Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Vaguhost Negative Review

[waveweb]

Hello,

This the first time i have a ridiculus situation like this.

I have order a server at Vaguhost - Got the reply: Your server will be setup within 24-72 hours

one week after since i didn't receive my server i started to complain, got serveral replies:

16 Jan - Not now. The server was already ordered
16 Jan - The server is already in the build queue for our techs.
18 Jan - We are very sorry for the delay. We completely understand the importance of your order
22 Jan - It should be up shortly. I'm expecting it today or tomorrow.. Sorry for the delays.
23 Jan - Sorry for the delay, please let me know if there are any issues that I can help you with.
24 Jan - Your server would be deployed today.
26 Jan - Your server will be deployed within the next 24-48

I decided to open a paypal complain and got this reply from Jeffrey Granger - Vaguhost:

"This is a Virtual Item and not a Physical Item. You can also view our Terms of Services at online at http://www.vaguhost.com/terms.php that clearly states we don't offer re funds on this type of Service."

I have contact then by email and got this reply:

"It is clearly stated in our terms of services at vaguhost.com/terms.php that we don't offer refunds. Therefore, a refund isn't an option. We will credit your account and make sure you receive a credit and move your billing date to the day your server is online. However, a refund isn't an option. "

what credit? i don't need any credit...i just want to cancel the server and get the refund.

This shows that Vaguhost is not an honest company.

[RobinWrit]

Well never you worry, I imagine Jeff will be contacting you shortly with a promise that your server will be up in 24 hours, if you remove this topic...

Really though, that's rough, no server and no refund.

[waveweb]

I am in contact with Jeff, but i don't want the server anymore, i want a refund. Meanwhile i have already order and received a new server from my current provider.

[Rob2132]

Since there's yet another thread here and the other one was closed, I'd like to direct this to CrissicSolutions, and make those valid points here, since it's relevant to this new thread. Anyway, I would like to apologize if I came off as little too bold in my previous posts, but it's frustrating to see someone literally just dismiss every valid point that had been made and try and make an effort to help you, and you just say you'll continue with them after all of the trouble you had complained about and asked for help with, all while saying you don't gave a damn or care what the hell anyone thinks. Just pretending it's all about people's opinions differing isn't going to make it a fact. This isn't about delivery times, this isn't about growth issues.

It's ridiculous to assume or claim it's even "probably" some "hiccup" because they are starting out. The issue people have, are the lies. Not only that, but the fact he's not qualified to run a business or pretend his business is a big outfit with a lot of staff, locations, data centers and so on. Right from the most basic element to the business strategy, to his overall gross incompetence, none of it can be explained from growing too fast. Growing too fast doesn't make you a liar, nor does it excuse it. The only person that will suffer here, are the clients. You are one of them. You should care. As someone stated, do you care about HIS business or YOUR business? Let's look at this logically, what of only a short list of the MANY things I'll omit below, can be explained because of growing too fast?


He claims the company was started in Apr. 2007 as an LLC, yet the domain wasn't registered until almost the start of Dec. 2007 and still no LLC. Why not say it was formed in Nov. 2007? Furthermore, regarding the LLC status, you can't claim you are one, until you are one. They could be denied if they don't qualify, if they did even apply. They've claimed to be an LLC since its inception. He won't say where they are applying for the LLC. Why not? You can actually be a legitimate LLC or INC in 7-10 days, and they've been claiming they are still waiting since AT LEAST Nov. 27th when they registered the domain and just started immediately posting about their "deals", or especially and more so, since they claim "VaguHost, LLC is a Texas based company that was founded in April 2007", which is even more far beyond a reasonable registration. Which is it? This isn't just one simple typo or mistake.

The site also claims "Our company headquarters are located in Dallas, TX with offices in Midland, TX, Minneapolis, MN and Toyko, Japan that allows us to serve our customers internationally." Yet he can't provide any information or proof of any of it. This is just preposterous, to be honest. There's no reason for such an outrageous lie. As soon as this was posted, Jeff pulled the page immediately and didn't respond to those legitimate concerns. The fact is, they have NO staff at all. They can't afford staff, and 'their' business is designed in such a way, they couldn't ever afford any staff anyway, let alone pay any of his own bills. If they ever could, it would be the worst, cheapest possible. Now, when I say "they" and "their", I mean "him" (Jeffery).

They claim "Our servers are placed on the VaguHost network that is 100% owned and operated by our company.", but they only resell dedicated servers for Burst.NET for a commission. They claim to have an LA data center and have claimed this since early Dec., 2007, but have never put one server up there. Additionally, they claim "All servers are owned by VaguHost and colocated in a private data center." They don't own the Burst servers they are reselling for a tiny commission.

He's rude, profane, doesn't have any concern or respect for this clients. He doesn't deliver on the time frames promised by him, and it takes 3 weeks for him to get things done that only take a few minutes, IF they even get done at all. On top of all of this, without any reason (not that there is), he's incredibly arrogant and either lives in denial, or actually believes things he just spouts off. The only thing he's ever said is "All clients are happy now". He goes on "vacation" for a week, after the first 30 days of the business, and acts like things are fine while he's gone, yet says "things are fine now that I'm back", and then goes on to say "things are fine, everyone problem has been fixed, and when I get back, things will be better". Better when he gets back? I thought he was back? Maybe he left again? That's real caring, especially since he's the only one there!

Still no website. They claim to offer a "web design service" through a sub company called Zeppio.com, and yet the only thing that looks good on their site and is actually complete, is the logo. Yet, the logo was designed by someone they found at WHT and not their own designer. That designer that created the logo had to make a big stink here at WHT just to get his $30 Jeff promised to pay him, which Jeff kept slacking on and making excuses about family issues, his grandmother being in the hospital, and repeated "It'll definitely get taken care of today, tomorrow and then the next and next day".

The company had to threaten legal action over $30 and make a big deal just to get paid. Ironically, Jake Culpin posted in that thread saying he just started with the company, and thought they seemed honest and will make sure the guy gets paid for the logo. Ironically, Jake has yet to be paid by Vaguhost for the work he did for them and he left. I know someone that gave them a chance to design his web site, and after a week of excuses, they slapped some hideous design together in a matter of minutes using the existing examples this guy gave them to work off of, and they didn't see the problem.

He claims he has 35 staff, yet the only one single staff member left and wasn't paid. He handles ALL of the IM support and support tickets himself, no one's ever seen or heard of anyone else. Jeff's partner (Brandon) hasn't been heard from for a long time, no response when people ask where he's been, and according to "Brandon's" signature here at WHT, he should be the guy that's dealing with the problems and PR related issues.

Jeff claims to have 8 years of experience, but won't provide details about what that entails. He's always bugging people on AIM about very simple questions that even someone very new to this field should know. He's only 21, and he claims to have 8 years of experience, so apparently he's been a "professional" in this industry since he was 13 years old?

The only thing that Jeff has done, is finally manage to have some people's servers provisioned, which is a task Burst does, NOT him (he did nothing but promise time frames without consulting with Burst). He clearly doesn't care for offering quality, seeing he uses Burst, and he was warned many times, only to have power and network issues.

They aren't able to sustain themselves with the prices. Their dedicated reseller plans only offer a very small cmomission, and their proposed shared and reseller plans are outlandishly ridiculous and also offer no potential for any (or much) profit. This all affects you, because they can't be around running like this, even if they had the financial backing. They are in utter ruin. They are only able to sustain a precense at this time, because it doesn't take any overhead at all to be able to resell a server for a small commission. You could do it yourself, if you wanted. You lose nothing, but you also get in hot water when you're not qualified to offer any real support to clients. That's the newest issue out of many, so he lies and claims to have offices throughout the world and dozens of staff.

Now, I could go on, there are many relevant and valid points. But, to just ignore all of this and get hostile with people pointing these things out, because it doesn't appear you want anyone's help, can be frustrating. So, I don't even care anymore, we all tried to offer help and advice, but the only thing you care about is getting the absolute cheapest priced server, and you aren't considering anything else.

This goes beyond "you get what you pay for", this is you paying to be taken for a ride and you seem fine with it. So, I'm not sure what else to say, if nothing but the price plays a role. Although, I admit, why worry only about the price if you don't get what you pay for? There are plenty of fly by night providers that will gladly charge a lot less for something they'll never actually deliver. Really, so this is why people are saying not to bother posting about the next problem, if you want to willingly jump back in the fire pit. Is that more clear?

[CGotzmann]

well, i guess it does come down to burstnet taking that long, i dont see what else vaguhost can do about it since they have to wait on burst

[Rob2132]

Originally Posted by msm25

Hello,



"This is a Virtual Item and not a Physical Item. You can also view our Terms of Services at online at http://www.vaguhost.com/terms.php that clearly states we don't offer re funds on this type of Service."

I have contact then by email and got this reply:

"It is clearly stated in our terms of services at vaguhost.com/terms.php that we don't offer refunds. Therefore, a refund isn't an option. We will credit your account and make sure you receive a credit and move your billing date to the day your server is online. However, a refund isn't an option. "

what credit? i don't need any credit...i just want to cancel the server and get the refund.

This shows that Vaguhost is not an honest company.

If they didn't deliver the server, they can not legally keep your money. You didn't get the service or product. Their TOS is just some condition they made up, it's not legally binding. Paypal does not refund for "services", but hopefully you used a credit card. Your credit card company will protect you no matter what in such cases as this. I am not going even again question why Vaguhost refuses to refund people for items or services they've never received.

I think it's because they need every little last bit of picket change they can hold onto (not a good sign and what other reason could they possiblyt NOT agree to refund you?). If it's a matter of them getting paid their server reseller commission fee already, then Burst can credit them or something, since YOU are not obligated to wait an unreasonable amount of time for delivery of the service or product. In fact, you might try contacting paypal and explaining that the payment was for a physical server, not a "service" and they may allow you to open the dispute. Anyway, good luck.

[Rob2132]

Originally Posted by AFerrier

well, i guess it does come down to burstnet taking that long, i dont see what else vaguhost can do about it since they have to wait on burst

Instead of just continually and belligerently busting into a thread to constantly defend Vaguhost, it would be appreciated if you'd at least consider the whole situation the client is facing. No one is blaming Vaguhost for Burst's lack of ability to deliver in a timely manner. In fact, no one has really even complained that Vaguhost promised something that they have to rely on a whole other entity to actually deliver, when they knew good and well there would be significant delays in server provisioning.

The issue here, is the client doesn't wish to continue to wait and they've waited a reasonable amount of time. Thus, since the server isn't currently provisioned, Vaguhost should promptly comply and simply refund their money. They have no legitimate or legal reason to keep it, since they know they didn't deliver in the promised time frame. Not that your above post was being overly supportive of Vaguhost, but your other posts in the other threads see,m to show a pattern. I fully see it as a VaguHost issue if they can't simply apologize for the hassles and delays and just happily and quickly refund the money the client paid. What's the problem with that? I know I'm not the only one tired of seeing Vaguhost continually pull this nonsense.

[Rob2132]

Originally Posted by JohnJ

Here are the statistics on VaguHost threads at WHT in the past week:

2 Threads have 10+ pages and 3,000+ visits
2 Threads have -10 pages and a few hundred visits

I seriously doubt VaguHost is going to climb out of this huge hole it has dug.

I agree, and many people are aware of this, but Jeff surely won't ever accept or admit it. In the end, this will end very badly for their clients. Anyway, I've said all I can. Hopefully people will heed the advice given and things will turn out well for them. I'm done with this Vaguhost nonsense. Besides, I've made far too many typos already. I just wanted to say a few things since the new negative thread about them started. I wish you all luck.

[waveweb]

Originally Posted by AFerrier

well, i guess it does come down to burstnet taking that long, i dont see what else vaguhost can do about it since they have to wait on burst

of course they can, if they can't deliver the server in 24-48h they just have to tell the customers, we will deliver the server in the next 6 months- 1 year.. are you willing to wait? and then it is the customer decision to make the payment or not.

in my situation they fail to deliver the server in 24-48h as promissed so they should immediatly issue a refund or ask me if i want to wait more time and give me an honest time frame..

AFerrier, don't you think this is the right approach?

[Brett M]

I had a client recently order directly from another burst reseller had his server setup within 48 hours, I don't understand why they continuously have these delays. I'm subscribing to this.

[Rob2132]

* Disclaimer: I said in another Vaguhost thread that they used outsourced support at their toll free number with a certain company, and I meant that to disprove their claim about their own in house staff handles phones (or that Jeff would), depending upon the number you were calling. I wanted to be clear, since the other thread is closed and it's too late to edit, that this is in no way an indication that the outsourced support company that offers phone support is somehow involved or at fault in any of this, or that their services are somehow lacking quality or honesty. So, for the sake of disclosure, I wanted to post this disclaimer to clarify that issue, so no one thinks I was dragging them into the Vaguhost issue. That's it, that's all I wanted to say before I stopped bothering with this Vaguhost nonsense altogether. Again, good luck.

PS: I have since learned that this company no longer provides them with that service, contrary to what Jeffery told a business partner of mine a few weeks ago.

[Brett M]

I have to agree. It doesn't make sense that you can't get a refund, because the server hasn't been delievered. They can't therefor claim that you are ineligable for a refund, as you have not recieved what you paid for.

[panaretos]

if he has the invoice that he paid this is illegal in europian union i dont know in us

[JohnJ]

VaguHst (7:07:09 PM): Just got back.
VaguHst (7:07:25 PM): Refunded... It was probably the wrong machine ordered.. It happens.
jointopz@gmail.com (7:07:41 PM): yep thanks for the refund another lie bites the dust

What is this? Didn't this customer get a refund?

[waveweb]

Originally Posted by JohnJ

What is this? Didn't this customer get a refund?

according to his post, he got the wrong server and got the refund.