I've been a successful web developer for more than 10 years, and I have never, EVER dealt with such a bass-ackwards operation as NCServ.
Although the company advertizes cPanel/WHM hosting, recently their owner, Kris Keele, decided to migrate to DirectAdmin instead. Hey, it's his company after all, right?
Unfortunately, after the server change I noticed that the sites I had hosted at NCServ were all offline. So I opened a support ticket.
Big mistake.
Here's one of the helpful responses I got: "With over 1500 customers moved in the last month we have had about 20 that claim to have never received information, didn't understand or just didn't do as instructed and asked. Those are the only ones that have had issues also. If you did not receive something then you need to make sure our domains are whitelisted in your mail servers as all Resellers received private instructions... Your site appears to be resolving properly."
Where did that come from?
I replied that I never received the "private instructions," and that the email they sent contained only generic information, not specific to my server or domains. Still their tech support team waws stuck on, We sent you the instructions, but you must have been too lazy or stupid to follow them.
Okay.
Finally, after 4 messages and 24 hours, I got the new IP address I needed to use for my custom nameservers. Still no joy. A few hours later one of their tech reps identified a dns entry error on their end that was causing trouble.
Wow. Now that's customer service.
However, when I logged in to the new DirectAdmin panel, there was an immediate problem. Although I was paying for a "one click script installer" and CMS software like Joomla, Mambo, and OSCommerce, the new panel didn't have a script installer, or any links for those programs.
Since that's the kind of sites I have hosted, and all my domains were returning "Unable to make the database connection," you can imagine I was a little PO'd. So I opened another support ticket. Here's the reply I got from Kris Keele, owner of NCServ, sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 10:42 AM:
"What you are paying for is hosting service, the freebies are give as a FREEBIE we are under no obligation to support them or give you a time frame of when Installatron will be made available to the public. With the posts you keep making I am reluctant to help you any further, you may take your hosting package somewhere else."
You read that right, friends. And Kris wasn't kidding, either. He immediately deleted my sites. When I asked WTF? here was his next reply, sent Sunday, July 06, 2008 3:35 PM:
"You are pretty much SOL at this point... I just don't subject my staff to customers like you so you are officially fired...
You are no longer allowed in our system and your sites are now deleted from the current servers. If you write an apology letter for your actions and attitude I will upload all of the cPanel full backups for you. You may send it to support@ncserv.com so my staff can see it."
A reasonable person might find themselves asking, "How is it an acceptable business practice to FIRE YOUR CUSTOMERS because they ask for help during a server migration?" Or is okay to FIRE YOUR CUSTOMERS if they ask, "Where are the scripts that are supposed to be included in my package?"
I don't have a whole lot of patience for people who advertise one thing, take my money, then deliver something completely different. And tech support that's just plain rude? That really chaps my hide.
However, at NCServ, the only good customers are the customers who put up with their sorry attitude without complaining. Point out that their being being disrespectful or charging you for something you're not getting and BAM... you're officially fired.
I wish it was a joke, friends, but sadly, everything above is the absolute truth.
With crappy customer service like this, how do clowns like NCServ stay in business?
Although the company advertizes cPanel/WHM hosting, recently their owner, Kris Keele, decided to migrate to DirectAdmin instead. Hey, it's his company after all, right?
Unfortunately, after the server change I noticed that the sites I had hosted at NCServ were all offline. So I opened a support ticket.
Big mistake.
Here's one of the helpful responses I got: "With over 1500 customers moved in the last month we have had about 20 that claim to have never received information, didn't understand or just didn't do as instructed and asked. Those are the only ones that have had issues also. If you did not receive something then you need to make sure our domains are whitelisted in your mail servers as all Resellers received private instructions... Your site appears to be resolving properly."
Where did that come from?
I replied that I never received the "private instructions," and that the email they sent contained only generic information, not specific to my server or domains. Still their tech support team waws stuck on, We sent you the instructions, but you must have been too lazy or stupid to follow them.
Okay.
Finally, after 4 messages and 24 hours, I got the new IP address I needed to use for my custom nameservers. Still no joy. A few hours later one of their tech reps identified a dns entry error on their end that was causing trouble.
Wow. Now that's customer service.
However, when I logged in to the new DirectAdmin panel, there was an immediate problem. Although I was paying for a "one click script installer" and CMS software like Joomla, Mambo, and OSCommerce, the new panel didn't have a script installer, or any links for those programs.
Since that's the kind of sites I have hosted, and all my domains were returning "Unable to make the database connection," you can imagine I was a little PO'd. So I opened another support ticket. Here's the reply I got from Kris Keele, owner of NCServ, sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 10:42 AM:
"What you are paying for is hosting service, the freebies are give as a FREEBIE we are under no obligation to support them or give you a time frame of when Installatron will be made available to the public. With the posts you keep making I am reluctant to help you any further, you may take your hosting package somewhere else."
You read that right, friends. And Kris wasn't kidding, either. He immediately deleted my sites. When I asked WTF? here was his next reply, sent Sunday, July 06, 2008 3:35 PM:
"You are pretty much SOL at this point... I just don't subject my staff to customers like you so you are officially fired...
You are no longer allowed in our system and your sites are now deleted from the current servers. If you write an apology letter for your actions and attitude I will upload all of the cPanel full backups for you. You may send it to support@ncserv.com so my staff can see it."
A reasonable person might find themselves asking, "How is it an acceptable business practice to FIRE YOUR CUSTOMERS because they ask for help during a server migration?" Or is okay to FIRE YOUR CUSTOMERS if they ask, "Where are the scripts that are supposed to be included in my package?"
I don't have a whole lot of patience for people who advertise one thing, take my money, then deliver something completely different. And tech support that's just plain rude? That really chaps my hide.
However, at NCServ, the only good customers are the customers who put up with their sorry attitude without complaining. Point out that their being being disrespectful or charging you for something you're not getting and BAM... you're officially fired.
I wish it was a joke, friends, but sadly, everything above is the absolute truth.
With crappy customer service like this, how do clowns like NCServ stay in business?
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