I usually don't have much to say but I do want to let everyone know my experiance with CWI Hosting ( http://www.cwihosting.com ) . As I saw mentioned earlier, their plans seem real good. Their servers are fast and their CP is very functional. And thats fine and dandy, so long as you dont need technical support for any reason. I have seen their technical support go from poor to non-existant.

It took them over a week to get a few extentions mapped to perl. And they only completed it after an email to the CEO of the company.

They have gone from bad phone technical support to a real crappy web based tracking system that tells you absolutely nothing. One with no tech interaction. And don't bother trying to "chat" a rep, they are never there. Dont bother calling for support, you wont get anyone. And if you do and its non-emerg, they send you back to the web page.

Yet another problem that is a QUICK fix (like 2 min) on their end and we are on day 6 for them.

Heck their sales department doesn't even answer the phone half the time now. They went from a semi-usefull touchtone menu to just a cheap answeringmachine.

This would be a great company if they would just improve their support. And perhaps hire some more people. I suppose if you got everything on their end working ok, they would be a great host...

So, if you want to do just BASIC html and nothing more, they are a great host to do so. But if you need any settings changed serverside, or need to talk to technical support at all, then avoid them. Technical support is almost nonexistant. Your only looking for trouble.

As for me, I have had enough of the run-arounds and will now be looking for another host. So try your luck if you want, but my advice is stay away. :(

Alek R.

thank you got sharing your expirience but a problem of one person doesn't not show that the company is not good or function.

But a search of this board does turn up a few other folks who've had challenges with them.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=5479 for example

Saw a few others, but I got such a head cold i'm seeing double.

Peace

True, unless you are the one getting screwed. Oh, and here:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=5479

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=2948

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=1264

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000447.html

Seems Im not alone here. But please dont get me wrong, their servers are fast and their space/bandwidth is excilent. They just provide the crappiest technical support I have ever seen. One should NOT need to email the CEO of the company to get simple technical support completed.

Either way, its your decision. But if a site cannot give good technical support, then I personally don't care how good their product is. So I am moving on.

- Alek

well for example if you are really good handeling a server you know many thing mostly you don't even need their support.

Hehe

Actually I can handle a server quite well :). And if I could remotely do the things needed to the NT server I would most certainly do so and probably be fine and dandy. Or perhaps if they were close enough and would let me hop on the server for a few minutes I would most certainly do so.

However, your average user does not have the know-how to use even the accessible remote options (present company probably not included).

But what a person knows, or does NOT know, is COMPLETELY irrelevant. You are paying for the support just as much, if not more, than the server space. Especially if "Top notch 24-7 technical support" or "No waiting for days on email replies here!" <- (full of $|-|iT) is what they are advertising. And I am sure most people would agree.

Its not like I ask them to do horrificly hard tasks that would take days. Take one of my latest requests. Simply walk over to the exchange server and activate message relay for my url. Its a 5 minutes TOP fix. Hell, I even emailed them the simple directions taken right off microsofts www to do it. And mapping perl extentions. Oh theres a task that takes 30 seconds, i mean a week to complete.

If they were more complicated problems I would be a bit more patient. Hell, if they just answered their email or phone I would be more patient. However when the only email you get is one that says, and I quote,

<snip>
>Hello:
>
>It is in process, you should receive an answer today.
>
>cWI
>
<end snip>


and that was 5 days ago and still no response, that's a bit unsat. (the above response was after waiting for the first 4 days)

:(

For those not needing to call technical support, good on them. But its strike 3 for them in my book. Is my opinion bias? You bet'cha. Just sharing my experiences so people have the big picture and can make sound judgment.

:)
- Alek

AK47 the issue of how competent a person is on handling their own server is irrelevant, if a company adv. support, they should offer it, and the support they should offer should meet a high level of customer satisfaction.

End of story!

Ahh, cwi. Welcome to my hell, lol. The saga continues...

Ok here goes:

Checked my email again today and what to my wondrous eyes did I see? An email reply from CWI for my support call! Like a child at Christmas I hurriedly double-clicked on the email:

>Hello:
>
>No problems could be found with your account. I have
>a feeling that it is your path to send mail that may
>be awry. Please recheck this.
>
>CWI Support

Wonderfully written. Masterfully done. The ONLY problem is that I don't USE send mail on my -> NT <- Account.
(SendMail Paths being used on Unix/Linux systems, not NT)
And the only time I got tech support on the phone so many days ago (a miracle in itself) they tried to throw the same Bucket-o-crap on me. Then, after explaining the problem in their reasoning, I got, "oh your on an NT account, my bad" These guys are too deadset on Linux.

So, after getting this wonderful email I decide to try their main 800-number to get ANYONE AT ALL.

CWI Hosting ( 1-800-832-9CWI ).

Wouldn't you know. No answer. So for giggles I try their toll tech emergency line a try.

CWI "Emergency 24-7 tech support" ( 1-915-595-1537 )

On that note, its sad when you memorize the tech support #. Anyways... ring ring and I get an answer! OMG they live. Then I recognize the voice as the same person that use to route calls up front. Someone with NO technical knowledge whatsoever. "No techs are available" When will they be? "It won't be for a while" (At this point I'm reminding myself to be nice. Be nice) After a few questions from her she pulls the TC case#. "Oh, it seems they did overlook the fact that your account is on an NT system and were mistaken, please email tech support again."

Ok, lets look at this a sec. :) If they emailed me saying they reviewed my account and SMTP settings. Ask me to check my send mail settings. And they didn't happen to NOTICE my account was on an NT server, not a Unix / Linux one? I'm sorry, but that is the most useless, stupid, cop-off excuse I have ever heard in my entire life.

What are the requirements to work there again?

Oh, and email again? I don't think so. The next question I asked was when my renewal for service was, because it isn't happening.

So what are my opinions of CWI?
Here is my official Rant:

- Chances are this company was formed by a bunch of college students that liked playing with Linux. They thought they knew a lot and decided to make a hosting company. They just started offering NT systems when I had signed up and it is quite obvious most of them have next to no experience with this system.

- Their technical support isn't worth a sack of $hit. Its non-existent. I almost wonder how many employees they have there.

- They are slow to answer e-mails, that is if they answer them at all. Last email response time: Over a week.

- No one answers the 800 #, No one answers the emergency tech support #. And on the rare occasion that they do, chances are the person on the other end of the receiver has the computer IQ of a brick. How in the world do you get business if you don't even answer your phone?

They definitely do NOT hold up to their end of the service agreement. I have had better technical support from Tripod or Xoom and that's just plain SAD.

I do NOT recommend them, And will be sure I let everyone know my experiences with this worthless company.

Personally, if they fixed the support end, I wouldn't be going anywhere at all. But I have been ignored enough. Guess its email to the ceo time again.

CWI CEO: ceo@cwihosting.com

< sighs >

So use at your own risk. And apologies for the lengthy Rant. I just want people to be aware before they fall into the same trap. I think my next phonecall will be to the Texas BBB. :(

- Alek

Wow. Unbelievable. How long were you with them? Any chance on your obtaining a refund?

Sounds to me like you know your way around a server. Ever consider colocating your own server?

Kind Regards,

Penny Ortega

The plot thickens. Besides for the fact that they don't answer their phones, they closed my trouble ticket as resolved when they havent even done a thing on their end.

This not answering their phone thing is troubling. Does anyone know if CWI Hosting is going out of business or something?

Anyway, im done with them so no worries. Just backed all my files up today. Now if I could only get ahold of them to cancel my account....

As for co-location. still thinking about that. We'll see hehe.

- Alek

I'm having the same problems except worse!!

MY site had been down every single day for the last month for up to 12 hours a day. Everytime I mail their support (I get a quick response) they respond with something like -

Problem with server fixed.
- cwi support

I get that everyday. Now they don't even answer my support e-mails.

They are such a terrible company. About a month ago they even changed their nameserver details and didn't even inform me. As a result my site was down for a week...

Completely incompetent. Avoid at all costs...

I used to be a CWIHosting.com customer. I can agree with everything I've read about CWI:

Good:

-They give you lots of space and bandwidth for cheap prices
-They have fast servers

Bad:

-Their tech support is a joke.
-I had a period of about a month where my site was down more than it was up.
-I was promised that I would be credited for service when the site was down. I never was. On more than one occasion
-I think only 1 or 2 people work at this company. I always talked to the same "support" engineer when ever I did get through.
-To get to a support engineer on the phone usually took on the order of 5-10 phone calls.


I do hope that if anyone reads this (and the other messages on CWI) that they consider looking elsewhere for hosting services. Please DON'T go through the hell that I and so many others did. If you can accept having your site down for days at a time, well then, maybe they will work for you. But they sure didn't for me.

Brian

Hello Alex,

Would be glad to hear if you or other members on this forum could find a host with similar features, but with more responsible behavior.

Regards,

rdx.

rdx,
personally, from now on I'm going to stay away from any company whose hosting plans seem too good to be true (i.e. lots of space & bandwidth for cheap.)

I'm thinking of getting a virtual server account with wizardshosting (they host this site) as I haven't heard any bad feedback about them and their prices are reasonable for what you get...

I sent them an e-mail yesterday and got a response within a few hours. They answered all my questions as well which is rare (i.e. they knew what a cgi wrapper is...)

So I think they sound like a good bet...

Originally posted by AK47
thank you got sharing your expirience but a problem of one person doesn't not show that the company is not good or function.

One bad comment has always been enough for me...

en,

My problem is that I would need more space than hosting plans usually come with - this seems to be around 500-600 megs now. I would need 1 GB at least, the more the better. However, I would not need that much traffic allowance (10 GB is ok). Also, I do not mind if I would pay say $50.

Hosting companies do not seem to have plans for these requirements. I mean they normally do not advertize it. Still, you can get special contracts, like the offers I got to my email address after starting a thread here:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=4529

I am still searching, anyway.

So, again, I would not mind paying a little higher for a little more.

regards,

rdx.

I'm not sure where to send you. Most hosting companies are terrible, and the ones that are supposed to be good (terra-byte, liquidweb) either don't answer the e-mails I send them or don't answer the difficult questions in my e-mails (i.e. what exactly is your 99.9% uptime gaurantee?)...

For $50 I think you are going to have problems getting a good hosting company that will give you a gig space & 10 gigs transfer...

The only advice I can definitely give you is don't go near cwi hosting...

sorry...

I had to register just to add my two cents. I'm currently in "CWI Hell" myself. In just over two months my site has been down for more than 20 minutes seven times in my own experience (I don't have a monitor on my site, this is just from me checking) - this is counting a period of five days where the site was totally jacked as one instance.

Their 100% uptime "guarantee" says if the site is down for more than 20 minutes you receive a refund of 1/2 the monthly fee - I was told I would receive a full month's credit because of all the down time. The next month my credit card was charged the full amount. You can see where this is going.

I need a reliable host with about 200 meg of space, as much bandwidth as possible (preferably unlimited) for under $20/month. You see how I got into this situation? (I can't help it, I'm POOR!) Any suggestions?

I think CWI was started by college students. Check out the investigation I did here:

http://geekvillage.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000041.html

ok....i got a link to this from someone else and i registered JUST to add my little slice of cwi hell. my sites have been down for four days. i have made four phone calls and sent in i think five web tickets and the only response i got was "we checked your server and it all appears to be in order."

anyways, i've spent the past three days researching webhosting. if anyone wants a list of comparable companies as far as price and space go, email me....i'll send you a list. and the person who only wanted 200mb--i found a place that has it for five dollars a month.

i could know everything about the server my site is on, but if the site is just plain not loading, theres not much i can do.....especially since the last time my site went out, they moved me to a different server that doesnt have a control panel for me to access. there are better deals out there, i'd stay as far away from cwi as you can.


purity

My advice for those people who are unhappy with their host is to firstly givem them one chance and then move on if they don't improve their act. There are many reputable hosts out there, the challenge of course is to find them.

Good luck.

i got a new server, i've moved there, i'm in the process of switching my domain pointers......i'm looking forward to sending my goodbye email to cwi.

that post about the site being down a week intrigues me...my sites were down for a week last month and the story i got was that my server got hacked.....


purity

I can add to all this, i once had my domain there and they are truly a disorganised company with no professionalism at all. I got so frustrated over not being able to reach them that i got a hold of an operator in texas to find alternate phone numbers! i called about 20-30 times a day and the phone just rang...and rang.., i emailed all the emails possible and never a sign of life.

They never answered the phone or responded emails, they threatened to close my acount for failure to pay! imagine and i was trying to get a hold of them, since the card number i gave them was wrong!!

It was really a horrible expeience and i have to say its increadible how people do business these days...

So stay away from CWIHOSTING.COM !! alternetly i believe this comapany is the same or partners with VIRTUAL-VISIONS.COM <--they are also very bad! another of my experiences.....maybe in another email.


BH

I actually ran across this site on a link from another where I'm an active member, where I was posting about looking for a new host.. You guessed it, I'm with CWI right now. I've been with them on their Power Linux plan for about 6 months. For about 3 of those months, I've been reasonably happy with them, but yesterday was a final straw in their large number of "mishaps".

I too have had the "your server is being hacked story". I've been threatened with my site being closed due to failure to pay, note, this is because I don't own a credit card, so I need to be invoiced for the amount due, whenever that happens (given the large number of downtime we've experienced, we've had a lot of credit, so it's not as simple as just sending a payment once a month). In the whole 6 months we've been with them, we've recieved 2 invoices. Yesterday, they shut down our site for violating their terms of service, because our site was using too much CPU time. (Note, their terms of service don't state HOW MUCH is too much). If we'd had prior warning about this, we could have dealt with the problem, and fixed it. (Our message board was the problem, so we simply changed a few things around so that it would no longer consume excessive resources). Our site (including email) was suspended at 11am. Repeated emails, chats with technicians, and phone calls, all came down to the fact that "our case was being reviewed by the Chief Technologies Officer" and would be seen to by the end of the day. Calling them, we were actually hung up on, on every single number. No answerphone, no ringing tones, someone picking up the phone and hanging up before we had a chance to find out what was going on. Now, although my site isn't a business site, if it was, I'd have lost a LOT of revenue, while my site was down for an entire day, all due to a problem which could have been solved, if we were told about it BEFORE they shut the site down.

So, as a result, we're looking for a new host. I'm sick of the constant DNS problems (which seem to happen at least once a week), and the fact that you can't get a straight answer one way or the other out of them. Please please please, if you value your sanity and your site, don't sign up with CWI.