The Fasthost
Fiasco
Sometimes, you receive such bad service from a
company, you just have to speak out and share your experiences. This is for
three reasons:
- It
makes you feel better (a problem shared, etc.)
- You
don’t want others to go through the same thing as yourself.
- Hopefully,
the company in question sees the hassle you’ve been through and does
something about it.
These are word-for-word transcripts of several MSN
Messenger conversations I’ve had with my (now) ex-Web hosting company, Fasthost
(www.fasthost.com)
Their level of service is simply appalling and
they also exhibit a pathological inability to apologise for any errors or
service downtime.
If this helps to dissuade a prospective buyer
from signing up with them, then so much the better.
Before you read these transcripts, let me point
out that the bits in red are either to
illustrate me waiting for a response or to clarify a part of the conversation
that may be unclear to the reader.
MSN
Messenger transcript between me (Andy Cippico) and Michael (a helpdesk
technician) at Fasthost.
Part 1.
First Encounter
Wednesday 11th August 2004.
Background: I'd just paid for setting up my account a few days earlier and I was having problems transferring my old web site across to them.
Andy Cippico says:
Michael,
Andy Cippico says:
Can we talk?
FastHost @ Michael says:
sure
Andy Cippico says:
Regarding my ticket - 1216? (I’d previously logged a helpdesk call and this was my ticket
number)
Andy Cippico says:
I managed to get my present host to transfer the
name server records. Do I just wait until that is done? (I guess it will take
24 hrs. or so)
FastHost @ Michael says:
yes you will need to wait about 12 - 24h
FastHost @ Michael says:
dns propagation
Andy Cippico says:
OK, I'm clear so far. Once that is done, can I
*then* transfer my web site content to you?
FastHost @ Michael says:
yes
Andy Cippico says:
And I do that using the CPANEL app?
FastHost @ Michael says:
do you want to transfer your site from another
hosting company ?
Andy Cippico says:
Yes - two of them.
FastHost @ Michael says:
no control panels available (huh? What
does that mean?)
FastHost @ Michael says:
you need to transfer it manualy
Andy Cippico says:
Pehaps I'm missing something: I thought I was
setting up two domains on my new account. Can I re-publish the content to you
when the DNS propagation has completed?
FastHost @ Michael says:
??? (er.. fairly simple question, Michael..)
FastHost @ Michael says:
Sure (There we go. Wasn’t hard, was it?)
FastHost @ Michael says:
you can reupload it (Really? I thought I’d
have to send it to you on punch tape)
FastHost @ Michael says:
just use addon domain feature in cpanel
Andy Cippico says:
OK, that's reassuring... Now, finally, why can't
I get into CPANEL yet - I don't know what my username is?
FastHost @ Michael says:
just read your welcome email
Andy Cippico says:
I never got one, and the text below is that last email
I sent you:
>Dear Sirs,
>
>I placed this order on Wednesday and I'm
still waiting for 'account open'
>confirmation. Can it really take this long to
clear my payment?
>
>Yours in anticipation,
>Andy Cippico
FastHost @ Michael says:
Hello Andy,
You will receive all account details in 10
minutes. I'm sorry for this delay, too much fraudlent orders. (is that the best excuse you have? ‘Fraudlent (sic)
orders’? Oh sure, I can picture loads of customers all just signing up for
fun..)
FastHost @ Michael says:
give me your order id
Andy Cippico says:
108512-R51415176
FastHost @ Michael says:
checking
(I wait for 8 minutes)
Andy Cippico says:
Michael – are you still there???
(I wait for 23 minutes, and it’s
now nearly 10pm)
Andy Cippico says:
Michael - I've got to go now. Perhaps you can email me the details? Thanks for your help and patience so far.
At least I’m trying to keep this thing going – why doesn’t Michael want to talk to me? Did I offend him?
I make a cup of coffee and take a break.
I check for messages periodically. Nothing arrives. It’s 11pm and I’m tired. I
go to bed.
The Fasthost Fiasco
Part
2. The Day After.
Thursday 12th August 2004
I try to contact the Fasthost helpdesk again. Hopefully Michael is
back from his nap….
Andy Cippico says:
Is anyone there?
Michael@Fasthost says:
Yes
Michael@Fasthost says:
i'm here
Andy Cippico says:
Michael, what happened to you yesterday? You left
me and went to check my account details and never got back to me? I was waiting
an hour! Anyway, I seem to have successfully transferred my dns settings. Also,
I discovered that I could obtain my account details by clicking on the 'Resend
Account Details' link. I've now got those and can log into my control panel. It
would have been much easier for you to tell me that yesterday and we would have
saved a whole lot of time on Messenger.
Michael@Fasthost says:
so?
(Arrgh! What kind of response is that? This was the start of
the tell-tale signs that begin to sow the seeds of doubt about Fasthost’s
concern for my problems or their customers)
Andy Cippico says:
Grrr.. What I'm saying Michael is why didn't you
tell me about the 'Resend Account Details' link yesterday???
(I now wait 8 minutes)
Andy Cippico says:
Michael, are you there?
Michael@Fasthost says:
yes
Andy Cippico says:
Michael, I appreciate you're busy, but it would
be good to have a timely response from you and even a satisfactory answer. Did
you not understand my last point?
(I now wait a further 12
minutes)
Andy Cippico says:
Michael, I hope you realise how completely teed
off I feel about your support right now. I expect timely responses if I'm using
Messenger for online support (as you seem to prefer). I'm *that* close to
cancelling my account with you. You have messed me around for over a week since
taking my money and I just feel badly let down. If it wasn't for your
apparently excellent deal I'd be asking for my money back. Do you understand?
(I now wait another 4 minutes,
and I’m fuming)
Andy Cippico says:
Michael - I sincerely hope I *never* have to deal
with you again using Messenger. I cannot tell you how angry I am at your lack
of response. I appreciate you've had a major systems outage today but just a
'sorry' or even a timely reply would restore my faith in your company again.
Good grief - I hope your hosting service is better than your tech support.
Michael@Fasthost says:
Ok
OK?
OK???!!
Is that all you can say???. What kind
of response is that? Oh boy, I’m sooo angry. How angry am I?
Interlude
I now proceed to suffer a year of various
unscheduled service downtimes and no explanation of what went wrong, let alone
an apology.
The Fasthost Fiasco
Part 3. The Pain and further Pain
Tuesday, 2nd August.
My account is suddenly suspended without warning
or reason. I log a call with the helpdesk. Bearing in mind that my account was
due to expire in two days time, their response to my call was succinct and
offensive in equal measure:
'So, do you want to renew or what?'
I assume from this that they’ve got a
bit keen and terminated my account prematurely. I get on to MSN Messenger and
politely (I think) ask what is going on.
Andy Cippico says:
Hello Fasthost support, can you please update me
on the status of ticket 1626? I am unable to use my account, as it has been
'suspended' despite the fact that I've had no warning email and it doesn't
expire until August 4th. I desperately need to send and receive emails.
FastHost.com / Victor says:
your account was suspended in error. it's now
active, but you will have to renew the account on 4th Aug.
Andy Cippico says:
Thank you Victor. Please give me reasons why I
should renew my account with you. The whole last year has been particularly
unpleasant as regards Fasthost support and uptime is concerned. I want to stay
with you, honestly, but at this point in time I see no reason to.
FastHost.com / Victor says:
the company was sold to us in april and we are
doing all possible to restore fasthost.com reputation.
FastHost.com / Victor says:
we have reduced downtime and upgraded the
servers.
Andy Cippico says:
OK, I understand, but some apologies wouldn't go
amiss when things go wrong. I mean, how can I run a business when I don't even
get warned of my account being suspended? It's ludicrous! How about a Network
Status page that tells us what's going on up there? You guys are so poor at
feedback. I'm a patient man but I've never dealt with anyone like Fasthost
before. I'm trying to remain calm here.
FastHost.com / Victor says:
your account was suspended in error.
Andy Cippico says:
You see? Again - no apology. If only you'd say
'Sorry - we messed up, have a free month on us', then I'd be renewing for sure.
FastHost.com / Victor says:
for sure you can demand any reasonable
compensation.
Andy Cippico says:
Victor, I'm not after that. I'm just after an
apology and an explanation of what went wrong. I just want to kept informed. Is
that too much to ask for? Do you really need my business? I don't get the
impression you do.
FastHost.com / Victor says:
we are very sorry for this terrible mistake. your
account has been suspended because of breakdown o nour database server that
resulted in account suspension.
Andy Cippico says:
Thank you Victor, but I'm not too sure if that
sounds like a genuine apology. These events and this conversation have only
served to finally persuade me to cancel my account with you. Goodbye.
Well, dear reader, there you have it. A company
so dedicated to the ill-being of their clients that even the illusion of an
apology has to be extracted by repeated suggestion.
This is only a snippet of the dealings I’ve had
with them, but I think you get the idea. I just hope you never have to go through what I’ve
had to go through.
Andy Cippico
August 2005