Fasthosts = Deadmeat

[julian]

I can't go into to much detail but fasthosts have basically have been very naughty, cost me a lot of time, money and more.

Stay clear of these jokers.

More info shortly..

 

[julian]

The story is last week FH deleted a virtual server out of my account for no reason that was running a large, live e-commerce site, they then got a bit mixed up and proceeded to restore someone else's image (plesk snap shot etc) on that server

After hours on the phone trying to get it through their thick skulls the problem 4 days later it got sorted.

The most gutting thing is being given about the same priority as someones who's one page blog is down. Lesson learned.

 

[ian]

I gave up on Fasthosts after it transpired they were storing customer payment details on a non-encrypted excel sheet. I had £1,500 stolen from the card which I only used with them. That was going back a while now, hopefully they've learnt, but I doubt it.

More recently, their technical support has been appalling and they seem to think they have a right to hold a domain at ransom for 60 days before releasing it. I also had someone log into my account and change my telephone number...they offered no support, just said I must have done it!!!

I had great joy in cancelling my account with them, as you can imagine.

 

[Adam H]

The story is last week FH deleted a virtual server out of my account for no reason that was running a large, live e-commerce site, they then got a bit mixed up and proceeded to restore someone else's image (plesk snap shot etc) on that server

After hours on the phone trying to get it through their thick skulls the problem 4 days later it got sorted.

The most gutting thing is being given about the same priority as someones who's one page blog is down. Lesson learned.

I had a similar thing a couple of years back, was preparing the sale of a large site and tidying up the directory structure etc, at the time i wasnt at a machine i could SSH to chown some of the files so i jumped on live support to ask them to quickly just do it for me.

Anyway 15 mins later i ask why its taking so long to get a reply saying "Im sorry ive accidentally deleted your site, have you got a backup i can restore"

Needless to say i went mental, although i did have a backup i wasnt going to tell them that as they had admitted liability and their mistake was going to cost me regardless because of all the changes that had been made since the 24 hours previous and to make it worse the offsite backup (R1 soft) they had setup apparently wasnt working.

Anyway, apparently they had a rolling 24 hour image snapshot so for 24 hours things were retrievable however it still took them a whole day to retrieve and restore that image. Compensation was given although not nearly as much as they would have had to fork out if they had lost it completely.

Very stressful though so know exactly how you feel, Although i don't get why you think you are more important than someone else paying the same money as you for a VPS with a one page blog, if you want priority and special treatment surely you should be paying top dollar for your servers with a respectable provider known for custom relations rather than through someone like Fast host are known to be shocking at best.

 

[Skinner]

Aren't fasthosts essentially 1&1 ?

You're kinda asking to be used and abused, you've been around long enough Julian, you once said I'd gone slow in the head, maybe time you had a check up from the neck up

If you use 1and1/Schund or HostEurope/123-reg or any company owned or operated by any of those, you're kinda asking for it, and some would say deserving of it.

 

[martin-s]

It's hilarious how many customers we have who get stroppy about paying host fees of around £30-40/mo because they compare that price to Fasthosts and the like.

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Simple as that.

 

[Retired_member41]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/17/fasthosts_dns_blunder/

Karma

 

[martin-s]

Yep, I delighted in receiving the phone calls from one of those customers this morning when Fasthost DNS went to crap

 

[Retired_Member38]

Compensation was given although not nearly as much as they would have had to fork out if they had lost it completely.

I suspect if you read your T&C's on the hosting package its going to tell you that number would have been $0...

 

[dragon]

What other hosting co would be a better alternative?

 

[DaveP]

What other hosting co would be a better alternative?

http://www.tsohost.co.uk/
http://aws.amazon.com/
http://www.webhostingbuzz.co.uk/
http://www.linode.com/
http://www.rackspace.co.uk/

Are all much much better alternatives.

 

[Adam H]

I suspect if you read your T&C's on the hosting package its going to tell you that number would have been $0...

Most terms of service are not bullet proof if you are prepared to go the mile and its financially viable, especially if what happened was outside of what was requested of them and they admitted it was their negligence which caused the loss, live chat transcript as proof was pretty solid and undeniable which they tried later to do in a ticket saying it was a technical fault, until i presented the transcript of their staff saying how sorry he was of which they back peddled and got very friendly , very quickly.

Hosts are protected against the fact they are not responsible for loss of data through unexpected equipment failure etc but negligence from a staff member is a totally different kettle of fish ( if you can prove as such ). What most fall down on though is whether the value of the loss is worth kicking up the fuss for, This particular instance was more than worth kicking up a fuss.

 

[Darren]

What other hosting co would be a better alternative?

www.acorndomains.co.uk/services-offered/129257-get-full-dedicated-server-price-vps-49-00-month.html

I have one of these, fast setup and great support.

 

[julian]

The thing is you pay 20 bucks pm for FH shared hosting etc and when its all working its all fine, which used to be about 98% of the time, problem is now its about 65% of the time

I think all hosts have issues time to time.

 

[Adam H]

The thing is you pay 20 bucks pm for FH shared hosting etc and when its all working its all fine, which used to be about 98% of the time, problem is now its about 65% of the time

I think all hosts have issues time to time.

Absolutely right, Issues happen and the unexpected will always be around the next corner. Thats what sets a good company apart from a poor one, how they deal with problems and how fast they offer a resolution.

I will always take a product or service from someone i know it reliable, incredibly responsive and customer orientated over someone that offers cheap solution but takes half a day to even reply to a ticket. Time is money as they say

Im probably just old fashioned but customer service is probably the most important thing for me in "most" situations, if a company spends 5 hours trying to fix a problem with little or no communication, its likely ill flip my lid and kick off.

On the other hand if a company is attentive , responds quickly and makes me feel like they are dealing with it as quick as they can and im the priority, id probably accept its a one off and be much more understanding.

Thats where all most larger companies start to slide off the scale because they turn into a production line of people that are there not because they want to be but because its a job, rather than people who care about the customer and the company they work for.

*Rant over.....sorry lol*

 

[dragon]

http://www.tsohost.co.uk/
http://aws.amazon.com/
http://www.webhostingbuzz.co.uk/
http://www.linode.com/
http://www.rackspace.co.uk/

Are all much much better alternatives.

Thanks DaveP & Darren.

 

[mtalk]

What other hosting co would be a better alternative?

You can even take a look at :

WebHost UK, I have been using them from many years.

 

[BeachLife]

Fasthosts just charged my credit card for a .ltd.uk domain renewal and a years email service. The limited company in question was dissolved back in June, and the Fasthosts account was in the company name, but unfortunately they had my personal card details (thankfully the card in question expires this month, as I cannot actually remove the card from the control panel). The support team confirmed that the company in question had dissolved prior to the renewal. So they were supplying services to a dissolved company, and charging me for them.

They are refusing a refund, and stated if I pursued a chargeback they would pursue for further fees via a debt collection agency. Good luck going after a dissolved company I said...

 

[dazc]

...but unfortunately they had my personal card details

A so called 'reputable' host I have recently left routinely retained my card details each month despite me ticking the 'do not save details' box. I had to submit a ticket on 3 occasions to have the details removed.

The reason I stopped wanting my card details saved was because they were getting into a habit of taking payment several days before invoices were due.

 

[Skinner]

Name and Shame!

A so called 'reputable' host I have recently left routinely retained my card details each month despite me ticking the 'do not save details' box. I had to submit a ticket on 3 occasions to have the details removed.

The reason I stopped wanting my card details saved was because they were getting into a habit of taking payment several days before invoices were due.