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  1. #1

    Exclamation My review of HostNexus - debilitating to my business

    Hi,

    This message echoes a response to a users recent inquiry regarding HostNexus and I am compelled to provide my company's review on their service to provide a summary of my experience with this company.

    I own a computer wholesale business with a warehouse in South Florida, so this isn't some home based operation. I have a full time staff working for my company and e-mail is a very critical aspect of our business. All day, every day we are keeping in touch by e-mail if in the office by Outlook 2007, if out to lunch during the day or even in the evenings and weekends through our BlackBerry and iPhone devices.

    To their credit I must say that a majority of the time there have been no problems and service has been smooth. However, every couple of weeks (perhaps once a month or so) for a brief period (one hour usually) we have had delays in sending/receiving e-mail, or where some of our suppliers and customers have actually called us and told us "I just received an e-mail undeliverable, did you change your e-mail address?". Big problem.

    Now as of Friday morning at about 6:00AM, I got to the office early, and noticed a number of e-mails accumulating in our Outlook outboxes (messages were simply not being sent). I immediately got on Live Chat and in a nutshell, nobody knows what the issue was. About 2:30PM that day e-mail returned to operating normal again - a little over 8 hours later. So for 8 hours+ we had difficulties in sending/receiving bill of lading documents for shipments, customer/supplier lists, and our business has been brought to its heels as a result of their inability to resolve this issue timely.

    The problem resumed yesterday morning which I noticed, and from chatting with their rep "Bobin" by Live Chat he indicated once again they do not see any issues with the server (there obviously are issues, if we are having such problems) and that they are upgrading the Plesk control panel today and that would resolve it. How they are sure this would resolve it, if they can't even acknowledge the problem is a bit odd, so I do believe this was said to get me to stop getting on Live Chat as I had gotten on several times over that past day and took up a bit of their time since the issue couldn't be resolved.

    Now today, mail has been down 9+ hours and counting, I see on their community other users have noted their sites and reseller accounts not working and I can certainly relate to their frustrations. My business is stopped, and I am so afraid of how much this is costing us right now.

    Even if you are a home-based business and have any need for reliability as a result of these past few days and their inability to acknowledge any issue with my company's past e-mail issues I highly recommend that you proceed with a different host.

    I'm disgusted right now and wish we did not have to experience this. I need my e-mail back. Not pleased at all and am working to get e-mail up and running with a different host - and highly suggest you steer clear of these guys.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Vancouver
    Posts
    973
    Sorry for your troubles. Which hosting plan were you using?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    Quote Originally Posted by ssystems View Post

    To their credit I must say that a majority of the time there have been no problems and service has been smooth. However, every couple of weeks (perhaps once a month or so) for a brief period (one hour usually) we have had delays in sending/receiving e-mail, or where some of our suppliers and customers have actually called us and told us "I just received an e-mail undeliverable, did you change your e-mail address?". Big problem.
    Quoting the important bits?

    We have lots of angry clients from our PION server which had issues during the scheduled Plesk upgrade today and I was called away and not able to give regular updates.

    Ironically this upgrade is to fix many of the issues that some people have been complaining about.

    Also we had just 4 tickets in teh helpdesk concerning this upgrade when I came back and none of the people posting here put in a ticket to get an update from what I could see.

    We definitely don't moderate bad feedback on our forum and our tech support is pretty good. I know people are frustrated over an extended downtime period but it was scheduled. We just need a little more patience and everything will be up very soon.

    We do have over 100 servers and over 3,000 clients. I hope people understand you can't judge a host and it's service from one incident reported by 2 angry and frustrated members.

    Even this thread gives us a flawless review except for an email issue once a month for an hour. High loads cause intermittent IMAP issues and backups cause high loads sometime. Such things are unavoidable and having a good backup is worth a one hour IMAP outage on a shared server. Most windows hosts don't even provide IMAP.

    Anyhow, my apologies for your troubles.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  4. #4
    At present it is just a standard Windows plan they offer which we have prepaid for a year. I've even mentioned to the tech guys the "money is no issue with this" with e-mail being so critical to my business that we may want to move to a dedicated plan, but they've not suggested I need to do this (so much for them trying to upsell and make their company more money!).

    The money really is no issue, the small amount I paid I could care less about losing my remaining months paid in advance, I just need the service up. If I had to pay $100 a month, even $200 a month, I wouldn't care. E-mail just needs to be up, functional, and speedy, that's all I need. They've never told me we e-mail so much we need to upgrade plans, and if they said that was an issue a while back I would have upgraded in a heartbeat.

    At this particular juncture, I have just e-mail LFLYNN (according to their page, HostNexus CEO) regarding this issue and will advise when (or if) I receive a reply.

    My very distinct impression from the lack of timely handling of my tech support issues on this matter is that they are incapable of servicing business users and instead service only people who need hosting for their hobbies. At this point it will be quite difficult to convince me otherwise, as the proof is in the pudding.

    As mentioned will advise of any reply and once this issue is handled.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    271
    If e-mail is very important to the running of your business it is probably to get a seperate e-mail service to your shared/reseller hosting plan.

    You could even use Gmail as your e-mail provider, it has some great uptime, free upto 50 users, reliable.
    ClanDrive Hosting | The No Fuss Webhost
    Shared & Reseller * Seattle - West Coast * LiteSpeed * cPanel * Fantastico * R1Soft * &More *
    Dedicated * Seattle - West Coast * 1-Minute Monitoring *
    VPS * NY - East Coast * OpenVZ *

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    I have your email and I am responding now.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  7. #7
    NexDog:

    I have only recently noticed my e-mail was down, and you will find a support ticket for my domain. I did just recently discover the length of time this issue has lasted for, so am not unsatisfied with the lack of response to my support ticket on this specific matter (I probably sent that less than an hour ago), but the big issue is none of your guys have been able to fix the issue I had back on Friday which has been persisting through present. So, to say you don't have a ticket at all from me is inaccurate, you just haven't had time to reply to this one, though I do consider all my previous tickets on this matter over the past few months as unresolved, as the issue has always continued to resurface. After a number of follow-ups you guys have sent in response to my tickets when these e-mail difficulties have occurred I've asked for a confirmation of if any of your support techs can acknowledge the issue, and the response received every time has been "All servers appear to be functioning correctly". So, this goes to my point which is that your support techs have not addressed my issue, as you can't address something if you won't even acknowledge it.

    You mentioned this is a similar problem to what others have reported, but I've very specifically asked them if any other users have reported these e-mail troubles back on Friday through present and the answer received is a "no".

    And yes - to be fair, for a majority of the time your service has been good, but now we really need you guys up and running and it's been down extensively. I am waiting to see if your Plesk upgrade fixes these issues, but there is no excuse for your tech guys being unable to even acknowledge the issue I've been reporting to them multiple times a day since Friday.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    It's hard for me to read every ticket although I try and read as many as I can. I'm currently going through your tickets as I'm not aware of this persistent issue since Friday.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  9. #9
    Aside from just reviewing the ticket, I suggest you review the support chat log. That's where I spent a significant amount of time on Live Chat with your tech support reps Bobin and Ginto about this issue and neither could confirm this was a server issue, and instead there were repeat suggestions it's client software related.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    First thing techs do is test the email and if they find they can send and receive email just fine then other conclusions are drawn. I did actually respond to a recent ticket of yours where you asked "What was the cause" to which I replied "temporay load issue".

    Anyhow, we are in email communication. You've said money is no object so I'm hoping we can get you on a dedicated server which it seems you need if 30 mins outage on remote email connections once or twice a month is "debilitating to my business".

    Also note that if Outlook or your Blackberry can't connect during these sporadic timeouts you could send mail via webmail and check mail there too. Yes, not perfect but that option is always there.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  11. #11
    NexDog,

    This is NOT a temporary load issue! It was ALL DAY FRIDAY! It went on almost ALL DAY SATURDAY!

    I've not indicated or meant to say anything of the sort that 30 minutes per month is debilitating to my business, but the subject of this being debilitating is that I've not had properly functional e-mail since Friday morning! Three days of not knowing if people are getting my e-mails is killer.

    And no, it's wrong that I can use Webmail. Bobin told me to try that, and I tried it on Saturday and hit "Send", it tried processing my request and the server went down. I tried it again, and the server just got stuck so I gave up.

    So, webmail, BB, iPhone, and Outlook all have had the same issue for me. Client issue? I think not.

  12. #12
    We can look at the need for me to getting on a dedicated server when you guys demonstrate you've found the problem with why our e-mail has been having these LASTING (not "intermittent") issues since Friday AM. At this point I still have no acknowledgment that there is an issue with the server which is causing these issues which took place over eight hours on Friday, and for as long as I tried sending e-mails back on Saturday.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    Yes, as indicated in our email exchanges I was certainly not aware of a persistent issue since Friday. I guess your MailEnable mailboxes on the domain got corrupted somehow because no-one else reported these issues (and seeing that webmail also was no good). I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this particular issue. However I don't believe this persistent issue on Friday/Saturday and your other sporadic email connect issue are connected.

    There is no acknowledgement of a server issue because there was no server wide issue. It is possible it was just affecting your domain (as I mentioned above).
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  14. #14
    I agree that for email hosting gmail apps (free up to 50?) would most likely be the ideal option for you. A small learning curve to use their interface but they do have some great options for free. Single domain of course.

  15. #15
    In my line of work it will look too unprofessional working with a gmail account, I need the email @ my domain.

    NexDog: I understand you guys have your hands full with the Plesk upgrade which has had difficulty, but when that is resolved I hope the e-mail issues I have reported are able to be taken care of quickly (whether they're corrupt as mentioned, or what-not) as this is so critical to us.

    Thanks

  16. #16
    Actually you can host your domain with gmail for free. Up to 50 users. I can't comment on how easy etc it is to use but I can say my standard gmail account works most of the time flawlessly.

  17. #17
    Just waiting to see what NexDog is able to come up with as far as my persistent e-mail issues, once our server comes back up.

    Thanks

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    60
    It's pretty easy to set up Google mail with your domain. If you're interested in going that route, here's where you can get more information http://www.google.com/a/

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Earth
    Posts
    8,154
    Quote Originally Posted by ssystems View Post
    In my line of work it will look too unprofessional working with a gmail account, I need the email @ my domain.

    NexDog: I understand you guys have your hands full with the Plesk upgrade which has had difficulty, but when that is resolved I hope the e-mail issues I have reported are able to be taken care of quickly (whether they're corrupt as mentioned, or what-not) as this is so critical to us.

    Thanks
    You can setup your domain with Google Apps to use their email services for free for a certain number of users.

    http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

    That will allow you to create user @ your domain email accounts, and avoid the hassle of dealing with shared server email down times which do happen unfortunately. Even Gmail deals with downtime.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    1,635
    I don't understand why you guys are still talking. After half a dozen failed attempts to solve a problem like this, I would leave (as long as there's decent competition).

    From a customer point of view, it seems to me that the problem is important enough and the efforts to fix it have gone on long enough that confidence has been irretrievably lost. (Maybe there is correspondence not visible in this thread though.)

    From a host point of view, it would seem that any profit you could make from this customer has long gone and it would be better to concentrate on avoiding this happening again in future.

    Am I missing something?
    Phil McKerracher
    I do server maintenance and troubleshooting

  21. #21
    FYI, 6:56AM labor day I'm at the office working on getting our nameservers switched and Google apps utilized. Apparently as other users have indicated on other threads HostNexus has had some serious issues in getting the Plesk software updated.

    I'm high and dry at this point. Now I suppose I'm going to have e-mail down another 2 or so days while nameservers propagate.

    I just can't keep sitting here doing nothing.

  22. #22
    Update: Phil, I want to address your post. Yes - much correspondence has taken place between Laurence (owner of HostNexus) and myself off these boards in private e-mails. He has assured me that he is looking into the e-mail issue and acknowledged "sub-par customer support" regarding what occurred on Friday/Saturday when I was having my initial issues with them. I will not post his exact words as don't see that being appropriate at this point.

    Now, I assume they've gone to sleep, or even if they haven't, it's still not working so I just don't care.

    This is the PRIMARY reason I've even hung in as long as I have, is they promise to be working on it. The SECONDARY reason is I do not want to wait 24-72 hours for nameservers to have to propagate over to a new host. At this point, what's my choice! This being down so long I might as well switch nameservers so am in the process of doing this right now.

    I appreciate he says he's looking into it, but what I don't appreciate is how long this has gone unresolved. There is no valid excuse for the amount of time I spent on live chat with their reps on Fri/Sat who both didn't have an ounce of a clue on the issue I was having with e-mail and apparently the Plesk upgrade has not gone well at all (my domain is still down, at least), and the latest update I saw on their forum was no update at all.

    They've messed up.
    Last edited by ssystems; 09-07-2009 at 07:15 AM.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    We just have to wait for the restore process to finish. It is agonisingly slow but if we cancel we will have to start again so we have to roll with it. We are on it, we are updating clients as best we can but there isn't a lot to say except "hang in there".

    Glen, changing nameservers these days is pretty fast. I know Enom updates every 4 hours. Godaddy is a bit slower but the days of 48 hour propagations are long gone. You might be able to get up and running on Gmail pretty quickly.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  24. #24
    Yes, in the meanwhile I am having nameservers switched over to Gmail.

    Thanks

  25. #25
    @ssystems

    Great to hear you'll be online shortly. For me, I've decided to give Softsys hosting a try for my windows web hosting component. I've heard great things about them here and I believe they use dotnetpanel over plesk. For email hosting I'm sticking with HostGator. Flawless for me and my clients to date.

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