Amazing Problem with Hostrocket!

[Steve Machol]

After waiting almost 11 hours for a response as to why my site was gone and all my web files missing, I received this incredible response from Hostrocket:

It looks like when your domain name was changed to the new domain name, the files were somehow lost on our end. The best we can do in this situation is to credit you a year of free hosting.

The thing is I never even asked them to make a change to my domain name, nor did I ask them to delete my files and set everything up on a new server. All I asked them to do was make one of my domain names the primary domain on my account. That's all.

After all the good thigs I heard about Hostrocket I have to say that they certainly failed to live up to the hype. They completely wipe out a web site and all they can offer is a year of free hosting.

Amazing!

[dunefreak]

They don't even have a backup? Now that is lame.

[tubedogg]

I agree they should have (or "of had") a backup.

But Steve, with all due respect, what would you prefer they do to make amends? There's not much they can do besides offer you free hosting. I would venture to say you're kind of lucky getting that; most hosts' TOSes/contracts specifically state they're not liable if your info gets wiped. I really can't understand what else they're supposed to do.

[Steve Machol]

It's not what they are offering to make up for the loss. Frankly that's inconsequential. What I'm most upset about is the tone of their message, and the fact that they didn't respond for 11 hours.

Notice that they didn't even have the courage or decency to apologize ("the files were somehow lost on our end".) With all due despect Kevin, would you accept such a lame response? If so, then you're clearly a more tolerant and forgiving man than I!

Furthermore I made several long distance calls and they never even had the courtesy to respond.

The good news is that I do have a backup from a couple of days ago. I'll lose about 200 messages but the rest of my site is intact. I'm setting it up right now with another host.

[Chris Schreiber]

I agree... I went through the same thing maybe 3 years back when I first started my site and was using a hosted bulletin board from an ISP... they went to do a major upgrade to the software, and in the process my site was down all day and they lost most of my posts without having any kind of a backup. They didn't even offer anything in return for the mistake, and it took days before I got an answer from them that the posts were lost.

Needless to say I moved to another host and started using UBB (that's another long story!)

[tubedogg]

Steve: You've got a point. I was thinking of it more from the aspect of the amends. Not offering an apology is not good, no.

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by tubedogg
But Steve, with all due respect, what would you prefer they do to make amends

Well for starters they could have apologized. I am fully capable of understanding that mistakes happen. If they had written me and said.

"We're sorry for taking so long to get back to you but we've spent most of today trying to find out what happened to your files. The bads news is that we appear to have deleted them by mistake and don't have a backup. We sincerely apologize for this mistake and although we know it doesn't make up for the loss, please accept one free year of web hosting. Please be assured that we'll do better in the future to earn your trust and business."

Believe it or not I would have respected such an honest and apologetic approach.

I have run Technical Support organizations in the past and if anyone of my employees ever offered up such a lame excuse as "the files were somehow lost on our end" I would have made sure they never made that mistake again!

[OneChance]

Man, that sucks. It's incredible that they would lose your files, but to lose them when they didn't even have to touch your files, that's even more incredible. I used to work for an ISP and did this sort of thing pretty often and never had a problem. You have to be pretty incompetent to make a mistake here. I don't know HR's side of the story, but this is really sad. Anyway, smachol, I know what a bummer it is to not get the service you paid for. Did you ask them about a backup? Isn't having a backup part of your account? I'd take the year's credit and move on, as it appears you have done.

[thewitt]

So I have a more fundamental question here.

What tool would HostRocket be using to make DNS changes that would result in your files being deleted?

Is this a problem with a Control Panel application? Are we going to see more of this from hosts that put improperly trained technicians answering helpdesk tickets?

I'm not familiar with all the control panel functions available to hosting companies, but it seems to me if any unix admin was doing this task, there would not even be a remote risk of deleting files when changing DNS records.

That's like your auto mechanic coming up to you and saying "I'm sorry, but we've accidently replaced your water pump. I know you asked us to check your rear brakes, but the two tasks are so closely related, that we couldn't help ourselves..."

-t

[Chris Schreiber]

Originally posted by thewitt
What tool would HostRocket be using to make DNS changes that would result in your files being deleted?

None.... in fact the DNS changes would have been more likely to have been made on a completely different machine then the web server.

[Steve Machol]

OneChance,

Yes, daily backups were supposedly part of the service. Even if they weren't it boggles the mind to think that they would delete my entire directory just to make a DNS change. I don't understand how such a thing could have happened!

What really kills me, though, is the pathetic response with the non-apology and lack of explanation.

[smelialichu]

That's probably not the real reson. Most likely they're covering up the real reason.

[Shoe]

I went with hostrocket for about 15 days. I never got any response from them regarding a problem I had. Their services are good but the customer support is terrible!

I left them. Try www.venturesonline.com

[auto]

ive heard many good things about hostrocket and this thread is a big surprise to me

im glad im hosted by www.hostmatters.com
they really are the best
ICQ support is almost always there too.
NO problems with HM whatsoever, im a very happy customer

[Jake Bunce]

that sucks. I've been using hostpro for about 3 months (freedom 200 plan). The only problem I have had is my forums getting really slow now and then. I turned off persistant connections and the problem went away. Of course, on a shared server this situation is to be expected. Other than that I'm pleased with their level of service, web server performance, download speed from my site (maxes out my 1.5Mbps DSL), etc.