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Posted by Yiorgis, 01-14-2003, 08:06 PM MCHOST during the past year. All I am try to find out is why is this host falling appart and how much has it fall apart?
Posted by TheMMIz, 01-14-2003, 08:24 PM Welcome to the WebHostingTalk forums. If you use the SEARCH feature (button) on the top navbar you'll find many threads concerning MCHost. They probably are #1 in size when it comes to offering bulk reseller packages, but I have read some mixed reviews regarding their service. A search will be able to offer you much more insight into the issue. There are many other bulk resellers out there offering similar pricing though. I would suggest reviewing VenturesOnline.com, HTTPMe.com, and SplashHost.com, all great companies that have a proven track record. Good luck in your search, and I hope you find someone that better meets your needs.
Posted by mhalbrook, 01-15-2003, 12:00 AM I left them in August after getting tired of watching promise after promise go unfullfilled, be it important stuff like a communications policy that never came about, move of clients from Burst.net data center to DV2 Data Center, or things that weren't as important like a script package to help the resellers out with managing clients support needs. The straw that broke the camels back ended up being billing issues that I had been trying for months to resolve. In February, there was a major attack on the server I had been on, due to the fact that it took them over 24 hours to fix and 6 hours to even address, I requested, and was granted a refund that as I had understood the tickets would be in the form of no billing for March, since this was at the end of February. SO what happens, first weekend of march, which was before I would be billed for March, another problem again 6+ hours before any acknowledgement by MCHost, again, a request for no charge for that month, meaning Feb & March for free, per their uptime guarentee. There was confusion with how that would happen, since I wasn't going to be charged in March because of Feb, as to how the billing would be handled. For what ever reason I wasn't charged in April, figured it was because of the problems in March, May, no billing, contacted, no good response, June, no charge, no help. on and on. Finally they hired a billing person, I figured we'd get it solved then. No such luck, Help Desk got wiped out and my tickets were lost on the topic, so I just gave up. Especially since there were people who were not gettin refunds they were due, I figured I'm not dealing wtih this, and started researching other hosts, because now 4 months after the announced move to DV2, I was still in Burst. Managed to get them to move me to DV2, but first my Burst server had problems making all sites go bye bye in the middle of the transfer, then there was a CPanel Licencing issue preventing access to the CPanel & E-mail and I gave up on them. Right after I left, it looked like they were getting their act together, but then I heard a bit later they let go, for whatever reasons, two of the best people they had at solving problems and actually doing any kind of pro-active communication with the client base, and now it seems the problems with communication are no better than they were at their worst from what I hear from people I know that are still there.
Posted by Eiolon, 01-15-2003, 12:40 AM I decided to leave in July on a "neutral" note. I joined them November 2001 and service had its ups an downs. It started going downhill from May 2002 and on for me so I jumped ship before it got out of my control and I lost all my clients. I will say MCHost is a solid company. They aren't out to "screw" you like many hosts are. I just think sometimes they bite more than they can chew... a deciding factor for my decision to leave.
Posted by neednewhost, 01-15-2003, 05:05 AM I am thinking of leaving mchost too. Support has become so bad I really don't think I have a choice. Many have been locked out of the help desk for the past week which to me is just unbelievable. My main concern with moving are the programs in "Fantastico." If I move to a new server I assume those programs will no longer work? If there are any unlimited domain hosting companies out there that would like to help me move from MCHost please let me know. Of those who have left, have you found a similar unlimited domain host that you like?
Posted by leec, 01-15-2003, 05:09 AM Try gigabean.com they have fantasico too and Curtis is great on the support end. He may help you move your stuff Last edited by Chicken; 01-17-2003 at 09:51 PM.
Posted by WebSnail.net, 01-15-2003, 07:33 AM Leec... stay on topic and don't spam.. As for the original question... I quit about 8 months ago after watching an otherwise good "small" host slowly lose control, ignore, then actively censor, criticism and basically deal more in hot air than solid action... As TheMMIz suggested though, you'd be advised to use the "Search" feature and look up the posts that have already been put out because all the info's there... balanced, flambe'd, spun or otherwise..
Posted by leec, 01-15-2003, 08:21 AM It aint my site so how is it spam? I aint gettin know commision either for it so it cant be spam. And it is not in a can, so it cant be spam and to quote neednewhost "My main concern with moving are the programs in "Fantastico." If I move to a new server I assume those programs will no longer work? If there are any unlimited domain hosting companies out there that would like to help me move from MCHost please let me know. Of those who have left, have you found a similar unlimited domain host that you like?" You tell me am i off topic i dont think so. maybe i am maybe i aint he asked for help i submitted help
Posted by WebSnail.net, 01-15-2003, 09:18 AM Fair comment but it did jump off the original topic... Spam comment retracted but just as a thought, it might have been better to PM the info and allow the thread to stay focused.. Just a thought and apologies as due.
Posted by parawing742, 01-15-2003, 10:46 AM I cancelled my account with MCHost yesterday. My gripe? Well, I'll post what I posted in their forum: My thought are that MCHost has a simple and pleasant website, and active forums. These tend to draw new customers in, who then leave because of service issues. Marc is a nice guy, but he almost never comes through with what he talkes about. I now have a dedicated server with Atjeu.com and could never be happier. It actually feels strange to submit a support ticket at 1:30 a.m. and have it answered in 20 minutes time.
Posted by matriarchy, 01-15-2003, 11:40 AM I have probaby been been one of MChost's more loyal customers, since November 2001. Marc helped me out of a jam, and I learned more about hosting in their forums than anywhere else. I liked what they were trying to do. But they are killing me now. I am getting bigger and better clients... clients that will not tolerate this kind of downtime. And I look like fool... I don't know what the problem is, so my own communication to clients looks inept. Sounds like a lot of their clients from that era were smart enough to leave before me. It's scary to see their site go down, their forums go down. I know it can't be much better from the inside... MChost feels like it is in big trouble. They can't seem to pick a datacenter that functions. The more downtime they have, the more refunds they will give, and the more their revenue stream will be affected. They need... and any other larger reseller should listen, too... a full-time reseller relationship manager. Someone whose job it is to TALK to resellers, not run servers. Post to the server lists, reply to forum inquiries, handle suggestions and group review of proposed policy, run reseller education programs, post things from the forum to the knowledge base. Every host has downtime.. I don't expect perfection. What matters is the respect, in the form of commnication, that you pay to me and to my helpless clients.
Posted by MarkChen, 01-15-2003, 04:44 PM Do you know what spam is? You are a paid employee of one of mchost's competitors, is that right? Are you on a performance bonus or profit sharing as well? Why don't you say ... "I work for one of mchost's main competitors and I think mchost is no good".
Posted by WHRKit, 01-15-2003, 05:26 PM I left them in October because of downtime and because of slow servers. Servers are overloaded with clients in my eyes. Bad communication, missing respect and not taking responsibility are just a couple more issues.
Posted by Samuel, 01-15-2003, 05:38 PM Surely mchost can't be that bad!!!!!!!!! This seems like utter poppy ****! Ban everyone!
Posted by MarkChen, 01-15-2003, 05:41 PM But you never had a dedicated at mchost ... is that right? So you are claiming you had a gripe and that is why you left mchost but by a very strange coincidence you have increased substantially the amount you are willing to pay for hosting and now have a server all to yourself. So ... you did not purchase the same product you had at mchost from someone else, you purchased a different product. Then you compare the server you have now (all to yourself) with what you had at mchost. Some of this criticism is becoming very self-indulgent and childish.
Posted by WebSnail.net, 01-15-2003, 05:42 PM Please read the whole thread... an apology was issued when I realised I'd got it wrong. I am not employed by, nor do I get any incentives from any hosts or anyone else so get your facts straight too.. I suggest you check any of my recent recommendations which involve at least 2, 3 or 4 other hosts and are suggested options to research... As for myself I'm a self-employed designer and only host my own clients so no I don't benefit... I was good enough to apologise when I got it wrong so I'll be waiting for yours.
Posted by neednewhost, 01-15-2003, 05:47 PM Thanks for the post (which by the way is on topic since I am leaving mchost and asked where others were going). The company looks good and I like the fact they are a BBB memeber. It is also in the US which is a must from now on with me after mchost. thanks for the info... by the way have you actually used them?
Posted by neednewhost, 01-15-2003, 05:49 PM Nothing in his post indicated that he did not have a dedicated server at mchost. They do offer them. Judging from the posts of those who have mchost dedicated servers, they too get terrible support.
Posted by MarkChen, 01-15-2003, 06:06 PM My mistake ... I thought you were one of Aussie Bob's boys. I understand you helped him at some stage and thought you had been taken on permanently. Sorry about that.
Posted by Samuel, 01-15-2003, 06:11 PM I think you've received your answer. MCHost was considered to be a formidable presence in the reseller hosting market, a potent combination with a timely service offering. I think if you're troubled with your vendor it's time to move on or rectify it with the vendor. Troubling when things go wrong I know.. but there are alternatives.
Posted by parawing742, 01-15-2003, 08:33 PM Nope, I had just a regular reseller account at MCHost, but since I was making enough money to get a dedicated, that seemed to make the most sense as far as future growth. Regardless, you can see that my complaints were with the network and support/trust. These factors remain the same no matter what type of hosting setup you're using. Notice I never complained about server load, bandwidth limitations, or price. If I had, your arguement would be valid. In this case, it isn't...
Posted by Dimester, 01-16-2003, 12:58 AM I was with them for exactly one year. I first went with them because of the recomendations of this forum. Every post I saw said that they were good. And when I went with them they were good. They continued to grow and there continued to be recomendations from this forum. I decided to leave them because I lost faith in them. I dared not trust my business with them as my hosting provider. It was a business decision to leave them. Why am I posting in this forum. It was from this forum that I learned about McHost. The recomendations were good. I feel that it is only fair to those who are looking to being a reseller to find out now about them. I had one major quality issue with them and you can not blame them for it. The whole server was hacked. I lost all my websites. they said that the backup server was also hacked. I believed them at the time. I finally came to the point that I could not trust what was being told to us by the company president on the forums. Also when issues were brought up they were skirted, avoided, or denied. Communication was very inconsistant. Many threads were deleted on the forum because it made the company look bad. To delete them is a form of lying. It is to look like to later viewers that there were no problems. Will McHost ever be a good place to buy hosting? Maybe in the future. I would not recomend them now. There are two hosts that I would recommend that have similar offerings. Httpme.com and Voxtreme.com. I also have experence of several months with these hosts. You can trust their word. They care about my business and know that I have customers that depend on me for good service. I never would have given this report if it was not recomended that I go to McHost in the first place from this forum. Also I wrote about my issues with McHost on their forum and Marc deleted it in just a few min. He wanted to pretend that there were no issues rather than deal with them and try to resolve them. Many of you might have read about others not having payment issues resolved. I was on a server that went down and was told that I would be getting a refund. Even after communicating that I never received my refund nothing was done. What good is a promise if the company does not follow through it. Yes, I recomend McHost for those just learning to do hosting and are not serious about building a business. You will also see good examples of how not to run a business. When it is time to get serious about your business just hope that they have all their issues resolved. I'm just not sure what would change with regard to truthfulness. Note to webhosts: If you pay attention to threads like this you will learn what is important and how not to run a business. One of the fasting growing webhosts I know learned the good and learned to avoid the bad. Now he is growing.
Posted by parawing742, 01-16-2003, 01:07 AM Did you write that "Attn: Marc" thread? I think I was one of about 10 people that got to read it before it was deleted.
Posted by Dimester, 01-16-2003, 01:19 AM Yes, I started a thread and wrote "Attn: Marc" and he deleted it. This told me that he was not interested in resolving company issues. He just hoped that the other customers wouldn't notice them also.
Posted by mhalbrook, 01-16-2003, 03:30 AM I and others from your era suggested that exact thing to Marc several times. I even went as far as to volunteer to do it, or do it for a free upgrade to a bigger plan. Since I work from home for myself, and take care of my son, I was already spending a decent amount of time on the fourms (one of the top 10 posters at the time I left, or barely out of the top 10), so it wouldn't have been that much work for me to have done it. Last edited by mhalbrook; 01-16-2003 at 03:37 AM.
Posted by Aussie Bob, 01-16-2003, 03:49 AM Ahhhh, nope. Snail's a top chap, but doesn't work for us now or has he in the past. Not sure where you got that from. Care to post a thread?
Posted by WebSnail.net, 01-16-2003, 05:13 AM I was kinda curious about it too as I never got paid...
Posted by MarkChen, 01-16-2003, 05:47 AM Yeah you're a clever guy bob, Snail is one of the guys who taught you everything you know and you never had to pay a dime for it.
Posted by WebSnail.net, 01-16-2003, 05:58 AM I think I'll save my time and attention for people who have something useful to say. (Useful that 'ignore' function) Bob... When's our next tutorial again?
Posted by bullsquirrel, 01-16-2003, 06:27 AM ROFLMAO, suddenly I was reminded that there are indeed trolls scurrying about this place, and apparently in abundance! < > Last edited by Chicken; 01-17-2003 at 09:58 PM.
Posted by grandad, 01-16-2003, 06:32 AM We left MCHost months ago! It used to be a really good forum with the added advantage of some "okay" hosting, (often heard expression "you get what you pay for"). The hosting declined and good people left the company, customers abandoned ship and of course left the forum. That left a "so-so" forum with some "so-so" hosting and so we went elsewhere and have a couple of servers and some shared with other better suppliers.
Posted by Aussie Bob, 01-16-2003, 07:25 AM So you turn to cheap false insults when asked to verify a statement?? lol. Give me a break. Run along now...... *clicks this button and all is sweet!!*
Posted by Samuel, 01-16-2003, 09:59 AM That's an interesting exchange... haha
Posted by Jacynthe, 01-16-2003, 12:04 PM Me and my partner joined McHost in February 2002 when some people said McHost had already started their decline. To us, they were still a fine company and had nothing but praise for them... until communication (what they had when we joined) started slipping into nothingness, promises were made and never kept, censorship became the IN thing on their forum, mistruths became the norm and avoiding issues turned into an Olympic sport. When threads "complaining" about problems and suggesting solutions are all but ignored by the President of a company, or when all that person can find in himself to answer is inane things about the least relevant details in a post, that tells customers how much he cares about his customers vs their money. I finally convinced my partner to leave McHost behind when Davin and John were fired some months ago. Those were 2 guys I had the outmost respect for and knew I could trust to get answers. Davin was the one sticking his neck out for the customers on the forum, sharing HIS views with us - which were sometimes on the opposite of Marc's "visions". Seeing both of them let go, we decided we no longer had someone we could trust to turn to so we moved on. Starting in the business as we did when we went with McHost, I thought hosting had to be an uphill battle to get any kind of answer from your vendor so you could have some kind of communication with your own customers. Now, a few months later - with a new vendor - I know this was only a bad experience and that not all companies are the same. You may find similar costs, but thankfully, the governing people behind the companies are different.
Posted by Rochen, 01-16-2003, 12:22 PM I have used MCHost's "Managed Dedicated Server" product and can tell you it's far from "Managed". Support is appalling, 18 hours to get a reply to a helpdesk ticket, there server monitoring either isn't there or doesn't work and the network they use (DV2) is far below par. Since we have all our servers at NAC now, I am very pleased As Jacy said, everything was going down hill slowly and then the avalanche came when Davin and John were shown the door. IMO MChost is now in a "snowball" affect and it's going to take a lot to stop it..
Posted by Samuel, 01-16-2003, 12:32 PM Sooner than that =)
Posted by mindshift, 01-16-2003, 03:29 PM Sam, I guess you mean Jason. =) I got tired of hearing the "You get what you pay for" quotes, but now I am paying less for superior service and a superior product. MCHost stinks! plain and simple. THe sooner you get out of there the sooner your life will be a little bit happier. (Non-MCHost Client since October 2002. Banned from their forums since September 2002)
Posted by MarkChen, 01-16-2003, 11:20 PM tell us then bobby, - who told you what IP was when you asked "what is an IP"? - who developed your first logo - for free? - who installed your first forum - for free? There are some people in this thread who know the answer to these questions. There are some others who are just a little bit naive about how the world of Aussie Bob works. Another thing is that if anyone is planning on growing big then mchost or splashhost might be the way to go. They both have a long history of producing successful webhosting businesses. Httpme is yet to produce one and any httpme customer would have to be concerned about what would happen to nice guy booby's attitude if the customer becomes a competitor. The problem with bobby is that he is only a nice guy if you are paying him, you are giving him advice, or if he is doing some marketing. Other than that he has a long history of constantly attacking the operators of all his major competitors at every opportunity, whether that be the lies he made up about Tina at affordablehosts, the constant snide remarks about Marc Wyss, and now the scoffing and belittling at Alan's new business venture. Taking these other three operators as an example, I have never seen any evidence of them attacking another host. In fact, they are sometimes even generous in their attitude towards their competitors. But not so our nice guy Aussie Bob. Aussie Bob become Nasty Bob if you compete in the same market. Any httpme customer should be aware that if they were ever to outgrow or move on from httpme they can expect to be attacked by Nasty Bob in the same way he constantly attacks other hosts who he feels threatened by. The hosting world would be a lot more dirtier than it currently is if we all behaved like Aussie Bob.
Posted by parawing742, 01-16-2003, 11:47 PM OK MarkChen, you are talking about things you know nothing about. What is your position with MCHost? Are you a current customer of theirs? Also, you "facts" don't hold up: apparently you haven't been around here long enough to see this thread.
Posted by Dimester, 01-16-2003, 11:54 PM Rules We take the "be polite" rule VERY seriously! We do not tolerate ANY rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive will receive one warning (at our discretion), and if the member offends again the member will be banned without warning.
Posted by submenu, 01-17-2003, 12:09 AM I left. Server was frequently down and support was slow. Help desk was a joke. But otherwise, I think it is a good service. They just need to ditch dv2 and address their support issues.
Posted by MCHost-Marc, 01-17-2003, 12:22 AM According to our records, we never had a customer with the domain 'xionhosting.net' or the person listed in the whois. Welcome to WHT (since this is your first post). Now onto the subject, i know we're not perfect. We try our best, we succeed but as every human being, we can also fail sometimes. With a customer base of our size, you cannot expect 100% satisfaction. If you look around, you will find bad comments about RackShack, BurstNET and Webreseller. They're all large companies and i am sure that they all have a solid business, are excellent companies and try their best as well. To every one of our competitors who kindly shared their views in this thread, i am sure there are things you are not perfect with either, but i personally don't think it is appropriate to post those things in public. To each of our unsatisfied clients, we welcome your suggestions and if you still decide MCHost is not the provider for you, i am sorry to see you go and i wish you all the best in your future ventures.
Posted by Aussie Bob, 01-17-2003, 01:04 AM lol. Well someone's got an axe to grind. heh. The fact that you try to belittle me with "bobby" shows you for the person you are. How about lose the name calling. It makes you look silly. You tell me. I did. Can you prove otherwise? I did. It was an XMB forum and we used it for several months before using VBulletin. Made some mistakes with Tina. Publicly apologised for them. Please show me where I have attacked Marc Wyss. I was not "scoffing" or "belitting" ripplehost. I was commenting on the business model. What crap. I would give a detailed response, but you're not worth the time. I seemed to remember being trolled by you a while back. Having fun are we?? Bye bye. I guess success brings out the trolls. < > Last edited by Chicken; 01-17-2003 at 10:02 PM.
Posted by Aussie Bob, 01-17-2003, 01:16 AM Well put indeed!!!! Looking over his 25 posts, nothing to worry about here.
Posted by Dimester, 01-17-2003, 01:20 AM This was not the case on your own forums. I saw many treads deleted that were telling you the problems observed and suggestions to remedy them. To delete those treads and then post this here makes this a marketing spin. We have seen you offer to remedy things on this forum when you would not on your own forum. What you need to understand is that your customers invest many hours setting up websites and hosting customers. Your service is not like just another product such as if you don't like McDonalds then go to Wendys. It is a major effort to move customers websites. When you promise and not deliver many small hosting companies get hurt. What is only fair is that when you go to WHT and do your marketing spin the readers also see the side of others experience. The problems experienced at McHost are systemic. Best wishes in correcting them.
Posted by Aussie Bob, 01-17-2003, 01:24 AM Which posts are you referring to in this thread? Could you give exact posts where this happened? I just read through the whole thread and cannot see "our competitors who kindly shared their views". I was pulled into this thread by this post from Mark Chen - I cannot find a competitor who has shared their views about you.
Posted by parawing742, 01-17-2003, 01:26 AM If you would like to hear my suggestions, just look through your deleted threads. I've posted my suggestions on your fourms and they were deleted in just minutes. And I'm not the only person you do this too.
Posted by mhalbrook, 01-17-2003, 03:14 AM Marc, you should go in to politics. You'd make a better spin doctor than you do hosting provider. Not that it matters, since you've by now surely deleted every negative post from your forums that would back up what I, Samuel, and others who are vocally NOT recomending you here say. You have a long history of IGNORING your clients suggestions. Repeatedly we asked for a communications policy on how things would be dealt with, repeatedly you promised something soon, repeatedly nothing happened. Repeatedly we told you we wanted to be kept updated at least once an hour when there were data center issues, even if all you could tell us was "Nothing's changed", I never saw evidence of that. I am still subscribed to the server notification list for the server I was on when you left, I have rarely seen anything come through it, and when I have it's never shown any progress on giving your clients what they asked for. At least 3 or 4 of us offered several times to custom code an application that would allow you to send out an e-mail to the server mailing list and have that e-mail posted to the forums for you. You never took us up on it, or implemented it. You come in here and spin the daylights out of your problems, but you never go to the core of the problem. You do NOT know how to proactivly communicate with your clients. I know beyond a doubt that in the past you have been lurking in HTTPme's fourms, since you corrected me that you are Swiss, not Candadian. I'm betting the real reason you Yanked Bob's access to your forums when you did had more to do with your disgruntled customers showing up over there than with the fact that he was a competitor, just danged convenient. Funny that you have no problem lurking in your competition's forums, because they function under an open door policy, but you yank his access to your forums, despite the fact that he was still a client of yours. I defended you and your company in your forums for quite a while when I was with you, as time went on I got so tired of the ineptness you displayed that Davin started dreading it everytime he saw one of my posts. I wasn't griping for gripings sake, but trying to get through your thick skull what we were asking for. So please don't give us that BS that you want to know what we think. Anyone who's been there for a year knows the likely hood of you actually listening to your clients is as likely as Yassar Arafat converting to Judism.
Posted by BC, 01-17-2003, 07:13 AM This has gone on long enough. Closed.
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