Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Servermatrix.com Review and Comparison (New SM customer)

[Chris_C]

Just wanted to post a message about my experience thus far with servermatrix.com and my saga in finding a dedicated server. We've just finished ordering the server and I could not possibly be happier with SM.

shared >> VPS >> dedicated
About 6 months ago we made the switch from shared hosting with site5, who was a great shared company btw, to an interim vps environment. Our company is growing quite quickly so after about 3 months we had already outgrown the vps hosting. That said, I started looking into dedicated servers and in the end chose to go with 1and1. On paper (or their site) their servers stats, prices, & 24 hour support looked very impressive. While I certainly would encourage you to read the experiences of others as well, for us the 1and1 experience was a complete disaster.

1and1
After ordering the server, it took them over a week to set up it up, promising 3 times during that period that it would be done the next day. True to their word, I was able to get someone on the phone to get an update on status (the longest wait time was about 15 minutes). While very friendly, these reps unfortunately knew very little about the server or what the status was. I wasn't able to talk to a tech who was worked on the servers and basically just had the same info repeated to me that was showing on their control panel (namely the server was being prepared).

What really got problematic was the old version of Apache. While I'm sure there are some admins here who wouldn't have a problem with fixing things up and patching to get everything working properly, for us it was a disaster. When we got the server, php was not working properly, plesk was working properly, and since that time it seems like we're continually fighting to get one bug after another fixed. I'm not the techy, but suffice is to say it was an environment that we could not work in.

Other Server Companies
Ok, that all said I started looking seriously at the various hosting plans about 2 weeks ago and also the managed servers as well. To start with, we looked at both serverint.com and also rackspace.com. Both seem to be quality companies and pretty much all of the reviews I read on them were postive. The main downside of either of these were costs, which were beyond our means.

Managed.com was another server company we considered. Their plans seem pretty decent, however there are a lot of negative experiences about them posted here on WHT. As customer support/service is very important to us, this eliminated them without looking closely at the plans.

Ezzi.com was also up there in terms of quality of reviews and decent looking prices/servers. After the horrendous experience however with 1and1, we weren't willing to consider a host that didn't offer REL3. That scratched ezzi from our short list.

In the end we narrowed the field down to ev1servers and servermatrix. On the whole I have to say the two companies are quite comparable from my reading and available options. That said, servermatrix does have an advantage in terms of price. Basically what I noticed is that for the same price you get an upgraded and slighly more powerful server with servermatrix.

The kicker and why we're with servermatrix now
At any rate, to make a long post a bit longer, what really pushed us over the top towards servermatrix was the excellent presales support. Kevin, our server admin was on vacation while I was doing the bulk of the comparison on the various companies and plans. When he got back, we discussed and he agreed with my choice to go with Servermatrix. However, when we went to order, the plan prices had changed from the evening before.

When I contacted SM support, they told me there had been a promotion on and that they were sorry but we'd missed it. I was a bit upset because I wasn't aware of the promotion and further, even had the previous prices in my browser cache when I went to order (I hadn't even closed the browser window from the order page the day before). I politely sent another email stating as such got another quick reply that they were very sorry but this really wasn't something they could do anything about.

About 1/2 an hour later, I got a telephone call from Ted who'd read my case and had talked with one of the managers at servermatrix. In the end, Ted manually put a special order through in my case because of the unique circumstances.

Now this is exactly what I call good customer service and further why servermatrix gets a very big A++. Here's a situation where they were willing to bend the rules slightly to accomodate an unexpected and unfair situation. Now I've been with a lot of hosts (in the shared environment) over the years and I will admit that this was a very pleasant surprise, especially for a large company. If things stay at this level, SM has a customer for life.

[ChaosHosting]

Very nice review, keep us posted on how things are going. Have you received your server yet?

-Greg

[MetaData]

But what sucks about SM is that I had an exactly the same scenario with the price change that day, except in my case they didn't care at all. You got lucky that you got a rep that actually cared.

[sirius]

Originally posted by MetaData
But what sucks about SM is that I had an exactly the same scenario with the price change that day, except in my case they didn't care at all. You got lucky that you got a rep that actually cared.

I think it all has to do with attitude and how you approach them. I've never had a problem with SM working with me on a deal.

Sirius

[MetaData]

Actually I'm very formal in all my correspondences (except forum posting). All they said was "too late, bad luck". I followed up a few times but that was that.

I've never had a problem with SM working with me on a deal.

It's probably because by now they know you.

[YungCEO]

Yeah...great review. I'm glad to see there are reviews out there will proper spelling and grammar.

[neutro]

Originally posted by MetaData
But what sucks about SM is that I had an exactly the same scenario with the price change that day, except in my case they didn't care at all. You got lucky that you got a rep that actually cared.

Same here.. now I only get a new box when SM have promo /discounts

[SniperDevil]

Originally posted by Chris_C
About 1/2 an hour later, I got a telephone call from Ted who'd read my case and had talked with one of the managers at servermatrix. In the end, Ted manually put a special order through in my case because of the unique circumstances.

Now this is exactly what I call good customer service and further why servermatrix gets a very big A++. Here's a situation where they were willing to bend the rules slightly to accomodate an unexpected and unfair situation. Now I've been with a lot of hosts (in the shared environment) over the years and I will admit that this was a very pleasant surprise, especially for a large company. If things stay at this level, SM has a customer for life.

Just thought I'd comment on this part of your review.

Overall, good review, but I'd have to contradict the SM customer service. Based on my several experiences, they are absolutely unwilling to budge or make any exceptions, or help me out in ANY way.

I don't want to say bad things about their servers, as I do not personally have any, I have just worked on many. I was seriously considering doing a reseller deal with them, but I dropped that after the unwilling and specifically indifferent sales / customer service team.

Maybe it's the luck of the draw, but I'd tend to agree with MetaData and neutro.

[ezbnc]

For us it is amazing they have done this countless times for us so we love them. Once it was a extra 40gb backup drive we missed by one day they fixxed it and got it for the normal price. Second it was we ordered a server about a week prior then a promotion came out. Offering better specs for a lower price they simply fixxed it and we paid the lower better price. From my stand point I have not had this level of service from such a big company in a long time.

[Chris_C]

Server is up already and we're good to go. I'm not sure specifically on times but it was paid for late this afternoon and was finished just now when I got back from supper.

In terms of those who had problems with SM, I didn't see it in my correspondence. From start to finish, even when I was being told that our problem was outside of their policy, everything was very courteous and questions were were addressed directly.

I hesitated to post the specifics here for the reason that I guessed there would probably have been some opposite experiences. I can of course only comment on my own experiences but I do also agree with sirius that your approach and expectations do make a difference. So there isn't too much of an outcry, I think our scenario was also rather unique in that the price change occured during the checkout process (albeit a long one).

That said, I realize that the phone call and personal attention may indeed be extraordinary but then that is exactly the reason for the post and why I'm so happy with SM. Well, 1/2 of the reason for the post. WHT was a fantastic resource for me in finding quality information on the dedicated plans, so it does feel good to add my own experiences to the collection. With luck someone else will find it useful.

Cheers,
Chris

[Imago]

SM have promos almost every week, just wait for the right promo to pop up.

[MetaData]

I'm waiting for their $300 setup options. Think those will be back?

[jmpsmash]

yeah. they will be back. i see their cycle for promotion is around 2-3 months for a similar deal. the best ones are the $0 setup fee ones. they make upgrading to a better spec'ed server rather painless. but beware that you will have to pay for a week or so in overlap since you will take time to transfer the data and for DNS refresh.

so far my experience from SM has also been very good.