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  1. #1
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    Thumbs down Beaware of PrestonHost.com

    Review of PrestonHost.com

    I was subscribed to a reseller plan. I paid $5 a month for 8GB space and 100GB bandwidth. At the time PrestonHost was selling Master Resellers with 50GB space and 500GB Bandwidth for as little as $2.50

    So why did I choose to pay twice as much for 1/5th of the resources? Because I was told my service was premium thus downtime would be minimal and i'd be hosted on a faster server. In reality, I faced downtimes for as long as 2 hours at a time and an average ping of 1,740 ms.

    The Good
    • The Price
      The price is good for what they offered on paper. Top that with LiteSpeed and CloudFlare and you can see why I fell for them.


    The Bad
    • Downtime
      I've been a client for 25 days. During that time my uptime was 98.20% with a total downtime of 10h 33m spread across 214 outages.

      I've been using Pingdom.com to monitor my site every minute. Here is my public report

    • Customer Support
      This is the one that got me the most. PrestonHost technical support staff do not sound qualified. They seem more interested to reply from a script as quickly as possible to achieve quick response time than to help you with genuine information/message.

      This is a typical tech support ticket:
      Me: My site was down for 2 hours earlier, any explanation?
      Support: I'll get back to you with the details, please be awaited
      Support: Your domain is loading fine now. Please verify.
      Me: Yes, it is loading fine now.
      Support: Thank you for your update.
      Then I'd have to explain to them that it is working now, but according to my monitoring report it was down for a long time earlier. Then I get told they are getting a tech to give me a full explanation or something along the lines.

      Another instance was during my first week there, my site would be down everyday from 3:30am to 4:00am. After noticing it for a few of days, I let them know about it. They wouldn't believe me, as their own monitoring system did not log that. I showed them my Pingdom logs, they still didn't believe me. So I screen captured the entire event on the following day and they finally believed me.

      It was just very fraustrating to go through a long ticket where I'd have to repeat myself at every 5th reply and get asked the same questions and given the same generic template answer over and over.

      I've uploaded a screenshot of a ticket to show you what technical support is like at PrestonHost (WARNING: LONG FILE)


    The Ugly
    • 3 Day money back guarantee no matter how much downtime you experience afterwords
      I prepaid for 3 months of service. After 25 days of atrocious service, I submitted a ticket asking for my money back for the remainder of the term. This is the response I received from the owner, Faris Aziz:
      We only offer 3 days moneyback guarantee, you have agreed to our terms and condition
      The service I was getting was nowhere near what was advertised or promised. The constant downtimes were actually hurting my site. Now they won't refund me because I agreed to their TOS. I'm not asking for my money back because I changed my mind or found a better deal elsewhere, I'm leaving simply because the service sucks. I feel like I've been scammed.

      What's even worse is I've had PrestonHost break their own TOS with me. My site went down for 2 hours and I was told they were performing maintenance on their servers. I received no heads up or any emails. But in the TOS it clearly states
      We might have, from time to time, to perform maintainence, upgrades or replacements to our servers. We reserve the right to suspend access to such servers during the required time to do the maintainence, upgrade or exchange the server, for no more than 4 hours. In this event, the users will be sent an e- mail at least 24-48 hours before the due date and time for maintenance.


    Now, in conclusion, I've lost my $15. Big deal. My website has been unreliable for the past 25 days, now that's something I care deeply about. So I'm just going to move elsewhere and I'll make sure that nobody else falls into PrestonHost's trap

  2. #2
    Yikes!

    It's always sad to see people get burned by extremely low budget providers, but as you know, 'you get what you pay for'...
    Last edited by anon-e-mouse; 06-08-2011 at 04:12 AM.

  3. #3
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    Thanks for the review; not just the downtime, but also the server response times seem problematic. Did they indicate there were any problems with the server?
    www.idologic.com - Reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting - Friendly Customer Service - DirectAdmin - cPanel - InterWorx

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vazapi-Curtis View Post
    Yikes!

    It's always sad to see people get burned by extremely low budget providers, but as you know, 'you get what you pay for'...
    I understand but if that is how it is don't advertise 99% uptime, or offer a "premium" service at 5x the price which is just as crappy.

    I wasn't expecting a 100% uptime or world class support. What PrestonHost is offering falls short of even some of the free hosting out there.

    Quote Originally Posted by trustedurl.com View Post
    Thanks for the review; not just the downtime, but also the server response times seem problematic. Did they indicate there were any problems with the server?
    Yah, I was told a bunch of things at a bunch of time. This is the latest:

    "I've just read the ticket and I apologise for the downtime we've been having with US6. Much of it has been due to different issues either relating to abuse like spammers taking the server down, drive errors or in one case the WebNX staff turning off the wrong server."

  5. #5
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    Firstly i,d like to point out that pingdom is not always 100% correct in its findings, many of times ive seen pingdom report downtime when things hasnt been down.

    Also the high pings could be because pingdom was pinging from servers based the other side of the world, Thus this is only an average ping so the average across all monitoring nodes is calculated in that average ping.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by cd/home View Post
    Firstly i,d like to point out that pingdom is not always 100% correct in its findings, many of times ive seen pingdom report downtime when things hasnt been down.

    Also the high pings could be because pingdom was pinging from servers based the other side of the world, Thus this is only an average ping so the average across all monitoring nodes is calculated in that average ping.
    The first two weeks at PrestonHost I was always on the computer. Most of the time the website went down I was able to check immediately and I found that the site indeed went down.

    I had to screencast this to show them Pingdom was right and the website WAS going down everyday at 3:30am during the first week.

  7. #7
    It's quite obvious "50GB space and 500GB Bandwidth for $2.50" is nightmare sooner or later.
    Seriously a server with all the great technologies as advertised would cost $300/month without management & support cost.
    How many resellers need to be put on the server for the host to make some money?
    The resellers also add a lot more sub-accounts in their business plan.

    Quote Originally Posted by MatrixGL View Post
    The price is good for what they offered on paper.
    The bad: hosting comes with extra you don't want.

    Quote Originally Posted by MatrixGL View Post
    3 Day money back guarantee .. I prepaid for 3 months of service.
    The good: hosting fee is not expensive so you would not lose much money.
    PremiumReseller.com Hyper-V SSD VPS USA London Singapore
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vazapi-Curtis View Post
    Yikes!

    It's always sad to see people get burned by extremely low budget providers, but as you know, 'you get what you pay for'...
    So just because this provider offers budget hosting they are burning people?

    Be realistic servers have issues not everything is fine and dandy unfortunately it happens to every provider in the industry.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by semoweb View Post
    So just because this provider offers budget hosting they are burning people?

    Be realistic servers have issues not everything is fine and dandy unfortunately it happens to every provider in the industry.
    Was semoweb down for 11 hours or more in the past 25 days?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by MatrixGL View Post
    Was semoweb down for 11 hours or more in the past 25 days?
    No where did I disagree you faced issues if thats what you feel.
    And I can understand your frustration.

    How ever what "Vazapi" mentioned is quite misleading as if Preston Host is out to burn people which I'm sure is not the case.

    As for your other question which is off topic the answer is no.

  11. #11
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    well, i have one question with no answer for ages.
    sorry for stupid question.

    expensive servers, administrative cost, staff salary... how do they survive?
    is there secret thing behind?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by PremiumHost View Post
    Seriously a server with all the great technologies as advertised would cost $300/month without management & support cost.
    Would it really?

    Have you ever checked out the price Hetzner sells its i7's for on a monthly basis?


    Quote Originally Posted by chhit View Post
    expensive servers, administrative cost, staff salary... how do they survive?
    is there secret thing behind?
    Their is no secret, with the likes of Hetzner its possible to offer a good service from a good server...

    I also believe that they have a server with VolumeDrive!
    UK Based Proactive Server Management.
    Zabbix Enterprise 24/7 Monitoring.

  13. #13
    QUOTE
    -------------
    Yah, I was told a bunch of things at a bunch of time. This is the latest:

    [I]"I've just read the ticket and I apologise for the downtime we've been having with US6. Much of it has been due to different issues either relating to abuse like spammers taking the server down, drive errors or in one case the WebNX staff turning off the wrong server."

    ------------

    i figure prestonhost is bought master reseller from ezpz, because from your quote the issue is the same as i faced in ezpz - yesterday their were abuse spammer and causing my site also down for 5 hours and the server name is the same US6 - webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7496485&postcount=13

    lol prestonhost = semoweb
    same low budget hosting you should add this to your title because i also using semoweb in the past 2 months and i faced downtime everyday in their UK server lol - and when i ask for explanation of downtime they simply never answer my question lol

  14. #14
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    I knew it this gonna come over. Basically whenever our clients couldn't get a refund, they will post like what he just did ' I feel like I've been scammed' So if you receive a refund, you are not scammed and if you don't you are scammed. Nice thread by the way. Prepare some popcorn guys! That's just my two cent.

    Lets get straight to the point:


    So you guys must be wondering how are we able to cover the expensive servers? I have to say one a phrase. 'We are resellers of EZPZ Hosting since Dec 2009'. If you are born earlier in WHT, you should've know that PrestonHost made a public report that we are resellers. It was back in early 2010. But is there anything wrong of being a reseller? EZPZHosting is a trustable and reliable company, they are well reputable on WHT. We trust them. In addition to that, I will publicly announce this. 'We are resellers of SemoWeb for our Master Reseller service' and therefore we are able to oversell and cover the expenses cost. Have I answered all your questions? In addition to that, we do have a couple of dedicated servers which we operate for other services too like Alpha Reseller and Shared Hosting.


    So, all the downtime lies to this thread over here


    To client: You are not alone. EZPZHosting suffered problems with their US6 server and you are in their server. Let me just inform you, there are more than 4-5 threads on WHT complaining about the server. EZPZHosting uptime have been nearly to 100% thats why we guarantee you great uptime, but basically you are unlucky enough to encounter this issue during the month of your signup. I have to say, if you are willing to give us a chance, you could understand what I mean by great uptime and server. Also, I apologize for what you have encounter - I have to say that EZPZ and PrestonHost suffered a lot more than you do. I will be willing to provide you a one month extension for free if you are interested.

    That's my say! - Have a great day!
    Last edited by Faris Aziz; 06-08-2011 at 04:28 AM.

  15. #15
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    41
    Quote Originally Posted by PrestonHost-Faris
    Basically whenever our clients couldn't get a refund, they will post like what he just did ' I feel like I've been scammed' So if you receive a refund, you are not scammed and if you don't you are scammed. Nice thread by the way.
    Faris, let me give you an example.

    You buy an Xbox 360 from eBay. You pay the seller and he ships you a knock off that only plays Tetris. This isn't what you were promised, so naturally you ask for your money back. If the seller tells you he won't because the transaction is already done, would you consider yourself scammed?

    If he gave your money back and you sent back the knock off, would you then consider yourself scammed?

    I think your bitterness is misguided here.

    I don't know the history of PrestonHost. I don't care if it has been providing excellent service or crappy service. I only care what my experience is with you guys. So when I find that I have been under delivered and denied a refund by having the TOS thrown on my face, what else can I think?

    You could've sent all of your clients emails updating them on the situation. You could've said it's your host EZPZ that is crapping out and as a result tons of other hosts are experiencing downtime.

    Instead I get random downtimes. When I inquire about them I have to go through dumb little questioners by your support staff and at the end of it I am told about a specific problem without any context or a backstory.

    It is not my job to be on WHT to find out whats going on in the hosting world. I shouldn't have to post a thread here to get some real answers.
    Last edited by MatrixGL; 06-08-2011 at 05:00 AM.

  16. #16
    @faris
    thanks for the clearly statemant that you also reseller from semoweb = )
    and can you explain this statemant from your advertise

    QUOTE from prestonhost advertise : webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1054414
    ---------
    Are we resellers? The answer is simply No. We entirely own the server and we guarantee that you will be satisfied with the service. Offering 1 Hour guaranteed response times on ticket at such a low prices, no competitor could beat us at such pricing. Even if they do, they are not able to offer such high amount of resources for a low price.
    -----------
    im not to intend for being rude or making black campaign here, i just want to all buyers read this topics and know the webhost which they dealt with

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by papamia View Post
    @faris
    thanks for the clearly statemant that you also reseller from semoweb = )
    and can you explain this statemant from your advertise
    We indeed own the server. Except the Master Reseller.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by semoweb View Post
    So just because this provider offers budget hosting they are burning people?

    Be realistic servers have issues not everything is fine and dandy unfortunately it happens to every provider in the industry.
    Sorry, I re-read my original reply and it does seem like I was being harsh. Mainly, I was just generalizing that budget providers in theory could encounter more issues simply due to the nature of the budget market. People want low pricing but also want a premium product.

    "I was subscribed to a reseller plan. I paid $5 a month for 8GB space and 100GB bandwidth. At the time PrestonHost was selling Master Resellers with 50GB space and 500GB Bandwidth for as little as $2.50"

    I'm not trying to cut the host down at all, I've read good reviews about them as well and I know that even large respected companies have their issues (Amazon Cloud anyone?). But I still believe that you generally get what you pay for. Budget providers have to make cuts somewhere and oversell services more than a non-budget provider in order to make the entire business a worthwhile venture from a start up point of view. This in its own can lead to issues that may of been avoided by choosing better/more expensive upstream providers, support, etc. Of course, on the flip-side you have budget providers who have been in the business for years and have the capital and infrastructure available to be able to still offer good services at affordable rates without having to cut too many corners.
    Last edited by MannDude; 06-08-2011 at 05:40 AM.
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  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by PrestonHost-Faris View Post
    We indeed own the server. Except the Master Reseller.
    Still makes no sense to me. The OP complained about a reseller package and your reply was that it's not your fault because you resell services from EZPZ. Or what's your definition of "owning" a server?

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by httpEasy View Post
    Still makes no sense to me. The OP complained about a reseller package and your reply was that it's not your fault because you resell services from EZPZ. Or what's your definition of "owning" a server?
    I'm answering his question and that have nothing to do with owning a server.

    I didn't blame EZPZ. I am just stating that we are resellers.

  21. #21
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    So the statement in this ad http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1054414 is misleading:

    Quote Originally Posted by PrestonHost-Faris View Post
    Are we resellers? The answer is simply No. We entirely own the server and we guarantee that you will be satisfied with the service.

  22. #22
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    To clarify, we do indeed own full root access on most of our servers (we have various dedicated server in many states in the US). Only a few aspects of our product offerings are off reseller accounts.

  23. #23
    Unlucky. Maybe try K-Disk instead? I haven't seen any bad reviews about them yet.
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  24. #24
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    Faris,

    As much as I want to be on your side here, you pretty much contradicted yourself

    I didn't blame EZPZ. I am just stating that we are resellers.
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  25. #25
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    I think he means he Own servers for Alpha and Shared hosting, but as WHMCS doesn't care about where the accounts are installed on if you don't specify, maybe the OP's account was installed on US6 which is a resold service from EZPZHosting. Or maybe he has double assignation for shared accounts, a dedicated and US6...
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