Never use Hostingrevolution.com

[Have your own tale of woe with a bad website host? Add a comment to the thread! Let's start keeping track of these nasty companies!]

NEVER EVER USE HOSTINGREVOLUTION.COM!

They are cheap, and there is a reason why they are cheap. I was with them for two years, but I only planned on one year. How did it turn into two? Well I was charged for a second year before my due date was up. So at that point, I figured I might as well stick around for another year and cancel the Paypal subscription so it doesn't do the same the next time. (To be fair, I'm not convinced that issue was actually Hostingrevolution's fault, it could easily have been Paypal as well - I never managed to get a straight answer from either company on this matter.)

What pisses me off the most about them is their dismissal of concerns. They did this in a variety of ways, but basically, in their view, they are never at fault for anything. Ever. End of story. They can do no wrong, in their eyes.

For example, whenever I inquired about server outages (which happened nearly on a day-to-day basis for over a few months) I was given one of two responses: A) We're not having any problems on our end, it must be your computer - have you flushed your cache? (ignoring the fact that all SQ users were experiencing the same outages no matter where they lived). B) It's not our fault, there's a wider slow-down of the Internet (told that twice and both times it turned out to be false - or at least was not verified by any news agencies I know of).

In fact, they're defacto response to most problems has been to accuse me of some manner of wrong doing. Sometimes they get very emotional about it too. Allow me to display some email transactions I have had with them:

• This was my first hint there would be problems ahead.

  Me: [exert from a larger email] Oh yes, I also meant to ask about the MySQL databases and emails again. I managed to set up a few email accounts but now the connection resets constantly anytime I try to add another. Is it just overloaded at this time of day or something? Same thing is happening with PHPMyAdmin for the DBs when I try to import my database files (although I had no problem creating all the DB users and the DBs themselves).

  Them: No problems with phpmyadmin or the emails... 'resetting'. We are on the exact same server so I can assure you this one is always 100% unless the NOC is just down for some reason.

  ... some further emails are exchanged regarding SSH, and once that is dealt with I send yet another email saying basically the same as above, that the connection keeps resetting and it's been a day now and it's still not fixed. Now I get this response though...

  Them: I've seen this a couple of times before... I am going to assume you are using the secure login and this is what is failing (the https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx), link. Should be a simple rebuild.

  What magically changed? Suddenly they are familiar with the problem and it's severe enough that it requires a rebuild? Of course I was using the secure login... I'm editing my databases and email addresses; the secure log in is the only way to do that. Hmmm...

• This one is a doozy. definitely an email exchange to go down in the record books against Hostingrevolution.com

  Me: I've had my website (tidalcanada.com) hosted on your servers for about 10 months now and while it started out very good, ever since you began introducing these lifetime hosting packages I have noticed a significant deterioration in the quality of service provided. My website is much slower then it was in the first few months and experiences significant lengthy downtimes - sometimes several days long (it is currently down and has been for over 4 hours).

  Are the problems I am experiencing linked to a increase in load on your servers? If so, then is that really an adequate trade-off for lifetime hosting packages?

  I am quite concerned about this as some websites have removed their links to my company's website because of these downtimes, meaning that the poor service is directly affecting my sales figures. I would appreciate a prompt response to this situation.

  Now, maybe I'm wrong, but that sounds like a pretty reasonable email from someone who is obviously having problems with the service being provided by a company. But check out this response...

  Them: I do find your "I appreciate a prompt response" RUDE! We always reply promptly and not because of requests, because we desire to reply quickly. As for your site having downtime. I find that VERY strange because your site is on the same server our site it on, and on the same network, the same connections,... routers... etc.. etc and our site hasn't been down once in over a year. So, I am not sure what the issue would be with your site, perhaps it needs to have the code checked or design tweaked a bit. But the server has no problems. And just a FYI, lifetime hosting packages are about 97% existing clients so it does nothing to increase a load that was already there in the 1st place. So, let's sum it up here Sean.. It has nothing to do with the server. And, it has nothing to do with a sale. Best regards,

  WOW!!! Wtf did I say? But it doesn't end there... oh no. Let's continue:

  Me: I am rather shocked at your terse response. In no way whatsoever was I trying to be rude and I'm completely mystified with why you would assume I was being rude. I have never contacted your support before for such a purpose and in my experience with other server companies the response time is often quite slow - i had no way of knowing whether yours would be or not. Given the fact that my service has not been stable for the past several months now, I don't think I was at all out of line in asking for attention to the matter. Would you not do the same with your ISP if your internet connection failed for several hours a week? I am a concerned customer requesting help with your product... nothing more.

  But please do appreciate the situation from my perspective; I know not what is happening on your servers, and all I or anyone else who uses my sites on your servers can see is that several times a week, none of us can connect. My website software works perfectly fine and has not been altered in quite a long time. The problem coming up in browsers trying to reach the site is that the server cannot be found - clearly not a Drupal software error.

  So... let's sum this up again here. It has nothing to do with my software, and since it happens to many people from all around the world, it clearly would not be a localised connection problem on the part of the users. All indication is that it is a problem on your servers, regardless of whether other sites hosted on them experience the same problem or not.

  Them: Well let's just make it clear. The server is not failing. Oh sure it would be great to say it is and then everything would be well. But it's not, so that means it's either within your site or it's code. The simply fact of other sites (including ours which runs many various scripts each day), are having no issues clearly points in that direction. We don't offer script support for anything we didn't code, or html support for anything we didn't create. So, you'll need to dig through your site and see if you can find problem areas.

  They completely ignored the fact that people couldn't access THEIR site either. Hostingrevolution.com was down every time my site was down. They had a serious server issue and we're so blinded by their own ego and sensitivity that they could not realise it. So guess what happened about 2 weeks later? Their server outright crashed and they had to rebuild it from scratch (SQ users may recall when this happened since we lost about a week of posts).

• The final whopper... the icing on the cake. I was restoring the MySQL databases to their servers after they deleted them (longer story here) and their phpMyAdmin software was repeatedly dying with an error.

  Me: There seems to be some sort of problem with phpMyAdmin's import function. I have used this function on previous sites [meaning previous restores on their servers] and it allows me to select a file containing SQL and it then runs those lines. Every time I use it for my new account though it gives me this error:

  ""

  This webpage is not available.

  The webpage at http://strangequarks.ca:2082/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/import.php might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

  ""

  .. and nothing happens. No SQL is run at all. This happens even for tiny files containing a single short table-create.

  I can get around this for some lines by just copying and pasting into the SQL text area, but this method fails on large lines.

  I would very much like to get my sites up and running again... is there some way around this?

  For a bit of background, restoring a database of this nature necessarily involves large SQL lines. Hundreds of them. Thousands, actually. SQ's database has approximately 22,000 full-length SQL lines. So without the import function I mention, copying/pasting/submitting a several thousand long lines of SQL 1-by-1 would quite literally take days and days. Probably weeks. Needless to say, the import function of phpMyAdmin absolutely must be functioning in order to restore a database of any real purpose. Without it, there's no point even advertising MySQL database support to your customers. Anyways, on to the exchanges:

  Them: The error is based on the software and there isn't anything we can do but make the creator of the software aware of the problem and await a patch for it. Different servers have different OS's and we'll just have to wait on input for any phpmyadmin fix.

  This is false. They can rollback the faulty update that they installed, and go back to a working version. This should have been the immediate response by anyone worth their salt as a website tech, if they were really that convinced it was not a configuration error.

  Me: I'm sorry... are you saying there is no way I can run these queries to upload my database onto your servers?

  Them: If phpmyadmin is broken on the account..... and you cannot upload text then there isn't any other way I can think of.

  Me: Hmm. Then let me ask you this: would you buy a brand new car if you knew that car couldn't actually drive? Would you buy an airplane ticket if you knew the plane would never take off and get you to your destination? My guess is that you would answer "No" to both of those questions. I would too.

  Similarly, there is no point buying MySQL-enabled hosting services from a company that provides only a broken MySQL interface. So i'd like to cancel my account. I'm sorry, it was my mistake. I had the gall to assume I was buying something that worked. Please refund my money at once.

  Them: You can cancel the subscription at once then we will refund your money!

  Me: The subscription is canceled. (I had no idea I signed up for a subscription. That is not mentioned on your website during the sign-up process.) Please refund my money now.

  Them: Refund will be made shortly. Subscription is CLEARLY stated when signing up and in more than one area! You obviously just ran through the process blindly.

  Me: Hmm, I went back page and it just says I'm buying a year. There's the suggestion that it is a formal subscription, but does not say explicitly that the customer will be charged each and every year without being notified (which is actually illegal in my country). Nevertheless, I concede on this point.

  But I understand you're anger and defensiveness. You just lost a customer because you're providing a broken service. It must be frustrating for you to know that in this case, the annoying customer actually has a very good point, and you could do nothing to remedy the matter.

  I will be sure to write a review of this. I'm glad I have the email record of this transaction.

  Them: Write your review all you need to, our pages clearly state it. You just don't take the time to read it. You put a nice spin for yourself on it which is clearly your agenda. So enjoy! I love the anger and defense scenario you spin in it. It was never the case, but makes for a good yarn

  Me: No no, you misunderstand. I'm writing my review on the fact that your service doesn't work, not that I read the subscription information wrong. I admitted I was wrong about misreading/understanding the subscription, regardless of how unclear I may have perceived that, it is 100% my fault.

  But i'm not wrong that you don't seem to be very interested in having a working MySQL system. It used to work (last time i used it, it was fine) but you updated it to a buggy version that doesn't work, and you didn't roll-back the update and don't show any interest in doing so. That is a clear fault with your service. I won't be adding your defensiveness (clear in your use of exclamation marks) or anything like that to the review, because people don't trust reviews with much emotion. I will clearly and explicitly and simply state that your MySQL system doesn't work and that your response to the matter was to claim it somehow wasn't your fault and that you have no intention of fixing it. That is the type of review that people read and believe.

  I was having fun at this point. But then the topped it off with this truly golden finish:

  Them: Well tell all your lies. We told you the software creators had to patch it, you just deny and lie!!!! End of story......... end of discussion. Spin it all you wish. You are simply lying and creating stories. We'll hear no more of it from you since you have nothing more to do than read your own words........ by all means print them. No use replying........... since we'll never see another mail of yours.

  Isn't that awesome! Omg I love the four exclamation marks. Oh yeah, the best part was actually when I signed up with a new host. They have the EXACT same version of phpMyAdmin, and guess what? - it works just fine! So even after all that freaking out, the guy was wrong and it wasn't a bug anyway, they just have something configured wrong - and I even know what it is. It was right there in front of us. The DNS-pointer change hadn't propagated to their server's DNS entry list and so when it looked for Strangequarks.ca it couldn't find it... a configuration error because it should be looking for the actual 32-bit IP address, not the domain. The guy should have spotted that right away since he had just finished telling me my site was now on a new server with a different address.

I should mention that most of these email transactions were with a guy named Jaxsyn Miers. I know there's a guy named Johnnie there who owns or co-owns the outfit, but he never seems to handle much of the service issues. In fact this Jaxsyn guy handles pretty much everything... billing, support, inquiries, etc. I wonder if Johnnie knows how Jaxsyn is ruining his business? The only times I ever ran across an email from Johnnie was when something was actually getting resolved. Johnnie needs to fire Jaxsyn and get somebody who isn't dumb as a post.

But until that day happens... DON'T use HOSTINGREVOLUTION.COM!

Feel free to add your own stories of bad hosts if you have any. I'm half-tempted to start a website for people to tell their stories like this one on. It would be a useful service.