Databasebydesignllc Customer Experience review

Ive been a customer of KnownHost for over 5 years. As my sites have been growing Ive used several of their different managed VPS and dedicated servers throughout the years. This has given me great insight both into their hardware performance and the customer support for the managed services they provide.

As most website owners know there are the occasional days which are nothing but headaches. Slow loading and watching as traffic drops. Its not fun at the moment but its part of the game. The most recent event was today and that gave me this reminder to take some time out of my day to write this review.

KnownHost is one of the best hosting providers out there which truly look after their customers. Today, as many times previously, they went far and beyond to resolve the issues with my dedicated server and helped boost the performance on my site significantly.

As someone who is not a developer it is truly a great feeling to know that a response from KnownHosts support staff is never but a few minutes away. This might sound too much like a 90s TV commercial, but I cant praise them enough! 5 years and they are still as good as back then (or maybe even better actually).

I highly recommend KnownHost to anyone who is looking for a trustworthy hosting provider with many years of experience in the space and who always puts their customers first.

Thank you KnownHost for being awesome! I will keep on recommending you.

Hello friends,

I'm here to give my 6 years review for SolaDrive
1st of all I would like to thank WebHostingTalk forum for giving me the opportunity to get the contact of SolaDrive and John from SolaDrive.

I have been a very happy client of SolaDrive from August 2014. It look like yesterday for me. Such has been the smooth travelling with SolaDrive.

I have had plenty of different servers with them on different occasions.
As usual we have had plenty of problems in the 6 year journey but never on one occasion Soladrive let me down. They are always there for me to help either the problem is on the server side or even on script side. Their Customer care and service are top class and only next to none.

Billing issues, DB Backups, Ticket reply, Skype support, Solving Errors, Software Updates, Migrations, Panal issues, COVID situations, what ever problem i have, SolaDrive just takes care of everything and gives me peace of mind so that I can take care and focus fully on performance of my sites and my clients sites.

I have no idea if there are any other hosts out there more then capable of SolaDrive. Which I don't even care to research anyway. As they never gave me a chance to look for other alternatives.
If any one need a good dedicated server with a great service and a awesome experience, just go for SolaDrive. No second thoughts. I strongly recommend them.

I can keep on typing to praise their quality and service. I swear they really do deserve it.
Hope I will post my 10 Years review with them soon
Thanks again John & SolaDrive.

Been a customer of ServerComplete since mid 2017, service was great until a few months ago when I started to have issues sending emails due to their SMTP filtering simply not working or never delivering the email to the mailbox of the recipient. Lately I've also been having issues with them expiring the cPanel license that's ordered through their customer portal and taking longer and longer to active it once again so that cPanel can continue working. Currently have 2 unanswered tickets that have been open for over 15 hours at this point and their ticket page in said customer portal states the following "Our Technical Support department should be utilized for all issues outside of emergency and server outage issues. Our Technical Support team is available 24/7 and on average, you should see a response to your issue within 12 hours.", the lack of communication and action is quite disheartening and frustrating.

Hello!

Support Ticket #1453666

My experience:
- Wrong CPU ordered (what? They fixed...)
- Blame the customer for any else.
- I did a video to replicate the issue, they refuses to accept.
- 6 days being a customer = 6 days issued.
- No refunds (moral duty)
- Nice budget and fast answers, but take responsibility for what you've choose =)

What the matter?
- Windows 2012 crashing by simple tasks in Windows Explorer (copy, paste, open any files)

I quit, defeat by tireness.

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?"

I used Reliablesite once a few years ago for a long since dead project, this review focuses on my most recent experience, starting in June this year (a 6 month review). We had a few servers with Reliablesite, that have since been moved to another provider who were able to offer better hardware at this price point.

Sales: 8/10
I've only used their sales livechat, which was quick and concise with their replies to most of my questions, more in depth questions I was directed to email sales (although I never followed this up).

Setup: 3/10
I'll preface this by saying that this was during a large sale event, so I imagine they were under heavier than normal demand.

The first problem was "specials" ordered with customisation (eg ports or bandwidth) are provisioned without their upgrades. This means you have to open a ticket and request the installation of a NIC, or chase up bandwidth upgrades so they are properly applied to the account. We encountered problems spanning multiple servers with NICs not working, IPMI not working, OS installs via the panel not working, these issues were mostly resolved quickly, although a couple took longer than I'd have liked.

I would have preferred if the setup of a customised server was delayed and everything delivered working as ordered, but I understand some customers may want everything ASAP even if it's partial (and in some cases, unusable).

The second issue we encountered was with our second order, where we had accidentally used the same hostname as the first during the ordering process. This resulted in confusion on RS' side during the setup process, as it seems they use hostnames to track servers within accounts rather than a numerical ID system, or possibly just human error on their side as well as ours.

The third issue was when we ordered a couple of "Intel special (5000+ score)" servers. One of the servers that was delivered had an 11 year old i7 860 with a score of 2891. Another was an 8 year old i5 3550 scoring 4805.

We explained that the i5 was fine and we didn't care too much about the score, the main issue is the i7 was so old that it lacked AES-NI, which was needed for our use case. One of the techs said they'd look into installing AES-NI (which obviously isn't possible). We requested an exchange with a server that had a CPU with AES-NI, or met the advertised 5000 score.

We were told that the Passmark algorithm was updated a few months ago meaning the i7 860 no longer met the advertised score, a swap wasn't possible so they'd refund the server and update the site. I'm not sure why they couldn't do a swap, as we just turned around and ordered a special with identical RAM/SSD but with a newer Xeon which was the same price. All in all, a lot of hassle, a needless refund and reorder, and they still haven't corrected their site with the correct score.

Support: ??/10
After the turbulent setup experience, we didn't need to contact support once. Obviously this is a very good sign, but as the only actual interaction we had with support was during the above setup period, I don't feel comfortable giving a rating here.

Network: 10/10
No complaints at all, speeds to Europe and across US have been very good. I'd seen no signs of packet loss, no drops, excellent.

Control Panel: 7/10
There's 3 separate control panels, 1 for billing, 1 for tickets, and 1 for managing servers. There is little integration between them visible from the client's side, making it a bit awkward to use. For example, you can't select a service the issue is about on the ticket control panel. The server management panel looks a bit dated but everything is there and functional that I could see, the only missing thing was the ability to edit the server names (which could lead to the confusion seen in the Setup section of the review).

One annoying thing is that RS blocks a lot of ASNs from accessing their site, I assume to block orders from proxies, however these blocks also cover their customer panels, meaning if you're on a VPN (be it a private or public) then you might not be able to manage your services. I understand wanting to block orders from anonymising services, however blocking entire ASNs from even accessing the management panels is a bit of an over reach in my opinion.

Pricing/Value: 7/10
Their specials are good value, although you do have to take into account the aging hardware on their cheaper specials. Their configurable hardware options are a bit pricey and I think could do with revisiting, eg $60/m for a 1TB SSD is a bit much for todays pricing. I'm sure they could work out a better deal if I were to contact their sales though. Their network upgrades are very good value, with cheap 10Gbps ports and bandwidth upgrades, especially during sales events.

Overall, despite the poor setup experience at the start, I'd say our experience was very good overall. I'd certainly use Reliablesite again for other projects in the future, and would recommend them if your use case matches their offerings.

Just wanted to post my terrible experience with W3Space.

They offer absolute ZERO customer support and ignore all tickets.
They claim 24 hour server delivery on their website. So, I ordered a dedicated server from them for $150 on May 18th (over 3 weeks ago).
After a few days of nothing happening, I opened a ticket asking if there's any ETA on delivery. Silence. No response. No, sorry we're out of stock and expect new servers soon. Absolutely NOTHING.
So, after just over a week of no answers I did the only thing I could and opened a Paypal claim.
I also opened a ticket telling them I no longer need the server and to cancel my order. This ticket of course was also ignored.

They still didn't bother to answer. As we all know Paypal claims take some time. After escalating, they had until today to respond.

So, today, last day to respond to the claim, I magically receive server details. No apology. No sorry for being late. Just an email with server details and ticket closed.

Needless to say after 3 weeks of waiting I've already ordered the server elsewhere don't need it anymore. So I have to wait to see what Paypal decides, as I'm out $150 and 3 weeks late received a server that I no longer need and requested multiple time to cancel after failure to deliver or respond to any tickets.

Surprise surprise... they're not answering those tickets either. The only thing they bother to answer is the Paypal claim.

If you want to waste money and get zero customer service. These guys are the place to go.
Otherwise, steer clear. Still waiting to see what Paypal decides now that they've provided them with server information 3 weeks too late.

Hi,

The problem started in 2019 when they redesigned their admin interface. We started having problems with not being able to see current invoices, we received multiple invoices for the same servers, and invoices which did not specify which equipment they was for.

Since after several calls and emails we still could not get an answer on which invoices were correct and which were incorrect, our servers were deactivated.

We then chose to end our collaboration with LeaseWeb. The last contact we had with LeaseWeb was 2019-08-19 when we sent the following email:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Leaseweb,

As a customer we are very unhappy with your lack of responses to our questions, emails, and customer service. We have had nothing but problems since you upgraded / migrated / modified the customer portal as of April 8th.

We will not pay any of the invoices below, (amount of ~€530) and we do not want to do any more business with you. It has taken too much of our time and effort to sort out your problems.

We recently paid €613.69 for a 12 month contract for the our DE server. You are free to cancel/disconnect this server and use the €613.69 to pay any due invoices, even those that does not specify which equipment they refer to, and even those who have arisen because you do not answer the questions we have.

We no longer have any confidence in you as a company, and we will not spend any more time solving problems for continued collaboration with your company.

Regards
xxx xxxx
xxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The time goes any we are very happy with the other hosting provided that se moved to.



But, In December 2020, I received a letter from Leaseweb's debt collection company TKB INCASSO regarding an invoice that was created at the end of 2020 for the amount of € 676.19 and applies to a new advance-payment for a new period for the server we had in DE which was cancelled.

We dispute the invoice to both TKB and Leaseweb, but neither of these has responded.


Yesterday I received a second letter (via regular post) from TKB INCASSO. They will bring the amount to court in Amsterdam if I don't wire the amount before 2021-01-27.

Following url is a PDF of this letter: docdro.id/r1KYA4N (Add http if needed)


I'm in desperate need for help. From what I understand, the court in Amsterdam will rule in LeaseWeb's favor if I cannot be present in person to dispute the invoice.

What should/can I do?

Hello. I just wanna make a review about NetDynamics24.
I was looking around for 1-2 weeks to find a good Dedicated Host and after 10-20 message here on WHT with NetDynamics24 (me being a pain in the ass) I decided to choose them!

I haven't had any problem at all with my server or the customer service at all! I sent a ticket fast about reinstalling my OS quick and the support team responded quick and it was reinstalled fast!

I think I have been using the server for about 1 week and no downtime, quick good support and very friendly

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