Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : My TTLHost experience

[amaroq]

I signed up with TTLHost on May 10th for 1U colocation service. I was very pleased with their pre-sales information -- very fast responses and they seemed quite knowledgeable, not to mention a fantastic bandwidth overage price.

I shipped the box out and it arrived late in the day on May 15th. It was installed the next day, and after one hiccup (the network cable had a short in it) it was up and running. Network performance was very good -- I had no problems downloading to the box at near 100mb/sec, latency to XO's network was under 2ms with very few spikes, and the link seemed to be very reliable.

Communication was a little bit problematic. I had to ask three times (once when I signed up, and twice in trouble tickets) over the space of two weeks to get reverse DNS entries set, and I had to ask a couple of times for a login/password to their MRTG system.

Things ran very smoothly for the first month or so. The box was averaging about 5 Mb/sec and peaking above 40 Mb/sec on occasion. On June 13th through the 15th the box got some major traffic -- it was serving upwards of 80 Mb/sec for long periods, and in that three day period it moved about 1500GB of data. TTLHost's network handled it without a problem.

On June 14th the box crashed. I submitted a trouble ticket that evening and about ten minutes later I received a phone call from John Ellis, the owner of TTLHost. He wanted to verify that the much-increased bandwidth usage was legitimate and not part of an attack. I thought this was a very nice (not to mention wise) thing to do. After I assured him it was legitimate, he said he'd reboot the box. About 20 minutes later it was back up.

On the 17th the box crashed again. I submitted another trouble ticket and got a response about 15 minutes later that the box was being reset. I waited a little bit, but the box didn't come back up. Uh-oh. I asked to have the box power cycled one more time, which they did. It still didn't come back though.

After some troubleshooting with the help of TTLHost, I decided the box was probably having hardware problems. I asked on the morning of the 19th if they could ship the box back to me (their remote hands fee is a little bit on the expensive side, and I thought it'd be a good time to upgrade things anyway). John Ellis responded that the box would be pulled that evening for shipment. I asked to have it shipped out FedEx second day, figuring it would be shipped out on Friday, June 20th and arrive on Tuesday, June 24th. (I was pleased that they would ship it themselves and then charge me for it. The alternative -- trying to schedule a pick-up with the shipping company and have them bill it to my account -- always seems to turn into a huge hassle for me.)

On the 20th I wrote back and asked for a tracking number. John Ellis responded that he had left it in the office the previous night to be labeled, so he'd have to check for me. I never heard back, but I decided that I would just wait until the 24th to see if the box showed up.

By the 25th the box hadn't shown up, so I asked for the tracking number again. John Ellis responded that he would look for it, and that it should have been shipped UPS but he didn't remember when. (I was a bit disappointed to learn that it was shipped UPS instead of FedEx as I had requested, since I've found that UPS tends to mistreat heavy boxes more than FedEx does.)

When UPS showed up on the 26th to deliver some packages, the server wasn't among them. I wrote again and explained that I was getting a little bit concerned since the box still hadn't shown up. I never received a response to that message.

When UPS didn't show up on the 27th, I wrote an e-mail directly to John Ellis asking him firmly to speak with the employee who actually shipped the server out and verify how and when it was shipped. I also asked him to scan the receipt for the shipment and e-mail it to me. As of now, I have not received a response to this message either.

I'm a bit disappointed by this. The earliest the box can arrive now is Monday, which would make it six days late. I'm not running a business -- this is just a server for my personal use -- which makes it slightly less critical that I get it back quickly, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

I don't mind so much that the box is late arriving, but I really would have appreciated more communication from TTLHost about what's happening with the shipment. I can't imagine that finding the tracking number can be so difficult as to take a week to do -- the tracking number is printed right on the receipt, and they would have had to keep the receipt to know what to charge me.

Even if there was a problem and the package didn't get shipped out, or it got shipped out via ground service instead of second day, I would have been much happier if someone had told me this. As it is, I don't even know for sure whether the box was shipped at all. I have no idea where the box is, and it has been almost 60 hours since I have heard anything from TTLHost. The thought of a couple thousand dollars of hardware "going missing" doesn't please me.

TTLHost has the potential to be a real quality provider. Once I get the box back and get it repaired, I definitely intend to continue using their service. If they can make whatever changes are necessary to solve their communication problems, they will have a really first-rate service in the low-cost dedicated server/colocation market.

[TAH-Max]

Maybe he who shipped it put it in the back of his car and drove off... Was it a nice server?

[amaroq]

Originally posted by TAH-Max
Maybe he who shipped it put it in the back of his car and drove off... Was it a nice server?

Heh... I doubt that. I don't think they're dishonest; I think someone just goofed up somewhere along the line.

It wasn't a particularly nice server in terms of what it cost... but I like it.

[wubwob]

Dont you hate that? Great pre-sales - great service - bad support

(btw not talking about ttlhost specifically - just my experiance with quite a few companys)

[TAH-Max]

If it wasn't a nice server I doubt it. If they wanted to they could go unplug an Xserver and pop it in the car that is if they 're lucky enough to host one... Well maybe UPS (I thought that was an uniterrupted power supply but maybe I'm wrong...or you get a uninterrupted postal supply over there too?) "mistreated the heavy box"?

[amaroq]

Originally posted by TAH-Max
(I thought that was an uniterrupted power supply but maybe I'm wrong...or you get a uninterrupted postal supply over there too?)

United Parcel Service, a shipping company.

[VeZoZ]

I like these posts been thinking about TTLHost for west coast co-location this post generally sounds good other than the mishap on the shipping it back to you. Thanks for posting

[Mfjp]

What personal site do you got over there that do 80mb/s? I'm just curious.

[amaroq]

Originally posted by Mfjp
What personal site do you got over there that do 80mb/s? I'm just curious.

I host files for a fansite for a game.

[amaroq]

I thought I should update everyone on what happened:

I got a reply from John Ellis today. Evidently what happened was that the server was boxed up and prepared to be shipped out, but then handed off to someone who thought it was a new arrival and installed it in another cabinet. D'oh! At any rate, John is going to drop it off personally at FedEx tomorrow morning. Looks like everything is well again.

Edit: TTLHost is also going to pay the shipping charges to have it overnighted to me.

[amaroq]

On Sunday, June 29th I received this message from John Ellis of TTLHost:

This is completely our fault, my apologies. I have located your server, we evidently had a crossed communication somewhere. The server was pulled and placed in the original packaging for return shipment. Instead it was handed off to another technician and installed in a different cabinet. I have located it, I wll be pulling it AGAIN this evening and packaging it up. This time I am taking it home with me, I will drop it off at the FedEx counter on my way in in the morning and will follow up to this ticket with the tracking number.

Again, my apologies.

John Ellis
Sr. Network Engineer

I responded:

Thanks for the update. I'll look for the server on Wednesday.

John Ellis responded:

If I next day it it should be Tuesday.

I responded:

Overnight is a little expensive for me -- second day is good.

John Ellis responded:

Not charging you for it, if it were not for our mistake you would already have it.

I assumed that the whole ordeal was finished and I was pleased that TTLHost would be making it up by covering the shipping costs.

As indicated by TTLHost, I expected the server to arrive on Tuesday, July 1st. Tuesday came and went -- no server. Okay, I thought, they might have sent it second day after all. I waited. Wednesday came and went -- again, no server. As of the time of this post, I still do not have my server back. FedEx has already been here today (Thursday), so it doesn't look like the server is going to show up today either.

None of the things that TTLHost has told me will happen has happened. In addition to the initial set of problems, the server has clearly not been sent out overnight as John Ellis said it would, he has not followed up with a tracking number as he said he would, and I doubt that the server was ever shipped at all.

I don't know what to do at this point. TTLHost is not responding to my trouble tickets. Their phone number (1-800-989-4TTL) has been disconnected. I have heard nothing from TTLHost since June 29th. I opened a new ticket labelled "Urgent" 21 hours ago. It has received no response.

This is truly a nightmare for me. I would never have thought that something like this could happen. I can't begin to describe how angry and frustrated I am.

I am still holding out hope that this is some kind of gross error. But given the circumstances (no responses, phone disconnected, missing server) I'm getting very, very worried.

[Mfjp]

Good luck on getting your server back!

[alapo]

Ouch . That sounds very bad!! Good luck with getting your box back.

Edit: Maybe you could call the datacenter they are in and find out what is going on?

[ttlhost]

This was definately our fault, and we are willing and ready to admit it. The server was shipped Next day delivery, and since tomorrow is a holiday we added saturday delivery so the customer will have his server on Saturday, we are not charging for the shipment due to the communications break down we seem to have suffered in this case. Tracking number has been provided to the customer as well.

[amaroq]

I can confirm that the server is on its way.

I'm definitely relieved to see that it was just simple error that caused all this. Also, for what it's worth, I do still plan to continue using TTLHost's services.