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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    52

    ServerOrigin Issues

    I'm not one to talk bad about companies but this one is the one exception. Not only have I been disrespected, but I've had money taken out of my account after cancellation of their service a week ago (after canceling a month prior). I reported it to them the same day the money was taken out and here I am, still waiting. I've updated the ticket 3 times without any response. I've given the transaction ID and yet...no response.

    But let's start over. Let's go back to the beginning. I go to them because we were having a 100mbps DDoS attack that we couldn't mitigate. So, I ordered their service (the cheap one here). So after getting set up and going through lots of problems with them (and continued to have problems until I finally got away from them...anways), we apparently started getting BIGGER attacks. They were telling me that we were getting over a 1gbps attack (which my site never had prior to them and after moving from them, still have yet to see, yet they claimed it was constant and almost every day or every other day).

    They than made it seem like they were doing me a favor when the attack got up to 1.5gbps, that they wouldn't charge me for this and would filter it. So I thought, cool, these guys are awesome. Not... They then came to me saying that the attacks were in excess of 3gbps and 200kpps and that I would need to upgrade to their executive product (view link above). So, I say fine...I just want my site to work. Fat chance in hell...

    So now I have a more expensive package, things aren't working due to it being a proxy infront of the server, things are being blocked, legit traffic is being blocked...it was a nightmare.

    But here's the kicker. A hacker somehow got my information from their site. After talking to Kevin (the owner), he told me that there was no way that this was possible. I had told him that that information could only be found from either getting into their database or talking to a person over the phone. He then went rambling for about an hour how someone could have called in and acted like me and could get my security answer from the tech...HUH?!

    So since we were having all these problems and SO kept blaming it on my current server set up and my sysadmins, I had talked to Kevin (again, the owner) and he told me it would be best if they hosted the servers so they could keep a better eye on it and config it better so we wouldn't have these problems. I told him that if we were to do this, I would need his word that the servers would be secure, not able to be hacked (or social engineered like he said "happened"), and that the site would be working better than it currently was at the time. Long story short...it was WORSE.

    When we moved, we had hours and hours of downtime. They said it was because they were unfamiliar with the previous server's configuration. So I gave them access to see what the previous server's config was and they changed things to fit the old one. What do you know...we are back online. Oh wait...only for a few hours and then we are back down. The server was so unstable and when the site was up, it would take at least 10 seconds to load each time. People were getting constantly blocked from the server to the point where I lost around 15k uniques each day, lots of ad revenue, and worst of all, the configuration was so terrible that even my IPB Subscriptions (paid subscriptions) CORE program was not working. They then blamed it on my scripts being faulty. Not sure about any of you that use IPB, but I doubt that a core IPB program is faulty, especially when it was just working on the other server.

    To sum up that last paragraph: Lost lots of traffic due to everyone being blocked, people leaving due to terrible load times or the site not even loading, losing tons of money in ad revenue, and losing even more customers because they are getting mad that my scripts aren't working even though they are paying.

    So not even a week go by and I tell them to cancel everything. I hire a new sysadmin, he moves everything over to the new server after he config'd and hardened it, and what do you know, everything is working GREAT. The site loads in under 2 seconds, my scripts are working, no one is getting blocked, and my members are happy again. Oh, and another kicker...we've had 1 attack that lasted 5 minutes at 1gbps in the whole month we've been on the new server yet with serverorigin, I was told that we were getting 3gbps+ attacks each week. Hmm...Scam? I think so. Just to make you upgrade to the next biggest package and have your site load slow as hell, your scripts to not work and legit traffic be blocked from accessing your site.

    No wait...I'm not finished. So after being on the server for a few days and canceling because it's not working...and after telling them to cancel my subscription and invoice, what do they do? They don't cancel them. They let the payment go through and now they are saying that they never received the payment. This payment went through a week ago. And then I get an update to the ticket today...after posting 3 times in a row, a few days apart...saying that as per the "TOS I agreed to" (which, mind you, was only for the proxy, I didn't sign anything for the server) that I had to cancel 1 month a head of time. I'm sorry...but how am I suppose to cancel a ****** service ahead of time without knowing that your setup wasn't going to work ServerOrigin? C'mon?! Do the right thing, if your server wasn't working for me, then you need to refund the money like a true business would.

    Let's go back a little bit now. So like I mentioned, I talked to Kevin about hosting my stuff on their servers and he told me that they would manage it. I was slightly opposed to that because I had been with AdminGeekz for so long that I built a great relationship with them...so I had him promise that things would be better. So he did. Fast forward past all the ********...a whole week of them dicking me around, telling me they weren't familiar with my configuration as to why the servers weren't working, etc (I would think these so called "professional server business" people should know how to config a server that had sites that ran IPB and wordpress), I hired a new sysadmin to get into their server and start moving stuff to a new server. So he starts looking around and tells me how the servers were configured very poorly, not securely, and only configured to use half the power of the servers I had paid for (hopefully he can come in here and state exactly what he saw). Lovely...so this will lead in to the next paragraph.

    HACKED! After we moved to the new server, my new sysadmin found a c99 shell that was place on my server during the time I was with ServerOrigin!!!! And then what do you know, a hacker sends me a message saying he can get anyone's password on my site just yesterday. So I said PROVE IT! And he sent me my database information...and what do you know, it was the same information we had when we were with SO. It's since been changed. So I got to laugh at the hacker and tell him it was no longer right...and he went on to tell me that it was fine, we had a shell on our server and he could get it again. So, needless to say, he did...we had kept the same file name on the server but it would send the IP address of the "hacker" to our email inboxes.

    I think that's it. I told them if they wanted to keep jerking me around and trying to make me feel bad for making them "work so hard" on the server ("6 hours of work that they normally charge $50/hour for)...I'm sorry, but when was it a businesses job to make their paying (mind you, they charge out the a**) customers feel dumb? I noticed in another review, another user felt the same way. I'm sorry...but I would only feel bad for them if they had actually done a good job. Seeing as they did a terrible job and I lost a LOT of business, ad revenue, and SERPs because of them...I think I should be reimbursed for damages caused to my business.



    tl;dr
    1. They make you feel good that they are upgrading your service for free, then they bait and switch you. I still think that they lie about the attacks.
    2. They claimed 3gbps+ attacks weekly, its been a month on the new server and only 1 short 1gbps attack.
    3. Support tries to make you feel dumb and sorry because they are doing "a lot of work for you".
    4. They didn't cancel when I told them to cancel so they took money from me and claim to have never gotten it.
    5. My new sysadmin didn't have a single problem with the configuration of the server. It's funny how a single guy, who does this almost as a hobby...did a better job than a TEAM or business of people that work on servers day in and day out.
    6. New sysadmin found a c99 shell that was placed on our server and a hacker had our database information from the SO server. So if you want to keep yourself and your members information safe, keep away.


    Save your money people. Upgrade your servers and hire someone that knows how to properly config servers for DDoS. SO was costing me roughly $1400/month and my new server + sysadmin is costing $520/month.

    I hope this review saves someone else the headaches, misery, business and money that I had gone through. And if I missed something, I will be sure to update this thread.
    Last edited by AzzidReign; 09-17-2010 at 10:40 PM.
      0 Not allowed!

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