Today something really screwed up happened
to me and I wanted to share with you for a couple
of reasons.
1. I wanna get it out of my chest
2. You might wanna make sure this doesn’t happen to you
Let me tell you what happened.
I have a dedicated server with this company called “ThePlanet”
that I host some of my websites on. (I have other dedicated
servers with other companies as well)
At 9am today, sales stopped!
I checked my sales stats around 11am I thought
it was just getting slow today, then I left for some
meetings.
I got back around 6pm PST to find out that there
were no sales since 9. That was odd and out of
normal since tons of subscribers have been ordering
my latest Greek Easter special all day long since Sunday
I checked to find out that NONE of my payment
links worked all day because the planet unplugged the
server that hosts my payment system (and some websites).
UNPLUGGED MY SERVER!
You know what that means?
That I have to lose thousands of dollars in sales
and frustrate my subscribers and website visitors,
because some idiot did not update my email address
in their systems.
Let me explain what happened:
on Feb 4th I opened a ticket and asked for my
email address to be updated. I got confirmation
that it was done. (see pic below)
At some point the credit card I had in file
with them expired. they claim to have sent
an email to me letting me know they would
be taking my server offline if I did not pay them…
The sent the email at the OLD email address.
so I NEVER GOT IT
No courtesy phone call, no nothing.
so they UNPLUGGED the server
So they apologized and “waived” the $50
reconnection fee. They said they will
“investigate” why my email was not updated
when I was told it was.
I am still waiting for a manager to call me
back.
At least I got my server back online at 7pm and
probably be looking to move to a company
that gives me the courtesy of a phone call
before unplugging my business at will.
I thought you wanted to know that someone
like THEPLANET can unplug your business at
any time if you fail to get their email.
If you tried to take advantage of my latest
crazy GREEK EASTER SPECIAL but you were
unable to do so today, go below to grab
your copy before it’s gone:
Check out the Greek Easter Special Here
Thank you for bearing with my frustration
Best regards
-Socrates
P.S. I will be soon posting a new treasure
on the blog. Stay tuned
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28 Responses to 'I am so pissed off…'
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Holy Crap! I can certainly understand how they were unable to reach you, but to just shut down your business server cuz they didn’t get their 50 bucks without a bit more effort … Thanks for the warning.
I have had very good service from GoDaddy over in Arizona, have lots of web sites there, get good tech support when I need it without having to wait on hold forever and they are very reasonably priced. Just a suggestion.
Wonky credit-card billing?
Try jumping into online reality WITHOUT a credit card!
Karridine
What a terrible thing to happen and what a way to run a company, huh? Have you ever tried GoDaddy? I’ve heard a lot of good things about them.
Just like this blog are you sure it is working? Try callcenters24×7.com. They host several of my web sites with no problems.
Thanks everyone for the nice comments. it did make me feel a little better telling you.
To all those in favor of godaddy. I have to say, I heard worse things about them (from credible sources)
-Socrates
Thanks for sharing, Socrates - it’s a good reminder for us all to stay on top of seemingly strange events. Try Homestead or Host Gator.
I use SolarVPS (solarvps.com) for about the last year or so. They have all levels of hosting all the way up to dedicated servers. Their tech support is the best I’ve ever experienced.
Thank God I never experienced such problems myself…it was their fault but they’ll not recover your lost sales
HI,
My brother in law has a massive server and he works from home all the time. He works with a couple small companies hosting and managing their sites. If you would like to go with a small company serious about providing reliable consistent service shoot me an email.
Wow. I saw this on your twitter feed. Pretty silly!! That was really nice of them to waive the measly 50 bones. How about they reimburse you for lost sales? That would be immediate customer service recovery.
Sorry to hear. I just went a week without Internet because someone at my phone company handling my DSL “coded something wrong?”. Yes, thousands lost. Just a weak apology and a month free service. Wow, I’m underwhelmed. Time to look for alternatives. Anyone?
i have had the same problem with a few other places a few years ago and they never contacted me as well , go daddy was one and ill have to look up the other ,. sorry for your trouble hope you dont have to do that again .
WOW SOCRATES > WHAT A HUGE BUMMER :-(! But thanks for the heads up and taking your bad experience to warn others. Keep the e-mails coming!
thanks again for your comments.
Let me clarify something. we are not talking about regular or shared hosting here. I am talking about a dedicated server that I pay $300 a month for. It is the WHOLE machine that they unplugged.
So sorry for your experience but also very thankful that you care enough to take the time and share what you had to do to “fix it” . I too have to give rave reviews to GoDaddy.com for their tremendous (really) help in helping me personally with my recent launch.
Thanks again,
Hope to meet you someday soon!
I hope you sue them and switch companies, they need to lose money just like you.
We had a similar thing happen…we paid for three years of registration up front with Network Solutions, and then moved during that time. When the domain expired, they, too, said they tried to contact us. It appears that everyone was too lazy to actually go to the domain name they were hosting, where our current information could have been found. That would have been too easy. They ended up shutting us down for four days, while I had to provide all kinds of proof that I was actually who I said I was. They finally turned it back on, but it taught me a good lesson….always register your domains with the ones hosting the site. That way they will always have your current information. As far as hosting companies, I can highly recommend American Hosting. They can handle the whole thing, and their 24 hour service is great. They also send out invoice reminders a couple of weeks ahead of actually debiting your account, so that you can make sure you have the funds available. I have used them for the last eight years, and they have never let me down. They have several different packages available, most with access to the server panel, so that you can control all functions of the web site on your own. They have really been great!
So sorry you had so many problems! That shouldn’t have happened when you are hosting so many sites. For us small guys, I don’t like GoDaddy for hosting either as they will do the same for the same reason or if you get one spam complaint regardless whether it is a legit complaint or not. I like HostMonster myself, even better that HostGator.
Thanks for the warning, I’m in the process of finding a host for and creating an online store.
Try http://www.callcenters24×7.com they host several of my sites.
Thank for the headups….ThePlanet will be on my blacklist alert company..
I use hostmonster also. The coolest thing is they have a forum and other webmasters help you find the answers you seek.
I hosted dedicated servers at the Planet for years. They used to have an alternate billing option - a backup in case the first one failed. Don’t know if they still have that option, but whatever host you use, pick up the phone, call em and ask them if they’ll put an alternate on file.
Most large hosts send an invoice for a failed payment, and give you a least 10 days to make it good. Some let you know when your cc is expired, others don’t. Like it or not two things are true.
1. Your host is your Achilles heel. Your business can be out of business in the blink of an eye if the host has a problem.
2. Hosts do not use the telephone. It’s up to you to check your account info and be on top of billing.
Hosts make mistakes every day but at the end of the day it’s you who will be out of business, not them. We can get angry, we can switch hosts, we can expound on the injustice of it all, but the hosts aren’t going to change and we have no option but to do business their way. Doesn’t matter if they’re 1 and 1, GoDaddy, the Planet or Joe Schmoo down the street. The backbone ISP’s and the hosts are the ones who set the rules for the net and we have to play by their rules or we don’t play.
We can set sites up so we can forget about them and just let them run on their own - other parts of our business need more attention.
I’ve had similar problems but without such drastic cosequences (I’m not as successful as you yet) with hosting companies in the past.
I finally found a very reliable host..with real people who WANT to help you at the other end at krystal hosting.
You can find their link at the bottom of our forum
Holy Moly Socrates,
That really sucks! I will definitely remember to not host with thePlanet!
I have one site hosted at GoDaddy and all my domains are purchased through them. They really do have fantastic Customer Service, as long as you’re dealing with one of their products. Sometimes they will try to help with someone else’s script or program, but the service reps are not supposed to.
I know the problem for I had a card that expired on record with them…NO, GoDaddy did NOT shut down the account…they were kind enough to give me a Courtesy Call 15 days BEFORE the card actually expired! The downside as far as I’m concerned…they do some funny things with their servers so installing and setting up scripts can be a little unsettling.
I host several sites with HostGator because they are very easy to work with, have very good customer service reps and I’ve not yet run into a problem installing a script…no do this, or adjust that…it’s just been nice and easy to install every single one so far.
I bought in to the “Greek Easter Special” and have downloaded all but one of the advertised eBooks. This last one, yoonoAVIResller_PLR.zip is a 100Mb+ zip file that simply refuses to download. Instead I get a corrupt zip file every time. Anyone have that problem? Socrates has not been very communicative, probable because he’s out in Ohio or something?
Daze, do you own http://www.callcenters24×7.com? Just kidding! I’ll have to check out these different companies we have mentioned. Always on the look for more cost efficient ways to operate. Have a great week folks!