Well, I started dealing with a guy there, Trevor, who got me all set up with a quote for 3 servers. (2.4ghz P4, 1gb ram, 2x40gb HD's w/ hardware IDE Raid, 1U 14"deep chassis, dual 10/100/1000mb lan) These servers were not going to have CD-Roms so an External USB CDRom was also included in the sale...
There was a small hassle with sending payment (wire transfer from my Credit Union to a US Bank, who transferred funds to their canadian bank), then a week after they got payment, they had not shipped the servers, I emailed them asking when I would get a tracking number. They responded saying that they were unable to get the 14" chassis on time, and would be several weeks to get them. They asked if I would be ok with a full size 1U chassis that included a 52x CD-Rom in each chassis. I needed those servers ASAP, and agreed. A week later, I hear from them, they shipped 2 of the servers (Fed-ex international Next Day Air... I paid for 3-day ground), and the 3rd one was found to have a faulty powersupply connector on the motherboard.
They didnt have any more of the motherboards that they used for my servers, and had to special order one from some supplier. The board was discontinued (so they say) and this supplier was the only one in 30 they tried that had one left in stock. So they will ship me the 3rd when they get the parts to finish it. They also said they would ship a rack rail kit with the 3rd to help support them in the rack.
I take the 2 I received, install linux on them, and then drive 2 hours to my datacenter, only to find, upon installing them in the rack that the chassis were damaged.
I didnt notice the damage when I was working on the server on the table in my office, only when putting them in the rack and gettng a square look at them did I notice it. Pics ->
http://www.amishgeek.com/misc/servers/
I already had the servers in the rack, and needed to use them ASAP. So I emailed featured servers, and showed them the pics. They said they would email me new chassis as soon as they arrive and I would be able to swap chassis myself and ship the damaged ones back, saving me the downtime from mailing them the server.
3 weeks later, I get the 3rd server in the mail, get it set up, and find out that it is a different motherboard completely (MSI, while the first 2 were Tyan) But same setup, so I dont mind. This one has a good chassis, but no rail kit. I didnt even get the motherboard documentation and driver disks with this one like I did the others.
I have 3 servers from them, they are working great, and I am happy with their performance, other than the damaged chassis. I am still waiting on a rail kit from them, and replacement chassis.
I also understand that they were caught right in the middle of the rolling power outages in eastern canada, and some of the delays were due to that and were out of their control.
I just did not care for the feeling of "Am I going to get my servers?" that I had when I was with them. I know they are a young company, and had good intentions (the overnighting me the servers, when I paid for 3-day). And I will possibly consider them again in the future once they have found their feet, and operate more smoothly.
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