On one of my sites, I have a file downloading service where users upload files and give downloads. It has gotten very popular in the last couple of months, and I bought one of those unmetered connections at Rackshack last month to keep up bandwidth.

Right from the start it was slower than it should have been, giving dl times of less than 1 KB/sec even. I waited a few days to see if it would work itself out, then I submitted a trouble ticket, and it took them 4 days to figure out they needed to replace a switch in their network and configure my NIC properly. Fine, they fixed it.

Perhaps a week later things started to slow again. Again I waited a few days, and again it stayed that way. I attributed it to a lack of RAM, so I added in another half gig. No change, so I submitted another similar trouble ticket.

4 days later, they decided to do something about it. Apparently they decided my site needed a server switch, so without prior warning they went to work. Now I quote from my trouble ticket: "unfortunatly, due to hardware issues the data on the drive has become too corupt to allow for booting up. server drive will require a swap to bring back online. will need customer authorization for restore"

I called 'em up to ask if it was true. Yep, they lost all my info. That's 65 gigs of users files "due to hardware issues." All my MySQL files are gone too - I had them backed up on the hard drive of the server (I know I should have had them here too, but I didn't). I now have to begin back where I started with 0 users and 0 files. All I have is the original web page.

Whats more, they took more than 2 days to bring my server back online, which they screwed up a second time, and I had to wait ANOTHER day for them to do a 2nd server restore! (making me lose well over $200 in advertising revenue purely from the 3 days I was out!). When it finally came back up, I only had one 40 GB hard drive and 512 MB RAM. The base server I bought was two 40 GB hard drives and 1 GB RAM, plus my additional 512 upgrade. They fixed the RAM problem, but refused to give me back the 40 GB hard drive, claiming it was never part of my server in the first place (bs! It never would have been in the server if it wasn't).

What I'm asking is what should I do now? I'm definitely asking for some compensation because none of this was my fault. What would you suggest? As you know, it is expensive keeping these servers up, and now the web page that paid for it is gone. I've had to take Ensim off and reinstall apache and everything twice in the past day because they screwed it up (apparently no, they can't just give me a clean RedHat install, I had to take off Ensim AGAIN). What kind of compensation should I ask for in return now? Thanks for your hep in advance guys, this message board is great.

... is to move to another company. FDCservers - PriorityColocation - WebReseller - TransactGlobal - TerraStudios - EServersBiz ... and many more, pick one.

This is truely a horrorstory yet not unfamiliar. In my 1,5 years with them I have seen and experienced even worse and I have a lot of material to prove it and anyone can ask for it via PM. Now everyone can flame me again and report this post to a moderator and complain about me but I will still say:

RackShack SUCKS!

You want reliability, shell out more than $99 for a server that comes with an unmetered connection.

@ Jag, those unmetered servers are not $99 a month. They're $399 a month for an unmetered 10 MBIT cogent port with a Compaq DL320 server on them. You'd expect them to do a better job for this money...

Originally posted by Jag
You want reliability, shell out more than $99 for a server that comes with an unmetered connection.

Um, the server that comes with an unmetered connection is $399 per month!

*** EDIT BY Patrick-EV1 *** From reading the tickets it looks like the ball was dropped regarding the removal of the RAM and a duplicate ticket was put in on removing it, I've forwarded this issue to higher up management for review.

My bad, guess I was just mistaken. Thats for letting me know.

wow that's really awful man...

I'd be so pissed right now... This is something I would not just say "oh well" and walk away from. :angry:

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
While I wont go into details I'm personally familiar with this issue and re-reviewed all the tickets because that's 180 degrees different from what I remembered, and as I suspected, it still is. I wont go into details, but I wouldn't take everything you hear straight to heart. :rolleyes:

If THIS is the case then it is not right of "ccole" to say those things then.

Everyone here surely knows by now what I think about RackShack but UNTRUTHFUL claims are wrong... and I wont accept them only because it "suits me" in this particular case.

I hereby call "ccole" to present EVIDENCE to convince us that his claims are TRUTHFUL.
If they are then he shall have our support.
If they are NOT then he shall use the "edit/delete" button real quick.

My 3$ and 10cents + Sales Tax :D :rolleyes:

All rise, the honorable ShareFile has entered the chambers.

*crickets*

You may now be seated.

Ccole, please present your first Witness...

Patrick, by all means I invite you to go into details. Obviously I posted the short version of what happened, as I didn't want to write 4 pages worth of a post that nobody would read. But I posted exactly what happened, without any half-truths or anything such as that.

I have attached to my post a .zip file with 2 letters (Microsoft Word documents) I have drafted to be sent to Rackshack. The first is an extremely detailed letter telling exactly what happened, at what time and when. The second is much shorter, and is more of a timeline of what happened. Both were written yesterday, and I was at the time waiting for my second server restore. They will soon be revised, and I'll choose one to send off.

If you wish for me to post my trouble tickets, I will. There are a total of 12, however, and some are quite lengthy. The word documents describe exactly what happened. Like I said, I don't know what Patrick is talking about, and I invite you to read my word documents and comment on them. I will soon pick one and send it to the Customer Service Department, as well as a copy to Robert Marsh.

I am just amazed at the number of people who do not have a copy of thier files backed up.

He has (had) over 65 gigs of files lost on a total of two hard drives.

He did backups to his secondary drive, but full file backups were IMPOSSIBLE to say the very least. At $700 or so ($300 setup) one would expect him to at least have been consulted before they attempted to move two hard drives from one computer to one with apparently different hardware. The operating system was corrupted, the old hardware dissappeared, and he was informed that oops, it's all gone, better restore.

As a part time systems admin with quite a few rackshack servers of my own I attempted to assist him with repairing and retrieving the data, suggesting ideas on how to recover such data, having had similiar problems in the past. My suggestions however did not seem to assist in resolving this problem as it appears the server has already been restored.

I have personally seen the trouble tickets, and can assure you all that this is not an exaggerated or a false post, someone dropped the ball here and ccole is right to ask for at the least a better explanation.

Originally posted by Jag
You want reliability, shell out more than $99 for a server that comes with an unmetered connection.

So you're saying that if he was only paying $99 he got what he deserved? That is absurd. Did you even read what happened?

ccole - I would like to apologize for what has happened to you as the ball was definately dropped and it never should have happened, I attempted to phone you directly with no success so I'll be emailing you shortly in regards to this.

Well, that's a good start, Patrick. :)

Yep agree. But on the other hand I must say that when PATRICK handled things everything was always fine suddenly and worked out... ;)

Better late then never. But really, nice to see that RS is able to admit and apologize.

Hope to see this work out.

You've handled it better than I would have, if that much data would have been lost I would have just called a lawyer directly :D

Thanks Patrick for your email and your apology.

I would, however, like to get back on my original topic if at all possible. I have lost all my files and user information, which is months of work that I have done to work up such a user database. It will take me months if not more than a year to fully recover. If YOU were in the same situation, what would you ask for from RackShack?

ccole - It appears I've been able to recover your old primary harddrive, it contains approximately 30 GB of data, but I would like to point out that if you had a second hard drive in your original box, it would seem that was a mistake, because the package you ordered only comes with one as stated from your Confirmation ticket:
Server Type: Compaq - Linux-Ensim-P3-40GB - 1GB RAM - 10mbps

I'll send you an email with the details of where the drive is mounted on your system.

Well, I am impressed. Although I don't like rackshack in general, from my personal experiences, Patrick your a good guy, rackshack is lucky to have you. :smokin:

rackshack would be screwed without patrick

For a un-managed solution ... patrick is sure going out of his way to help you

:eek: I'm must be still asleep :rolleyes:

RS helping clients ... surely not :cartman:


You MUST do you own data backups , i'm sure that RS MAY soon do data-backups onsite ...which would be cool :)

ccole: Do you have anything to do with Come2Store.com

i hope headsurfer get's that human cloning project wrapped up that he's been working on in "bermuda" (baby surfer, uh huh, sure).

i could just see it now.

Patrick1-EV1
Patrick2-EV1
Patrick3-EV1
Patrick4-EV1
etc. etc.

Originally posted by roly
ccole: Do you have anything to do with Come2Store.com

Yes he owns / runs it :rolleyes:

Why doesn't Robert Marsh (headsurfer) retire and go home to raise his baby and leave Patrick running the business. It is my opinion that if you cannot make things right you should let someone else do the job :angry:

One of the strengths of good management is hiring people who can take care of what you cannot. They cant be there 24x7. :D

Originally posted by ShareFile
Why doesn't Robert Marsh (headsurfer) retire and go home to raise his baby and leave Patrick running the business. It is my opinion that if you cannot make things right you should let someone else do the job :angry:

Isnt he the one that got the company where it is at now? If so why would he quit at this point.

Luckily that there is forum like this to force the concern party to properly manage the problem.

He's been there since the creation of EV1 ( ~200,000 dialup customers now ) and Rackshack ( ~6000+ dedicated servers ), he gets the business done.

jeffrylee - Well, there are other means of contact, this is the first written official complaint in regards to the situation, it's not why he brought it to the board, he brought it here for a suggestion, we just happened to see it. To be fair this is before he ever even contacted management for resolution.

Actually Patrick, I've spent hours and hours on the phone with RackShack people. I didn't specifically ask for the management, but I asked them several times to do what you did for me, and I was told it was impossible.

As for written complaints - my letter will be faxed on Monday, as well as sent via US mail. I've also posted on trouble tickets up to my sphinkter trying to get things resolved.

Anyway, since I posted a public complaint, I'd also like to post a public thank you to Patrick for being the only RS person to help me thus far. You went out of your way to help me where nobody has before, thank you so much.

Someone asked a while back if I had anything to do with Come2Store.com - yes, that is/was the website I'm talking about.

Originally posted by Matrix


Isnt he the one that got the company where it is at now? If so why would he quit at this point.

ah dont mind sharefile

he'll do anything to make rackshack look bad, and he knows it.

I think the one thing RackShack really needs is for their techs to be accountable. Currently you have no idea which techs are really screwing up and which are coming through and saving the day and carrying the others. We as customers have to try and try to get something resolved with tickets being closed without reading and and then finally we get a tech who really knows what they are doing and fixes the problem. The techs who know what they are doing are probably confronted with too much hostility because quite frankly the loafers/ticket closers have created a huge level of customer frustration. I bet the person who dumped all the data to begin with is still going along like before and is being paid according to how fast (but not how well) they work.

I think that all trouble tickets / work orders should be signed by name or tech nickname/number. Then take the bottom 5 or 10 techs who get the most customer complaints and either assign them mandatory training or dock their pay. Likewise, take the top 10 techs which get the best rating (like Patrick who always comes through and saves the day) and give them a nice bonus.

Originally posted by Matrix


Isnt he the one that got the company where it is at now? If so why would he quit at this point.

$$$

Just pointing out something. If Rackshack was trying to change things here...this ugly little post would have been dropped when it was first started.

Hats off. I feel a little better about them buying these boards all the time.

PS: This is NOT a pump up for Rackshack as they are my competition so to me they are scum, dirt, [fill in the blank] as is the rest of my competition...hehe :D

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
ccole - It appears I've been able to recover your old primary harddrive, it contains approximately 30 GB of data, but I would like to point out that if you had a second hard drive in your original box, it would seem that was a mistake, because the package you ordered only comes with one as stated from your Confirmation ticket:
Server Type: Compaq - Linux-Ensim-P3-40GB - 1GB RAM - 10mbps

I'll send you an email with the details of where the drive is mounted on your system.

C'mon ccole, answer the part above which you ignored. Did you have 65 gigs of space used and 2 Hard Drives or not? Or, are you afraid to admit that you exaggerated or were incorrect about the diskspace and hard drives because your fear that your credibility will suffer?

@chrisb: My first post I thought had already explained this, and if you were really interested, you could have read the letters I posted for download which explained it in full.

The short answer: Yes, my server came with two 40 gig hard drives. 65 gigs was not an understatement....in fact, I was about to buy myself a third because the second was being filled so fast.

Please, before you try to flame me, try asking politely next time. I have had enough RS problems without WHT users trying to flame me too...

I wasn't attempting to flames you. I was asking legitimate questions because it seems strange that you say one thing and their order supposedly says something different.

Originally posted by ShareFile
Why doesn't Robert Marsh (headsurfer) retire and go home to raise his baby and leave Patrick running the business. It is my opinion that if you cannot make things right you should let someone else do the job :angry:

ShareFile, IMO, you are acting here like kids. HeadSurfer can not look after each and everything because he is CEO and not a support tech.

You can bash rackshack tech's who are not performing there duties properly or if there is mis-management issue, but don't you think he will be trying his best to overcome all such issues and keep good support techs so that he can gain more customer! :o

ok, I don't favor rackshack in anyway and this is why I keep my mouth shut in such posts but here you are attacking one of the most successful entrepreneur and questioning his skills :o

just my $0.02 + Sales Tax :D

@chrisb - I will admit it may look like I only bought one 40 gig hard drive...I have talked to many techs about this. They may have been running a special or something at the time, but I know the description of my server on the website said two 40 gig hard drives....and that is what I got. Now all of a sudden I'm being told somehow I only bought a server with one.....it makes me think something fishy is going on.

Originally posted by mahinder


ShareFile, IMO, you are acting here like kids. HeadSurfer can not look after each and everything because he is CEO and not a support tech.

You can bash rackshack tech's who are not performing there duties properly or if there is mis-management issue, but don't you think he will be trying his best to overcome all such issues and keep good support techs so that he can gain more customer! :o

ok, I don't favor rackshack in anyway and this is why I keep my mouth shut in such posts but here you are attacking one of the most successful entrepreneur and questioning his skills :o

just my $0.02 + Sales Tax :D

I agree, he needs to grow up.

Originally posted by ccole
@chrisb - I will admit it may look like I only bought one 40 gig hard drive...I have talked to many techs about this. They may have been running a special or something at the time, but I know the description of my server on the website said two 40 gig hard drives....and that is what I got. Now all of a sudden I'm being told somehow I only bought a server with one.....it makes me think something fishy is going on.

I seriously *DO* remembered Rackshack offering a promotion for an extra 40GB harddisk. I even remembered it was highlighted in red on Rackshack website. I tried searching for the promotion on WHT but couldnt find anything on it.

Ventures Online made a mistake once - when we moved datacenters they left a 30GB HD in one of the servers so we had 2. I mentioned it in a support ticket and they ignored it, so I kept it.

James

There may have been a mis-communication of some sort, however, I know 100% the server provided to ccole has never been offered with an extra hard drive special, we have had those, but not with this particular server type, so like I said, it may have been some kind of mis-understanding, the only different factor they had were extra RAM.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
There may have been a mis-communication of some sort, however, I know 100% the server provided to ccole has never been offered with an extra hard drive special, we have had those, but not with this particular server type, so like I said, it may have been some kind of mis-understanding, the only different factor they had were extra RAM.

MANY, many "misunderstandings" @ RS all the time... I tend to call it that cause if these are just carelessness then I wouldn't know what to tell you ;)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think the one thing RackShack really needs is for their techs to be accountable. Currently you have no idea which techs are really screwing up and which are coming through and saving the day and carrying the others. I think that all trouble tickets / work orders should be signed by name or tech nickname/number.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hallalujah! Someone else actually feels the same way! I have been complaining to Rackshack about their poor Trouble Ticket antics .... closing tickets that aren't resolved instead of leaving them open so the customer can add or clarify ... and tickets that don't get signed by a tech.

Thank you PanOpticon for also realizing this! Maybe Patrick (who everyone here seems to admire) can spread the word. I've already sent emails to every ev1 address I have ...

I have two machines at Rackshack so I should have the right to point out the error of their ways ... plus we use a trouble ticket reporting system also and EVERYONE who accesses a ticket signs off on it. And we don't close them until it is necessary. None of our reps are evaluated or bonussed on the number of tickets they close -- they are evaluated on the number of customer concerns they satisfactorily handle.

I think the one thing RackShack really needs is for their techs to be accountable. Currently you have no idea which techs are really screwing up and which are coming through and saving the day and carrying the others. I think that all trouble tickets / work orders should be signed by name or tech nickname/number.


Excellent idea! Now who is gonna convince RS?

Originally posted by custsrvcrep

Hallalujah! Someone else actually feels the same way! I have been complaining to Rackshack about their poor Trouble Ticket antics .... closing tickets that aren't resolved instead of leaving them open so the customer can add or clarify ... and tickets that don't get signed by a tech.

Well, that's the reason I didn't choose rackshack as my new host personally. Between the 'miscommunications' and stupid stuff like that (that is easily avoided) and not offering server monitoring (something that would be very easy to offer) it's not worth the risk.

It wouldn't even be so bad if they felt sorry, were appologetic, or anything like that... but lately I've seen too much of a disreguard to the customers. Unfortunate.

RS is a very good company and their offers and support are one of the best around. Moreover, RS has many great staff e.g. Patrick(of course) and some support staff in the chatroom ... but no doubt some staff in the data center seem to have the attitude of "don't care" and "so what? i will get my salary anyway!" who are creating so many errors and misunderstandings that nice people like Patrick has to cover for them ... RS should just get rid of those monkeys to reduce the workload of Patrick and those support staff in the chatroom.

simple maths "garbage in = garbage out" ... what for having some staff who are creating more work for others and negatively affecting the reputation of RS ?

i do understand that "you get what you pay for" and i am satisfied for what i have paid RS ... but i am definitely sure RS doesn't get what it paid for some of the staff in the data center!

Right now I can't say enough good things about Rackshack. 3am in the morning, server goes down, I send in trouble ticked, within 20 minutes answered, and within an hour it's back up. For 99 a month, I doubt you can find someone to even talk to you at 3am in the morning.

Originally posted by Waverz
Right now I can't say enough good things about Rackshack. 3am in the morning, server goes down, I send in trouble ticked, within 20 minutes answered, and within an hour it's back up. For 99 a month, I doubt you can find someone to even talk to you at 3am in the morning.

That's absolute BS, if you don't get 5 minute reboots 24/7 then the company is for the bin mate... and btw it is NOT 99 a month is is 105$, don't forget the sales tax that all other companies IMPLY in their final price...

Originally posted by ShareFile


That's absolute BS, if you don't get 5 minute reboots 24/7 then the company is for the bin mate... and btw it is NOT 99 a month is is 105$, don't forget the sales tax that all other companies IMPLY in their final price...

It's alright if someone had a good experience with rackshack even though you didn't.

You're just asking for flames... Grow up :mad:

Originally posted by 311


It's alright if someone had a good experience with rackshack even though you didn't.

You're just asking for flames... Grow up :mad:

If you cannot get instamt reboots 24/7 then it is for the bin. That applies to everyone. When you grow up some day and actually do serious business, you will understand that :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Originally posted by ShareFile


If you cannot get instamt reboots 24/7 then it is for the bin. That applies to everyone. When you grow up some day and actually do serious business, you will understand that :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I was just suggesting you stop flaming rackshack in every single instance possible. Everyone knows that you dislike them with a passion but you could keep it to yourself. Seriously this is childish behavior and this type of attitude will get you know where.

Once again it was only a suggestion...:)

Originally posted by 311


I was just suggesting you stop flaming rackshack in every single instance possible. Everyone knows that you dislike them with a passion but you could keep it to yourself. Seriously this is childish behavior and this type of attitude will get you know where.

Once again it was only a suggestion...:)

I am not bashing RackShack when I say that it is not "good", even for 99$ i.e 105$ (as noti said), when reboots take one full hour to be done. 3 o'clock in the morning means bright day somewhwere else and 1 hour downtime to them is lost business. Matt form DelphiComp.Com (where is still host a site cause they are excellent) once said one thing to me when I asked him why he doesn't host with RS or so. He said that "if you cannot get instant reboots, even at 4am, then it is not business but risky childsplay". Matt may back me up on this statement... with the chance ask him if he would accept his host taking one full hour to do a reboot....

Reboots at RS are now typically addressed within 5-10 minutes of receipt of the trouble ticket, this doesnt mean the server wont have a problem or want manual input and require it to take a bit longer, but the only way to guarantee 'instant' reboots is to use some place that offers you an APC or some other kind of remote reboot utility.

Originally posted by ShareFile


. . . . . . . . 311 is saying you bash.
I agree.

You have stated your reasons on several occasions.

Seems like once would be enough.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
...but the only way to guarantee 'instant' reboots is to use some place that offers you an APC or some other kind of remote reboot utility.

Yeah that's true. APC really gives both parties a break as the client will never adress th eprovider for reboot which waives almost 90% of support requests. Also there will never be complaints from a client concerning reboots and that is a good thing. I had bought several APCs for my colo on ebay for ~200$ each which is really not a price that is too high to provide that. Since we could not offer 24hours coverage of reboot requests I decided for APC long ago and I can only say that it rocks. Especially when you offer "flexible systems" like different OS and not restriction towards the software running on it I have discovered that people actually came to us because of the APC as they could test away thus rebooting over 10 times in the process without carrying the burdin of bugging tech support for this each time.

RS once had APC and I was glad about that as the colo was 35 miles away and reboots were a matter of many hours. I think you guys should consider them again... even if it is only 5-10 minutes for a reboot now... why bother? 4-9 minutes too long for my taste ;)

Sounds to me like Robert (Share File) is very grown-up, and has the RS experience to support his statements. He is entitled to state his opinion as well as anyone else who may disagree with him.

LOL!

I'm just wondering... with that many servers... are there techies at rackshack who just reboot all their working day? :-)

RackShack Woes...

You get what you pay for. RackShack provides unmetered bw (almost unheard of before they offered it) and cheap servers. What do you expect.

If you want cheap dedicated servers and super cheap bw, they are a great solution. They are not for everyone or every situation.

You should always back up your data on a separate hard drive and you should have it in a different data center or off site some how.

Good luck.

Originally posted by Brad@RackMy
RackShack Woes...

You get what you pay for. RackShack provides unmetered bw (almost unheard of before they offered it) and cheap servers. What do you expect.

If you want cheap dedicated servers and super cheap bw, they are a great solution. They are not for everyone or every situation.

You should always back up your data on a separate hard drive and you should have it in a different data center or off site some how.

Good luck.

What you say is the biggist bulls*it I have ever read!

RackShack does NOT provide unmetered bandwith (thx god that is, that is GOOD) and they are not cheap at all. I know over 4 providers that are also here on WHT who beat RS prices by far offering services and choices (OS for example) and extras like APC and many other stuff for much cheaper.

Anyhow...