We run a web development company that also manages about 30 of our clients through our host. We recently moved over to IXWEBHOSTING when our previous host went out of business. IXWEBHOSTING was very helpful at first, answering any questions we had promptly.
That was then...
Now, two months later we've noticed certain patterns. The host seems to go down (either mail, web or sometimes both) without notice in the middle of the day (it's happened 6 times in two months). The problem really comes in when when we are trying to find out what's going on, since we have to answer to our clients who are running their business (just like us) off the IXWEBHOSTING servers. When you contact IXWEBHOSTING through Live Chat you get a different name every single time, we're thinking that they're randomly generating the name or that the "Live Chat" isn't in any way affiliated with IXWEBHOSTING, and that it's a call center type organization supplied by LivePerson. Whatever the case, they have never had anything but a canned response to any question we've had. For example... Yesterday when the mail went down for 5 hours in the middle of the afternoon (from 12pm - 5pm on a Thursday) I needed to find out when the mail was going to be repaired and whether mail was bouncing or they were caching it and it would be delivered later, simple request right? Here's the LiveChat response (by the way this was the second time we'd contacted them, the time prior was 3 hours before this one):
START CHAT
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
(10 minutes later)
You are now chatting with 'Doug Kanter'
Doug Kanter: Hello, how may I help you today?
you: Hi, What's going on with the email?
Doug Kanter: Please provide me your domain name
you:
www.---------.com
Doug Kanter: Please hold on let me check
Doug Kanter: Our System administrators are working on the problem
Doug Kanter: Sorry for the inconvienece
you: Thats great, but it's been down for several hours now... I'd like to know if the mail that i'm supposed to be receiving is getting cached, and when it will be fixed?
Doug Kanter: It will be resolved soon
you: what about the mail?
Doug Kanter: Will fix it as soon as possible
you: Do I need to call in to get an answer?
Doug Kanter: Please check after one hour
you: This is us checking... Do you actually work at IX or are you a 3rd party service?
Doug Kanter: We work for ixwebhosting.
you: so you're not actually at IX...ok... which means that you really don't have any answers.
Doug Kanter: I am at IX and i am the employee of IX
you: I'm not trying to be rude, but we are running a business and just would like a few simple honest answers. We have waited patiently all afternoon for our email to come back. Now who can give me an honest answer?
Doug Kanter: Your problem will be fixed with in an hour
Doug Kanter: Our Administrators are working on the problem.
Doug Kanter: We are really sorry for the incoveinece caused
you: Ok, so since you're there and talking to the administrators i'm going to take your word for it. However, I'm logging our chat and will be extremely angry if this is not the case. I just want a truthful answer.
you: thank you for apologizing, but that doesn't do anything for my business.
END CHAT
The good thing is: The mail was back up within an hour...
The bad thing is: It wasn't cached, all the mail for us and all of our clients was lost for all of Thursday afternoon.
So on Friday I called up to find out what happened so I can tell all of our clients.
I spoke with a representative in support who told me there was no problem. I asked him if all of the mail that was supposed to be delivered the previous day had been cached or if it was bounced. He said he couldn't tell us that because if there was a problem it was with the senders mail host that was sending the mail and "he couldn't go and look at every single mail host" (obviously this is ridiculous) so I asked to speak with his manager.
He put me on hold and came back and said his manager was busy and he'd have to take my number. I told him I would wait, he refused and said he needed to get my number. So I gave him my number and he hung up on me. So I called back, he answered again (how is it they have an unlimited number of LiveChat support but only 1 phone support person?). I told him that I would hold until a manager would speak with me...
so I held... and held... and held. Finally he came back on and said he'd transfer me to the manager. So I held... and held... Finally... the "manager" came on. I asked his name, he said Dustin... I asked his last name, he said he doesn't give out that information. So I told him about the mail outtage and that I needed to know what happened and if the mail was cached or not. He told me there was not problem the prior day and it must have been a problem with my connection. I told him we spoke with them yesterday and they told us there was a problem (but not what) and they were fixing it. He assured me that nothing happend the prior day and the mail host was only down for 2 minutes (???). So I asked to speak to his Manager because I wasn't getting a straight answer. He told me he was THE manager. So I asked who HIS boss was. He said HE was his boss. So I asked who was the owner/president of the company. He said he didn't know since they were a privately held company. After that I said that we would have to move our account elsewhere if I couldn't get a straight answer and his reply was "GOOD".
Now, we're running about 30 domains off of IXWEBHOSTING... and if they don't care if we have a problem, what about all those people just running 1 domain?
Right now we are in the process of trying to locate another host that cares about their clients. We understand that there will be problems, and that they can't control every possible situation... But don't treat us badly when there is. WE PAY FOR A SERVICE, WE DON'T PAY TO BE BELITTLED AND LIED TO.
When you really start to look into IXWEBHOSTING you'll find a lot of suspicious inconsistencies. Noteably: There's no names anywhere about who owns, runs, or supports this company. Which means no one is liable when a problem occurs. They claim to be an "Award winning" hosting company (they also claim 99.9% uptime), and you'll find sites that claim them as the #1 host, all of these sites were likely put up by IXWEBHOSTING. If you look at the site you'll find nothing but stock photos of their building and data centers. You dig a little deeper and find they are a subsidary of the Ecommerce Corporation (
www.ecommerce.com)... if you look there you will find that they are a company based in Austria. And all roads lead to a dead end at that point, except for a snail mail address.
So here's what it comes down to...
It's your money, you've heard the stories... spend it wisely with someone who's going to value you as a customer. If you want to risk your business to a company who doesn't actually take any responsibility for their actions: This is the hosting company for you... Otherwise, I would recommend against hosting with IXWEBHOSTING.