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BurstNET Server Failure
mrosenblatt
Member
So, a "Premium VPS" that I have with BurstNET had a massive failure for the second time in five weeks, leading to complete data loss (yet again).
I got into an argument on Web Hosting Talk in the premium/corporate members section with someone stating that BurstNET shouldn't be held responsible even though they knew the host node was having issues with hard disk slashing as early as 26 days prior to the hard disks actually failing.
While I know it's BurstNET we're talking about here, you would think that they would have made some sort of attempt at correcting the issues on the host node when brought to their attention.
Here's a link to my review on WHT which contains quotes from the tickets if you're interested in reading: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1086788
Here's a link to the start of my little "argument" with someone in the premium members section:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1084851&page=107 (Starting at post 1594)
Keep in mind: I'm not angry that the server failed again. What I'm angry about is the fact that I've been going back and forth with them warning them for the past month that this would happen and they've done nothing to fix it.
What are your thoughts?
Comments
Raid 0? lol ¬¬
What do you expect, They have shit nodes using desktop Type hardware.
It was a dual 5620 node using enterprise grade hardware. Unless you've got Dual 5620 processors in your desktop, it's definitely not desktop grade.
u mad bro?
@justinb
No.
Always keep backups. People never learn..
Array failure does happen and you need to make your own backups.
As noted: This isn't a matter of being aggravated about the backups or lackthereof. We've got our data backed up. It's a matter of BurstNET not resolving an issue that lead to this server failure. 26 days prior to it's failing, we notified them of hard disk slashing. It's been a constant issue, and Burst has known about it. They simply didn't fix the surrounding issues that ultimately lead to the failure.
Anyone else waiting for Mr. BURSTNET (Make sure you get those in ALL CAPS) CEO to come in here with his typical "Well if you don't like our service, we don't want you as our customer because all the rest of our customers don't complain and we have thousands of them." response?
That's all you're going to get out of them. Chalk it up to experience, don't waste your time complaining because it won't do any good and just move on. You won't get anything of value in terms of a response out of them.
@drmike
Very true, I was expecting them anytime soon, They clearly dont care about customer service/Customer Complaints.
Actually I disagree with that portion of the statement. Besides Mr. BURSTNET CEO, we've had other employees here who have followed up on issues. And yes, they even do occasionally act on abuse complaints. (although they haven't done so in recent memory and we've dropped back into just blocking their IPs for our typical 4 hours until whatever bot they're using finishes and moves on.)
The problem is when a ticket, issue and/or problem drops through the cracks, they have no method of escalation or follow up. That's when Mr. BURSTNET CEO pops in with his "OUR WAY OR WE DON'T WANT YOU AS A CLIENT" response.
edit: I mean even ev1 had an escalation procedure Never worked but they at least had one. It's pretty sad if you think about it.
I came here looking for some reviews on Burstnet as I was about to bite the bullet.
I'm surprised that Burstnet is so bad; I was going to buy a VPS from them....they have very good prices.
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 224.008 seconds, 4.8 MB/s"
4.8MB/s? WTF? Is that how poor they let their servers run and it's "OK" with them? I can't believe that Burstnet tech support guy actually brushed this off as if it were "normal":
My $2.50 RapidoVPS can get something like 30MB/s.
Thanks for posting this review, just saved me from wasting time with Burstnet. It sounds like Burstnet sucks or their support is very incompetent.
This happened as well a couple of months ago. I could have sworn that it was passed off as normal hosting and every day occurrences. Someone else is going to have to provide a reference link to that.
edit: I know I don't lose a customer's data like that. Granted we're in a different line of hosting but still when I screw up, I own up to it.
BurstNET just wants to defend themselves and start a pissing match. It's pretty sad, actually. They're pulling the 'we obviously know more than you because we're bigger' card.
If they know more, than how come my predictions were correct almost to the day with regards to when the array would fail? I've seen this crap happen way too many times. They should just admit they were wrong and state that they would try harder to fix abuse issues in a more timely or effective manner in the future. It's really not all that complicated...
Mainly the reason why I don't want to return to BurstNET is that they are always quite ridiculous to their customers. I mean if something is really wrong (which with me, it was packetloss a long time ago) they really should look, rather then blaming the customer that "We are always right, you just are a terrible VPS administrator."
Customer Service isn't just defending yourself. I worked retail. That's pure CS there, and we never defended stating "Well, that Radio you bought might be broken, but does it get at least one station? Oh it does? You're stupid. NO REFUND/EXCHANGE/MOVE, maybe you should just never shop here again, you're not good enough. /shove" then assume that its all resolved.
Defending your company is one thing, destroying a customer with your defense for your company is another, I really don't know how they have that many people, but then again, its only a minority that appear to have such a problem.
I finally got them to bend in the thread, somewhat. At least they're nice enough to supposedly pass it onto their engineers. I doubt they will, but at least they say they will.
I just don't like that they're disproving what I'm saying because I've only dealt with a few thousand servers whereas they've dealt with tens of thousands. I think that's a crap reason for me to be wrong.
We have multiple full racks with Burst and I can say they're certainly not incompetent, or anything else in this thread. There are however a few things you have to understand.
First, they are very busy. Being busy cuts costs they pass on to you. This means you sometimes have to wait a bit longer, but if it's really urgent, you just have to check the 'urgent' box and they'll get back to you within a few minutes.
Second, there are lines of escalation (I've dealt with at least 3 of their managers) and although their managers are extremely good at what they do, they are even busier. Reason for this - as above - managers cost even more than floor staff.
The no refunds policy - why should they refund you? There is a cost involved in setting up servers and dealing with support tickets. It's not fair to pass those costs on to other customers when a few people misunderstand the service they're trying to provide.
I've submitted a lot of tickets in my time with Burst and have only once had an issue of what I would call incompetence. What did I do? Did I go running to LET and WHT? No, I just politely asked for the ticket to be escalated to a manager, which was done. The customer service manager promptly gave me a call back explaining and apologising. If compensation was what I was after (which it was not) I may have got something in that area as well.
If anyone has any questions about Burst, feel free to PM me.
"There is a cost involved in setting up servers and dealing with support tickets"
Yes you have a point but it still doesnt explain the way they treat customers like shit. No offence james but they are probably much more Polite to you ( As you are a bigger customer) than most others,
I agree with daniel, they couldn't afford to loose Mr Todds business.
Matthew have you got a new job yet or are you still looking for a hosting related position?
Honestly I don't think they check how much you pay them before dealing with your ticket.
Your name or ticket probably appears in gold.
Hahaha
@Net: I'm still looking around. I do professional audio for concerts and studio recordings as well as lighting, but it's not in season right now so work is slow.
@Jtodd: I did ask to be transferred to a manager, 27 days ago. It never happened. I'm still waiting on that and have been pushing for it since. Their lack of ability to listen to reason is what ultimately lead to the server failure. As far as I'm concerned, this issue could have been avoided had any one of the several technicians taken more than 30 seconds to look at the issue. Their negligence lead to an entire node losing it's raid array for the second time in a five week period.
Trust me, I see your points: Especially from previously owning/operating a rather large operation. However, this isn't a case of something just slipping through the cracks. I have a ticket open that's nearly a month old documenting this whole thing and my repeat requests for a manager to look into the fact that the server was going to predictably die, and they simply did nothing. That's my point.
Actually I know when I open up a ticket, I get a full profile in front of me. Most ticket software that I have seen and/or used does the same.
jtodd, I agree with the other folks here. You're probably on a different level of support since you have racks. I know I am with my datacenter. I'm actually lower as I'm not government, banking or have a leased cage. I'm actually down low on the pecking order as I just have racks and am actually small when compared to the setups around me.
@mrosenblatt: I think you forgot to mention the second server failure in your WHT review. You mention the first RAID failure, give the setup for it about you predicting it happening again, you once mention the chance to have avoided "this second complete and catastrophic failure", but you didn't include the part where it did actually fail.
Your review ends with the server taking 45 seconds to respond to SSH, and your disappointment at being given a run-around about the server load in the ticket response. If I hadn't read this first, I'd have totally missed out that the server died a second time.