danisgood
12-22-2009, 09:16 AM
Hi everyone, I just thought I would post a 30 day review of CatsNine. If I've posted this in the wrong section, please move it to the correct one.
Firstly, I found an offer on WebHostingTalk from CatsNine which I thought was great. They was offering great plans, including off site space for your main site. I thought this was a must have, as I was looking to do this anyway. So I signed up. I had been getting everything sorted, but then I kept having problems.
My first problem is I'm very impatient, and when asking for the extras, the staff that handled that was only on for so long in a day. And with them being in Australia, I think it was something like they would reply (I live in the UK) between 11pm - 8am. I didn't think this would be a problem, but it did end up to be for me as a simple conversation took days.
I used BinaryCanary to monitor my sites, so I monitored my off site main site. That to this day had a 100% uptime, which I was glad. However yesterday I remembered I had forgotten to add my london reseller server, so I added it. A few hours later, I was receiving emails and SMS's from them saying it was down. I spoke to the technical support who sent me a message back saying it seems fine and sent a screenshot of binarycanary's sign up page ( HUH! )
Anyway, after saying it was still down, I didn't receive a response. It got to the point where BinaryCanary said the server was down for over 4 hours, and I still didn't get an update from CatsNine. So I didn't know if they was simply fixing the problem or they hadn't read the ticket update. So, when it got to 4 hours and 30 minutes downtime, I thought I'm going to cancel my service.
So I cancelled, and then a few hours later I got a ticket update from the cancellation request stating:
---
Obviously as you have requested a cancellation earlier today this is no longer an issue ;).
I would just like to run through a few things in your cancellation request if that's okay:
"I've had a downtime for resellers for just over 4 hours and counting. I have been as patient as possible, emailing back and forth with technical support, however it has been over 2 hours since my last response from technical support."
Looking at your ticket, it appears as though the tech got the wrong end of the stick and thought you were trying to say your monitoring website was down. To which, obviously, it wasn't, so they attached a screenshot of it working. After you replied back we were working on Eli, and no longer found it appropriate to respond to tickets when we had no further updates and a large influx of tickets. I apologise if you felt like you were being ignored, but this was certainly not the case. Available staff were working on the server issue.
"I have found a deal with a company which is more expensive, and I don't get as much space, however I have used them in the past and I've never had a reply in under 30 minutes."
I hope that was a typo and you meant that you've never had a reply in over 30 minutes ;). We, of course, would like to keep you as a client if possible. Compensation will be made applied to accounts as required. Please let me know if there is anything we can do to keep you as a client, including a server transfer if you believe this to be necessary.
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I was glad that they was offering compensation, but at this point I had bought a new reseller service of a different company, so wasn't interested. Also, I found it funny that the tech support thought I would send a ticket to them that my monitoring service was down.... And when they realised I was talking about their servers, they got to work to fix it. I would have appreciated a response saying sorry, we are looking into the problem or something along that line. As I was going out my head thinking if they had read the ticket or not. If they had updated me, I'm confident I would have kept with this host, and not cancel. However, they didn't and I needed a new host.
I can see that if they was receiving a large amount of tickets about the same problem, they would rather fix the problem then respond and take longer to fix it, however as a customer, I felt stranded and didn't know if they was fixing it or not. Also, was I first to flag this? As I have a monitor for every minute checking it, but they thought I was talking about my monitoring service. However, I would hope that they would have an internal monitoring service for each server, so they would have known about it before me.... which I guess by the response to the ticket, they didn't.
That is what pushed me over the edge with this host. I also had other problems, such as the due date for the next invoice was the 27th, however when I first took out the hosting, and used the paypal subscription, it said the next date to pay was 29th. Also, the end user support is not within WHMCS which they provide. They offer a completely different site for technical support, and the permissions they give are quite limiting, such as I couldn't delete or change support departments. I had paid good money to integrate WHMCS into my template, and I didn't want a separate site for support, when WHMCS has a perfectly good one. I did ask if they would do support through WHMCS, but they wouldn't. I though't that they would as they would be able to respond to tickets either through the site or emails, so I didn't see the problem.
However, there was good things about this hosting provider. They offered a off site solution for the main site, which was a one off cost of around $2. Also, they are quite affordable, and the WHMCS they provide, to my surprise was a no branded licence!
However, I am now in the process of moving to a new host, but if they can sort out the end user support and downtime issue, I would most likely move back.
The host I have decided to go with is more expensive, and I do get less space, and not all the features as CatsNine offered, however the host I am now moving to, I have been with before, and they have always been quick at responding to any tickets.
If your reading this, make your own decision about CatsNine, this is just my experience, and I am sure more happier customers are less likely to write a review. There are many good things about CatsNine, but for me, the problems outweighed the benefits.
I have reported this post and included the website address which is currently still hosted with them until I change the nameservers, and if anyone wants anymore information or have questions, please ask.
Firstly, I found an offer on WebHostingTalk from CatsNine which I thought was great. They was offering great plans, including off site space for your main site. I thought this was a must have, as I was looking to do this anyway. So I signed up. I had been getting everything sorted, but then I kept having problems.
My first problem is I'm very impatient, and when asking for the extras, the staff that handled that was only on for so long in a day. And with them being in Australia, I think it was something like they would reply (I live in the UK) between 11pm - 8am. I didn't think this would be a problem, but it did end up to be for me as a simple conversation took days.
I used BinaryCanary to monitor my sites, so I monitored my off site main site. That to this day had a 100% uptime, which I was glad. However yesterday I remembered I had forgotten to add my london reseller server, so I added it. A few hours later, I was receiving emails and SMS's from them saying it was down. I spoke to the technical support who sent me a message back saying it seems fine and sent a screenshot of binarycanary's sign up page ( HUH! )
Anyway, after saying it was still down, I didn't receive a response. It got to the point where BinaryCanary said the server was down for over 4 hours, and I still didn't get an update from CatsNine. So I didn't know if they was simply fixing the problem or they hadn't read the ticket update. So, when it got to 4 hours and 30 minutes downtime, I thought I'm going to cancel my service.
So I cancelled, and then a few hours later I got a ticket update from the cancellation request stating:
---
Obviously as you have requested a cancellation earlier today this is no longer an issue ;).
I would just like to run through a few things in your cancellation request if that's okay:
"I've had a downtime for resellers for just over 4 hours and counting. I have been as patient as possible, emailing back and forth with technical support, however it has been over 2 hours since my last response from technical support."
Looking at your ticket, it appears as though the tech got the wrong end of the stick and thought you were trying to say your monitoring website was down. To which, obviously, it wasn't, so they attached a screenshot of it working. After you replied back we were working on Eli, and no longer found it appropriate to respond to tickets when we had no further updates and a large influx of tickets. I apologise if you felt like you were being ignored, but this was certainly not the case. Available staff were working on the server issue.
"I have found a deal with a company which is more expensive, and I don't get as much space, however I have used them in the past and I've never had a reply in under 30 minutes."
I hope that was a typo and you meant that you've never had a reply in over 30 minutes ;). We, of course, would like to keep you as a client if possible. Compensation will be made applied to accounts as required. Please let me know if there is anything we can do to keep you as a client, including a server transfer if you believe this to be necessary.
---
I was glad that they was offering compensation, but at this point I had bought a new reseller service of a different company, so wasn't interested. Also, I found it funny that the tech support thought I would send a ticket to them that my monitoring service was down.... And when they realised I was talking about their servers, they got to work to fix it. I would have appreciated a response saying sorry, we are looking into the problem or something along that line. As I was going out my head thinking if they had read the ticket or not. If they had updated me, I'm confident I would have kept with this host, and not cancel. However, they didn't and I needed a new host.
I can see that if they was receiving a large amount of tickets about the same problem, they would rather fix the problem then respond and take longer to fix it, however as a customer, I felt stranded and didn't know if they was fixing it or not. Also, was I first to flag this? As I have a monitor for every minute checking it, but they thought I was talking about my monitoring service. However, I would hope that they would have an internal monitoring service for each server, so they would have known about it before me.... which I guess by the response to the ticket, they didn't.
That is what pushed me over the edge with this host. I also had other problems, such as the due date for the next invoice was the 27th, however when I first took out the hosting, and used the paypal subscription, it said the next date to pay was 29th. Also, the end user support is not within WHMCS which they provide. They offer a completely different site for technical support, and the permissions they give are quite limiting, such as I couldn't delete or change support departments. I had paid good money to integrate WHMCS into my template, and I didn't want a separate site for support, when WHMCS has a perfectly good one. I did ask if they would do support through WHMCS, but they wouldn't. I though't that they would as they would be able to respond to tickets either through the site or emails, so I didn't see the problem.
However, there was good things about this hosting provider. They offered a off site solution for the main site, which was a one off cost of around $2. Also, they are quite affordable, and the WHMCS they provide, to my surprise was a no branded licence!
However, I am now in the process of moving to a new host, but if they can sort out the end user support and downtime issue, I would most likely move back.
The host I have decided to go with is more expensive, and I do get less space, and not all the features as CatsNine offered, however the host I am now moving to, I have been with before, and they have always been quick at responding to any tickets.
If your reading this, make your own decision about CatsNine, this is just my experience, and I am sure more happier customers are less likely to write a review. There are many good things about CatsNine, but for me, the problems outweighed the benefits.
I have reported this post and included the website address which is currently still hosted with them until I change the nameservers, and if anyone wants anymore information or have questions, please ask.