Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Reseller Hosting : Problems with Bliksemhosting

[v12kid]

I have been with them over 1 year and things have always been smooth until last week.

They had catastrophic failure on one of their boxes and of course my stuff was on there. They had a total loss and quickly moved us onto a 2nd box while they tried to fix the issue.

After 2 days of waiting for dns to resolve to the new ip I was told they backed it all up and I should be good to go on the new box. Well that wasnt the case, they didnt do anything at all really. They backed up 2 sites out of 7 I had with no sql db.

I inquired and they said they would look into it. After 2 days of email swaps they finally said that they dont have any more backups and I am am responsible for my own. Now this is where I have a problem.

Yes, I should do my own backups and I do periodocally BUT their service includes "Weekly Backups" as part their TOS. Now to me that means they have a complete backup of whatever is running on the drives and in case of a failure they can restore this info from 7 days ago. Since they didnt live up to their end of the bargain and have left me with 2 month old backups that I did I am now forced to find another host that actually does what they advertise.

I know the argument will be made that I should do backups BUT look at it from my perspective. I could not complain about them at all until last week but this failure is too much for me to take and brush off

just thought I share my exp andthoughts with others

[CyberHostPro]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Why they dont do daily backups i dont know, but to say they do weekly backups when infact the last backup was 2 months ago, is not good at all!

[FlightLizard]

I was on the same server after just setting up a reseller account - I had a backup but had to change dns servers, since the backups were put on another server. Then email and ftp did not work - found out the restore went wrong and there were major permission issues took - hours to get it straightened out.


In all no major downtime for browsing the sites but other functionality wasnt fully restored for 2 days

[VER-Mo]

The hard truth is that even the best (and more expensive) hosts out there are going to throw that line at you when something goes wrong with their backups, they are going to remind you that even though backups are a complimentary service you are in fact supposed to do your own backups....and they are correct.

[one19]

I completely agree that indeed we (the customers) are responsible for our own backups.

But events like these are the ultimate tests for web hosting companies. The one who would have given me yesterday's backup would be my hero! The one who gives me last week's back-up, I would say thank you.

And the one who said, "sorry, we have no backups. As we tell you over and over again in our TOS, AUP, etc., YOU are responsible for your own backups", well...

I was on that same server and have my own backups (and because my sites are not active nor huge, it's easier).

To be fair to Bliksem, they were very proactive and did their best given the situation. But it is now a small chink on their generally stellar reputation.

[thespeakerbox]

I too was on the failed server. To make things worse the email they sent me had wrong hyperlinks leading to OTHER PEOPLES webpages. This made me very upset. In a critical time, they send out crappy emails ? To make it worse, when i told them about it, they got all snotty about it. Their help & support has been going downhill as of lately. I'm thinking of moving to a different company.

[WireNine]

Most web hosts will have the following clause in their TOS

You agree to take full responsibility for files and data transferred and to maintain all appropriate backup of files and data stored on our servers.

I agree that if the web host says they do full weekly backups and will restore it in case of a server failure, they should do exactly that. But some times backups aren't faithful or not done properly.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Best of luck with your new web host.

[DaKine]

Being that I am imtimately involved with the storage and backup side of the computer industry I just want to make one comment. Less than 50% of all companies that perform backups never test their backup and restore strategy to see if it works. Think about everyone who has ever done a backup but has never tested their backup and restore procedures to see if it in fact works. How does one even know if their backups are good unless they regularly test them? Tape is still the most commonly used backup method. Tapes go bad and unless they are tested regularly, you will never know. I am not saying this is what happened at Bliksem. It is possible that they did their weekly backups per their TOS and did not regularly test them. Don't get me wrong, I am not defending them. Just pointing out a general problem in the industry as a whole.

[IHSL]

Originally Posted by BrilliantHosts

Being that I am imtimately involved with the storage and backup side of the computer industry I just want to make one comment. Less than 50% of all companies that perform backups never test their backup and restore strategy to see if it works.

That is fascinating to me. Where does this stat come from? I have never heard of such a stat but, if true, it is truly shocking.

Could you point me to a whitepaper or factsheet on this subject that I could further investigate? It boggles the mind to think that stat is even close.

Simon

[ldcdc]

To be fair to Bliksem, they were very proactive and did their best given the situation. But it is now a small chink on their generally stellar reputation.

It does appear that Bliksem tried to do its best once the situation presented itself as it did. We can hope they did learn thing or two out of all this. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

[DaKine]

That is fascinating to me. Where does this stat come from? I have never heard of such a stat but, if true, it is truly shocking.

Could you point me to a whitepaper or factsheet on this subject that I could further investigate? It boggles the mind to think that stat is even close.

Sorry,

I pulled the wrong stat. It was 34% not 50%. I do apologize for the incorrect quote. The problem with pointing you to the original document is that this statistic came from a document published by the Gartner Group. But you need a login in order to get the document from their website. If you have a login for them you can view the whole report. It is pretty interesting. I did find a website that quotes the document from Gartner:

http://www.corevault.net/pages/company/pr_launch.htm

Here is the stat I pulled:

“34% of companies fail to test their backups and of those that do, 77% have found tape back up failures.”

[CEL-Arun]

The cpanel weekly backup is far from stable - I'm sorry about that.

[one19]

Originally Posted by thespeakerbox

...To make it worse, when i told them about it, they got all snotty about it....

Well, that's also my major complaint about Bliksem. They do have a tendency of "scolding" their customers. I always feel like with Bliksem, the roles are reversed. It is the customers who always have to defend themselves and prove something to Bliksem, rather than the other way around.

Originally Posted by thespeakerbox

...Their help & support has been going downhill as of lately...

On the other hand, I still think their support is superb and response time generally ok.

However, I wouldn't recommend Bliksem to newbies, as the owner himself states "Bliksem is not for everyone". They are very strict with their TOS / AUP and sometimes are too quick to suspend accounts without having to hear the other side. Of course, they do such things for the benefit of everyone else on the affected servers and/or services.

I do hope that the hard disk crash on JOIE teaches the Bliksem staff a lesson in humility. I still think they are great but they could really learn a lesson or two about being more understanding and kinder to their customers. Yes, we customers can be a pain in the behind, but customers we still are.

[Indichosts.net]

Originally Posted by one19

.... they could really learn a lesson or two about being more understanding and kinder to their customers. Yes, we customers can be a pain in the behind, but customers we still are....

Well said!

Many a management consultant have said

"Customer is king"

"Customer is always right"

"Delight the customer"

But then, most of these were from the US or Japan and not Dutch. So maybe Bliksem follows some other line of thinking.

[one19]

Originally Posted by Indichosts.net

But then, most of these were from the US or Japan and not Dutch. So maybe Bliksem follows some other line of thinking.

Well, except for the name, Blisksem's not a Dutch company at all nor do they have anyone who's Dutch from the managment and/or staff. At least that's what I've been told.

And besides, the customer being king is a universal maxim.