Very sad experience with Oceanhost

[AstroTurf]

Jason from Openbyte here. Just thought i would give my 2 cents worth seen as I was named in the screen shot personally. This is the support ticket that was logged by this user, ShadowRider. This is the first dealing we had with this client and this was logged as an actionable call at 8:34pm. This is the only thing we will post and won't be replying to any backlash on this, as this really doesn't deserve justification of any sort on our side. I really don't see the point of the mybb forums as its just become a way for mud slinging and gamers/script kiddies to complain about things they don't understand. Our website has changed since this anyway due to the fact that we do not offer VPS anymore ( well we do but only to corporate ) but what we didn't understand is that the functionality was taken exactly from Oceanhost and everything was available. Have fun reading.

erm... so why are you slinging mud at mybb?
Because of one post where most here are on your side?

 

[Murmaider]

erm... so why are you slinging mud at mybb?
Because of one post where most here are on your side?

Not really sure Jason is slinging mud though, to me it looks like he is giving the other side of the story and defending their actions to be honest. This is of course my opinion.

 

[AstroTurf]

Not really sure Jason is slinging mud though, to me it looks like he is giving the other side of the story and defending their actions to be honest. This is of course my opinion.

The bolded part was a bit of a sweeping generalisation in my opinion...

 

[Bryn]

I really don't see the point of the mybb forums as its just become a way for mud slinging and gamers/script kiddies to complain about things they don't understand.

This forum has subsections for every type of topic. 99% of the users here don't give a damn about servers.

 

[Hitchcock]

**** this thread! Mudslinging between business and client on a public forum - releasing information and communication that went forth between another! I won't deal with either, ever.

 

[ShadowRider]

**** this thread! Mudslinging between business and client on a public forum - releasing information and communication that went forth between another! I won't deal with either, ever.

I can only apologize that this turned out like this, my initial intention was quite simply to post about my experience with Oceanhost. As both an initial customer of theirs and someone who resells both Oceanhost and international VPS, my intention was never to boost/promote my own reseller product(s) at the expense of Oceanhost's. That was ironically brought up by Openbyte and not myself. I also included the emails simply as proof of my statements, even though I guess some would have prefered these to remain private, I don't believe I'm forced to keep these private.

If I was Openbyte and you logged a support ticket running your mouth about something that is really none of your business, my reply to you would have been much MUCH harsher and your server would have most likely been switched off.

Fair enough you are entitled to your opinion as we all are. However, as a customer I may also provide feedback both positive and negative to a company. This feedback can be subjective and opinionated that is the prerogative of the client. If Openbyte disagree that is perfectly fine too, but there are limits on what is appropriate when both replying to a customer and dealing with feedback both privately and publicly. Feedback won't always be pleasant and it should never be.

I had hoped that even though I was critical of Oceanhost's support, when an issue does arise, emphasising the change in nature during and after the OpenByte changeovers, that I also made it clear that in terms of overall uptime Oceanhost's products have and are still good.

This was an issue regarding support primarily with regards to only one of my VPS, provided by Oceanhost. Secondly it was about my experience with OpenByte and the changeovers which occurred. (Who demonstrated quite elegantly their reactive and abrasive nature.) Something I NEVER experience from Oceanhost, before the changeover.

This forum has subsections for every type of topic. 99% of the users here don't give a damn about servers.

Yes, I would prefer if Openbyte would focus on the topic at hand. If they want to be aggressive, please focus on the client who is making the criticism. MyBroadband is a diverse platform which is highly valuable to a wide range of people. Also I'm most definitely not a script-kiddy :wtf:

- -
Our own OH VPS with fantastic uptime:

 

[philaniH]

its time i venture into Hosting. People are not being served out there. As for professionalism , don't even wanna start.

 

[Foxhound5366]

its time i venture into Hosting. People are not being served out there. As for professionalism , don't even wanna start.

Tell me about it. This whole thread is like watching a Mac and a Windows PC trying to network.

The computer just says no, deal with it.

Serious lack of professionalism on both sides, but hey ... that's what you get when IT people bring their egos to business. Client 'care' is not about being right ... the emphasis is on 'care'. If it's an unmanaged product, it still doesn't give you permission to start trying to defend yourself by attacking your customer online (regardless of what that customer is like). Quite to the contrary, that is 'managing' the situation, but extremely poorly.

Character assassination and hurried defenses and clarifications != good business.

 

[^^vampire^^]

Wonder if the respective companies are aware that these "representatives" are running their businesses into the ground publicly?

The correct way to deal with this is to take it up with the client privately and possibly reply to the original post stating that you are further communicating with said client to resolve the matter that shows the rest of the public that you are conscious of your companies public image and want people to know that you want to work towards a solution.

I've had the odd few clients I've told that I can no longer do business with because of their behavior but I don't need to tell the whole the world the specifics. Whether you've tried to state that you don't want to get into mud slinging or not, simply by replying with an explanation of something that should have stayed between you are your client you have already engaged in mud slinging tactics.

 

[envo]

Jason (and I'm sure the rep for oceanhost) are management/owners. So they're well aware of what is happening.

Understanding both sides, I can see why oceanhost and openbyte reacted the way they did to every single support request. If I had to find a scathing email about my website design from some nobody customer, I'd be ticked off too. However, I'd take it as constructive criticism (even though the OP needs to really start learning to communicate with human beings properly) and move on... which they probably did.

I can just imagine how the OP's other emails to them must have looked like. Probably in the same "superiority complex" tone and scathing words with 6 chapters of the works of Shakespeare, all while he is only asking why he can't connect to ssh?

Might have had better luck just asking something simply instead of going on and on in a rant as Jason pointed out. The original message/question can be lost very quickly with things like that.

Then I just have to point out OpenByte prides itself on support, why not just give him the support (and now you will understand why the OP is probably in the wrong here)

 

[Thor]

Not sure how I feel about this we have OP with a god complex vs a company who has no idea how to present them selfs in public and let emotions cloud their professionalism.


Too be honest both parties are wrong, so I will steer clear.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Not sure how I feel about this we have OP with a god complex vs a company who has no idea how to present them selfs in public and let emotions cloud their professionalism.


Too be honest both parties are wrong, so I will steer clear.

Actually OP with a hard on for DO.

 

[ShadowRider]

Actually OP with a hard on for DO.

Guilty as charged, I suppose.

Last update. Yesterday morning I received an email from Oceanhost:

This is a friendly reminder that a cancellation is pending on your account. Please ensure that all your data is transferred before 1 May 2015 as account termination will automatically be processed on that day.

I'm not going to deny that leaving Oceanhost was something I was considering and that I was prepared to take this action and of course made this clear to Oceanhost. However, what's more important is that I (Personally) have not formally requested a cancellation of our Oceanhost servers.

In fact I had already made payment for one of the servers for May. Therefore, and seeing that Oceanhost has placed the cancellation order, I requested that only one of the two servers be canceled, the one that I had not made payment for.

However, Oceanhsot has formally denied this request stating:

Both servers are set for cancellation as per the system. I can see that vps.server2.co.za is not pointing to our IP anymore. Please send your banking details then our accounts department will refund the credit back into your account.

- The reason the domain does not point to the VPS is an issue I'm addressing but is out of my hands.

Oceanhost have kindly extended the termination until the 4th, to provide us more time to move our servers and have issued us with a refund for May without hesitation, which I thank and commend them for. However, the suddenness of this termination has shocked me as I did not expect them to take such action.

Thus I'm no longer an Oceanhost customer, but I feel it is important to provide an update on what has taken place so others can make up their own minds about this situation.

- -
I would like to also make it clear that besides emailing Oceanhost/Openbyte regarding support, billing issues and feedback as well as this MyBB post and a twitter I have never had any other communication with Oceanhost or Openbyte nor have I ever spoken publicly about either company. My usage of their products was at all times legal and within their T&C and I have never gone over our provided cap.

Besides minor technical issues with the servers their overall uptime remained satisfactory, this post was only made with the intention to highlight what I perceive as bad support service from the company when I required it as well as my overall experience with both Oceanhost before and after the changes involving Openbyte and as such is subjective.

 

[GoneWithTheWindows]

Guilty as charged, I suppose.

Last update. Yesterday morning I received an email from Oceanhost:


I'm not going to deny that leaving Oceanhost was something I was considering and that I was prepared to take this action and of course made this clear to Oceanhost. However, what's more important is that I (Personally) have not formally requested a cancellation of our Oceanhost servers.

In fact I had already made payment for one of the servers for May. Therefore, and seeing that Oceanhost has placed the cancellation order, I requested that only one of the two servers be canceled, the one that I had not made payment for.

However, Oceanhsot has formally denied this request stating:

- The reason the domain does not point to the VPS is an issue I'm addressing but is out of my hands.

Oceanhost have kindly extended the termination until the 4th, to provide us more time to move our servers and have issued us with a refund for May without hesitation, which I thank and commend them for. However, the suddenness of this termination has shocked me as I did not expect them to take such action.

Thus I'm no longer an Oceanhost customer, but I feel it is important to provide an update on what has taken place so others can make up their own minds about this situation.

- -
I would like to also make it clear that besides emailing Oceanhost/Openbyte regarding support, billing issues and feedback as well as this MyBB post and a twitter I have never had any other communication with Oceanhost or Openbyte nor have I ever spoken publicly about either company. My usage of their products was at all times legal and within their T&C and I have never gone over our provided cap.

Besides minor technical issues with the servers their overall uptime remained satisfactory, this post was only made with the intention to highlight what I perceive as bad support service from the company when I required it as well as my overall experience with both Oceanhost before and after the changes involving Openbyte and as such is subjective.

Completely justified!

 

[ShadowRider]

Completely justified!

They are entitled to do so, I believe, I'm not 100% sure about legality. I do disagree with the manner in which it has taken place. Plenty of consumers openly criticise plenty of companies on a daily basis some more elegantly than my self and others not. I think its important to be able to openly criticise a company without feeling that they may terminate/ban you. Maybe Telkom should start banning the plethora of individuals who openly criticise their company.

There are also quite a few other hosting companies in SA who will/are gladly providing me services and hopefully superior support. So whilst this is an inconvenience and could for others (individuals or companies) be quite a costly inconvenience I still don't consider this to be a acceptable method to conduct business.

 

[Thor]

They are entitled to do so, I believe, I'm not 100% sure about legality. I do disagree with the manner in which it has taken place. Plenty of consumers openly criticise plenty of companies on a daily basis some more elegantly than my self and others not. I think its important to be able to openly criticise a company without feeling that they may terminate/ban you. Maybe Telkom should start banning the plethora of individuals who openly criticise their company.

There are also quite a few other hosting companies in SA who will/are gladly providing me services and hopefully superior support. So whilst this is an inconvenience and could for others (individuals or companies) be quite a costly inconvenience I still don't consider this to be a acceptable method to conduct business.

Neither was your method of addressing them in such a *** manner.

 

[RNJudas]

lol. Looks like this forum is becoming like hello peter with people crying instead of technical questions/issues. Sad.

Ironically I have never seen the ratio of business folks vs Tech peeps be in support of the latter...

It's always been the quick and easy business people coming to write an article about how bad other companies are or read a news article to justify some or other business choice...