Bad Hosting Company - My FastServers.net Experience
Right, I’ve thought for ages about whether to post this or not. I’m not one to complain or slate people, companies or stuff unless I’m really pissed off. I’m really pissed off.
After my SEO Tools update, I mentioned that my biggest hurdle was the fact that the network of sites the SEO Tools use, was taking up way too much in the way of server resources and I really needed to move to a new dedicated server.
After doing this post, I was contacted by a guy called Aaron from FastServers, apparently a manager there. He made me a no-brainer offer, saying he would be willing to donate a pretty ace spec dedicated server to host some of the SEO tool network. He didn’t even want anything in exchange, but maybe an advert for FastServers would be nice.
I, of course, agreed immediately and said it wouldn’t be a problem having a “sponsored by FastServers” link/graphic on the site for the backlink juice and because it’s a great place to advertise and most people that read this blog and use SEO Tools would be webmasters. Also, I’d chuck in a free subscription for him. He said he would sort it at the end of the week.
So, I chatted to him some more and waited a week. It hadn’t been done, but fair enough, he’s probably a busy guy. I contacted him over MSN and he explained it would be done next week for sure, no problems. So again, during the following week - I was careful not to bug him, just asking him every couple of days if he had an update. Again, nothing got done.
Three weeks on, I was getting a bit concerned. So I again, contacted him via MSN and explained to him, if it was a problem or he had a change of mind, that’s okay. They don’t owe me anything, just let me know what the score is so I can move ahead accordingly. I stopped getting any response whatsoever. I tried contacting Aaron multiple times over the next week, he was definitely online, just ignoring me. So, I gave up.
At the end of the week, I gave it one last ditch attempt and asked why he was ignoring me. I got the response of “Really sorry, have totally been ignoring you, I’m in New York at the moment. I’ll definitely sort everything when I get back”. Fair enough I thought, everyone’s busy and he still wants to go ahead.
I gave him a few days to get sorted and return from NY, then try and contact him again. No response at all. Which was needless to say, frustrating. He was online, just ignoring me. As a last ditch attempt, I went to the FastServers.net website and logged onto their live chat. I spoke to a helpful assistant who added me to MSN and I explained the situation to them. They assured me Aaron was “a stand up businessman” and they would contact him for me. I would definitely hear back from him soon. So, they left him a note on his desk. Twice.
Now, I know I don’t owe him anything, but why make a promise with your company, not deliver then just ignore me? That’s just damn bad practice and makes me write posts like this. I’m really pissed off with FastServers.net and I’m damn pleased I’m not paying them any money.
If anyone has any recommendations for good web hosting (dedicated servers) then I’d be glad to hear from you (leave a comment). Or if you’re from a web hosting company and you can provide a dedicated server and you’d like to strike and advertising deal, I’d love to hear from you also.
Until then, I won’t talk about FastServers without giving them a link.
There you go, Aaron.
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Comment by Digerati Marketing » SEO Tools Update - StumbleXchange Automator
December 12th, 2007 @ 3:25 pm
IMHO, you did the right decision to post this. Had you not done so, you would have kept this inside you and that would lead to more anger, frustration and pissed-offiness. It is excellent to vent oneself from time to time, especially in situations like these. If that sad fellow had made an offer, why didn’t he stick to it? Or why didn’t he have the courge to just say “I am sorry, I made a wrong decision, I had a change of heart”. Why is it so damn difficult for people to admit a simple error in judgement? Or simply to be polite once in a while? I had way too much experiences with that sort of people on a popular website of mine. That’s why making a lot of dingy sites is just fine. Decent people will make the effort to find their way to a decent website with quality content (a “battleship”). And oh, by the way, Aaron chases garbage trucks. In New York.
Comment by extreme webmaster
December 12th, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
Thanks. I just felt maybe my fault for expecting a free lunch? I’m a sucker for a good offer! If he’d contacted me at all, even to say no - I wouldn’t have posted this. I just feel like an idiot for trusting him now.
Comment by Mark
December 12th, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
Don’t feel like an idiot. It just means that you assume people are good, which is a quality I admire. I am a sucker for a good offer too, because I tend to think that niceness and honesty are usually behind these types of offers. I tend to trust people and just look for the good qualities in them, even if I meet them for the first time. Of course, it is reasonable to be more cautious, especially when doing business, but I’ll never allow myself to become a bastard that has everything planned out in a conversation, the kind of person who looks just for interest, profit and how to exploit other people. Screw that.
Comment by extreme webmaster
December 12th, 2007 @ 4:33 pm
Check out softlayer.com. The uptime and service have been great so far. The deals they have are pretty good also.
Comment by Will
December 12th, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
I fully agree with you — you ARE the idiot… Just kidding!
I guess I’d put what happened to you in the category of favors from blood relatives, etc. The minute you don’t pay someone, they have no absolute initiative to follow through. I’m somebody who is personally kind of leery of free offers, because in this good ol’ world — you get what you pay for. And if the price is free…
Comment by Mike Merten
December 12th, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
BTW Avahost has always been reliable for me for years. OnSmart are wankers in a BIG way.
Comment by Mike Merten
December 12th, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
I use ThePlanet, they’ve been a bit shakey lately. I’ve only heard good things about SoftLayer, but when in their chat with them I was asking a few questions.
The Planet has “Escalation Procedures” if your server goes down. I asked what SoftLayer would do if my server went down. I got an attitude of a reply about how it’s not a managed host and if that was what I was looking for to go elsewhere.
IMO you’ll get good and bad about every host, so always have a backup plan in case they get cranky. In that backup plan make sure you have actual backup files in your possession and not on their services in case they disconnect you (I’ve heard horror stories of that too)
Comment by Tim
December 12th, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
Not generally a popular choice but fdcservers.net’s network is insanely good these days and you don’t have any issues with anything bandwidth related and no recurring monthly fee’s for server upgrades… email me if you want to know anything specific
Comment by Trophaeum
December 12th, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
Email has been sent multiple times to ‘mark@norwichdarkside.co.uk’ with the following result. And this is the one you provided me.
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
garodedeyan@yahoo.com
(ultimately generated from mark@norwichdarkside.co.uk)
SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection:
host f.mx.mail.yahoo.com [68.142.202.247]: 421 Message from (64.237.45.51) temporarily deferred - 4.16.50. Please refer to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/defer/defer-06.html:
retry timeout exceeded
Being able to contact you is one of my minimum requirements for providing service. Granted I did block you via IM because you were stalking me, I made multiple attempts to discuss this via email which was the logical choice of communication from me.
Your evaluation is wrong and the lack of communication is a two way street.
I can see when you don’t get your way your assumptions are completely centered toward threats and look at what I can do type of scenarios.
Comment by Aaron
December 16th, 2007 @ 11:59 pm
Hopefully you have enough integrity to post my last comment, but I would expect you delete it.
Comment by Aaron
December 17th, 2007 @ 12:01 am
@ Aaron,
At any point over the last month, you could have contacted me to say the e-mails were bouncing. As it happens, that is an MSN address, not a valid e-mail address - I assumed being involved with servers, you would know that when you get an automatic reply from a mail server, saying a message has not been delivered - that it has not been delivered. Why was this never mentioned? How am I meant to know you’re sending e-mails that I’m not receiving (apparently)?
I would also have hoped you would have had the sense to maybe contact me via mark@digeratimarketing.co.uk which is all over this blog - which you first found me through, or you could have just left me a comment here? Or, even at a stretch, just not ignored me on MSN?
Lets be honest here, Aaron. If you really wanted to contact me, it wasn’t very difficult and didn’t require much thought. I think it’s pretty low that you’re now scrabbling around for excuses instead of just putting your hands up.
As for “stalking” you on IM, you were the one who added me, I purposely left at least a day between communications (after waiting over 2 weeks, I might add) and you never once mentioned you had sent me an e-mail.
Although I do find it amusing that a company can be stalked by customers!
I never made any threats to you, this is complete BS I’m afraid. My last point of pressure was I was polite enough to inform you that I was thinking about writing this article, so you could discuss it with me and try and resolve these problems before it came to this! But, alas. You failed to contact me again.
As for not having enough integrity to post the last comment, that’s laughable -it was me who invited you to comment on this post, Aaron! - so you could have your say. After the shambles Fastservers has put me through, the last thing you should be doing is playing the integrity card.
Comment by Mark
December 17th, 2007 @ 4:42 am
He (Aaron) must work for OnSmart. They’re all fxxxed-up too!!
Comment by Mike
December 17th, 2007 @ 1:38 pm