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UK2 - Awful Service

Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 10:15 AM
Hello, I decided to post on here for some advice and to outline how bad UK2.net are as a hosting/reseller company. I'm sure this isn't the first time this has popped up and there are many other people as frustrated as I am. I'm a freelance web designer and for years I just bought hosting accounts and passed the cost onto customers but it started becoming a nightmare to manage them all. In January 2009, I decided to give UK2.net reseller hosting service a try. £30 a month, cPanel, 250gb space, 2000gb monthly bandwidth. I thought this was a pretty sweet deal. Everything was fine for a few months, no problems, then all the problems started. The server load would rocket to 70 odd or so until the server became completely un-responsive, all my clients sites would go down for hours on end. Allot of these companies depend on their websites/emails daily and it's not acceptable. They have a support number but it's a premium rate number at 50p a minute! They also never answer it, which is strange considering the money they could make from taking all the support calls! Their sales numbers ring out as well but eventually they answer and fob you off that they can't help and you need to ring technical support or email them. It takes them 2-3 days to respond to emails, even marked as 'critical'. They give some apologetic excuse about how their technicians are working on the problem and sorry for the delays. I asked them in an email exactly what steps they were taking to prevent this from happening again and they told me, "we can't tell you exactly what we're doing but the steps we're taking are going to solve the problem". The problems continued and continued and still happen. My question is, I have quite allot of sites hosted on this server, all cPanel accounts. How easy would it be to move the lot to another hosting company?
Posted by Toby H, 11-04-2009, 10:28 AM
I won't comment directly on your problems at UK2... but any other host using cPanel will be able to transfer your accounts quite easily, or you could take full backups of accounts from cPanel and provide these to your new host who could restore them to their servers for you.
Posted by rv_irl, 11-04-2009, 10:32 AM
UK2 is a big company with a lot of staff. I'm surprised to hear it would take them so long to reply to a support ticket..Hosts do from time to time experience issues, are these issues consistently happening for a prolonged period of time? Have you tried monitoring the uptime of one of your sites to see what sort of uptime you are receiving? In terms of moving to a different host. Since they are cPanel, it is very easy to move as cPanel has decent tools for migrations which moves everything including your settings, databases, scripts etc. And many hosts will be all too happy to do the migration for you. But first if you think the relationship with UK2 could be salvaged then see if you can get in touch with someone on a management level at UK2 and express your concerns to see if they put things right. Last edited by rv_irl; 11-04-2009 at 10:43 AM.
Posted by Toby H, 11-04-2009, 10:36 AM
They post here actually, I'm sure someone, probably Ditlev, will be along soon enough to help you clear this up Or you can twitter him: http://twitter.com/ditlev If he can't solve your problem, no-one can
Posted by Mach4-Chris, 11-04-2009, 10:51 AM
Jay, everything you describe signals it's time to vote with your feet. In your position as a designer for whom time is precious, never mind the reliable service your client's need, a rapid move is a no-brainer. In my experience of large hosts with the kind of issues you describe, the problems are deeply entrenched and highly unlikely to resolve within any reasonable time scale. Look how long it takes an oil tanker to turn around. There are many great reseller providers of the small to medium size who will work their butts off to give you a superb service and you'll not have to worry any more. What are you waiting for? Last edited by Mach4-Chris; 11-04-2009 at 11:00 AM.
Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 12:34 PM
Hi guys, thanks for the speedy replies. I'm going to get in touch with them (if they bother to answer the phone) and ask to speak to a manager and ask what they can do to either improve the service or I will be leaving in the new year. I'm also going to be on the look out for another UK reseller, of smaller size as redhat chris just suggested. One that will take better care of me than a large organisation purely looking to drive sales and no after sales support. Any suggestions guys? I'm currently paying £30 a month for this package and ideally, I don't want to be forking out much more than that.
Posted by hosting guru, 11-04-2009, 12:40 PM
hard luck mate,may be better luck next time.
Posted by Dan_EZPZ, 11-04-2009, 12:41 PM
What are your requirements? I assume you don't actually need 250GB webspace and 2000GB bandwidth?
Posted by entiretech, 11-04-2009, 12:43 PM
Sorry to hear about the service from UK2 - not the first time I've read bad reviews. Anyway, check out the Reseller Offers forum: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=130 Can find some nice deals there with reliable companies
Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 12:53 PM
Well, to be perfectly honest, I have about 25 accounts hosted on the server at the minute and the majority of them are the cheapest package I offer, which is:- 1 GB Space 10 GB Bandwidth 5 Email Accounts 1 mySQL Databases 5 FTP Accounts Linux OS Fantastico Only £29.99 per year None of them really use anywhere near that amount of bandwidth either, so slightly smaller bandwidth and space would be fine. So something similar or slightly less would suffice.
Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 12:57 PM
Also, might I add, I favour web hosting companies that are UK based with UK freephone or landline/0844 telephone number for support.
Posted by entiretech, 11-04-2009, 12:57 PM
As I suggested, might be worth just looking through the reseller forum to see what offers are on at the moment. Gives you an idea of what reseller plan you'd like. There are a lot of Web Hosts who offer resellers who use WHT, so look around on the forums and ask questions to various hosts !
Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 01:06 PM
Thanks mate, just having a browse now.
Posted by Mach4-Chris, 11-04-2009, 01:14 PM
Hi Jay. I will PM you. Kind regards. Chris
Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 01:15 PM
Thanks Chris.
Posted by Mach4-Chris, 11-04-2009, 01:17 PM
Ray. You are not accepting PMs. Please email me at chris dot somerset at gmail dot com.
Posted by RWD-Jay, 11-04-2009, 01:19 PM
I'm not accepting PMs? I only just signed up, I will have a look into that. I've emailed you though.
Posted by Mach4-Chris, 11-04-2009, 01:50 PM
I have emailed you Ray. You are about to experience a whole different ballgame. Very best wishes. Chris
Posted by UK2NET, 11-05-2009, 06:07 AM
Hi Jay, I am happy to assist with your issues. Please feel free to PM me with some details and I can drop you a call.
Posted by TheSimpleHost-Nathan, 11-05-2009, 07:23 AM
I think you may have been a little too late to the party.
Posted by HeroXx, 11-05-2009, 06:25 PM
Haha I love this, poor UK2 even offering to make a phone call too
Posted by thomasjensen, 11-08-2009, 02:31 PM
I once ordered a service from uk2 net, immediately cancelled upon seeing what was provided, never got a refund or even closed the ticket. Not a company I would recommend
Posted by Kody, 11-08-2009, 02:51 PM
Can you please provide me with a ticket number via PM, and Ill have someone look into this for you. ~k
Posted by Toby H, 11-08-2009, 07:02 PM
Care to tell us more about what your reasons were for cancelling immediately, or what service you had taken from UK2?
Posted by khloode, 11-08-2009, 08:25 PM
it better then before
Posted by CyberHostPro, 11-09-2009, 08:16 PM
No moneyback?? surely they must offer some kind of x day money back? if the server was not activated you can probably charge it back to your card if you did not get what you paid for.
Posted by thomasjensen, 11-09-2009, 08:30 PM
I signed up for a .com name, your system took the signup (9.00+ USD) and did not allow me to specify the name, it just kept looping. I did not get a confirmation of the ticket where I asked how can I specify the correct name. After 24 hours I cancelled and just went elsewhere. There are far too many good hosting companies with good customer service that anyone should have to wait for such mess.
Posted by Toby H, 11-10-2009, 07:50 AM
Thanks for answering, interesting issue to have. I would think that would be a one off issue that once they are aware of would have resolved very very quickly.