Transferring web hosting account

[Xqwzts]

I've had my website hosting with eUKhost for nearly a year now [www. xqwzts.com]
A week ago I read on the forums about the server with SSH enabled and decided to transfer to that, so I opened a ticket and asked support to transfer my account.

Everything seemed to be going fine at first:

And regarding SSH access server we have a UK based server on which we provide SSH access. The version of php and MySQL Server on your current server (64.38.20.134) is 4.4.4 & 4.1.21-standard but the version of php and MySQL Server is 5.1.2 & 5.0.27 on new server (87.117.234.234). You can check the php, MySQL Server configuration for that server at http:// 87.117.234.234/phpinfo.php.

Please confirm if it is compatible for your website hosting so that we can transfer your account on this server.

Regards,
Matthew,
Support Team.

Three emails later:

Hello,

We have transfered your domain to new server and enabled the shell access for it. And updated the name servers from registrar end.

And terminated it from old server.
Use http:// 64.38.20.134:2082 or http:// 64.38.20.134/cpanle to access cpanel and

IP :: 87.117.234.234
ssh port :: 49234
with your cpanel login details.

Please do revert back to us in case of any queries, we would be glad to further assist you in this regard.

Regards,
Matthew,
Support Team.

And this is where the problems started. My account was transfered to the new server, meaning opening www. xqwzts.com would access the new server.... but non of the data was transfered!

I sent an email to support as soon as I noticed

Hi again,

It seems something went wrong with the transfer?

- Theres no content on the website hosting [xqwzts.com]
- None of my files are showing in the file manager either
- If i check the subdomains on cpanel there are none
- If i access the subdomain website hosting i can see the content [wnb.xqwzts.com]

I'm thinking either the transfer didn't go well and some files are
still on the old server? or the DNS hasnt resolved properly??

Could do with some help sorting this.


Cheers,
Victor

And this is where the bullshit began. Every single email I sent since then got practically the exact same reply "we did the transfer and we checked the backups, there was never any data on your site"

Hello,

Well, we have moved your account using full Cpanel backup utility which transfer everything including all files/folders databases and other cpanel settings etc... We have also checked the rsync backup configured for old server for cross verification. And everything is transfered on new server. We have copied the cpbackup file from old server to your home directory, you can check it for verification.

Hello,

Well I have checked in the backup file and there wasnt any file there in the backup except the default files while generating account. There wasn't any subdomain there. I have also checked the weekly backup that we have of your old server account and it have nothing there except those default few files there thats been restored already.

Regards,
Marc.

Hello,

Well, we have transfered your account as it was on old server (64.38.20.134) and also checked the backup of old server (64.38.20.134). Please let me know If you are using some other IP for accessing your old server. Or your first Welcome email IP so that we can investigate it further.

Hello,

I have already verified the backup for 64.38.20.134 and there isnt any data there except the files that are currently under your account.

Regards,
Marc.

Hello,

We have weekly incremental rsync backup for our servers shared servers. So it automatically overwrite the old backup. We have checked the weekly backup of your account for 64.38.20.134 and there isn't any data there except the files that are currently under your account.

Regards,
Matthew,
Support Team.

All I can say is I am truly appalled by the lack of professionalism in performing what must be a fairly routine and simple transfer. I am furthermore extremely disappointed by the answers I kept receiving from support : I think it is fairly obvious that I would know what was on my website hosting much better than someone who never opened that website hosting before would. By claiming to have checked all the backups and found them empty you continuously insinuate that I am lying about having had any content on my website hosting, when in fact I had a number of pages, pictures, word and pdf documents, subdomains, and mySQL databases set up. Most of which I had accessed just a day before requesting the transfer.

The most obvious answer to me is that the backup performed before the transfer was either never done or done incorrectly, that restoring the info once the transfer was completed was either never done or done incorrectly, and that the investigation into the whole thing was either never done or done incorrectly.

I am still extremely dumbfounded by how something as silly as losing all your customer's data could happen, and how support could quite blatantly not give a damn about it.

[Eidolon]

Maybe it would have been a good idea to BACK UP the website hosting yourself (ie. keep a copy on your computer). As a rule of thumb always backup your website hosting, especially if considering to be moved across servers. A few minutes of backing up per week saves hours of headaches later.

Personally one of my website hostings has moved servers (with eUKhost) fine with all data being transferred without problems. A lot better than one of my old hosts where I had to manually re-add everything (website + settings).

[eUKhost.com]

I have checked backup of your account on both backup servers and there was nothing inside public_html. Our guys cannot make a mistake in transfers as they know how difficult things can be for them if they do any mistake.

There's nothing in 7 & 3 days old backup of your account. only few staff members have access to the backup server and its not possible that someone would go and delete your data on main server as well as both backup servers.

I am having one of our senior system admin to investigate what must have gone wrong but the guys involved in transfer didn't do anything wrong.