ByteFortress Down?

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Posted by cornflakes, 07-11-2006, 05:14 PM
Seems like ByteFortress is currently down... even their website (www.bytefortress.com) is not responding, and no one's picking up the phone there (goes straight to voicemail).
Posted by Tyler, 07-11-2006, 05:26 PM
Their website is working fine here.
Posted by cornflakes, 07-11-2006, 05:34 PM
You're right! Their website just started pulling up for me again... that's a good sign. My backup node over there is still down, but hopefully their website coming back up again means it won't be long until my node gets restored!
Posted by ByteFortressAaron, 07-11-2006, 05:42 PM
Hi, We were running emergency maintenance in the middle of the day as there are minimal backups run during this time. Also we were on the phones with other clients. Sorry for the inconvenience and everything is back to normal.
Posted by cornflakes, 07-11-2006, 05:47 PM
Not a problem! I'm new to your company and so I get a little nervous when things go down unexpectedly in the middle of the day. My node's back up and running. Thanks for taking care of it!
Posted by ByteFortressAaron, 07-11-2006, 05:50 PM
Sorry it scared you. We are working on a bulletin system to better advise our customers of maintenance ran on the system. We really appreciate your patience with this Thanks!
Posted by ourimbah, 06-01-2007, 06:23 PM
This is my reply to Bytefortress "invoice" I find your email to my email address staggering and unbelievable. I joined Digital Zones 3 or 4 years ago and they (and you) have been automatically billing me ever since. I have had troubles over the last two months with my site but the techos have eventually sorted those. On the 23rd May my site stopped working. No site; no email. See ticket: IGN-241503 With the site down I did not get an invoice from you. Of course I was not expecting an invoice because it is paid automatically. On the 29th (still no web site, no email) I chose to move my site to another hosting service. My customers were getting pretty annoyed, as was I. On the 31st I get your email "ByteFortress Technologies LLC - Your payment for is REALLY late!" I check the ticket IGN-241503 and there is still no indication the site is available on your host. The emails that went to my site from 23 to 29 May have disappeared. The email files on your site are not available to me either. My son who has been traveling for over 18 months has all his details in that file. I cannot get to it. *I believe you have, at the very least, a moral obligation to supply me with an IP address from where I can access those files (INBOXES) using FTP. * I cannot see any reason to switch my site back to your server.
Posted by sozomax, 06-01-2007, 07:53 PM
Define "normal" I have never heard a truthful word from you. You are "supposed" to be the "expert" in back-up technology...how can that be if you have issue with your own back-up. You lost one of my databases and almost lost a second...I was smart enough to get out before you lost everything else. I have already informed 22 clients of your clients (friends & business associates PRE-ByteFortress) to back it up and get the heck out. All have said that they would. Let these posts be etched in stone to ANYONE looking to do business with you...that we are...un-happy with the service you failed to give us. IMHO--you are neither professional nor experienced...just careless because you could care....less. Matthew
Posted by cbacher, 06-05-2007, 02:55 PM
Same story as ourimbah - web site down for over a week, moved to new web host, cancelled ByteShack accounts, got invoice "REALLY" late notice (over new host's e-mail system ironically), received no confirmation of cancellations. But I have one other problem that is even more serious - the old Dzones billing portal continues to auto-charge my credit card that was originally set up for the account last year before the ByteShack takeover. I can login to the old Dzones billing area but the option to add or remove credit cards is gone so I cannot remove my card. When I replied directly to the Dzones e-mail address that sent me the charge confirmation, I got the e-mail back with a "no such address" message. I have contacted ByteShack billing, tech support, sales support, and have received no response to my request that they remove my card from their system since I have cancelled my accounts. I know that I could simply instruct my bank to refuse future charges against my card, but my fear is that my account has ended up in some automated black hole that will continue to try and bill me for services I have cancelled, and if I do not pay them the charges could end up in some collections account one day and affect my credit. I do not like to cause problems or file unnecessary complaints for or against anyone, but at this point since this company continues auto-charging me for services that apparently they will not cancel (even though I have repeatedly requested they do so by submitting the required online forms), I do not know what else to do. Is there any consumer protection agency out there that one can contact for help when a company will not respond to a customer's valid requests to stop charging for services that have been cancelled? I just want ByteShack to turn me loose, confirm my accounts' cancellations, and remove my credit card and personal billing information from their old Dzones automated billing system. Someone please help!
Posted by ourimbah, 06-05-2007, 06:58 PM
I agree. At the moment I cannot get onto their main site, support suite or peer support community. I am not sure they can survive that long the way things are? To talk with them (email) would be wonderful. I do not know whether they are still auto billing or not because my payment was due during site down. I will know when I get my credit card statement.
Posted by sozomax, 06-05-2007, 07:31 PM
These knuckleheads...just took MORE money and I cannot reach them!!!!! Next step...credit card fraud. Matthew
Posted by ourimbah, 06-05-2007, 07:50 PM
I wish to stop using your service, see (my invoice) I do hope you have not continued to auto bill me? See (this thread) for the disquiet out there in the ether. A reply would be nice.
Posted by sozomax, 06-05-2007, 11:09 PM
I have sent an E-Mail to just about every E-Mail address that ByteFortress has asking to cancel my account and getting a refund. Here is the funny part...Aaron & Lyron got tired of me...so they canceled my account BEFORE I asked...and...are you ready...these knuckleheads are still billing me! I am reporting them tomorrow to the BBB & the FTC as well as Visa's Fraud dept. This should be good. Matthew
Posted by tsj5j, 06-06-2007, 01:30 AM
File charge backs, then blacklist them as fraudulent with your CC provider. If you used PayPal... too bad, no refunds. But cancel PayPal's recurring subscription.
Posted by ByteFortressAaron, 06-06-2007, 11:19 AM
This has been brought to my attention enough for me to give it some priority. So please allow me a moment to fill you in on the details. This client is not being billed for anything. Requests to forward billing statements have come with silence, and on top of that, our billing and accounting operations by standard do not setup auto bill pay. The process for doing this is a written and faxed form, containing both valid ID and the credit card to be charged. None of which was completed by the client, so I can assure any one of you that this is a false allegation. As to the circumstance. I am sure any business owner will agree that when a client becomes to hostile to deal with, it is probably best to end the relationship. Multiple attempts were made to please this client, and of course we don't like to have anyone leave unhappy, but nevertheless for both our and the clients sake, the relationship was terminated. I apologize to everyone who has been left with a bad impression of our company due to this one bad seed. I also do express my deepest regret that any of our former clients are unhappy, however it is true you cannot possibly make everyone happy, so I do wish them the best in finding a more suitable provider for their needs. Anyone can run on the forums and say something. It just turns into a game of who can manipulate the masses better. Allow us the opportunity to prove to you the difference in our service. If you doubt the quality of any of our services, you're welcome to try any of the services under criticism on ANY public forum anywhere free for 1 month. Thank you for your time, and again please let me know if there is anything you all would like to discuss and I'll be happy to hear you out.
Posted by sozomax, 06-06-2007, 11:40 AM
Listen Aaron...I have proof and I WILL supply to ANYONE who asks! I have the bank statements to prove it as well as the E-Mail from Digital Zones (aka ByteFortress) that my monthly payment is late (from another account that I canceled). So don't come on this forum and accuse us of lying like you do on the ByteFortress forum. You actually call people who complain "Spammers". http://forums.bftglobal.com/index.php As to your track record...you go there and delete whatever you have to to prove all of us crazy. I have attached the E-Mail as a TXT Go on Aaron...prove me wrong...I dare you. Heck i dare you to prove any of us wrong. Keep watch people...I will be posting the letter to the FTC as soon as I have it drafted. P.S. Anyone who wants to try your service...MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACK-UP! Also look here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...=608386&page=5 Matthew Attached Files Past Due Notice - Digital Zones Web Hosting.txt (5.8 KB, 27 views) Last edited by sozomax; 06-06-2007 at 11:43 AM.
Posted by ByteFortressAaron, 06-06-2007, 11:49 AM
That looks like a standard auto notification from Ubersmith to me. If anyone else has used this, you'd know what it is. No monies had been deducted, auto payment as mentioned before is for subscribed and approved circumstances only. Funny, also I hadn't received any notification of tickets with the statement that you were charged in it. If you can provide proof, fantastic, I'll make sure it gets sorted and an investigated as to why done. However, given your hostile and weightless antics thus far, I am not entirely sure this exists. Matt, help me to help you, otherwise this unprofessional exhibition by yourself will be for nothing. As mentioned before everyone. I apologize that this hasn't been settled without this client blowing it out of proportion. All attempts had been made on our billing end to gain the information in question. Still none?
Posted by ByteFortressAaron, 06-06-2007, 12:04 PM
I neglect to see where that is conclusive evidence to your claim. Simply because a forum chooses the way it is conducted, and that way doesn't fit within your ideas of how it should, doesn't make it any less creditable. I believe any mod on this forum can relate, as some content is not suited for the masses. Disputes, and otherwise legally suggestive threads within a companies community forum is generally not allowed. I believe full notification within our rules and also in announcements state that first line support is not to be given through forum. Perhaps next time you might want to read and acknowledge forum guidelines, then there will be no reason for mods to enforce them. Thank you Matthew.
Posted by sozomax, 06-06-2007, 12:14 PM
I have gone to your support page Aaron...posted my LAST issue as to you taking money out of my account. One minute it was there...next it was gone! Where oh where do i go next? Oh yeah...the forum...where everyone else went to complain. But again...only when those pages are up. Anybody here try to file a ticket only to find "Page cannot Be Found?" Matthew
Posted by ByteFortressAaron, 06-06-2007, 12:55 PM
There are just a couple of clients who are not satisfied with our position of sticking by our SLA and terms, rather than offering shush-bribe money to keep it off WHT. I hope everyone takes the information presented here for it's face value and we encourage everyone to form their own opinions of us, rather than listen to hear-say. You know WHT likes drama. << advertisement removed >> Thank you all. Last edited by the_pm; 06-06-2007 at 01:15 PM.
Posted by cbacher, 06-06-2007, 05:17 PM
I hope this is my last posting in either of the two threads I have been following here. I have never posted to these message forums before now, but quite honestly Aaron and Lyron, you were replying to these threads in a timelier manner than you were replying to your own help tickets or e-mails that I sent. I only signed up with this forum because it looked like best place to find you, and I was no longer allowed to post at the ByteShack forums the forum administrator had disabled that ability for me. My intention in posting here was not to carelessly or grudgingly paint a negative picture of ByteShack Im sure that there have to be many satisfied customers otherwise you would not still be in business. But, in my case there were clearly communication problems and a failure to address my help tickets and requests for cancellation of services in a timely manner. Again Aaron/Lyron, I have received more information from you in the past few days through this forum than through personal or official ByteShack communication. I cannot speak for any of the other posters here in this forum, but here is my story to set the record straight: 1.) I am not a disgruntled customer 2.) I did not potentially lose any money due to the lack of service over the past month 3.) I have not lost any valuable data due to server issues, etc 4.) I have no intention of taking any legal actions regarding my service experience with ByteShack, because regarding service issues, nothing illegal happened HOWEVER 1.) As a ByteShack customer, my service was interrupted for over a week in May 2007, my web sites were down, and I could not receive any e-mail through the addresses with those domains for that time period 2.) Given such incidents, I chose to cancel both of my web hosting accounts with ByteShack and move them to another web hosting service 3.) I was on a month to month contract so there were no refunds to issue, and therefore I never asked for a refund 4.) Still, even though I submitted the proper online forms to ByteShack to cancel my accounts, I received no confirmation that either of my accounts had in fact been cancelled and I subsequently was still auto-charged for one of them through the Dzones billing system Now - regarding the current status of my accounts: 1.) As of 6/5/2007 my credit card information has finally been deleted from the Dzones billing system (by someone named Rachel at either ByteShack or Dzones according to their billing portal), however my former website still shows as an active service with Dzones. Whats up with that? Did you or did you not acquire Dzones web hosting? 2.) In a previous post you stated that ByteShack did not acquire merchant accounts from Dzones; I did not have any merchant accounts just two simple public web hosting accounts. Why is it then that you did acquire both of my accounts, bill for one of them, but left the other with Dzones billing? AGAIN - Did you or did you not acquire Dzones web hosting per your press releases that are posted all over the Internet? 3.) It is true that I was only auto-charged for the one account that appeared in the old Dzones billing portal BUT, when I clicked on the link to submit a help ticket to Dzones Billing, the support page for ByteShack/ByteFortress came up! If, as you stated in a previous post, ByteShack is not responsible for billing or auto-charging this account or any others still listed under Dzones Billing, why is it then that you are taking the responsibility for accepting help tickets involving Dzones Billing inquiries? 4.) And once again with the cancellation confirmations I still have not received any! I just want to receive a confirmation that both of my accounts have indeed been removed from all ByteShack/ByteFortress/Dzones(former, current, acquired, whatever) services. This is only so I can be sure that all of my payment obligations to ByteShack have been met and I am no longer bound to any agreement for payment of services. Finally, I sincerely hope it is indeed true that I am in the minority with my complaints, but when these problems included no response to removal from your service and then continued auto-billing for one service with no ability to delete my personal and credit card information THAT was a problem worth addressing, and I did so in a forum that I knew you would respond to. In the future, you will head off these types of public discussions by simply responding to your customers help tickets and e-mails and following up on their requests if that had happened in the case of myself and the other supposed disgruntled customers posting here, these threads would not even exist. True customer satisfaction BEGINS and ENDS with timely communication. Thank you Aaron and Lyron for the services you provided to me for a brief but frustrating few months I do hope the roughest roads are behind you and that you are successful in your future endeavors regarding ByteShack web hosting. Just remember, any companys success hinges on the ability to effectively and politely communicate with its customers. I may have been the exception in your customer base, but I still mattered. Take care and best of luck.
Posted by ourimbah, 06-06-2007, 05:57 PM
I could reply to Aaron's posting in an identical way to cbacher's posting. There is very little in it that differs from my experience. I have been with dzones/byteshack for about 4 years. We have had problems but the ironical thing was that only days before my site and all communications disappeared I wrote in the error log how all the problems had been sorted and I was very happy. Then on the 23rd May the site and all email communication disappeared. After nothing for 7 days I switched hosting services. Who would not do this? My only real gripe is I have lost all inboxes, particularly my son's. He has been traveling for 1 1/2 years and has/had all emails in his inbox. I guess we will live with that. As far as the accounts are concerned I assume the threat of closing my service after non-payment of invoice (all payments auto billed up to this point) means that I am not being charged anymore. Good. BTW I did not get the "due" invoice on the 24th because I had no site and email. I was expecting auto-billing on the 24th anyway. I could not have said it better. I agree totally. What more can we say Aaron?
Posted by sozomax, 06-06-2007, 06:54 PM
Cbacher & Ourimbah....Thank you for spelling out what I failed to do. Much better then I ever could considering my state of mind. It is NOT $8.95 per month...it was simple courteous customer service. Aaron & Lyron...you are in a service industry. You failed in the area of customer service. cbacher is 100% correct. If my tickets would have been attended to and I would not have been banned from your forum AND you would have communicated better...I would not have posted here. I found you here through Google...this was the only way that I knew of to draw you out of hiding and face your accusers. We are tired of your hiding, tired of the disrespect, and tired of being ignored by you and your staff at ByteFortress. The new clients that you acquired from Digital Zones deserve just as much respect as the clients before us. If you took over DZ's accounts...you are 100% responsible...end of story. Before you closed my account because you did not like my attitude about the way I was treated...you told me I could get my service on the house for 6 months. Okay Aaron...time to step up to the plate...I would like to be refunded for 6 months. Prove to us...that you are either a man of your word...or not. Matthew
Posted by hansenc, 06-06-2007, 07:59 PM
Well glad to see i'm not the only one with ongoing issues with this company, guess I will get my post together and put it out on the forum.
Posted by hansenc, 06-06-2007, 08:06 PM
Well considering that my trouble tickets, emails, and phone calls for a refund have went unanswered I will go ahead and lay it all out on the forums. I know my issue with this company is not near as bad as with other posters on this forum but I do want to make everyone aware of what has happened. I contracted ServerSupportGuys.com out to do some exchange work for me, as you all know by now this is part of ByteFortress Technologies. The cost of the work was going to be $65. I promptly paid this amount and was told work would get started right away. Work did begin the next day about 12 hours short of what I was told and I would say someone was connected to the server for about 3 hours then they disconnected to never been seen again. I opened up trouble tickets, sent email, tried to call *keyword tried* seems no one answers phone calls for this company no matter what time you call. I then finaly got someone on the sales chat and that log is posted below in the txt file called chat may 30th. In that chat you can see that was talking with Quentin about my issue and long story short he was going to get with someone to have the issue looked at right away. Well turns out that never happened. After my tickets still went unanswered I decided to go with someone else to do the work. At this time I tried to get in contact with ByteFortress the only way I knew how and that was by the Sales Chat again. This time I got Aaron. He wasn't as friendly as Quentin and already knew that I wanted a refund, I forgot to save his message but I do have the screenshots of our chat posted at 001 and 002. He pretty much said that I would get my refund when the "billing department processed it" I asked if he had a contact number for me to reach him at if needed and was told that because I was no longer a customer that no further phone support or otherwise would be given *he did stand to his word on this one*. Next chat happen about 5 minutes later after he ended my chat conversation and blocked my IP. you can see he blocked my IP by looking at 003 that shows I had to remote desktop in to another server to start the chat with him. This chat log I did save and it is called May 31st. In this chat log I thought I would be a nice guy and ask if he would like me to close my paypal claim. Under good faith I went ahead and did this right away and I was once again assured by Aaron that the refund would be taken care of right away. He apologized for the issue and said if he was given the change again he would make sure this is sorted quicker. Once again I Thanked Aaron and went on my away. a few days went by and now that brings me to tonight. Still no responce on the trouble tickets and still no refund in my paypal account. Aaron, sorry I had to post this openly on a forum but $65 is $65 and your company has in no way earned it. I ask you now on a public forum to please process my refund. Oh yeah Aaron i noticed you called someone being unprofessional, IP blocking someone because you didnt want to deal with them thats being unprofessional. Attached file for reading and viewing http://www.phake.net/bft/001.jpg http://www.phake.net/bft/002.jpg http://www.phake.net/bft/003.jpg http://www.phake.net/bft/may30th.txt http://www.phake.net/bft/may31st.txt
Posted by hansenc, 06-08-2007, 03:28 PM
Well just want to update everyone else on this... After opening up a complaint with the BBB and about 10 trouble tickets I did receive a refund from them for the work that was never done. Thank you Lyron
Posted by ldcdc, 06-08-2007, 05:42 PM
Seems like a straight forward process. Good thing you got your money back though.
Posted by cbacher, 06-09-2007, 05:03 AM
Well, I guess my last post wasn't my final post after all. Hey guys its me again - Client ID: 4368. I just logged into the "fictitious" Dzones billing portal and saw that the web site I have been requesting cancellation of for the past two weeks has just been renewed for another month! (see Ledger_Event_Log.JPG) with the option to Auto-charge enabled (see View_Services.JPG). ByteShack/ByteFortress you still dont get it!!!!!! I have submitted the online cancellation form for this site twice now, sent numerous e-mails, called your accounting department and left messages I know it may just be an exercise in futility at this point but how hard is it for you to simply CANCEL MY ACCOUNT. Hey, maybe I should log into the non-existent Dzones billing portal, click on the support link and send you a help ticket when your support site comes up in the browser (see Open_a_ticket_with_Billing.JPG). Oh well, at least my credit card information was removed and you cant really auto-charge me anymore (something you claim you were never able to do anyway). By the way, my old web sites are working great with the new web host for 60% cheaper than what I had been paying you. Of course you still think my site is pointing to your server name (see Package_Details.JPG). And no, I did not doctor up these screen shots other than to block out my name and personal web site information my client ID is still visible so you can go check it out yourself. Oh yeah, and while you're at it, CANCEL MY ACCOUNT!!!!!!! Attached Images Ledger_Event_Log.JPG (91.5 KB, 19 views) View_Services.JPG (81.4 KB, 13 views) Open_a_ticket_with_Billing.JPG (132.7 KB, 18 views) Package_Details.JPG (66.7 KB, 17 views)
Posted by netlinksaf, 06-14-2007, 01:21 AM
my server is still down wiht bytefortress!!!! seems like its gonna take forever for bytefortress to bring my server up! i wonder if they have the knowledge and skills or prbably they did not paid softlayers their fee due and my server was taken over by softlayer... i m in deep trouble with bytefortress... they have caused me thousands of dollars of loss... incompetent people.... aaron i bet you dont have any thing to say about my problem since u couldnt fix it after hundreds of lies and false promises
Posted by Jeff Stachyra, 08-07-2007, 08:48 AM
BF is still down. I've been with DF/Dzones far too long. Poor customer support (never answer phone, often dont reply to tech support issues). Maybe Aaron from BF can set me straight.
Posted by cornflakes, 08-07-2007, 12:09 PM
Jeff, I recommend you look through this thread for some insight on what's going on: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?p=4649196
Posted by ourimbah, 08-07-2007, 06:23 PM
I got out ages ago. They did promise I would get the inbox for one address to me but never did. The support portal I was using just disappeared. Even though I canceled the service I still get invoice notices threatening to stop my service, which I do not have anyway. I do not think anybody knows what they are doing.
Posted by gioste, 08-21-2007, 09:03 AM
BF is still down. I was a Dzone customer and everything was fine until they sold to BF. My webSite is still down and I'm trying to transfer my domain but it's locked and I can't tranfer. None form BF is answering to my email and I don't know how can I do for getting my domain transfered ... any help/hints is really appreciate. gioste
Posted by hyperionkp, 09-14-2007, 11:27 AM
my website was down for 2 days that i know of (not to mention the bytefortress website as well) and it finally came back up today. I cancelled my service and am waiting for a confirmation email which im afraid i may never get. I had dzones since 2002 and had very minimal problems until they merged. After the switchover to bytefortress I always had problems paying my bill because i have a complicated issue with paypal, and basically every month I had to email them telling them i needed a bill with a nonpaypal option. I tried to send an email yesterday to get some answers, the email didn't even go through which i attribute to the fact their site was down... but i can't be sure. now this month i notice i haven't recieved a bill and when i went to freshbooks.com which is the site they used to bill me, i try to login and click on past bills in old emails it says the account is deactivated. I even tried to go to their help forum, which is also gone. I clicked on a link from their site thinking that it may have changed but it said the license expired. That really worried me. I'm worried that even though I cancelled if I continue to recieve their invoices like previous people mentioned would that mess up my credit? I was just really disappointed that I had to go through so much work when I had virtually no problems with just dzones prior.
Posted by jchristou, 09-16-2007, 09:55 PM
Just curious, what was your domain name? Did you manage to get this sorted?
Posted by hyperionkp, 09-17-2007, 09:36 AM
I never received a confirmation that my account was closed and my website is still functional.
Posted by -OY-, 09-18-2007, 02:05 AM
It's on their corporate webpage.
Posted by mingovia, 09-18-2007, 09:21 AM
ByteFortress is out of business. But, normally, a webhost will sell out to another hosting company. Because all those customers are their only remaining asset. Does anyone know if ByteFortress is in the process of selling out? What has become of all our websites and email? I would like to download everything and move to a new webhost.