Possible scam by PhoenixNAP

Has anyone tried to cancel their server theyre paying 12 months for? They say I owe $620 and Im in a contract, but I never signed anything. My job is being relocated sometime this year and I wont be able to host a server. If you think about it, OVH isnt really losing anything if I walk away. Ive canceled my credit card. My account appears to be on their Canada page, but Im from USA. Can I get into trouble, or do will their threat be empty? They did however get my drivers license picture when I signed up many months ago. Not sure if they still have that from my email. For what its worth, I plan on moving to another address in the near future.

Greetings WHT,

I wanted to issue a large dose of caution for fellow WHT users regarding our recent experience with PhoenixNAP/Secured Servers as their new policies run the possibility of breaking your integrations and create undue headache.

On May 7th, PhoenixNAP/Secured Servers sent an email to us asking us for feedback on a support ticket that had been opened, apparently on our behalf. We had no knowledge of this and our email filters actually flagged the message as SPAM. We found the email in the SPAM filter and it had a few obvious red flags. First, the ticket was titled "Password Rotations" and it came from their support at securedservers email, which is an email we typically do not get messages from. Obviously as soon as we read the message, we immediately reached out to them to find out who authorized the "password rotations" on a production, client facing server.

In speaking with their support agent via live chat, PhoenixNAP/Secured Servers has implemented a new company wide policy to start changing customer's root and user account passwords, without their permission, and without verifying with the customer. In the original email (which we did not get as it appears someone incorrectly opened the ticket in their system to show it was "us" that opened the ticket rather than the support agent), it states:

"Dear Customer,

We are notifying you that we have updated the root and user passwords for your
server in accordance with industry standard password maintenance
recommendations. We will continue to update the passwords on a regular schedule
that coincides with your patching schedule and the passwords will be posted to
your servers device page where you can view them in your portal. If you have any
questions please don't hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to answer
them.
Regards,"

The email is unsigned as to who sent it.

This server has their managed services on it at the client's request as they want a prompt response from the NOC should there be any issues, however the client did not, does not, and never asked for their passwords to be changed in this manner. As a result, our client experienced a broken integration for their custom environment, which we had to deal with their frustrations, (this is not the first time that PhoenixNAP/Secured Servers has broken this specific client's machine. They took the server offline for several hours back in December 2019, without permission, without a request to do so, and with no notice, because another customer of theirs opened a support request for a mem test. They also only gave us approximately a 10$ credit for their mistake.), and the best we get from them is, paraphrasing, "opps, sorry, but if you want this practice to stop, you need to drop the managed services."

We have less than 90 days left on the contract with them and have asked to be let out of that term so we can move our client to our primary datacenter vendor, with whom we know will not pull this kind of monkey poo with us. Thus far they are refusing to let us out per the "management team" so I have asked for a call directly with them. I'll update once that happens. This is the last machine we have with them and I am hoping our primary DC vendor can get us a deal to make this move happen as quickly as possible.

I'm not sure who in their right mind thinks its perfectly acceptable to randomly change a customer's root and user account passwords without their permission, knowledge, and without verifying with the customer if they even want this performed. Yes it's good practice to always change your passwords, however for a party who is once removed from the client, this should in no way be acceptable unless they have received, in writing, to do so. If this was one of our servers that housed our programs, I wouldn't be as upset about it, but when it starts affecting our client's and this is the second time you've done so, I am beyond upset. And the best you can do is offer us the 10$ credit in December and an empty apology this time around?

Word to the wise, if you're using PhoenixNAP/Secured Servers, watch your accounts closely, especially if you are using their managed services. They will monkey with your stuff without your permission.

James

helo
anyone face similar issue like me the dedicated server suddenly completely down.. after some complaining to the support.. all raid disk cant access and no partition on it..
and one if their support said the disk is pulled due do child porn.. no warrning.. no information and suddenly they act like that. if i ask more detail which ip and domain , they cant answer it and dont want to give more information..
really funny about this big NAP company .. i suspect that my server accidentally removed by their system.

at first i suspend network or hardware problem.. mode investigation make me more confusing because their support seems do not say the truth ..

I have had an absolutely terrible experience with this company. I used their services for a short period of time, then decided to close my account. I was not informed of any outstanding balances before doing so. The next day I was sent an invoice for 7.54.

The invoice states that the payment is due by PayPal. I only signed up for this company because they advertise as accepting payment by PayPal. When I click the link to pay the invoice however, it does not let me do so as my account is closed.

The support team has been rude and absolutely unhelpful. They have informed me that I am unable to pay by PayPal because I closed my account. I have asked them to reinstate my account so that I can pay my invoice. They refuse to do this because my account has an outstanding balance.

One of their e-mails to me stated the following:
As the account is disabled already, you have to make a bank transfer. There is no other option, and it's not our problem, you deleted your account, so disbaled it, before paying the invoice.

Its not their problem? Are you serious? When I closed my account it didnt show me an outstanding invoice. It didnt give me any option to pay. I closed my account on March 31st at 12:02 PM. I was sent an invoice on April 1st at 4:14 AM. It seems to me like the problem is the way they run their system.

They insist that I send an international wire transfer for 7.54 to them. I have repeatedly refused to send an international wire transfer where the fee to do so will cost me three or four times what I owe. After all, they clearly advertise that they accept PayPal.

I have on multiple occasions offered to pay by credit card. I have also asked them for an e-mail address that I can simply send a PayPal payment to. They have refused both of these and insist that I send them a wire transfer. They are threatening to send me to a collections agency if I do not do so. This behavior borders on extortion. I am actually trying to pay my invoice, but they are NOT giving me a reasonable way to do so.

Again when I asked to pay for PayPal, one of their replies states the following:
you don't have the option to do that as YOU deleted the account.

My last four e-mails to them asking them for a PayPal address to send payment to have been completely ignored. I suspect they will soon send me to a collections agency (as they have directly told me they will do this) for not paying my invoice, which I have repeatedly attempted to pay.

I have NEVER dealt with a company with such rude and appalling customer service. I recommend avoiding this terrible company at ALL costs.

Hello guys, I don't know if it's a problem or it's normal in ovh, I created an account and paid for a server in OVH so far so good, they sent me an email requesting documents to validate the account (ID and invoices in my name) I sent them to all, but I still did not get a response from them, 3 days have passed and I am still waiting, send the documents on Thursday afternoon...

I am afraid because they have already taken the money from my credit card, in my bank figure OVH pending/retention

It's normal and need to wait more longer or I should worried?

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Tapatalk

Hi

I am tasked to purchase a new server for our network. Basically the idea is to consolidate 2 servers with VMs into one more powerful server.
Current configuration is 2xE5-2680v4 with 128GB ram per server.

I am thinking about something like AMD Epyc 7702P with 256GB of memory, but I am not completely sure about it. Yes, this server has lots of cores, but the base clock speed of this CPU is lower than what we currently have.
I did some research and this CPU seems to be more powerful compared on a sheet, but is it on reality?

We are mainly using those servers for hosting our websites, some big databases. My question is do you think we will see significant performance increase if we do this upgrade, beside saving some money on datacenter costs (consolidating 4U into 1U server)?

On my webhosting journey I started with free hosts (110mb.com) then graduated to Shared hosting ($1.99 oversold?) and then lowend vps to much more expensive vps and finally dedicated servers.

My clients/visitors are from Asia so I was searching for a host with good connectivity in Asia. Servers in asia are expensive so after a little bit of searching I found out that the next best thing is a server hosted in the west coast. That is when I found out about quadranet.com(This is back in 2011). They advertise their network before as the "Asia Optimized Network" so I gave them a try and it was indeed the best network that I tried. Quadranet had the lowest ping that I could get on all the servers that I tried.

My business grew bigger and bigger and I ordered more servers from quadranet. One of services I offer is VPN so it was really cool that they can even accommodate my IP needs. I got a lot of /24s back then (A lot).

5 years later on I started having issues with failing drives on my servers. I still like quadranet even with those hard drive issues but I moved some of my critical services to reliablesite.net because of the hard drive issues (And because their name says reliablesite nah just kidding ).

A bulk of my servers are still hosted at quadranet. I rarely had any issues and if I do need support they really respond fairly quick. When I say I rarely had any issues I mean really rare because most of my servers are running for years without downtime.

Fast forward a few years later, I moved my critical services back to quadranet because I love their service. business has slowed down so I need to cancel some servers because I just don't need them anymore.

And then here comes 2020 and the pandemic. This is the year that it really went bad maybe because of the pandemic and the support engineers are not allowed to visit the DC, I don't know.

But quadranet's network has been really bad. Frequent lost of connection. Q4 of 2020 they had an un-announced maintenance on their network which lasted for hours. They said it was announced but I never received any email so whatever. And then another maintenance. Despite the maintenance network is still.. well "Shi*ty.

I cancelled some servers and move my services to another provider. I still keep some server just because I still trust them.

And network is down again.

I cancelled a few servers again. They even offered me a free 1 month service just to keep the service. which I declined.

And now 2021 network is still spotty. frequent disconnections here and there.

I opened another ticket asking them if there are issues with their network again. And you know what the support did? He rebooted my server without any warning. WTF!!! I mean yeah when you have a problem with your PC and you call for support sometimes they would ask if you turned it on and off already?
But why wont you ask me first if its ok to reboot it.
I can SSH just fine to the server so the server is fine its just the network is having issues. rebooting the server wont fix your network.

And they said it was blah blah blah that their system noticed it is not responding.
I cant copy paste their response anymore because you know what they did?
They fluffing deleted my support ticket.
When I asked why? They said it was a mistake. Really? Their delete button has no confirmation that you want to delete a certain ticket?

I completely lost faith on quadranet now. So I moved some services again and requested a cancellation. And after reviewing my services. I found out that the server that I cancelled which they offered me a free month of which I CLEARLY declined is still there and I got billed this January.

I sent a ticket asking for a refund to a server that I am no longer using which I already asked to be cancelled which they did not. (They can clearly see that on the bandwidth logs)
I believe it is not my fault if they did not cancel it. I mean I asked for a cancellation. They offered a free month. I clearly declined. Now whose fault is it if the server was not cancelled?

Well now I am scared because I am still on the phase of moving my services to another host.
I am afraid because they might just delete my servers and say it was a mistake too. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

So my rating?

Support 2/10 - I am still generous here. because I know they are trying to do it right. Its just not enough
Service 4/10 - I believe I reviewed them before and gave them a 9/10 but it is down now.
Value 3/10 - Prices have stagnated. There are better offers now out there.

Will I recommend them? For non critical services I still might use them but if you want a better service just look elsewhere.

Its like 10 years of hosting and its sad that it must come to an end like this. Thanks to Dustin whose always been there to accommodate my requests at Quadranet before (https://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=252125) I dont know what happend but since Dustin was gone it was never been the same at quadranet. Lol maybe just a coincidence or maybe there is a story behind it.

I posted a TrustPilot review a few days ago describing my recent experience with Performive/Total Server Solutions. I have summarized that review here because I have benefitted from honest WHT reviews and feedback over the years which have helped me find great services as well as undesirable services to avoid. I'd like to repay the favor.

I was a big fan of Certified Hosting. I signed up for a budget dedicated server with them in 2011. The signup/setup was smooth and speedy, their data center speeds were superb, and their tech support was fabulous. In late 2018, Certified was acquired by Total Server Solutions, now called Performive. It wasn't long before tech support went downhill. Since then, I've had to contact TSS/Performive repeatedly about downtime and other problems that kept popping up every few months and never seemed to get resolved. However, I dreaded the chore of finding a new server host and migrating to another machine, so I grit my teeth and dealt with it.

On 03/12/2021, I was auto-billed by Performive for my customary six months of prepaid service at my negotiated rate of $75 a month. As usual, they charged $450 to my credit card. However, a month later, a guy I'd never heard of blasted into my inbox declaring himself to be my new sales rep and spouting dire warnings that my server had reached its "end of life," I was in breach of various banking compliance laws, a terrible security meltdown could happen at any moment, and I MUST upgrade my server immediately!!! I knew where this was going, and my suspicion was confirmed when Performive DOUBLED my monthly rate and demanded that I sign a 36-month contract at this new, inflated rate. They also switched me from managed to unmanaged and wanted to upcharge me to make the server managed again.

To be clear, this was completely unacceptable. I stated that the time to re-negotiate a six-month prepaid rate is BEFORE I've been charged and paid in advance, not a month later. Moreover, Certified had agreed to keep my server hardware and software up-to-date, and if TSS/Performive had allowed it to become an antiquated piece of junk with gaping security vulnerabilities as they claimed, the liability for that was on them. Nevertheless, I was given until May 31 to accept the mandatory upgrade and doubling of my monthly rate, which I declined. I agreed to vacate the server by May 12, the end of my second prepaid month, which left a $300 credit for the four prepaid months which Performive declined to provide.

I spent ten sleepless nights finding a new server hosting firm and migrating my web content, which I didn't plan on doing at a very difficult time of health and other personal issues. But I got it done and vacated Performive's server on schedule. Since then, I have sent multiple emails to their Billing and Sales departments asking that my $300 credit be promptly refunded. ALL of those emails to both departments have met with dead silence. Adding insult to injury, Performive emailed me three robo-surveys asking "How Are We Doing?" This is such a demeaning and insulting way to treat a 10-year customer.

Last Friday, I sent another refund demand, which I expect Performive's missing-in-action billing department and sales staff will again ignore. So, when my June 4 deadline to refund my $300 credit passes, I'm wondering if my 30-day Notice of Intent to Sue will bring another robo-survey asking, "How Are We Doing?"

Hello,
i was having a server with hetzner for over 10 years on December i decided to move my server to OVH ( i heard it have better servers and network ). so i registered on their website ordered a server moved my 100+ website to the new server and all was fine. 2 days a go they asked me to send them documents that prove my identity and i did that with even photo of me holding my identity card etc. yesterday i received 3 emails saying that they wont accept me as a customer and they closed my account and suspended my server all that without giving me the option to take off my data my life worth of data 100 DOMAINS. i emailed them and they do not answer.
i did nothing wrong like hack or spam my documents where valid and real. i don't care if they don't want me any more as a customer but i need my files :'(

Hello,

I am looking for premium* dedicated server providers offering Intel Scalable Processors. (Or the latest Processor that can offer min 2x16Core (without HT))
I would prefer EU location but any US location with better pings to South Asia would work as well.

So far, I have looked into LeaseWeb, PhoenixNap, Hivelocity. Wondering what else is out there .. Any provider you think gives similar network and support to their clients?

Premium = Support is always available for any network / server / hardware related issue. And any issue gets address timely. (Don't have to wait an hour for an update). Don't need full management.

Thanks