Completely and utterly screwed by a reseller...

[Pingfah]

Has anyone had this happen to them? I bought web space off a reseller, and have going fine for like 5 years. Suddenly 2 days ago all my sites go offline, and the guy sends me an email saying he is moving servers.

He just cuts off all my FTP and control panel access just like that, uploads them to another site, doesn't change any of the PHP config files to reflect the new MySQL locations, doesn't give me FTP access to do it myself, and doesn't give me controlpanel access to administer my own MySQL. I have copies of the MySQL databses, but can't upload them because he has not given me PHPadmin access either.

The he tells me he is on holiday for 2 weeks and can't sort it out until then, in the meantime, all my customers emails have gone down, all databases inaccessible, all that works is the HTML framework of the sites. All my clients are blaming me, although there is not a damn thing I can do about it, or any way I could have prevented it. All I can do is change nameservers, and pay out of my own pocket to buy new webspace and upload it all, which is going to take days.

SON OF A BITCH.

Next time I will buy my own frigging reseller account, just the number of clients I have snuck up on me.

Thank you for listening.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

That does suck. I went through two different webhosts (with absolutely terrible experiences) before I finally found the one I've used for the past three years or so. If you're looking for advice, I'd suggest buying space on a more reputable hosting service, take the couple of days to reinstall everything, then not renew with your reseller.

Take it from me, though, it's definitely worth the few extra dollars to have the piece of mind when it comes to webhosting, rather than saving a few pennies and always wondering when the rug will be pulled out from under you. As it is, webhosting is fairly reasonably priced nowadays.

If you're interested, my webhost is lunarpages.com ... and while they haven't been perfect, they've been consistently reliable -- and, more importantly, when I call with a problem, I always get a human voice on the other end who manages to address the problem fairly promptly.

 

[Da'an]

Can you file a lawsuit?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I am a reseller myself, as I was screwed by a reseller when I was on a shared hosting plan. They disabled my account because a program used too many resources, and the problem was that I could only reach their host, which said they could not undo a suspension done by a reseller... took days to get it sorted out, and when it was, I immediately changed to a dedicated server. I'd been holding off for years because of the cost, but it's come down enough now that I could afford it. I will never go back to shared hosting.

 

[Pingfah]

That does suck. I went through two different webhosts (with absolutely terrible experiences) before I finally found the one I've used for the past three years or so. If you're looking for advice, I'd suggest buying space on a more reputable hosting service, take the couple of days to reinstall everything, then not renew with your reseller.

Take it from me, though, it's definitely worth the few extra dollars to have the piece of mind when it comes to webhosting, rather than saving a few pennies and always wondering when the rug will be pulled out from under you. As it is, webhosting is fairly reasonably priced nowadays.

If you're interested, my webhost is lunarpages.com ... and while they haven't been perfect, they've been consistently reliable -- and, more importantly, when I call with a problem, I always get a human voice on the other end who manages to address the problem fairly promptly.

Thanks, I actually have no issue at all with the company that owns the servers that he leased off, there has never been so much as a server glitch in the 5 years or so he used them.

I've managed to get them to agree to restore all the accounts I had under him to me under a multisite hosting plan cutting out the reseller, the price is actually a lot more reasonable than I had thought it would be.

Would like to go for a dedicated server as Robert Maxwell suggests, but will have to take that under advisement for now as at this precise moment I just need everything back running and this is the quickest way.

Can you file a lawsuit?

When the dust settles i'll see what the damage is. In terms of refunds it's really not worth it, the fees would eclipse the refund amount, it's more the hassle and stress of the whole thing that i'm annoyed about.

 

[Mr. B]

I think you'd be better off going with a company that owns their stuff. My host has their own data center in upstate New York complete with specs like oc-12 connection, battery/generator backup, 24/7/365 staffing... linkage. MediaTemple is another popular company with private fiber-linked data centers in California and Virginia.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Heh ... Clifton Park (the location of Hostrocket's datacenter) is none too far from where I grew up.

Pingfah, I'm glad the original host was able to help you out a bit. It's good that things will work out in the end. Still sucks about the hassle, though. Maybe we ought to start a thread here for webhost recommendations and/or horror stories? Might be useful for anyone wanting to start up their own site.

 

[alasdairsim]

Thats terrible man.

I would definitely look into legal action.