anyone know... They must have known for a while that they were unable to pay the invoices from the planet... I got the e-mail tonight at 5pm, at 5:30pm I was no longer able to access Helm... And now I see some of their subdomains disapearing...

I'm unable to backup sites, etc, and from what I can see they've already disabled most of the services on the helm servers...

Oh, and I too payed a year in advance, because I have been with them for over 2 years, through 5 different owners...

i hate to hear that you only had 30 mins, thats not even enough time to download a large site

That was my first thought as well... At least they let their customers know.
That is always a plus. Regardless is it out of both parties control. My suggestion would be to find a host that will transfer your data and make sure you explain the situation at hand, this way they can process your request in a timely manner. Also it kind of is bad that you don't have much time, but I would suggest you not base your descision on price at this time :( Good luck to you!

They billed me a few days ago for a new month. Then we get this message.

I had a bad feeling a while ago when I got an email saying that there were new owners. There were other emails (which, I admit, I sort of skimmed over) involving the switch to the new owner. My gut told me to bail on them—that none of this was a good sign. Fortunately (I guess), none of the sites I have with them are vital to me or particularly active, so it's no bother for me to find a different host at my leisure.

You think they would attempt to move to another data center. If you made a prepayment for a year I would try to get your money back.

I have made prepayment for a year how can I get my money back.
Phew! and I have to download so many websites in less time. They should have inform us in week advance.

That was my first thought as well... At least they let their customers know.
I agree, a heads up is better than nothing at all.

I have made prepayment for a year how can I get my money back.
Phew! and I have to download so many websites in less time. They should have inform us in week advance.
You can not expect them to notify you a week in advance when infact they had just received the news aswell. As far as your yearly payment. This is a classic reason on why NOT to pay for your plan by the year....you never know what is going to happen. I suggest you try contacting them....if they do not respond call them. If still nothing cut your losses and move on. I know it's very sad, but things like this can and as you have seen DO happen :(

You can not expect them to notify you a week in advance when infact they had just received the news aswell. As far as your yearly payment. This is a classic reason on why NOT to pay for your plan by the year....you never know what is going to happen. I suggest you try contacting them....if they do not respond call them. If still nothing cut your losses and move on. I know it's very sad, but things like this can and as you have seen DO happen :(

you mean to say we cant trust anybody.

How can customers shift their sites to another server within 1 day? How can they take backups of databases etc within this short period of time.

Finally, after a series of takeovers, Serverdivision will be permanantely closed from April 1 (From tomorrow). This is very sad and I'm wondering how customers will face the situation.

A full text of the message is available at serverdivision.com (http://www.serverdivision.com/)

Thats not what I said, and please do not put words into my mouth. I simply said that the provider notified you almost the same time they found out about the issue. How could they possibly notify you any sooner?

It's going to be a very, very long day tomorrow for most of their clients.
As they mentioned it appears to be entirely out of their control.

I definitely feel for the clients!

wow. One day to remove content. that is absolutley rediculous. What happens to people that don't get the memo in one day? SOL?

That sucks.

HostFrog,

At the same time who is to say TP just notified them.
Nonetheless the best of luck to all of the clients: Choose your new hosts wisely (and quickly, I'm afraid).

This was post early Reseller forum,

This is very unprofessional way of doing it. They should give users week or Few more days..

Thats not what I said, and please do not put words into my mouth. I simply said that the provider notified you almost the same time they found out about the issue. How could they possibly notify you any sooner?

Dont take it wrong way I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, its just general discussion. I was referring to yearly payment.
Between I understand that they notify us as they have known but why they havent keep in touch with data center after they bought serverdivision.
There is nothing we can do now anyway we learnt big lesson for future.

Their CEO stated that they received the news from The Planet at "3:00PM EST on March 30, 2006", so I would have to side with HF ;)

David,

I am going off of what was said by the OP in the first post of this thread:

Provider: We were notified of this at approximately 3:00PM EST on March 30, 2005

Now I take it that the provider just got the year wrong on the post. Today is the 30t of March 2006, so I take it they were just notified. Now if there is any truth in that, I am not sure.

Webhos,

I understand you are frustrated and concerned about your wasted money. However, I was just pointed out that you shouldn't really pay for a plan on a yearly basis. You really don't know if you are going to be satisfied with that provider 2 or 3 months down the road and decide to leave. At that time (if the provider offers a money back guarantee) this will no longer be vaild.

I wonder what the real issue is with Them and ThePlanet

I was pondering that myself...perhaps a billing issue :P

THats what it sounds like being it takes place as of the 1st.

You think they would attempt to move to another data center. If you made a prepayment for a year I would try to get your money back.

You have paid for the future months hosting, its better to get the money back and start hunting for a food host.
IMHO, i would suggest Dotable.com

HostFrog,

I'm certain they got the year wrong, as serverdivision wasn't purchased by this guy back in March of 2005 but much later.

Threads merged.

In all honesty, if you're still a customer of serverdivision what were you expecting to happen?? They have had nothing but problems since December (if not sooner). It was painfully obvious that they were going to shut down, all the warning signs were there.

Granted, it bites that this happened and the short notice sucks, but it was bound to happen.

yep, it was kinda anticipated
epecially this last 2 weeks were chaos... and from December it had been much of the same....

and, so we find ourselves back here on WHT scouring...

last time I was here with the same feeling was when Turnkey Resellers hit the dust.... maybe I gotta learn something?

100% happy now with my Linux reseller provider :peace: .... hopefully this time gonna get it right with Windoze also :bawling:

From the school of hard knocks - you get what u pay for, don't go for cheap high resource plans.... do yr homework here on WHT, pay extra for a decent reseller, get less resources, and sleep well at night! :-)

Luckily I had only a few sites to move, and could respond the the email quite early on.... but there are some poor punters who got work ahead of them

All the best to everyone, and good luck with yr next choice...
Cliff

in addition to that I think it would be fair to say the support team were VERY prompt in helping with MsSql backups earlier today
hope everyone else experiences a smooth transfer

...and the last week support had responded within minutes with with problems that were facing streamlayer....

my opinion... for all its worth... they had mentioned they had inherited a bunch of problems with licenses etc. they tried to tie ends together.... but after persistant problems decided to throw in the towel

That is true, I learned a number of very valuable lessons from all of this...
Now, I don't use a host if they don't have a phone number and real address posted, and I do my own backups daily.

now the problem is everyone is trying to ftp backups off the server and the ftp server is limiting connections... talk about ugly

The real problem will be most likely that the current owners are not capable to pay monthly price for each server to Planet DC. SD has around 5 servers and if you calculate the average monthly price will be around USD 1000. Unless they get a monthly profit of say USD 10000 it is not possible to pay this huge amount every month.

I think they don't have big sales during the last 2 months because of various problems.

Data centers will not shut down the server. If the owner does not pay then they will take steps. It is not professional to put the blame on The Planet DC when the real problem is with the current owners.

I think the current owner might have lost huge $$$ since they should have paid the previous owner a big sum to take over SD.

real question is then "who are the fools?" ;-)
I guess I am refering to myself there :-)

...and April 1st started a bit early yesterday

For whatever reason it all went pear shaped at severe.division, there are lessons to learn from this....
it always makes me sigh when I see the board littered with messages to the effect of - "HELP!! Cheap reseller wanted for 10gb/150gb approx $5-10/month" ... it all just leads to pain and suffering
Paying yearly (to save 10 bucks)... its more suffering

A lot of people have lost money and clients over this sting... and thats real sad... what to speak of time lost and stress

Dont do it kids! Play ball in a safe place, pay the extra, and save time & heartache

Nuff wisdom 4 today :angel:

last time I was here with the same feeling was when Turnkey Resellers hit the dust.... maybe I gotta learn something?Maybe everybody's got to learn something...

Like in the old Turnkey thingy, in this case there were early warning signs. Those who didn't took them seriously enough, are -- sadly -- hurting now. I remember sticking too much to a host a few years ago, and boy, I sure hope I learned my lesson then, and won't be repeating it.

The real problem will be most likely that the current owners are not capable to pay monthly price for each server to Planet DC. SD has around 5 servers and if you calculate the average monthly price will be around USD 1000. Unless they get a monthly profit of say USD 10000 it is not possible to pay this huge amount every month.
You don't need a monthly profit of "USD 10000", to be able to afford to pay USD 1000/mth for 5 leased servers. Might want to recheck your numbers. :)

You don't need a monthly profit of "USD 10000", to be able to afford to pay USD 1000/mth for 5 leased servers. Might want to recheck your numbers. :)

So will you pay USD 1000/month for servers even if you didn't get a good amount as profit? I think you can survive for 1 or 2 months if there is no profit from the business provided you have good amount as capital.

$9000 off of $1000 worth of servers? :confused:

something just doesn't add up here though... why would someone buy an ongoing concern... and then just throw in the towel?
(Turnkey also did similar)

surely if someone had invested so much in aquiring this company why didn't they (as suggested earlier) rent other servers, transfer the clients, and retain a percentage of their customers...

something fishy?
saving face tactics?
who can say.....

Will Mr Serverdivision be making a revelation?

something just doesn't add up here though... why would someone buy an ongoing concern... and then just throw in the towel?
(Turnkey also did similar)

surely if someone had invested so much in aquiring this company why didn't they (as suggested earlier) rent other servers, transfer the clients, and retain a percentage of their customers...

something fishy?
saving face tactics?
who can say.....

Will Mr Serverdivision be making a revelation?
With buyouts, both parties are at risk if one party either lies or omits some facts. If the new owner has been played for a fool and the company is leaking money, it may very well be 'enough is enough'. Buyouts can be messy and, as I said above, it only takes one of the two parties to screw it up.

For ServerDivisions owners it may be a case of having to wait for legal proceedings to regain some of the money they have spent. I know how long these processes take as I am currently going through the same thing, trying to collect monies owed from a buyout.


Simon

I know how long these processes take as I am currently going through the same thing, trying to collect monies owed from a buyout.Justice may be having a long arm, but it sure is a slow one.

Justice may be having a long arm, but it sure is a slow one.
Contracts are usually handy, which is why the timeframe doesn't really matter, only the end result.

If there was a contract in the ServerDivision buyout then the new owners can start proceedings very easily. There's a lot of great corporate solictors in N. America.

Simon

I wonder what the real issue is with Them and ThePlanet
Good question! I too am wondering this.

Do anyone know if it's still possible for me to get my mysqldatabase? i never got it to transfer to me, and now it to late :crap:

I think it is not possible for you to get the backup. They have shut down all the servers at The Planet DC.

It think the new owners ran the business recklessly and placing the blame on the old owners is a cheap shot of passing on the blame. If they had issues they should have spoken it over with the old owers. They shut down the servers without even thinking about transfering the clients or selling them. Giving a days notice is pathetic by any means. They must have know about the situation and if at worst at least spoken to the old owners about this to have it resolved. They are now expecting to be re-embursed for something they took on destoryed. A refund with a return back to the old owners is acceptable but to take a company shut it down and then ask for monies back is something that you just can't do. Peter Drake and his 241 computer business have in my option acted recklessly with the company and its client base. By passing on the blame they have tried to justify the situation which can not be justified by any means.

Good question! I too am wondering this.


Seems like they didnt have enough money to carry on with the company or didnt want to pay the DC bill..there is no other excuse really.

Server Division was held together by Nasir, once he left it fell apart. Milan (the original owner) was desperate to sell quickly. Thats what told me to move my sites quickly. And sure enough the next week, SD was sold and the server outages started. Four owners later . . . we have this. I'm glad I moved out before it got this bad.

If you liked Server Division before it got bad, check out HostingFest.com. You will find HostingFest refreshingly familar. I have been with them since they started and have been very happy.

well i'd like to make some corrections on that. It never got this bad to the clients getting one day to move and when taken over the company ran ok there were some issues but the last owner just decided to buy it destory it and then ask for his money back. That to me sounds unacceptable. He should have sold it back or sold off the clients at the very least!