Critical.net hosting issues
 

I've been a customer of Critical.net hosting since May 23rd. Unfortunately, I must caution everyone against using this company.

I signed up for a dedicated managed server on May 23rd and informed them at that time that my data migration MUST be completed no later than May 29th.

Since then, I've been promised daily that it would be complete that day

On saturday, May 28th I was contacted by my tech/salesperson and told there was an ssh issue on my current server that was preventing him from accessing my box. I called my old host and immediately resolved the problem.

I was then told my move would be completed shortly.

Days pass. Tuesday arrives. My tech/salesguy confesses to me that after I got the ssh issue fixed on saturday, he had a 'bad weekend due to family issues' and no work was done but it would be completed ASAP

Wednesday morning comes. I ask to be escalated to management. Got a phone call @ 9am pacific from someone else at the company. Was told that indeed the company totally dropped the ball, meeting would be held to address all the issues and as of yesterday I could expect to have a 'new relationship with critical' and was assured by this person as well as my tech/salesperson that my box would be fully operational by the end of the day (with the caveat that I would have to be flexible as I'm east coast and they are west coast)

I was told I would be updated throughout the day with status of my migration.

I got nothing...

I had been given the cell number of my tech/salesperson and told to contact him 24/7. I attempted to call him three times between 3-5pm pacific time. His phone went direct to voice mail each time.

At 7pm pacific time, I had heard not one peep from critical.

I put in yet another ticket requesting status. My tech/salesperson (no one else can answer questions about my move - I'm always told by support that this person will get back with me when I put in a ticket)

I finally heard back and was told that I should not expect an ETA but that he was currently working on it.

Finally reached him in person on skype messenger and (to cut to the meat of it) was told that yes my server would def be online and fully functional before he went to bed last night.

Our conversation ended with me saying I was anxious to wake in the morning with an email containing login information and all this behind us.

This morning - nothing........

Call to my techs cell go to voice mail (probably sleeping)

Ticket sent to support gets the response...

'Im sure xxxx didnt expect you to wake up at 3am PST. Currently it is 5:36am here and I know xxxx has been working on your move all night. He will give you a status when he arrives.'

This is my experience. Perhaps you would have better.

Kind a sound like one man operation.

Have you looked at other Hosting Providers?

I can not speak on the original posters issue but i know chris and the crew pretty well i feel...going back to the split days and i can assure it is not a one man operation - sure it may be smaller than some of the big boys who own their own datacenters ( as critical does ) but it is not a one man operation.

Im pretty positive chris will make this right and this is an isolated issue.

I've spoken with nat net but do not have a price from them

If you are a host and can provide managed hosting on an entry level box with multiple c classes feel free to hit me up directly

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the trouble you are having.
:Oh crap

Reply coming....

Refund issued. Still, reply coming.... (must help customers before spending time on this, customers are more important than drama, brb)

I'm glad you 'help customers'

I've been asking for help for over a week. Frankly, I think I got a 'rogue employee'

and furthermore - there would have been no drama if any of the promises made to me DAILY had been kept.
this was my last conversation with my tech , last night at 10:30 eastern
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1...ticalskype.png

Rob, your post was out of line. Furthermore posting chat logs on public forums is frowned upon. With that said....

Frasier,

There are times, and they are rare, when a hosting company just cannot perform to a customers expectations. This is one of those times, and with reason. Step inside.

You contacted us regarding moving your site to our network, our sales guy sold you on a dedicated server. Since then we have learned that your expectation was that you would have a programmer and tech working on your site 24/7 to move your site, re-code all of your scripts and do all your mysql work and the like.

You claim to have a "managed" account, let's discuss that for a moment:

Your invoice reads:

"Intel Dual Core I3 2.93 Ghz I3-530 4GIGS 200GB 1Mbps 60 Ram Upgrable to 16 GIGS - Usage: Small Web Server, file hosting, game server, backup server custom - **********.critical.net (05/23/2011 - 06/22/2011)
Operating System: CentOS 5.5 - 64 Bit
Bandwidth: 3 Mbps Bandwidth - Included
Uplink Port Speed: 100 Mbps Uplink Port Speed - Included
IP Address: 13 IPs
Control Panel: NO CONTROL PANEL
Manged Services: FREE: Remote Hands 15 Minutes (Anything under 15 minutes)
Ram Configuration: 4 GIGS of RAM - Included
Upgrade your Ram: 4 GIGS of RAM - Included
Hard Drive 1: 500 GIG Sata III Drive - Included
Hard Drive 2: 500 GIG Sata III Drive"

Where on that invoice does it read "we be your outsourced: programmer, tech, it department"?

You ordered NO control panel, yet REQUIRED Direct Admin? We installed it.

Do we do that? YES! Excitedly we do. However your expectations from a FREE: Remote hands for anything under 15 minutes are not something we are interested in doing for you for 132.00 per month.

Im appalled at the asinine post you made regarding our company after we have spent countless hours trying to move your data from where you are now. We offered to MOVE YOUR DATA for you, not become your personal staff.
The promise of a quick move was based on the fact that your existing server was accessible at the time and it was
not. Once it became accessible, we found your server to be slow and hard to deal with.

Furthermore: 24/7 tech support is something we do happily within your subscribed service level.
You were replied to constantly and at all different hours of the day and night. We responded
to you at 3:46 AM just this morning. We must have answered at least 7 phone calls from you just
yesterday as well, and each time, Joel assured you he was working on your move, which he was.

I asked Joel why he is doing all of this for you, and his reply was "I don't know, he keeps screaming. I want it to stop."

Joel was trying to keep you happy. He was not supposed to do all the work he was doing for you
and he was doing it because he's just like that. He goes over and beyond what the customer wants
and expects even if it's outside the scope of what you paid for.

Some words of advice to hosts who Frasier may contact from this morning on: Enjoy.

Robert, you went there first, and to be honest, I kept it nice...

To all GFY readers: We offer 24/7 support, managed services, unmanaged services, colocation and more at competitive and some times cut-throat rates. When this customer was unhappy, we immediately refunded him.
We typically go by the "customer is always right" attitude however in rare cases we must step out of form and this was
one of those cases. Please be assured that our support is amazing and our network solid and robust. This is an isolated incident.

I ordered this server after speaking to your online help desk. My salesperson was joel

During my conversation with him, what I wanted was not available in your config. I wanted a small raid 1 instead of the single 250g HD as well as DA. I was concerned that 'remote hands' would not be enough for me as I have no apache and limited linux experience if something were to happen with the box.
Your salesperson offered me full managed service at a discount for 25.00 monthly vs the standard pricing and earned my business.

On my invoice it clearly shows that I purchased a package that was customized by joel and not the 'off the shelf' option. Nor was it something that could be built in your configurator.

My order was completed after your employee joel made a special package for me to purchase that included a control panel and managed hosting.

I bought this package on the instruction of YOUR EMPLOYEE, who made me a deal on the package.

After paying for your service on the 23rd and explaining that the move needed to be complete on the 29th - it appears no one even started this move until the 28th and then did not try again until the 31st.

So you are telling me that my employee told you we would do ALL of your tech work and re-coding for 25.00 a month? I believe we have a communication problem here. There is no way anyone would do that and you know it. Our techs cost more than that per hour, and you are telling me you thought we would do 744 hours worth of 24/7 support for you for that? Come on now...

Look, I wish you well and I think it's best we just agree to disagree on this one. What's done is done.

Should of contacted amerinoc

It sounds like Critical knew this was going to be a tough project. Why wait until the 28th to start a transfer when the deadline was the 29th? And if family issues came up for one of the techs, why not hand the project off to someone else in order to meet the deadline?

Sly,

The customer was concerned that the server move would take longer so Joel gave him a free month to avoid overlap with billing of his other host. We offered to move his data, not reprogram his scripts and etc. The customer claimed he was not capable of doing anything on his own well into this. Furthermore, he ordered the server without a control panel, then later we discover it was a required item. Family issues aside, the tech who was working on, was working on it and did not hand it off to another tech because it was outside the scope of support that this customer subscribed to and he was personally trying to make this customer happy. We go above and beyond on all service levels, but when customers begin to berate our employees we must draw a line.

Stick to nat net or mojo
Do not risk your biz

I really do not know if the outcome would have been any different really.
Perhaps they would have communicated better to the customer and charged him
correctly in the beginning, who knows. What I do know, is Amerinoc is good
and I really do not believe they would prostitute their services either. You get what
you pay for and well, I find them to be a good company such as ours.

this conversation with joel should pretty much prove my point.

If you view the links in order you will see where I told joel that I would LIKE to have all my DA user accounts put into one account IF it were possible.

He responded that it was not a problem - these screen caps pretty much speak for themselves

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/9758/critical1.png
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1291/critical2.png
http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/5500/critical3.png

be sure to notice the dates.

I didnt require or demand that your company convert my multiple DA user accounts into one account. I said I would 'LIKE' for it to be that way, if it were even possible. YOUR EMPLOYEE said it would be done that way.

You just have a case of an over eager employee over promising and under delivering. Unfortunatly this was allowed to go on so long it made for a very uncomfortable customer.

This situation drug on for many days. Yesterday I asked to speak to someone in management and your employee with the email of [email protected] told me all would be well by the end of the day.

After I made this post this morning, I asked someone who posted in thread to please put me in touch with you because at that point I would have preferred to resolve this. Instead of getting in touch with me, you chose the way to handle it.

I brought it here because days and days of all my other efforts were not getting me anywhere. What else would you have had me do at that point?

with that said, I believe I've made a suitable case and am done with this thread.

If you want the best go with NatNet, I'm sure if you send an email they will get right back to ya.




:thumbsup

This could have been resolved. And it still can be, however this is not the place to resolve it. I know Joel has most all of the work done, it would be silly to throw it away at this stage but its up to you. Perhaps some air has been cleared, not sure, but im open if you want to call me 619-306-3072.