Service fails when faced with complex issues

[dearsina]

I’ve been with eUKhost now for a few months, and the experience has at been a mixed bag. When everything is running ok, they're great host, responsive, inexpensive, and with the latest versions of most software installed (which strangely enough is quite rare in the hosting world).

Some times, as a hosting client, you run into little issues and this is perfectly normal, you want to get a fixed IP, more space, different version of a particular software etc. In these instances, the phone line, chat room feature and this forum work very well and eUKhost act as the responsive and reliable hosts they claim they are.

But then, there are times where you're faced with complex issues, like the innoDB table INI file is missing, mySQL db has been corrupted, the domain which was originally purchased with the account (and later replaced with another domain) is missing (all things that have actually happened to me with eUKhost).

In these cases you find out that in reality, the phone line will deal with level 1 support only (akin to really basic tasks in a traditional helpdesk environment, like resetting account passwords), the chat guys won't do any actual work unless you email in a request, and the guys on the email seem more concerned with closing your issue than to look at it closely, and you'll often have to open at least three tickets before they realise that you have a real issue at hand, and are not just some dumb end user.

It's in moments like these, that you really find out what you're host is made of, unfortunately, it's near impossible to gauge this before you buy and use an account (this goes for any host).

If you're wondering why I'm still a client after all these issues, I will say that I am in the process of finding a suitable host, as most of the big host companies are funny versions of LAMP (Media Temple for instance, runs a version of PHP that is incompatible with parts of my scripts), because I cannot afford to have the levels of downtime and hassles I've had with eUKHost.

In short, if you are looking for an inexpensive webhost to host your simple site without "always on" service level requirements, eUKhost are the perfect host. If you on the other hand, introduce a sliver of complexity, you should really be looking elsewhere, and perhaps keeping eUKhost as a backup/test environment account. The cost savings are not worth the headaches.

sina
london

[eUK-Nick]

Hello Sina,

Thank you for your remarks. I see that you have 2 hosting accounts with us as well as a backup plan. I have tracked down your support history & am able to see quite a few support tickets, infact one each for 20th & 21st November.

I shall mail you back once I have a follow-up done. Thank you.

[eUK-Nick]

Dear Sina,

I can see all your tickets answered appropriately. Do you still have issues pending?

[eUKhost.com]

Dear Sina,

I hope you are aware of what hosting plan you have with us. If you expect us to setup INNODB on shared servers just for your shared hosting account then thats something next to impossible for us. We cannot make server wide changes just to please one customer.

If you have managed to corrupt your MySQL database then how should eUKhost be responsible to repair your database ? Try and find a local programmer in London and ask them charges for repairing corrupt MySQL database. I am quite sure that they will charge you fees worth 1 years dedicated server cost.

If you request our support team to swap your domain name with a new domain name then how come we should know if you want the previous domain to be added as parked domain or addon domain or if you wish to let it expire.

If you have such complex requirements then you should consider a Dedicated Server. We have team of L3 system admins to answer dedicated server chats and tickets. they will repair your database and take care of all complex configurations for no additional cost as all our servers are fully managed.

Give another thought to what you have mentioned and find out who else will give all this features for just £54.99 per year.

I apologize if my reply sounds rude but the hosting plan which you have with us is simply not suitable for the level of customisations you are looking for.

[DPS Computing]

I definitely think you have a point Mark .

[dearsina]

Mark, the problems I have experienced were all due to server issues (ie. not my fault), for instance, the innoDB corruption happened after a hard-drive failure (and a long period of downtime) a couple of days ago, but you're absolutely right, I'm paying peanuts (you are one of the best priced services around), and I'm sure you're all familiar with how that saying ends.

There are, however, a few things a host can do, that won't cost them much, but will make the life of their customers much easier. Number one on that list (and this doesn't just apply to eUKhost, but to any budget hosting company), when something is wrong, tell your clients. Drop them a simple email saying, sorry, something has happened, we are working on resolving it. You'll seem honest, and you'll seem responsive to problems. There is only one thing that's worst than a dishonest host, that is a host that doesn't even keep an eye on it's own servers. I had to spend a good amount of time simply convincing the guy on the other line that my innoDB ini was corrupted, and then show him the solution for him to realise that there actually was a problem.

Anyway, I don't want to drag this on, and as you mentioned, my issues have now all been resolved, and I'm happy to put this episode behind me and hope that we won't encounter them again in the near future!

For anybody perusing this thread to consider whether eUKhost is right for them, I guess that is the learning point from all of this, like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

[eUK-Nick]

Dear Sina,

eUkhost.com is one of the most competitively priced hosting companies around, no doubt - but there has never been a compromise on the service levels at any time. We are well aware of how the saying ends, but eUkhost definitely is not one of those who serve the way they are paid.

On numerous occassions in the past, we have been the first to put up our hands & acknowledge an error or an issue. You have been with us for over 6 months now . . . you would have noticed this on the forums as well. Just a few weeks back one of our staff members had sent in a common notification emails to clients with all emails in the "to" list. The moment we realised this, I myself had come up & acknowledged this.

We had issues with Viking & eurofighter, we have done all that we could have to solve those out. The Yahoo mail issue is one of the most well documented ones on the forum. We have always been honest & will be honest about everything.

If there has been a problem with understanding of your issue from our support team. let me know & I will get this followed up to the bottom.

As ever, I do not wish to be rude or give an impression of a confrontionist. We at eUkHost have always strived to be honest & give the best possible services to all our cleints.

Thank you.

[eUKhost.com]

Dear Sina,

Its next to run close to 1000 servers without any problem for years. Minor problems are bound to come and all we can do is troubleshoot immediately or take steps to avoid specific problems which commonly occur.

You can consider a Load Balanced cluster in which you will have a web server which will allow connections on port 80 while the MySQL server will allow only web server to connect to it on a local LAN connectivity. You will never have any sort of downtime on this sort of setup.

You can consider our Business Hosting plan as well as we offer 100% uptime Guarantee with our Business hosting plan. paying £19.99 per month should not be difficult for anyone who has important Business websites. We are equally concerned for all our servers and the reason we have upgraded all our shared and reseller hosting servers to new Q6600 servers is to offer best hosting experience to our customers. We could have offered 100% uptime guarantee on shared hosting plans as well but we cannot host 40 - 50 accounts per server as that wont even cover hardware cost of servers.

Your main website is now hosted on a Q6600 server so now you will never think of considering any other hosting company as you wont get any better deal from anyone else.

For your information we wont be filling any new accounts on Viking so you dont need to be concerned if new customers join eUKhost

[DPS Computing]

Originally Posted by dearsina

Mark, the problems I have experienced were all due to server issues (ie. not my fault), for instance, the innoDB corruption happened after a hard-drive failure (and a long period of downtime) a couple of days ago, but you're absolutely right, I'm paying peanuts (you are one of the best priced services around), and I'm sure you're all familiar with how that saying ends.

There are, however, a few things a host can do, that won't cost them much, but will make the life of their customers much easier. Number one on that list (and this doesn't just apply to eUKhost, but to any budget hosting company), when something is wrong, tell your clients. Drop them a simple email saying, sorry, something has happened, we are working on resolving it. You'll seem honest, and you'll seem responsive to problems. There is only one thing that's worst than a dishonest host, that is a host that doesn't even keep an eye on it's own servers. I had to spend a good amount of time simply convincing the guy on the other line that my innoDB ini was corrupted, and then show him the solution for him to realise that there actually was a problem.

Anyway, I don't want to drag this on, and as you mentioned, my issues have now all been resolved, and I'm happy to put this episode behind me and hope that we won't encounter them again in the near future!

For anybody perusing this thread to consider whether eUKhost is right for them, I guess that is the learning point from all of this, like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

Sorry to point this out but you have proven a point yourself here.

You get what you pay for - precisly so if you want someone watching your server 24/7 then you have to expect to pay for that employee to do that!!

I can understand your frustration when things go wrong but without doubt eUKhost have got to be the best for attempting to sort problems out effciiently.

The support team help with things where many other hosting companies would tell you that it is your problem therefore you can fix it, not theres. For example, anything that happens in your account, settings malfunctioning, misconfigured settings / email etc a hosting company would be well within their rights to say the account is working properly and you need to sort those problems out. Whereas from my experience support will always try and help whereever they can.

I'm sorry to hear about your problems but am glad that they are all fixed now and hopefully you won't encounter the same difficulties in the future .

[dearsina]

But see, it's not even about expecting too much from your host, it's about being on the ball. Like right now for instance, my domain is down because there is an issue with their name server:

Searching for rsvip.net A record at J.GTLD-SERVERS.net. [192.48.79.30]: Timed out. Trying again.
Searching for rsvip.net A record at I.GTLD-SERVERS.net. [192.43.172.30]: Got referral to ns36.eukdns.com. (zone: rsvip.net.) [took 146 ms]
Searching for rsvip.net A record at ns36.eukdns.com. [Unknown IP]: Error: Couldn't resolve DNS server name/IP [ns36.eukdns.com][11004]. Response: An error occurred: Couldn't resolve DNS server name/IP [ns36.eukdns.com][11004]. Details: I could not get to the nameserver authoritative for rsvip.net. Sorry!

Source: http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup...vip.net&type=A

Do you think eUKHost have even noticed that one of their name servers is down? And if they have, why didn't they tell me? How long do you think I'll have to wait before this problem has been resolved? So it's not about 24/7 monitoring, 100% uptime, clustering or other fancy options, it's about knowing that a piece of equipment is broken and telling your customer when this happens.

Of course I don't expect 100% uptime, or that all problems are fixed instantly, but I *do* expect that they are on the ball, at least trying to fix stuff or letting me know that they are trying, and I'm getting a little frustrated at the amount of times this isn't the case. Now you tell me if you still think I'm asking for too much.

[eUK-Nick]

Your domain rsvip.net is fine . . . I can see this at the bottom of the page

"© 2007 — All rights reserved. Manage your event with RSV[i]P.net too"

Please let me know if you have more issues.

[DPS Computing]

Sometimes there can be localised problems to yourself or a problem between you and eUKhost servers that can indicate there is a problem with them when really the problem is somewhere inbetween .