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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    102

    My experience with AffordableColo

    I signed up with AffordableColo in late September, 2003. The contract was for 1U of rack space and 4Mb/sec of Cogent bandwidth for $240 per month.

    From the beginning there were problems. When the server was delivered to the datacenter, it was installed -- but no one checked to make sure it was actually working. It turns out that I was assigned the wrong IP addresses, but it took almost a full week for AffordableColo to identify and correct the problem. All of my domains were pointing at someone else's server for most of this time, since I had been led to believe that I was actually assigned the correct IP addresses and the other server would be moved.

    Communication issues are constant. It took 34 days to get reverse DNS configured properly for my IP addresses. Response times for trouble tickets are frequently several days. Of the 11 trouble tickets which I have submitted during the six months that I have been an AffordableColo customer (five of those were in the past eight days):

    - one was responded to in ten hours
    - one was responded to in five hours
    - one was responded to in seven days, with a follow-up response coming twenty-one days later
    - one was responded to in thirteen days
    - one was responded to in five days, with a follow-up response in six days
    - one was responded to in three days
    - one was responded to in six hours, but is still awaiting a follow-up eight days later
    - one was responded to in two days
    - one has received no response in three days
    - one was responded to in two days
    - one (tagged as urgent) was responded to in 26 hours, but the response was incorrect/unacceptable

    At one point I received a notice saying that I was overdue by three months on my payments, when in reality I send out a check on the 1st or 2nd of every month and each check had been deposited by AffordableColo. I submitted a ticket, and was told three days later that there was an error and the issue was resolved; however, I still receive "overdue balance" notices with each invoice, now up to $1,200!

    The connectivity itself was fine. The connection was rarely down, and it never appeared to be running at or near saturation. The server would occasionally lose power for one or two hours in the night and early morning, but that was tolerable.

    The straw that broke the camel's back started on March 20th, when the connection went down completely for a period of 28 hours. This downtime was apparently so that the connection could be switched from Cogent to Hurricane Electric. I never received any notice that this switch was going to take place. Charles Baker suggested afterwards that I needed to "update your technical contact" to receive such notices, but when I inquired about how to do this I never received any response. (For what it's worth, the e-mail address I gave AffordableColo as my technical contact initially is and always has been valid.)

    When the connection came back up on March 21st, performance was beyond poor. There was constant packetloss, ranging from 10% up to 20%, which made the server useless to me. Finally in the afternoon of March 25th, after four days of having an unuseable server, a faulty cross-connect was replaced and the packetloss disappeared -- for good, I hoped.

    However, eight hours later it reappeared. It varies from 5% up to nearly 20% now, and has been like this ever since. Throughput is absymal -- less than 50kB per second per connection. I opened a ticket as soon as I noticed the new packetloss, which was approximately 1.5 hours after it began, on Friday, March 26th. I received no response until the afternoon of March 28th, and the response was simply to ask what my server ID is and suggest that if the issue is significant I should set the ticket as 'high-priority' so it didn't get buried at the bottom of the pile. However, it is clearly stated on AffordableColo's support page that high-priority tickets count as billable support -- and I'm not going to pay $95/hour for a problem which is AffordableColo's responsibility to fix. I inquired about whether doing this would actually count as billable support, but never received a response.

    Several hours later, I gave in and opened a high-priority ticket. I expected that since this ticket was for urgent support and I was paying $95/hour for it, I would get a rapid response. The response which finally came, 26 hours later, was this. Before you view the ticket, let me mention that I was never on Yipes (as I indicate in the ticket, I was on Cogent before the switch to HE), and the problem is not downtime, but packetloss.

    This type of non-response is just shocking to me. What would happen if I needed to have someone reboot my server? Would it take 26 hours? What if I needed to have someone recompile my kernel for me? I can only imagine -- and I can only hope that AffordableColo isn't going to bill me for 26 hours of support for that response!

    The server is completely useless to me now. My contract comes up for renewal at the end of the month, but AffordableColo's policy is that cancellation notices must be provided 30 days in advance. I requested via e-mail on the 28th that AffordableColo allow me to terminate my contract without 30 days notice, since the service that I am paying $240/month for is not being provided, but again received no response. I re-submitted the request on the 29th and have received no response thus far.

    I don't know what I'm going to do now. I can't afford to pay $240 per month for a server that I can't even use. AffordableColo refuses to respond to any of my trouble tickets or e-mails, and I don't have time to call them during business hours or spend an hour on the phone with them, and I haven't gotten an answer when I've called at night. AffordableColo seems to be simply ignoring me, hoping that I'll continue to send them my money despite the completely unacceptable service that I am receiving.

    I'm making this post in the hope that it will get their attention, as well as to serve as a warning to others to stay away from AffordableColo (also AffordableServers, DTINetwork, and WebWorksCorp). I'm worried that this situation is going to turn into another Xgamer/TTLhost fiasco.
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Rialto, CA
    Posts
    2,039
    How far from your location are they?
    You might want to get your machine back before you worry about them billing you. (Theres always remedies for that)
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    102
    Originally posted by Mrdredd
    How far from your location are they?
    You might want to get your machine back before you worry about them billing you. (Theres always remedies for that)
    I'm in Wisconsin, the machine is in Texas. I do appreciate the suggestion, though -- and I'd appreciate any advice that anyone has on how I should deal with the situation.

    Edit: Also, I don't think I CAN get the machine back -- I think that one of the terms of the contract (I don't have it with me, so I can't be sure) was that I need AffordableColo's approval to remove any equipment.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    6,896
    Originally posted by amaroq
    I'm in Wisconsin, the machine is in Texas. I do appreciate the suggestion, though -- and I'd appreciate any advice that anyone has on how I should deal with the situation.

    Edit: Also, I don't think I CAN get the machine back -- I think that one of the terms of the contract (I don't have it with me, so I can't be sure) was that I need AffordableColo's approval to remove any equipment.
    If things are as bad as you say, gather proof (logs, traceroutes, printouts of tickets, etc.). Assumedly you're paying them by credit card. Simply email/open a ticket, and cc yourself in the email so you can verify it was sent out by your smtpd, even fax if you can and indicate you are cancelling, that theres been a lack of response, and that you specifically do not authorize any more charges against your credit card with the exception of return shipping of your hardware.

    If they continue to bill you, submit a dispute with your credit card company. VISA/Mastercard (although I STRONGLY discourage this as it's unethical and can be abused far too easily) allow disputes for up to 1 year after a transaction has taken place. Probably about, if not more then the value of your server, it may be your only real card short of legal option (the ability to dispute charges). Notably disputing a years worth of service is obviously unethical and in no means repayment if you cant get your server back (if they cant respond to your email, seems unlikely shipping would be a breeze), but it pays to have as many cards to play as you can .
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
    http://www.prioritycolo.com
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    102
    Originally posted by porcupine
    If things are as bad as you say, gather proof (logs, traceroutes, printouts of tickets, etc.). Assumedly you're paying them by credit card. Simply email/open a ticket, and cc yourself in the email so you can verify it was sent out by your smtpd, even fax if you can and indicate you are cancelling, that theres been a lack of response, and that you specifically do not authorize any more charges against your credit card with the exception of return shipping of your hardware.
    I'm paying by check, actually, so I don't need to worry about any unauthorized payments. I'm still hoping for an amiable resolution to the problem -- as long as I can cancel the service and get the server back, I'm happy. I hadn't thought about faxing them a notice of cancellation, but I think it's a good idea -- if I can find a fax number, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll also print out copies of my trouble tickets, just in case.

    Since I didn't pay with a CC there's no chance of doing a chargeback, but I wouldn't anyway -- for the most part, the service has been acceptable. It's just the recent problems and the lack of response that have ruined things, and I'm not willing to risk that something like this could happen again.

    What I AM concerned about, though, is that if I simply say, "I'm not willing to pay for the service anymore." they'll just keep my server and say I owe them three months' payment (it's a three month contract) before they'll return the server. This is my major concern, since I can't afford to sink another $720 into a server that I can't use.
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    6,896
    In that case, chances are an inexpensive lawyer and threats of legal action are about all you can do.
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
    http://www.prioritycolo.com
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    5,525
    Originally posted by porcupine
    If things are as bad as you say, gather proof (logs, traceroutes, printouts of tickets, etc.). Assumedly you're paying them by credit card. Simply email/open a ticket, and cc yourself in the email so you can verify it was sent out by your smtpd, even fax if you can and indicate you are cancelling, that theres been a lack of response, and that you specifically do not authorize any more charges against your credit card with the exception of return shipping of your hardware.

    If they continue to bill you, submit a dispute with your credit card company. VISA/Mastercard (although I STRONGLY discourage this as it's unethical and can be abused far too easily) allow disputes for up to 1 year after a transaction has taken place. Probably about, if not more then the value of your server, it may be your only real card short of legal option (the ability to dispute charges). Notably disputing a years worth of service is obviously unethical and in no means repayment if you cant get your server back (if they cant respond to your email, seems unlikely shipping would be a breeze), but it pays to have as many cards to play as you can .
    Not only is it unethical, its a very quick way to find yourself in court.
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  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    6,896
    Originally posted by DeathNova
    Not only is it unethical, its a very quick way to find yourself in court.
    Yep, but if someone hijacks your hardware (and you'll note my stance is on the opposite side of the fance considering we're a colocation provider here), specifically if you're on a rent-to-own type of package from your provider for the hardware, it's a fairly viable threat [unfortunatly]. Too many people do chargebacks when they're not happy with dedicated/reseller/shared hosting in general, whether or not they have the right, sadly a part of the Biz.
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
    http://www.prioritycolo.com
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    London
    Posts
    4,931
    Your experience of AffordableColo sounds unfortunately similar to ours, back when we used them in 2002-03. We moved away and I'm glad we made that decision seeing how much downtime they have had of late.

    We found Charles to be rude and unresponsive and the other 'staff' he talked of always seemed rather elusive to us. I suspect to this day he's a one man show but likes to portray himself as a large corporation.

    AffordableColo were a very frustrating company to deal with so I'd advise anyone considering them to stay away. We did actually speak to Colo4Dallas a couple of times (AffordableColo have space in there) and even though we were not a customer of them, they managed to help us out on a couple of occassions.
    Matthew Russell | Namecheap
    Twitter: @mattdrussell

    www.easywp.com - True Managed WordPress, made easy
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,040
    The server would occasionally lose power for one or two hours in the night and early morning, but that was tolerable.

    :O

    Sounds like you'd be best to get your kit out of there ASAP. Was there any kind of SLA in the contract?
    Robin Balen
    Gyron Internet Ltd - http://gyron.net/
    UK colocation, managed hosting and connectivity services with 100% uptime SLAs
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  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    102
    For what it's worth, I did get a response today about the packetloss problem. They checked to make sure my box and their switch had the same port settings, although that doesn't seem to have been the problem. I haven't heard anything about cancelling the service yet.
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Denver, CO
    Posts
    3,302
    Originally posted by voxtreme-matt

    We found Charles to be rude and unresponsive and the other 'staff' he talked of always seemed rather elusive to us. I suspect to this day he's a one man show but likes to portray himself as a large corporation.
    LMAO ... I have always wonders how many alter-ego's Charles has. Glad to know I wasn't the only ones who has similar thoughts
    Jay Sudowski // Handy Networks LLC // Co-Founder & CTO
    AS30475 - Level(3), HE, Telia, XO and Cogent. Noction optimized network.
    Offering Dedicated Server and Colocation Hosting from our SSAE 16 SOC 2, Type 2 Certified Data Center.
    Current specials here. Check them out.
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  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    102
    Thanks to everyone who's responded.

    It's pretty far from the point where I think a lawyer would be required, and the server is only worth about $1,000 so I doubt it would be worth it.

    I hadn't thought of contacting Colo4Dallas directly; I'll keep that in mind. (Although again I think it's too early for that.)

    Also, I received a PM from someone who has some very interesting information and I hope he'll share it publicly.

    I haven't heard anything more from AffordableColo; Charles said last night that he would have to speak with someone named Kristin about the cancellation request, and I haven't heard anything more about it yet. It's getting close to the end of the month and I get billed on the first of each month, so I'm getting a little concerned about that. I suppose I could shut the server off myself before the end of the month, although I'm not sure that would do any good.

    We'll see what happens...
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  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    London
    Posts
    4,931
    Oh, Kristin in billing. The same Kristin that makes exactly the same grammatical errors that Charles does when responding?

    You come accross 'her' too Jay?
    Matthew Russell | Namecheap
    Twitter: @mattdrussell

    www.easywp.com - True Managed WordPress, made easy
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  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    St. Louis, MO
    Posts
    2,508
    We found Charles to be rude and unresponsive and the other 'staff' he talked of always seemed rather elusive to us. I suspect to this day he's a one man show but likes to portray himself as a large corporation.
    I think that is pretty much what everyone assumes. Charles is pretty quiet, it's not like him .....
    Mike @ Xiolink.com
    http://www.xiolink.com 1-877-4-XIOLINK
    Advanced Managed Microsoft Hosting
    "Your data... always within reach"
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  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    PA, USA
    Posts
    5,143
    Charles Baker, a man that has amazed me. I have personally dealt with him in the past and I don't have a pleasant experience with him at all. Well, affordablecolo was our top colo choice when we started out Fluid Hosting, but because of the unpleasant experience that Charles wants me to have, he is losing a four figures monthly business from us. I am so GLAD that we have never gone with AC/CB.

    And yea, I am still not quite sure who Krisitn is nor the CFO guy that he kept reffering. heh!
    Fluid Hosting, LLC - Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud Shared and Reseller, Cloud VPS, and Cloud Hybrid Server
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  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    102
    Just a quick update: to AffordableColo's credit, they did fix the packetloss problem today (albeit five days after I first submitted the ticket). I also got a response that I needed to e-mail billing about cancelling the contract, which I did earlier today; haven't heard back yet, though.
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  18. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Austin, Texas
    Posts
    508
    My story...

    We have had a server a Affordablecolo.com with charles since August 2001. Just a simple $110/month contract.

    I won't go into the quality of their network... for us this was 3rd backup site we didn't use very often.

    For some unexplained reason in august 2003 they stopped billing us. Without notifying us.... In February 2004 we decided time to finally get that lone server to our other sites. When we requested it for shipment, they told us we hadn't paid for 9 months when American Express charges showed otherwise. Ultimatly after faxing them American Express statements and spending days sorting out billing... we owed them for 4 months. Yet our Amex account had always been in good standing, and Affordablecolo NEVER CONTACTED US to tell us there was a billing problem.... they just screwed up on their own and never offered any explination. Our phone number has not changed in 5 years, they never called once...

    Ok, so we wire transfered them the cash to settle up the ... and they also insisted we were on a auto-renewing 3-month contract and that we had to pay the remainder... we even paid that.

    So then what happened? Charles agreed to ship our server now that our account was paid up... we wanted it UPS overnight red. And it took 2 days to get boxed, UPS shows up and it isn't ready for delivery, etc. Finally after being out of the rack and offline for 7 days it was clear they weren't going to ship it. So we asked them to rerack, and they did! Amazing.

    Six weeks later...

    I am in Dallas right now in person trying to get the server, but Charles refuses to return calls or refuses to authorize pickup at colo4dallas. His email and voicemail boxes are all full, text messages to emergency@dtinetworks.com come back with mailbox full... and this has been going on for 4 days!

    Stephen Gutknecht
    IPCoast, Inc.
    Renton, Washington
    Last edited by StephenRS; 04-02-2004 at 12:28 PM.
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Austin, Texas
    Posts
    508
    if anyone wants, since I am in Dallas for the next 10 days on other buisness ... I will do what I can to help you get your server back to. Charles clearly has no ability to box and ship a server to his customers. And if I'm going through all the trouble to get into the facility to retrive my server...

    As charles has not answered our support tickets or answered our phone calls for 4 days...
    We are trying to reach colo4dallas directly. Any and all help in getting our server back and helping anyone else being held hostage. Post on this thread.
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  20. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Austin, Texas
    Posts
    508
    Urgent / Urgent / Urgent
    Urgent / Urgent / Urgent

    Ok, now we got ahold of Colo4Dallas, and they tell us Charles Baker has moved all equipment this week to ThePlanet!

    he moved our servers without any notice, ignoring our request to return it.
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  21. #21
    My story is very similar to yours.

    Affordablecolo provided me with great support over the last year except for the last couple months it has gone downhill...and fast. I had all I could take on March 22 after my server had been down almost 24 hours. I had spoke to Charles on the phone the previous night and he said he would look in it. At midnight I put in another trouble ticket requesting a reboot....this time Dylan Anderson responding at 2am saying my server could not be located in the racks. This was very frustrating as I had requested a reboot the previous day and everything went smooth.

    So at this point I decide if the server is not up by 6am, I'm making a trip to Dallas to see what going on. It's now Monday morning and my phone starts to blow up with customers calling asking why they cannot access their email. I arrive in Dallas approx 11am and go to the Colo4Dallas data center...I try calling Charles again...and of course no answer, the people at colo4dalals try calling him and no answer...his is voicemail full. I come to find out that my server is no longer at colo4dallas....it has been moved....without notification, to The Planet. So I get in my car and travel to The Planet dc. Once there, Charles sales rep tries calling him....no answer...but at this point my phone rings and its Charles. I ask him why my server has been moved without notification and at this point he states he has sent out over 20 emails regarding this (I guess I wasn't on the list of 20 people he emailed!)....he says my server is having problems on the new 'backbone' and needs to be moved back to the old datacenter and he will be there in 20 minutes. 20 minutes later he arrives, gets my server and I following him back to colo4dallas where we put my server back into his cage there and boot my server up. its finally back online at this point.

    SO BEWARE CHARLES HAS PROBABLY MOVED YOUR SERVERS TO THE PLANET WITHOUT NOTIFCIATION LIKE HE DID WITH MINE!

    As of now, my server is no longer with Charles.

    And I do wonder who this mysterious CFO guy is!! lol all seems VERY shady to me.
    Last edited by tdavis; 04-02-2004 at 01:12 PM.
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  22. #22
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Austin, Texas
    Posts
    508
    Thanks!

    What company name is Charles doing business as at The Planet as we called them and they couldn't find AffordableColo/AffordableServers/Charles Baker!

    We are willing to go down to The Planet today and get our server... but so far we can't find what business / location Charles is at.
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  23. #23
    Originally posted by StephenRS
    Thanks!

    What company name is Charles doing business as at The Planet as we called them and they couldn't find AffordableColo/AffordableServers/Charles Baker!

    We are willing to go down to The Planet today and get our server... but so far we can't find what business / location Charles is at.
    Digital Technology Inc.

    check your pm's
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  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    PA, USA
    Posts
    5,143
    Originally posted by tdavis
    And I do wonder who this mysterious CFO guy is!! lol all seems VERY shady to me
    Send my regards to this CFO guy when you meet him/her
    Fluid Hosting, LLC - Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud Shared and Reseller, Cloud VPS, and Cloud Hybrid Server
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  25. #25
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    London
    Posts
    4,931
    Originally posted by FHDave
    Send my regards to this CFO guy when you meet him/her
    Send mine too.... unless it's Charles wearing ladies clothes by night
    Matthew Russell | Namecheap
    Twitter: @mattdrussell

    www.easywp.com - True Managed WordPress, made easy
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