I contacted MC host about setting up a reseller account, and asked them specifically about the issues that have been mentioned in this forum.

They replied that all issues have been delt with and that if i was to move mine aswel as my clients accounts to their servers that everything would be 99% uptime, and the servers were running great and support is at full force.

Whats your guys opinions, is it safe to trust my clients aswell as myself witht hem now, are the current mchost customers happy, or do you feel that moving my stuff there would just mean moving soemwhere else in a few weeks when i realize things are still pretty bad?

Cooper.

If you want extreme reliability and can afford the $$$$$, then get your own server from a provider like rackspace.com. But mchost are a good provider as are many in this forum. Some suggestions - voxtreme.com, splashhost.com, mchost.com and others. Just hunt through this forum and pick out 5 or 6 and then search through this forum.

If you want current opinions from current customers, feel free to ask in our forums in the Pre-Sales section :)

Since Marc just posted this yesterday in another thread, it would seem like they have not yet moved the servers that were having all the problems from the datacenter that he was blaming all of their problems on:

Originally posted by Kiwi
I know that we made some mistakes in the past, mainly with choosing the old data center where we are moving 9 servers out of as soon as possible which was the reason for the downtime on those servers.

Take it for what it's worth - I doubt ANY host will tell you, in response to a direct question about issues they are having, "Yes, we're still having major problems, you don't want to sign up with us" :)

Originally posted by Kiwi
If you want current opinions from current customers, feel free to ask in our forums in the Pre-Sales section :)

... and then, once you sign up, visit the 'private' reseller forums (which you won't get access to until they get your $), and see how things REALLY are.

You've always got your 30 day money back, so perhaps use the initial period as a "test" to see how they go over a period of a week or two before finally choosing them. :)

Well new clients go straight onto the new servers anyway.

At the moment I only have one ticket open, and thats a bg in some 3rd party software...

Couldn't be happier.

MChost is a repectable name and I have heard that new clients are going to their new servers which have no problems as acid said

Good Luck

Originally posted by Kiwi
If you want current opinions from current customers, feel free to ask in our forums in the Pre-Sales section :)

Uh... I don't think he wanted an opinion from the host itself. I think alot of hosts at WHT need to learn that just because their name is mentioned, it doesn't mean the poster is seeking their opinion, or that they should post. :)

Neither does it break the rules though. Kiwi was simply pointing the prospective client to his forums where the prospective client can talk to existing clients.

You are right, and Kiwi has a right to post as well as anyone else; but like someone already mentioned the parts users really need to see in forums are usually blocked, so it really isn't that helpful.

I was just pointing out that many times a person asks about other people's opinions about a host on this forum, and then the host replies. Of course they have the right to, but it doesn't make sense to me when the person is usually wanting an unbiased user opinion.

This question goes directly at Kiwi,

Can youa ssure me that if i setup an account with you, that i will be put on one of the new servers in the new datacenter? And are you willing to back-up your claim with a money-back guarentee if i feel that my server is experiencing the same downtime that all your old servers are.


...as for anyone else, has anyone signed up with MC host since all this began? Have you been put on the new servers? Whats it been like?

Yes, i can assure you that you will be put on a new server in the new data center (as we have done with all clients in the past months) and if you're not satisfied, no matter if for service or downtime we'll stand behind our full money back guarantee :)

Feel free to post additional questions on our forums or PM me, as WHT moderators may look at my reply as advertising (which is not allowed except in the advertising forums). :D

MCHost still has issues in the realm of communication and promise fullfillment.

1. I did finally get moved from a Bust.net server to a DV2 server, but at the time that happened, there also was a CPanel license issue, evidently related to the recent IP changes that ARIN made them do. There are 2 problems here. 1 I asked to be moved WHEN the IP issues were finally finalized, not before. 2. They didn't bother to communicate the problem to their clients & didn't bother to communicate that it was fixed upon the issue being resolved, despite the fact that I personally had a ticket in. They also didn't bother to clearly communicate that the problem was with DarkOrb's database and they were waiting on DarkOrb to fix the problem.

2. Things have recently been promised in 24-48 hours that never come to pass, or come to pass well outside of that window (New CPanel theme was promised with in 24 hrs and didn;t show up for at least 3 days, New signup Script was promised "in 48hrs" over a month ago). While I, as a developer understand that issues arise that cause delays, if I promise something and realize after the fact that I can't deliver as promised, I make the change. You can't rely on MCHost's promised dates.

They also are slow to handle Billing issues. Since the fiasco back in February when one of their servers suffered major problems, I haven't been billed, and in repeated help desk tickets on the subject no resolution was ever made. Then they lost the entier help desk to a Database problem, and shock of shocks, they didn't have a back up. They have a new billing specialist, but there still seems to be issues for several on getting refunds, however, since I'm not one of those, I don't know where the problem lies.

From a technological point of view, they are fine, since the move to DV2, I haven't had any issues, from a human point of view, they can't communicate, and can't fullfill their promises.

Originally posted by mhalbrook
Then they lost the entier help desk to a Database problem, and shock of shocks, they didn't have a back up.

Ummm, we never said there was no backup, i'm not sure who came up with that. All we said was that the past tickets table was corrupted, not the users, etc. (which have been restored) and as soon as we were able to, we'd restore those past tickets.

As for the (2 i believe) people waiting for their refund, all i can say is that it was deducted from our account and confirmed to be received by the card issuer (there is proof of that in our forums in one of the 10 or 15 threads the person opened about the same issue).

I'm not saying we're perfect, but i do want to clarify those issues. Back to work ;)

Originally posted by Kiwi
I'm not saying we're perfect, but i do want to clarify those issues. Back to work ;)

Par for the course, ignore the important issues raised in favor of one relativly minor issue (the help desk) and half the issue (the non-refunds) but ignore the major issues of broken promises and lack of communication and the fact that in 5 months you haven't figured out why I wasn't being billed. This is to be expected like when people ask generic questions about the helpdesk performance, and instead of addressing performance issues, you address the poster's ticket.:rolleyes: :(

Originally posted by AceWeb
I think he responded to the major issue by saying "I'm not saying we're perfect" :D Yeah, the communication part is what MCHost needs to be working on, since most of the unhappy posts are due to bad communication.

No, I don't think that's the case at all, I think he's making excuses as usual.

I do think, however, that they are improving.
Maybe for now, but it seems to be 2 steps forward and 4 steps back. They get good for a short time and then back to par for the course. I've gotten to the end of my rope holding out hope that they'd get their act together.
So far, I did not had a comunication probelm with them. I opened around 6 helpdesk tickets and some replys were within 6 minutes, few tickets were answered in 6 hours.

And you finally signed up when? Of course they're pretty responsive in the pre-sales and initial stages of the game. Wait a while.

mhalbrook, you are absolutely right. Marc is dancing around the issues as usual.

Originally posted by Kiwi
Ummm, we never said there was no backup, i'm not sure who came up with that.

Slow dancing. Remember it's not what people say, but what they don't say that usually matters. Notice that Marc (MCHost) neither afffirmed nor denied your statement.


All we said was that the past tickets table was corrupted, not the users, etc. (which have been restored) and as soon as we were able to, we'd restore those past tickets.
As for the (2 i believe) people waiting for their refund, all i can say is that it was deducted from our account and confirmed to be received by the card issuer (there is proof of that in our forums in one of the 10 or 15 threads the person opened about the same issue).

Disco dancing. Mixing the issues. Minimization and Diversion.


I'm not saying we're perfect, but i do want to clarify those issues. Back to work ;)
Break dancing. A "break" from work while generalizing behind a smokescreen.

That's actually pretty funny :laugh:

Umbillycord loves square dancing according to his text line underneath his username. It's a pity you couldn't have worked that one in there Chris. I personally like horizontal dancing. ;) :D

ok, I'm going now............:blush:

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
I personally like horizontal dancing. ;) :D


Hey Bob, dancing around issues is not synonymous with your global positioning. :)

Originally posted by chrisb
Hey Bob, dancing around issues is not synonymous with your global positioning. :)
hehe. I've actually done plenty of slow dancing ;) disco dancing :D breakdancing :cool: and even [hold onto your hat Umbillycord] Square Dancing :D but I still prefer horizontal dancing :pimp:

Yes, you have heard bad things about MCHost - and here at WHT - the majority is good.

Im a customer who has been with them for nearly a year, and I would`nt trust my business with anyone else.

Now Marc - is going to read this and think - Whaoaa - this guy posted at WHT - some bad points.

Flamesburn - Marc and company have ONE problem to sort out - and they are trying their best - and that is COMMUNICATION with customers.

If you want to move your customers to MCHost - I can only say - GO FOR IT ;) If you want stability ;)

The forums there are the best you can get! The community there is the best you can get! Since putting customers onto DV2 - I can only say this is their BEST business decision yet - even though you may have heard that DV2 has filed chapt 11. This as Marc will tell you - is nothing to worry about. And I agree - DV2 will go from strength to strength - and their network uptime so far - AMAZING!
For me 100%

Previously - with Burst - there were ALOT of problems. With DV2 - 100% uptime in 6 weeks and counting! And Im confident this is the BEST business decision ( to choose DV2 ) that Marc ( Kiwi ) has made so far.

Now onto the negative - Marc and Co - have grown very big - due to a good reputation here! This, in my opinion, has caused problems in that they are now NOT communicating with their customers as much as their customers are screaming out to be communicated with.

BUT - I think, they are listening now! I think they have seen too much negativity here - AND in their forums, so they are taking notice! They are now communicating things alot better!

Regardless of my negative thoughts about MCHost - I would say - Go with them! They are professionals! And your customers sites - couldnt be in better hands ;)

:)

Lets get somethings straight about the server moves.

First of all we were All on the Burst Network - which was good to start off with - but turned bad.

Marc and Co announced that they would be moving all customers onto the DV2 network. Addmittedly this was a slow move on their part - BUT - present customers didnt need to wait for their server to be moved - all they had to do was to request a move and MCHost would oblige. I suffered a 4 hour downtime with burst! This is not a BIG downtime but it was enough for me! I requested ( even though it wasnt my servers turn to move ) to move - they moved me! Now - 100% uptime for weeks!

Any other customer asking this - they would have obliged! Scott is an expert on moving accounts - and this happens quite smoothly.

Cgrey... its okay for you to say - " Well they have 9/10 servers to move and they are doing nothing" or words to that effect! - but from a customers point of view - granted - they were QUICK to announce they were moving network - and they were slow to move customers accross - but they got there - eventualy, and customers seem to be happy! Addmittedly, they didnt point out to customers that they would move them IMMEDIATELY, if they required - and this is where communication breaks down! But anybody asking to move to the new network got moved immediately!

All you have to do is look at how many complaints there were and still are about the move to know that it was NEVER clear from MCHost's announcement that you could be moved on request. The annonucement made it sound as though you had to wait your turn, which in essesnce is no problem, except it took forever for the moves to start happening. There were more server moves announced in the past 30 days, than in the previous 60 days since they announced they were going to be doing it. All the time, new clients got the good servers and existing ones were left in Burst. Good move "Thank you for your continued business. To show our appreciation, we'll keep taking new customers and we'll set them up in the good datacenter while you suffer in the old one". That is exactly how I felt, even when I did finally get moved to a new server, I still felt like that was the message being given the existing client base.

As I said in my farewell "speech", They are showing signs of improvement, but for me, they've shown signs too many times in the past only to see things go back. Hopefully the new system they have in place will be properly used, but I don't see why so many think it's so great now. The only real difference between the new mailing list set up and the old one is that they finally implemented the archives that were asked for when the discussion of even starting the lists happened last year.

MTB NetWork, they were NOT all on Burst's network =)

Also, it shouldnt take forever to move someone from one box to another.

Tops, 5 days for a fully loaded single CPU server, it's stalling.

Transfer data
Ip Assignments
Communication
DNS CHanges

5 days, not months.

Originally posted by MTB NetWorX
Lets get somethings straight about the server moves.

present customers didnt need to wait for their server to be moved - all they had to do was to request a move and MCHost would oblige. I suffered a 4 hour downtime with burst! This is not a BIG downtime but it was enough for me! I requested ( even though it wasnt my servers turn to move ) to move - they moved me! Now - 100% uptime for weeks!

...they would move them IMMEDIATELY, if they required - and this is where communication breaks down! But anybody asking to move to the new network got moved immediately!

Really?? Just request and be moved IMMEDIATELY, huh? That's why I got one excuse after another for over 4 weeks while asking to be moved (that is, when I got any response at all). If you were moved immediately, you were one of the lucky ones. MANY of us didn't get moved until we did it ourselves by cancelling their service and going elsewhere. Many STILL haven't been moved, and this promise of getting everyone effected moved 'as soon as possible' has been repeated since APRIL.

Let's get something else straight about server moves - WHM has a function to move accounts between servers - no 'expert' is needed - it's point-and-click, and takes WAY less than four months to do. Took me about a week in total to move ALL of my clients from MCHost to my new host, without the benefit of the above-mentioned 'tool' in WHM.

Originally posted by cgrey
Let's get something else straight about server moves - WHM has a function to move accounts between servers - no 'expert' is needed - it's point-and-click...

I don't know if someone understands what i said before or not, but we won't be doing any 'mass moves' as it will just cause big problems. We're moving clients one-by-one and making sure all their DNS entries and files/folders are moved correctly.

Doing a mass move with the WHM copier messes up configuration files, makes wrong DNS entries, does not copy all domains when moving a large amount of them at once and misses files. Sorry, we prefer to have it take longer but making sure clients don't have to deal with those problems.

Originally posted by Kiwi


Doing a mass move with the WHM copier messes up configuration files, makes wrong DNS entries, does not copy all domains when moving a large amount of them at once and misses files. Sorry, we prefer to have it take longer but making sure clients don't have to deal with those problems.

Just to interject here: we can attest to problems when moving a great number of accounts using WHM. However, in batches of 20-30, we've encountered no problems at all. Too bad you have - it would no doubt make life easier.

Originally posted by Annette


Just to interject here: we can attest to problems when moving a great number of accounts using WHM. However, in batches of 20-30, we've encountered no problems at all. Too bad you have - it would no doubt make life easier.

Have you found that WHM does not list all the accounts in the copier? Also, the DNS zones are reset to the default ns1 and ns2 entries as well as 2 entries for each domain are added in /etc/named.conf; one with 'www' (directing to the old IP!) and one without (directing to the new one). We have ...and CPanel.net has confirmed it as a bug.

Originally posted by Kiwi


Have you found that WHM does not list all the accounts in the copier? Also, the DNS zones are reset to the default ns1 and ns2 entries as well as 2 entries for each domain are added in /etc/named.conf; one with 'www' (directing to the old IP!) and one without (directing to the new one). We have ...and CPanel.net has confirmed it as a bug.

Haven't found any of this to be the case, no, especially not with named. We've been moving one of our resellers to his own machine over the past couple of weeks on his timeline and have used the WHM to transfer 10-12 in a batch. The only things we've had to reset on the destination server are for the domains that use their own external mail servers. I just took a quick look at named.conf on his box and there are no dupes for domain.com and www.domain.com.

A couple of months ago, we moved 50-ish accounts in from a machine at a different NOC, in two batches over the course of a day, and had no problems with them except for one account that was set up prior to the prohibition on usernames starting with numbers. Other than that, no issues.

Yes, DNS zones are set to the new machines main DNS, but it's part of doing the work.

It's still not a big deal.

Well, it sounds like "Annette" knows what she's doing, and that's a good thing. Wish more host did.

All I can say is that with all these new MCHosts ads on WHT, that they must be rolling in the dough with money to spare. ;) ;) <wink x 2>

Originally posted by chrisb
All I can say is that with all these new MCHosts ads on WHT, that they must be rolling in the dough with money to spare. ;) ;) <wink x 2>
Yes and No. :) Maybe the investment of having your ads rotate above [US$1600/mth, I think] is minor compared to the increased cashflow from new signups. I've never been a big fan of customer acquisition where you have to spend money. ;) [advertising]

I would say there's be a good chance that the advertising costs would be recouped by the new accounts in just the first month. Then you have the recurring income and the word of mouth clients that come from those new clients.

Given that you'd easily get 50 clients [US$1750/mth] per $200/mth server, that's a good margin to cover other costs etc...:)

It's also interesting to watch the growth of a provider like mchost as compared to some of the older, "established" hosts. The marketspace that mchost and others are moving into is a fast growing sector.

So, does this answer the original thread starter's question?

And if so, what is the answer?

Or, Bob, maybe they lost a ton of clients and they're hurting for business. Look at your company. You don't pay WHT the big dollars and don't have to scour for clients. I have to think there's more to it than just wanting more customers than you do. Just speculating, of course. :)

Originally posted by chrisb
Or, Bob, maybe they lost a ton of clients and they're hurting for business. Look at your company. You don't pay WHT the big dollars and don't have to scour for clients.

Maybe AOL is advertising on CNN because they're losing a ton of clients. Maybe Oracle is advertising on skyscrapers in New York and L.A. because nobody is buying their products anymore. Large budget advertising and marketing is a key to success and growth. I think if a company loses a ton of clients they won't spend thousands on advertising. Just speculating of course ;)

Good comeback, Marc. I agree with you about the AOL part. I hear of people everyday that are leaving them. FWIW, I used to be an acct exec for one of the top ad firms in the US. I'm not much on advertising; but have to admit that "sometimes" it works.

Originally posted by chrisb
Or, Bob, maybe they lost a ton of clients and they're hurting for business. Look at your company. You don't pay WHT the big dollars and don't have to scour for clients. I have to think there's more to it than just wanting more customers than you do.
Nothing wrong with wanting to extend one's business out and serve more people and thus make more money. :)
Just speculating, of course. :)
No kidding!! :D Glad you let us in on that one. :)

Originally posted by Kiwi
Just speculating of course ;)
plenty of that going around today!! :D

Originally posted by Kiwi
Maybe AOL is advertising on CNN because they're losing a ton of clients.

First off AOL advertises on all their Property sites. They own CNN, Netscape, Time, Warner Bros.

Second, If we could see the incoming outgoing numbers for AOL, I bet if they didn't market like they did they would be loosing ground.