Late last year, I took on a new client who is hosted on Network Solutions. All initially went generally smoothly. The first thing we needed to do was to establish a NEW Windows hosting account because the task at hand was to replace an aging native HTML web site with a database-enabled ASP.NET web site. Development proceeding and we were able to cut over to the replacement ASP.NET web site in late March.
My interactions with Technical Support at Network Solutions were sort of a black-and-white affair: It shortly became obvious that during US East Coast business hours (M-F), you would reach U.S. support while outside of "prime time" you generally got a totally different service. Over time, it became somewhat apparent that while the non-prime time folks were generally competent, there was (and is) a bit of a language barrier and I came to understand that the support, indeed, seemed to be a team in the Ukraine. For the most part, this was not a huge problem except that there always seems something slightly syntactically "disconnected" in explaining a problem or particular need. On the whole, there was nothing hugely inconvenient, but just not the service level of comprehension that one would get from a fellow American technical support analyst. (I certainly am sympathetic to the ?bottom line? issues of providing competitive service rates and it seems unavoidable that this should involve some globalization of support services.)
Segue to last week: After a couple of client staff training sessions on the ?background administration? facilities supporting the new database-enabled web site, we decided it was time to release the unused Unix/Linux hosting. The associated emails for the domain had been moved/connected to the replacement Windows package (fairly transparently with little or no service interruptions?which is as it should be for a ?internal switch?). Since I always have the client maintain control over the hosting account, I let them know that it was now safe to delete the Unix/Linux shared hosting account as we have fully vetted the replacement Windows web site.
Late Friday afternoon, the client confirmed in an email that the Unix/Linus account was canceled and that the appropriate credit was either being refunded to them or applied as an extension to the remaining Windows shared hosting. Or such was the INTENT!
After receiving a confirming email from the client that the turn-off of the old Unix/Linus hosting had been communicated to NS, I had the occasion of running a test of some new as-yet-unreleased. By some horrid coincidence, when I ran the test (online, interfacing with the hosted MS SQL database) the test failed with an ASP.NET error that I?d never seen before (the yellow screen of death mentioned a ?transport-level error?). Curious, I immediately went to FTP to check that had loaded the correct 2 or 3 test files into the web site source (?htdocs?) area and was surprised to find that my FTP id and password no longer got me into the website source area.
Moving away from my controlled test area, I then attempted to bring up the normal ?home page? of the ASP.NET web site and instead got the standard NS ?website under construction? placeholder. Huh? What?s happening here?
So I called in to NS Tech Support and reported the symptoms I was experiencing to the rep. The rep proceeded to tell me that the Windows hosting account had been CANCELED! Huh? Could my client have gotten things backward? I asked for clarification on the customer interaction notes and was then told by the rep that the request clearly showed that the request was to shut off the Unix/Linux account and that the implementation of this did seem to show that NS had gotten it backwards.
Somewhat relieved, I then asked what sort of ?priority fix? could be applied to correct this obvious error on the part of NS. The first-line rep told me that someone would first need to purchase a Windows hosting account as the current account had been closed and there could be no action until that was established. Incredulous, I asked ?you mean in order for you folks to correct YOUR error my client needs to purchase a hosting account before anything can occur?? That was confirmed and I then asked to speak to a Supervisor. The story was the same with the Supervisor at which point I asked, ?well, can I purchase a one-month Windows hosting now with my credit card to effect that repairs could get under way?? and was informed that yes, that would work. As it was the weekend now--indeed now into the wee hours of Saturday morning--I authorized a one-month account. I was assured that NS would proceed with a ?priority? repair/re-establishment of the incorrectly cancelled account and that we could expect the web site and database to be back in place within 24 hours.
If items had been carried through as promised, this sad tale of woe might just end there. But no, it seemed that I had not yet experienced the full capabilities of the general incompetence of NS.
The 24-hour window came and went and the only sign of progress was that I was able to re-establish an FTP account and could see that the backup of an empty MS SQL database was placed in a ?backup? folder at the root of the web hosting disk space. Having expected that by the time this period had taken that there would be a full restore of the database and the web site source files, I called in again to inquire what was happening. After much sorting through of Ticket numbers, I was informed that the database had not been restore since I had not created the database particulars (db name, user name, password) that were needed before the restore could occur. As nothing had been mentioned about this sequence being important, I was incredulous and asked ?so the whole database restore has just been waiting without ANY communication to me that this is required?? and the sad answer was ?yes?.
I pleaded with the tech support rep to please expedite the promised 24-hour repair for which no progress nor communication had happened in the prior 24-hour period. By this point the client web site had essentially been out of service for approximately 36 hours. I was assured that this would be the case. Now, any of your who have done a database backup of a relative small database (i.e., less than 10 megabytes) know that doing a restore using MS SQL Server 2008 is a matter of pointing to the database ?.BAK? file and the database and hitting ?Restore?. Hot a hugely complicated operation.
Another 24 hours passed and the database was finally restored (to a full backup that was 3 or 4 days old at the time of the mistaken account deletion. I proceeded to restore the web site source files since my copies were fully up-to-date except for the need to update the database particulars in the ?web.config? file. But the comedy of errors had not yet rolled out the final act!
Now Monday morning, it looked like the web site (including the database) was now online and operational. Updating the client, I was shocked to learn that all of the email accounts were missing and had been deleted (as they were ?attached? to the incorrectly canceled Windows hosting package). Again, I contacted NS tech support and was told that the emails (slightly under 30 for this client) could be restored on an expedited basis. In about 6 hours indeed they were restored, with the final slip-up that all of the passwords for the account had been reset to ?Password1? and that each email user would need to use an NS web utility to update their password (or re-establish what had been set up in their email program).
So what?s the bottom line? I am strongly advising the client that we relocate their hosting, domains and email to a more reliable company at the earliest opportunity. Because of their general name recognition, I had always assumed that NS was a general professional and reputable hosting resource. After the experience with this account I would under NO circumstances take over another client hosted at NS unless the client agreed to move to another resource. While I would like to be able to report that the ?internationalization? of technical support is seamless and transparent and reliable, plainly that is not the case with NS. Sadly, the facts of this experience over the course of 3 days would almost be funny if the general incompetence and sequence of ?dropped balls? wasn?t so lamentable. In the first place, the supreme irony is that ALL of this experience originally stemmed from NS getting the original request 100% wrong. Ironically, at a subsequent discussion, I was provided with the documentation Ticket number that clearly indicated what the CORRECT request was and a variety of reps at various confirmed that all of this mess had happened because NS got it flat out WRONG. Throughout the more than dozen telephone conversations with various NS reps, they were generally sympathetic (and even apologetic) but no one ever took the initiative to truly undertake any ?heroic? measures to right THEIR wrong. Indeed, ANY sense of their working expeditiously to correct their mess-up was totally absent from their subsequent actions over the course of the 72-hours-plus that the ordeal lasted.
... sign me Disgusted with NS!