ipowerweb is teaching me a lesson.... and now i have hate

July 18th 2005, cannot connect to database. That was the beginning of one of the most horrible experiences i have ever had with a hosting company.

Aug 18th 2005, 1 month later.

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Level 1 techs, level 2 techs, leads and supervisors. Ive talked to them all. First the issue was Vbulletin, not the server, the software. I did the regular forum searches here and went over my installation. I also cross referenced my setup with my 2 other sites, all was good to go.

The forum starts going down more often. I start making the calls from work, start making the calls from home. Sometimes spending 3 hours a day talking to their techs. I?m told its an abusive new registered user, they restart the sql and all is well. This happens about twice a day lasting anywhere from 1-4 hours. More issues. I ask to be moved off this server being so abused, they say it will cost $50 US. I have to pay because they cant look after things?

I keep calling. I?ve upgraded to knowing the level 2 techs well and they give me a php script i have to run because they cant pinpoint the error. Over the next 2 weeks its ran every time i come across the forum down.

Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through
socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) in /home/xxxx/public_html/testmysql.php on
line 31

Warning: mysql_select_db(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link
resource in /home/xxxx/public_html/testmysql.php on line 33
Cannot Select Database.

The level 2 techs assure me that the problem is going to be resolved. 1st week goes by and they dont even return my calls, site keeps going down. They tell me that moving the site is not an option because this sql issue can be resolved easily. At this point im calling 2-3 times a day, sometimes sitting on hold for 20 minutes. Then i get the level 1 customer rep who insists he can help me. When i give him the ticket number and email information he asks me what the problem is. For some reason this just started making me insane. They use a term "unfortunatly" often and it just started getting under my skin. At this point im biting my tongue and trying not to be tough on them as theyre just doing their jobs, but i mean really, ive been calling for 3 weeks everyday and your history in front of you doesn?t tell you WHAT THE RE-OCCURING PROBLEM IS?

Finally i start getting really upset and get the opportunity to speak wit a supervisor (Donald J) who is willing to make things happen. I can no longer take the "oh we'll just restart the sql for ya" crap. Oh, when it crashes in two hours i should call and you?ll reset it for me; "unfortunately sir that?s all we can do". /me pulls hair out.

Donald the supervisor moves our website to a new server. Ahhh, finally, things are turning around. *reality check*. The server goes down 9 hours later, same thing. Donald tells me vdeck is using all the resources and the coders & admins are both passing the ticket back and fourth and no one wants to fix it. They reset the sql. At this point the sql has been reset every day, at least once, if not up to 4 times.

Donald assures me this is a server side issue. I question when will it be fixed? No eta.

Last night im working away on the site, its up and well... whatever, time is limited. So i start coding in a mod from this site. The php called for 300,000 queries. Its ran, they suspend my account. I call and mention to them the sql and site is down, level 1 tech doesnt know why. I explain to him i ran this query and i noticed after that they have a 50,000 query max limit per hour. They refuse to reset my sql, due to it possibly damaging other peoples queries and db. I pose the question of, "you reset the sql everyday,1-4 times because your server has an issue, when i call and make 1 mistake you punish me"... response that made me boil.. "unfortunately sir, there?s nothing we can do".... i snap, i curse (which is prolly the most unprofessional thing to do) and i ask to talk to a supervisor. I get a lead hand, a lead hand who is a level 2 tech ive been dealing with. He tells me due to my 1x abuse my account is suspended. After a little anger, some TELLING him the sql is reset.

So now the sql is reset and well, back to business. 1 hour later the sql goes down. I call, they reset. 25 minutes later the sql goes down, I call, they reset. Come this morning. At 6:45 the site went down and is still down at 11:40 am. They tell me they?re doing some database management, and password upgrades and this is the reason I am down still.

I?m so bitter. I hate companies that take advantage of people like this. There?s not much else to do I suppose except change hosting companies. I have 2 other forums with them and the one had these issues in the beginning as well, but it was resolved and I got over it after a year and didn?t think it was possible for ipowerweb to do this again. My 2nd site gets no traffic, was something I built for the family so who knows If its going down. Their average is horrible.
Site one: 4600+ users, initially went down 1.5 years ago..was resolved
Site two: 200 users, family site
Site three: 480 users, attempting to replace make the new site over site one? horrible problems..

What do you guys think? Wait it out? Move on? Frankly, im scared if we move all my hard work will be lost. People aren?t as forgiving and may not return. I don?t want to recode the site, im not confident to do this move. Im tired, im sleeping four hours a day because theyre stressing me out now.

[Neutral Singh]

LOL!! So, you were running the queries for AI talking bot?

You reminded me of similar fate my website met 7-8 months ago. My account was suspended for a week. I can understand your headaches and heartaches... but as everybody has rightly said Move On...

i decided to host with http://www.hostrocket.com and initially opted for only six months package being terrible shaken from my first experieces with a hosting servie but sinve then i have puchased their package for one more year... if you treasure your work and wanna avoid headaches, just check out their packages especially RocketTWO.

Best of Luck

Move On and Relax,

[b00k]

Originally Posted by Neutral Singh

LOL!! So, you were running the queries for AI talking bot?

I only ran the script once and bam, suspended. So i called in and after telling their level 1 what i did he said "unfortunately" i cant help you, your account is suspended. I thought how the hell can you suspend my account when after 30 days you guys can?t do right by me? That's what pushed me over the edge, thinking in my head that im getting screwed over and this is how they treat a customer they?ve been wronging.
Out of all the people there, maybe 3 were really pressing for resolve, which was nice and made me feel better. The rest were useless and as far as im concerned were speed bumps on a road to resolution.
Yesterday their apache server was down. I just threw in the towel and let it be.
They don?t return calls, ever! No matter how professional i acted and reasonable, i never got what i wanted, a proper working server package and or tech support.

AS of this exact moment, the server has been running (from what ive seen) well. Hasn?t gone down and maybe they worked the quarks out... maybe. Its only been about 12 hours, at least I don?t have 750+ emails from vbulletin telling me there?s an error with connecting to the sql.

Part of my anger/bitterness is due to their lack of tech support. In any business when you continue to screw up you tend to lose customers. And even if they don?t move (like i haven?t..yet) , customers write long posts showing their misfortune with the company.

Ipower sucks. That's it. I?ve been taught my lesson and now i know. I will never ever tell a client to use ipower, nor will i opt to use it for my own personal sites.

[Chris M]

Originally Posted by jugo

I have this installed at s3squad.com and the 300,000 Queries did nothing to my website or our server.

Did it, the server didn't skip a beat (Then again we';re hosted on QUAD Xeon Servers).

TSR..>Check your PM.

That is why - If you try and run it on a shared server you have no hope

Satan

[Andreas]

Shared Hosting sucks - always, no matter where you host.

[RaidenDAWG2]

Had a similiar problem with SiteGround. They kept suspending our account because of vB (which made absolutely no sense). Finally got tired of it and moved over to StartLogic last night (have had no problems other than they got kinda pissed at me for importing the 100,000+ post database on my own...yeah...).

-RD

[b00k]

Update.. As it seems, nothing was resolved. In my FINAL ditch attempt i asked to be moved off the VDECK servers and put on one of my current CPANEL servers.

They advised against it stating they were moving all their clients to VDECK. If the CPANEL move resolves the situation, i would hope they look into it and consider some of the damage they would be causing.

The move over to the CPANEL server was not easy. Easy for me to follow instructions and get it done right on my end. But again, i had to contact IPOWERWEB and walk them through the issues i was encountering (could not connect..) The level 1 tech Mark said everything looks fine, of course it wasnt. So again, running their level 2 techs script (Ben's script) and informing him of the findings (cant find DB), they then resolved it. Is this really that hard for them?

All i ask of them is to make it work.

Ben (level 2 tech and lead at times) stated to me that our server was demanding on their sql due to the # of users and it was a very popular site, he suggested a dedicated server... ... 450 users? demanding? taxing on the sql? WTF ? I pointed out to Ben that our other site has 5000 users with the same modifications done, and 4x the size of sql db... he squashed that idea. I would hope so Ben :ermm:

I will keep you guys updated on any further findings. I appreciate finding posts that have some decent information, so i hope im providing that to some other users searching on this company.

[SteveC]

Hey TSR, I had this EXACT SAME PROBLEM with ipower web starting on July 19th. They never mentioned other vbulletin customers having a similar problem.

Now it's happening again. Same thing, endless time on hold and they tell me it's a problem with a vbulletin script. Vbulletin tells me it's a server problem. I'm tearing my hair out. Sounds like I should definitely move to another host. Did you?

I see several hosts suggested in this thread. Any opinions on which is the best?

[Club3G]

+1 with Ipower, they were the worst hosting company I've ever used.

[b00k]

Originally Posted by SteveC

Hey TSR, I had this EXACT SAME PROBLEM with ipower web starting on July 19th. They never mentioned other vbulletin customers having a similar problem.

Now it's happening again. Same thing, endless time on hold and they tell me it's a problem with a vbulletin script. Vbulletin tells me it's a server problem. I'm tearing my hair out. Sounds like I should definitely move to another host. Did you?

I see several hosts suggested in this thread. Any opinions on which is the best?

God.. yes, the problems never stop. I was dealing with a rep by the name of Don (supervisor) and Ben (level 2 tech) never mind the countless idiots/drones/pylons that are level 1 customer service reps.
Man, i used to get LIVID calling 2x a day and the CSR would insist they can help me, when really it was always the level 2 techs who would have to. They wasted so much of my time...

Ive even told them about the numerous threads out there about their lack of service, really, they don?t care. They have enough idiots like me still with them.

What you should look into is to see if they swapped out your Cpanel. For some reason on THEIR servers i only have a 90% uptime with cpanel running. Anything else causes 100% downtime, they also blamed my the software (vb)

The other option for me that they offered was to get a dedicated server. Seeing that i have this issue on my one server with 6000 members and on my other with 500 (hundred, yes) at the time i couldn?t see why it would happen on both. Ok, maybe the 6000 user one id understand, BUT, i know people with more users who have less issues.

Maybe it is the software? Maybe there?s a mistake in a hack i implemented? But i would think the issues would be more regular, where as right now they?re sporadic.

Bottom line is, ipower sucks.

[SteveC]

Why are you staying with them? This thread has convinced me to switch to someone new.