Encounters with Dot5Hosting Technical Support
Thinking about using Dot5Hosting? Better think again.
Here are just a few of my many classic encounters with their
(so called) support staff. Read on and enjoy a good laugh.
Do yourself a favor - go somewhere else!
[RED - Dot5Hosting]
[BLUE - Me]
Tech: Welcome to Dot5hosting! How can I help you?
you: My FTP site is not letting me logon. It's located on ns53.dot5hosting.com (www.ussbrewton.com). I have my original email showing the user name and password and they are not working. (I have this stuff saved in my FTP client... so I know that I'm not doing anything differently than normal)
you: I'm using the login mlookaba@ussbrewton.com
you: [10 minutes later] Hello?
Tech: Yes I am looking into your issue.
Tech: password.
you: Question, or statement?
Tech: ?
you: Are you telling me that I am using the wrong password, or asking me to give you my password?
Tech: asking ?
you: xxxxxx
you: Is the password.
you: You can feel free to reset it to whatever you want to if you think that will help.
Tech: ok
you: [30 minutes later] Any idea how much longer this will take? I've been on quite a while now.
Tech: working on this.
you: It's been over half an hour now. Can I please get some kind of status update about what exactly is happening? Thanks.
you: ?
Tech: Please send an email to support@dot5hosting.com mentioning your request in details, so that our Tech's can review the issue and update you with the status asap.
you: Does that mean that you aren't going to be able to fix this?
Tech: Sir I have to look many more.
you: I'm guessing that English isn't your primary language, correct?
you: In any case, I can't wait any more. I will forward the transcript of this session along to support and hopefully they can get this resolved. Thanks.
[RED - Dot5Hosting]
[BLUE - Me]
Tech: Welcome to Dot5hosting! How can I help you?
you: My website is down... again. www.ussbrewton.com (ns53)
Tech: Sir ,you will have to change the nameservers to point to ns53.dot5hosting.com and ns54.dot5hosting.com
you: Why am I not being notified when I need to make changes? It really ticks me off that the first I ever hear of something is that my website is offline.
you: Last week, they moved my site from ns37 to ns53 without telling me, and all my php scripts broke.
you: Is this normal operating procedure for dot5?
you: I can't keep going on like this.
Tech: it was posted in the forum
you: you think I have time to read your forum every day???
you: Should I check the forums of every internet provider that I do business with every day? Come on.
you: Because no one bothered to email me, my domain will be down for at least an entire day now until the new nameservers get picked up and propagated.
you: Are you seriously suggesting to me that I should log on to dot5 every single day and read your forums so that I'll know when/if you're going to break my website?
Tech: I apologize for the inconvenience caused
you: I accepted that the first time. I spent three hours on this chat last time my domain was moved to another server, just trying to convince the guy that I wasn't a complete idiot who didn't know how to use ftp.
you: What I want to know is... is this standard operating mode for dot5, or is there something out of line. If this is what I can expect going forward, then I'm going to cancel my account.
Tech: it was only because the server was migrated
Tech: it will not happen henceforth
you: Other companies migrate servers transparently, so that their customers don't have to take action.
you: I've done it myself.
you: When a change was made that everyone KNEW would break the sql code of every single site using it... you would think they would email people and let them know beforehand, instead of waiting till they found out on their own.
you: Who exactly made the call not to tell anyone, but just to "post it on your forum?" an email address would be great.
you: Is there someone in particular I could talk to about that?
you: [10 minutes later] Never mind. I think your silence has answered my questions. Goodbye.
[RED - Dot5Hosting]
[BLUE - Me]
Tech: Welcome to Dot5hosting! How can I help you?
you: Something is whacky with my website. Getting "too many connections" errors with my php/mysql scripts
you: www.ussbrewton.com
Tech: please hold on a moment
Tech: Please check now
you: It seems to be working at the moment. The cause was... ?
Tech: too many connections
Tech: Anything else I can help you with?
you: rofl....
you: My site doesn't generate anywhere near enough traffic to cause that error. Mind explaining why I would get it?
you: Or am I sharing a mysql server with a bajillion other people?
Tech: It happens very rarely
Tech: please do not worry about this issue
Tech: Anything else I can help you with?
you: I wouldn't, except my site has been down for various reasons three times in the last two weeks.
you: Yes, I would like to know exactly how many people I am sharing that mysql server with.
you: And how many connections are available.
Tech: The server hosts not more than 110 clients
you: And there are how many sql connections available for these 110 websites?
Tech: There is never a issue of connections
you: There was just a minute ago.
Tech: it is just now we have faced the issue
you: So this is the first time this issue has ever come up? What is the plan for resolution? Surely it's not just to hope it won't happen again, right?
you: I get tired of checking my site every day to see if it's still working. That is getting really, really old.
Tech: I have already resolved it
Tech: and would monitor that it won't arise again
you: Thanks for the wonderfully informative answers. Have a nice day.
[RED - Dot5Hosting]
[BLUE - Me]
Tech: Welcome to Dot5hosting! How can I help you?
you: My website is down... again. (www.ussbrewton.com)
Tech: Please allot me few moments to check
you: This is the fifth time in a month I've logged on to find my site down. Heaven knows how many times it's been offline and I didn't know about it.
Tech: Please check now
you: Still offline.
you: [10 minutes later] Is anyone there?
Tech: Yes Sir
Tech: Our Server Administrator's are currently working on this issue and it will be resolved asap.
you: How long has my site been down?
Tech: Sir, your site will up within 30 mins
you: That's not what I asked you.
you: How long has my site been down?
you: And will I be getting billing credit for the excessive amount of downtime this month?
Tech: Sir, your site is working
Tech: please check now
you: I guess I'm not communicating very well. I'll try once more. HOW LONG HAS MY SITE BEEN DOWN?
you: Are you typing, or just selecting canned responses from a list?
Tech: No Sir, I'm not selecting any canned responses but when I check I found that your site was working
you: Will you answer my questions or not?
you: 1. How long has my site been down before it was fixed.
you: 2. Will I be getting billing credit for the excessive amount of downtime this month?
Tech: Please send an email to support@dot5hosting.com mentioning your request in details, so that our Tech's can review the issue and update you with the status asap.
you: Thanks for your incredibly helpful answers to my questions. Have a nice day
[RED - Dot5Hosting]
[BLUE - Me]
Tech: Welcome to Dot5hosting! How can I help you?
you: My website is down again (ns53). This is the 8th time I've had to come here since the beginning of October. It's so often that I've started saving the log files.
you: There's obviously an issue that needs to be addressed here, and it isn't happening.
Tech: please hold on a moment
Tech: Please forward me your domain name ...
you: Unless you can give me better resolution than I've gotten the last 7 times (i.e. It's fixed now, try again), then I'm going to move my hosting to another site immediately.
you: www.ussbrewton.com
you: Site to another host, that is...
you: Cheap hosting is no bargain when it's down 5% or more of the time.
Tech: Please check now
Tech: your site is up and working fine
you: I could write a script for you that would check a set of URLs automatically to make sure they come up, and then email someone in support if they don't. Would that help?
you: I just don't have time to babysit my site to make sure it's up every night.
you: [10 minutes later] Anyone there?
you: (deafening silence)
you: ...
Tech: Sir, I can understand the inconvenience caused to you
Tech: you can check that your site is up and working fine
you: you can? Are you prepared to reimburse me at my going hourly rate (I'm a software engineer) for the 8 times in the last 6 weeks I've had to spend half an hour chatting just to get my site back up?
you: I don't think you're understanding. The issue isn't how fast you can get my site back up after I complain about it being down, but that I have to come here and complain about that at all!
you: There are MANY automated methods your company could use to do that.
you: The fact that I've NOTICED the problem this many times makes me wonder how often it's down and I haven't noticed.
you: I get the feeling that you're just rebooting the server every time something like this happens, without fixing the root cause of the problem.
you: If that's the case... service will never improve.
you: Is that pretty close to the mark?
you: If not, would you care to share your strategy for resolving this issue with me? It might save your company my business.
you: [15 minutes later] Thanks for making my decision very easy by not taking time to reply. Best of luck with your company.
[RED - Dot5Hosting]
[BLUE - Me]
Tech: Welcome to Dot5Hosting, how may I help you?
you: I would like to cancel hosting services for www.ussbrewton.com, but can't find a way to do so from the website. I've emailed several times, but without response.
Tech: We are very sorry to know that you wish to cancel your account with us. Please can you state the reason why you want to cancel the account so that we may resolve the issue and see that you get the best service possible.
you: Certainly. My site was down for over 36 hours this weekend. No one bothered to notify me that my site was being moved to a new server, so consequently every php and cgi script that I use was broken. Every time I emailed support with VERY SPECIFIC information about what was wrong, they would simply reply "wait 2-3 hours", or "your site is running just fine". Which it obviously wasn't
you: The last straw was when I clicked on the support link from the website and got an "oops we're reporting this error" message
you: And then called the toll free line and got "voicemail is full for this user". I don't have a lot of faith in a service whose error reporting mechanisms are broken.
you: I'm done ranting. Thanks. Can you confirm the cancellation of my account?
you: [10 minutes later] Anyone there?
Tech: We understand your frustration due to current issues. These issues have been caused by Ensim's webppliance and we are working hard to correct them at this time.
Tech: We do, however, have another option for you. Due to the ongoing issues with Ensim we have changed to a new control panel.
Tech: The new control panel is developed in house and is more than comparable to Ensim; it is feature rich and, due to being developed in house, we can guarantee much better stability.
Tech: We invite you to take a look at the following URLs and see what all VDeck and Dot5 have to offer:
Tech: New Dot5Hosting site:
http://www.dot5hosting.com
Tech: VDeck Demo:
http://www.dot5hosting.com/walkthrough/
Tech: Dot5 Support site:
http://www.dot5hosting.com/support.php
Tech: Amazing tutorials:
http://www.dot5hosting.com/support.php?_a=tutorials
Tech: If you like what you see, then we have an offer for you! Go to the new Dot5 site and sign up for one year immediately; upon receiving payment we will refund your first three months.
you: Don't think you understand, sparky. I crossed the line a long time back between being a customer and just trying to find out how to cancel. I'm not insterested in any of your new features. I want to CANCEL MY ACCOUNT. Is that clear enough?
Tech: This is our way of saying we are truly sorry for all the problems you have been through, show you that we are serious about increasing stability, and most importantly that we care about you as a customer.
you: If you care about me as a customer you will CANCEL MY ACCOUNT immediately.
Tech: Thank you for sticking with us through what we know were hard times; loyal customers are what has brought us this far!
Tech: We have been striving to bring you the new face of Dot5Hosting and ask sincerely that you give us a chance to show you that it was all worth it.
you: CANCEL my account
you: CANCEL my account
you: Any of this making sense?
Tech: If you do decide to signup with our new hardware and control panel please let us know and we will have your last 6 months transactions refunded as well as unused months from our old system.
you: CANCEL my account
you: CANCEL my account
Tech: ok. Please allow me sometime so that i can cancel the account
you: Well now, that was simple, wasn't it.
Tech: Please forward me your billing password
you: No clue what it is. Haven't logged into the site for months.
Tech: Please mail to support@dot5hosting.com mentioning your request in details so that our techs can check your issue and resolve it as soon as possible
you: I've already done that twice! No reply.
you: Why don't YOU mail someone and get this taken care of. I've already wasted far too many hours on this crap.
Tech: Ok. I will see that your issue is resolve and your mail is replied as soon as possible
[Even after the above exchange, it still took a phone call and 30 minutes on hold to actually get the account cancelled.]