UK2.Net Web Hosting Fail *Updated 12/2/10*
As a part time job I do car valeting (Car Valeting Pro) on evenings and weekends. Since its winter I don’t get many enquires so I tend to only check my website monthly, whilst still checking my emails daily.
Yesterday I was alerted by a customer that my website wasn’t working and it just came up with “This Account Has Been Suspended”.
As you can see Google cached my website on the 3rd of February, so it had been down for at least 7 days, but since I couldn’t log into my site I couldn’t get any exact date or time.
I got straight onto UK2.net who I host the website with and had to submit a request form asking why my account was suspended. I kept up with checking the online chat support that they offer as it was offline at the time. By chance I managed to catch their online chat working so proceeded to get my site back up and working.
Now that the issue is resolved, I have been into my site to check the date when it went down, and i happened to notice that the first recent visitor is UK2.net, so in my mind they clearly had pushed some buttons at their end to get the site working again then proceed to check it hence logging themselves as the first visitor.
I’m currently in contact with UK2.net via their ticketing system but they seems to be under the impression that this is a sporadic error, even though I have stated that the problem is now solved I just want to know why I got a “This Account Has Been Suspended” error and also why I got no email saying that there was an issue.
If a customer hadn’t brought this to my attention it could easily of been the beginning of March before I noticed this problem.
*Updated 12/2/10*
So we finally have a reason as to why my account got suspended.
Thanks UK2 for the months free hosting.
Frog 1193 days ago
http://www.thefloatingfrog.co.ukLooking at the transcript it’s pretty clear to me you have a higher level of IT knowledge than UK2. I hear “we don’t know” all too often with these support enquiries when something goes wrong. “If you don’t know who the hell does?”. We know they have messed up somewhere along the line, human error occurs. All we want is honestly, for them to hold there hands up and admit responsibility. My advice would be to consider moving away.
Chris 1193 days ago
Host it at Bronco you dufus
rory 1193 days ago
Frog, All I want is an explanation as to why it was suspended and why I wasn’t contacted!
In my mind they clearly fixed the issue when they were made aware of the problem.
Anthony 1193 days ago
http://shapley.euI’d just move elsewhere Rory. They don’t even deserve to call themselves a hosting company if they’re doing things like that, without any explanation and are completely unwilling to hold themselves accountable for there own actions.
They didn’t even apologise..
Dan 1193 days ago
http://www.dancryer.com/Anthony- It does say at the end of the blog entry that there is a ticket still open about this issue with them. At least give them a chance to explain before condemning them.
About the issue itself – UK2 support is generally fantastic, and sure they may have screwed up, but it was back online within a few minutes of Rory contacting them. Albeit answered somewhat deceptively. It’s worth noting though that UK2 has over a million customers, which puts a little perspective on this one issue.
I contacted Dave in private saying pretty much this, but I decided I wanted to reiterate it publicly. I think it’s pretty low that Bronco are using this blog to bad mouth a company about an issue that’s still ongoing.
I’m intrigued as to what their response will be, though.
Marchamont 1193 days ago
That’s why it’s a good idea to register sites with a DNS provider, and then point it to your chosen hosting company.
If the hosting company start to let you down, then you can move to a new one without any downtime.
carla 1193 days ago
@ Dan Cryer
It doesn’t really matter how many customers they have though does it – if even one customer has a problem with the service they have received then they have every right to raise an issue with the company.
Anthony 1193 days ago
http://shapley.euDan – they had more than a “chance” when Rory spoke to them in the online chat.
So what that they’ve got over a *million* customers it doesn’t excuse them from providing a good service and it doesn’t account for Rory’s potential loss of business and Search Engine Rankings because of down time – he should be offered a few months free hosting or something to make up for his loss..
I actually think posting this is exemplary, hosting companies, of all sizes should be aiming to provide a remarkable service. The service Rory recieved in both uptime and Customer Services (through the live chat) was poor.
rory 1193 days ago
The only reason the ticket is still open is because they think the error is an intermittent one.
Here is a snippet from the last entry in the support ticket.
“I once again apologize, but I am having a hard time reproducing the error that you are seeing”
Well the issue is fixed, I just want to know why it happened.
Dan 1193 days ago
http://www.dancryer.com/I didn’t mean to suggest that they shouldn’t resolve the situation with this one customer, what I’m saying is that this issue may have been just one poorly performing support rep on one day for one client. This blog entry implies a much larger issue. The support ticket, I assume, is still open and could easily provide a more than adequate answer to the issue from someone more senior.
What’s happened here is that a blog entry has been posted before the issue has come to any kind of conclusion, which I feel is merely an abuse of this blog’s position of authority to bad mouth a hosting company that has let one of Bronco’s employees down.
Dan 1193 days ago
http://www.dancryer.com/I feel I should clarify a bit further. Please don’t get me wrong, I am all for outing companies that provide crap service… and I think this blog is great, including when it does so. I’ve done it myself more than once, too – Like with Evans Halshaw, for example : http://www.dancryer.com/2009/10/evans-halshaw-vauxhall-leeds-suck-a-bit
The point I was trying to make is it feels a bit like they’ve not been given a chance to make things right, and it seems a bit underhanded to tarnish a company’s good name, when generally they’re known for great service.
That’s all. I shall shush now.
Gareth 1192 days ago
http://www.seo-doctor.co.uk/mmm blog post is not on page 1 for their brand term (yet!), usually is from this site
Jamie Edwards 1189 days ago
http://www.jmedwards.netThere is no ‘ in Minis
NGT Web Site Design 1187 days ago
UK2 are a fairly decent provider. Should give them another chance. You can do much worse when comes to dodgy hosting companies.
rory 1187 days ago
I like the way you say “UK2 are a fairly decent provider”.
David Saunders 1076 days ago
http://www.jackringer.comI don’t trust many of the buggers – since 1997.
I wish someone like Google would do hosting besides Sites and Blogger plus sell domain names.
I just trust them
Even Yahoo used to mess me around when they had whatever it was called a few years back.
Hey Dave – Do you guys host?
Really ! At least I know you aren’t going to bugger anyone around
David in Plymouth
aka Rio Ringer – the crocked town crier
Marketeering 830 days ago
http://www.marketeering.comI’ve experienced exactly the same problems with UK2. Downtime was terrible. Also, their live chat system is always on and off and when you finally get talking to them, they tell you to open a ticket anyway.
I can’t be doing with this kind of service when it’s my business at stake. They don’t even apologise for downtime.
One company that I do highly recommend is http://www.fusionhost.com
We have been hosting with them for a while now and their customer support is fantastic. Very friendly and willing to help you get your issues sorted.