Problems, Problems, Problems...

[carled]

I've posted this elsewhere in the forums, but it belongs in here too.

So. No-one else seems to be venturing into other parts of the forum to complain, so I will.

Personally I first discovered the problem on Wednesday morning when I was out at a trade show. I was attempting to demonstrate a demo site to an important potential customer. What do I find? No website and some message about Chiefs and Indians. Very interesting, I'm sure.

Throughout that entire day I had the site (and others I have on my plan) up and down more times than I care to remember. Then the application pools start crashing, then the site starts showing "service unavailable" and I'm told (later that night) that the .aspx handler is missing.

When I'm try to use live chat to resolve, I get long pauses without answer, followed by "you have to email us a support ticket" and no-one will tell me what's going on.

The next morning (Thursday) I find it's all be defaced again. Once more we have chiefs and indians all over the sites. Knowing what's been done, I re-upload all necessary files and it works for a few minutes. Then it all goes down again (4 sites) and I get "service unavailable" or "page not found" when I KNOW that the pages are there.

On to live chat again. Long pauses followed by "try again" and no explanation. Or I get told there's a problem and it's being worked on. What's the problem? They won't tell me.

An hour or two later, it goes down again. Not all sites, just some. Live chat again. .aspx handler missing again. Application pool crashed again. Don't worry though, I'm assured it is all ok now and the server is being monitored.

Late last night I duplicate one of my sites and remove some branding for a demo. Identical codebase to another site on the server. Upload all files, it doesn't work. "service unavailable" and once more it's live chat to try and find out what's going on. Once more the .aspx handler is missing. I'm assured it's now all sorted.

Then this morning I check at around 7am and it all seems to be ok and working. I tell customers they can go back on to sites with a huge apology. Around 8:30am I get told one of the sites is down again. Livechat and it's the .aspx handler again. 9am another site goes down. Once more it's the .aspx handler. And it's the application pool. It's fixed now though, I'm assured. I tell them I'll be surprised if it is...

And I'm right. One hour later and one of the sites is down again. Livechat and I'm told "try again". It works. No explanation given. Now I have another interesting problem. The duplicated sites are both running. Different colours, but identical codebase. Both use AJAX modalpopup. One site it works on, one site it doesn't. Identical code. Identical server. One works, one doesn't. How does that work then? Livechat is still (10 minutes and counting) still checking.

You see, I have now spent 2 days fiddling, checking, reloading, livechatting, complaining, checking again, apologising to customers... I'm a small contractor, I don't have the resources to do this, I just need a reliable host that will be there and working when I need it. What I really dislike are the comments made by WHUK staff in the forums implying that it's OUR fault that we got hacked or the app pool is crashing. Very few times has anyone said "sorry I've probably ruined your customer relations and maybe lost you a lot of money..."

This is why I will be looking elsewhere for hosting. This is why I recommend you DON'T host with WHUK as, for all the fast support response, they don't seem to know what to do. It's all "try this" or "try that" and pot luck from what I can tell, which is not a good thing to be doing... If WHUK had been more apologetic or offered compensation or tried to be a bit more proactive then I'd have been happier. As it is, I'm on the warpath and this may have to get legal.

[IanJ0208]

Hi

Like you, I have been posting in another thread about this. I still am while I wait for Gerrad8 to post the chat histories he promised me.

I have had almost identical experiences with some of my ten sites being up and down like a bride's nightie. At times I've checked and found all sites functioning (apart from one with an AJAX problem); I get a ticket response telling me to check; I do, and three or four of them have fallen over again.

I've felt a bit bitchy since I've been with Webhosting (almost a year) that it's always 'my code', when it patently isn't my code. But they've always managed to fix things and they've always been there. But it even got to the point where I've asked what it is that I have to break on my machine so that I can simulate the problem. IIRC, the sarcasm fell on stony ground and I was told that they couldn't help with problems on client machines.

But the last couple of days have been an absolute nightmare, and is continuing. But my account expires next month and I really don't need the ongoing frustration and time-wasting. It used to be that live chat was quick and efficient. It was the reason I recommended that my employer move his systems here. Now, you can give them a problem and they vanish for half an hour before, as you have experienced, you get told to send them email. Heck, it's *their* system, *their* problem and *they* should be escalating things, IMHO, not us. They are the ones with the history in front of them and what they've tried. Perhaps they hope we will think it will be too much trouble and we will forget it.

For me, the service has gone from 'brilliant' to 'abysmal' in a very short period of time.

And three of my sites are still belly-up.

Cheers

Ian

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by carled

I've posted this elsewhere in the forums, but it belongs in here too.

So. No-one else seems to be venturing into other parts of the forum to complain, so I will.

Personally I first discovered the problem on Wednesday morning when I was out at a trade show. I was attempting to demonstrate a demo site to an important potential customer. What do I find? No website and some message about Chiefs and Indians. Very interesting, I'm sure.

Throughout that entire day I had the site (and others I have on my plan) up and down more times than I care to remember. Then the application pools start crashing, then the site starts showing "service unavailable" and I'm told (later that night) that the .aspx handler is missing.

When I'm try to use live chat to resolve, I get long pauses without answer, followed by "you have to email us a support ticket" and no-one will tell me what's going on.

The next morning (Thursday) I find it's all be defaced again. Once more we have chiefs and indians all over the sites. Knowing what's been done, I re-upload all necessary files and it works for a few minutes. Then it all goes down again (4 sites) and I get "service unavailable" or "page not found" when I KNOW that the pages are there.

On to live chat again. Long pauses followed by "try again" and no explanation. Or I get told there's a problem and it's being worked on. What's the problem? They won't tell me.

An hour or two later, it goes down again. Not all sites, just some. Live chat again. .aspx handler missing again. Application pool crashed again. Don't worry though, I'm assured it is all ok now and the server is being monitored.

Late last night I duplicate one of my sites and remove some branding for a demo. Identical codebase to another site on the server. Upload all files, it doesn't work. "service unavailable" and once more it's live chat to try and find out what's going on. Once more the .aspx handler is missing. I'm assured it's now all sorted.

Then this morning I check at around 7am and it all seems to be ok and working. I tell customers they can go back on to sites with a huge apology. Around 8:30am I get told one of the sites is down again. Livechat and it's the .aspx handler again. 9am another site goes down. Once more it's the .aspx handler. And it's the application pool. It's fixed now though, I'm assured. I tell them I'll be surprised if it is...

And I'm right. One hour later and one of the sites is down again. Livechat and I'm told "try again". It works. No explanation given. Now I have another interesting problem. The duplicated sites are both running. Different colours, but identical codebase. Both use AJAX modalpopup. One site it works on, one site it doesn't. Identical code. Identical server. One works, one doesn't. How does that work then? Livechat is still (10 minutes and counting) still checking.

You see, I have now spent 2 days fiddling, checking, reloading, livechatting, complaining, checking again, apologising to customers... I'm a small contractor, I don't have the resources to do this, I just need a reliable host that will be there and working when I need it. What I really dislike are the comments made by WHUK staff in the forums implying that it's OUR fault that we got hacked or the app pool is crashing. Very few times has anyone said "sorry I've probably ruined your customer relations and maybe lost you a lot of money..."

This is why I will be looking elsewhere for hosting. This is why I recommend you DON'T host with WHUK as, for all the fast support response, they don't seem to know what to do. It's all "try this" or "try that" and pot luck from what I can tell, which is not a good thing to be doing... If WHUK had been more apologetic or offered compensation or tried to be a bit more proactive then I'd have been happier. As it is, I'm on the warpath and this may have to get legal.

Hi carled,

Your issue is being looked by WHUK Window Tech Christopher M and the solution for the issue you have is been given to you and you too have accepted that.

Thanks for your patience.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by carled

I've posted this elsewhere in the forums, but it belongs in here too.

So. No-one else seems to be venturing into other parts of the forum to complain, so I will.

Personally I first discovered the problem on Wednesday morning when I was out at a trade show. I was attempting to demonstrate a demo site to an important potential customer. What do I find? No website and some message about Chiefs and Indians. Very interesting, I'm sure.

Hi Ian,

You have been informed about the absence of Gerrad in the other thread and the steps have been provided to you by Christopher M so kindly proceed with it.

[IanJ0208]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Hi Ian,

You have been informed about the absence of Gerrad in the other thread and the steps have been provided to you by Christopher M so kindly proceed with it.

Yes, no problem at all. I waited for 24 hours before I said anything. That seemed a fairly respectable length of time to wait for any sort of response.

Cheers

Ian

[italianjob]

I've not been with Web Hosting UK for very long (since January) and it all started off quite well but slowly over the months things keep happening that are not MY fault. Errors like 'service unavailable' every other day are not acceptable. I expect some downtime every once in a while, or at least an email stating that there may be a problem or some maintenance but this does not happen - there is no communication at all.

I know the problems are not from my end as the server problems crop up even when my site code hasn't been touched.

Lately I can't even browse my files in the DonNetPanel, what's that all about??

I need to close my account and get a full refund or the offer of a better service.

I'm trying to learn ASP.NET as part of a personal development plan at work, and probably would have purchased some more domains/hosting but there's no chance of that now.

[italianjob]

And, as we speak, 'Service Unavailable' again !!! Yet it was working quarter of an hour ago.