invite.net has serious problems

[evanyares]

I have a web site and mail server hosted on invite.net. Since Thursday, my site has been down, and when I have contacted them, Invite has done little but tell me that it would be up in a few hours. Of course, it's still down. (Now that it's the weekend, they've stopped responding to live chat.) They tell me that had a DNS cache problem -- but who knows. They were migrating to a new data center, and have apparently screwed things up royally.

My problem is simple. I can't afford to have my site down like this. It is my business. And Invite isn't responding. Any suggestions as to what I can do? I can't afford to have my email bouncing.

Evan Yares

[Martie]

Welcome to the fourms evanyares
Feel free to post away...you might need to start looking for a new host if you continue to have problems (maybe by now youve gotten some sort of support/help)
Anyway a few suggestions I have would be to try doing a search here at webhostdir, based on your requirements?
http://www.webhostdir.com/hostquote/
That can result in some companies offering what you need, and then you can come back to the forums for any input.
ALSO, you may want to post your request in the Hosting and Domains forum under the Offers and Requests category.
Hope this helps...

[akashik]

I just took a look at their site and it does appear they've made a bit of a mess of the change-over. The latest news there seems to be for you to check and reset your e-mail password (are you getting password errors, or server not found errors).

Seems accounts are coming back online in blocks. While they're no doubt quite busy rounding up support requests at the moment I guess you'll have to make a judgement call on the sort of support you're getting. How were they before this happened? If you've always gotten good service before I'd suggest waiting it out as I'm sure they're doing their best. Of course a down site is always annoying (to say the least). As a domain will take a day or two to resolve to a new hosting company the problem may have cleared up before you get set up at a new host. I don't envy you your decision. Best of luck whichever way you decide to go.

Greg Moore

[evanyares]

It's a problem to know what to do. The big problem is that all my business associates and customers have been getting notices that my domain is dead. Not exactly a great thing.

Sadly, Invite still doesn't have its act together. My site is dead again, and I never could get to the right page to reset my email addresses.

You know... problems happen. If Invite had simply kept their notices up do date, and not lied about the problem resolution status, I'd be more understanding.

Next time, I'll look for a host who can guarantee 24/7 technical support. A bargain is sometimes not a bargain.

Evan

[akashik]

Sorry to hear your problems are a little more ongoing than it appeared. Bargains are great!............. if they work out. At least you're at the right place to go looking for a new host if need be. Lots of choices on the main pages of this site...

I suppose your best plan of action is to select a few for a shortlist, then fire off an enquiry to them. Try the support line, not sales if they have different addresses. After all that's who you'll be dealing with after you sign up. See who's reply you're the most happy with, both for information, and style. This whole thing tends to be a little easier to deal with when the people you have to communicate with sound like humans, and not autoresponders.

Greg Moore

[brossman]

My web site on invite had been down from the 8th untill the 12th., they gave their word that it would be up at worst with in 24 hr. They are not ansering me, I am loosing business and getting no emails. I am mad as &$%%,The are not providing useful post about that is going on. Their customer service and lack of committment to keep their customers informed is VERY BAD!!!

I have clients the are still down. This company need to have better bacak up and customer service!!!!!

[howdydudes]

My email with Invite.net has now been down for seven days...and still no response and no sign they are even working on getting it back up!!! As with one of the other folks above, I am a consultant and this is my business email--Invite has shut down my business for seven days.

While that is nearly inexcusable, I could almost forgive them because I understand that huge mishaps can happen, but the thing that has pushed it over the edge is their total lack of customer support. They appear to have dropped off the face of the earth -- they have stopped answering their phones, stopped returning email, stopped answering on-line message postings, and stopped returning voice mail messages. For seven days?!? Is that unreal or what? And this isn't some fly-by-night little company. They used to be a fairly large and somewhat reputable hosting company (they were even given an award by Web Host Directory.) With their company basically shut down, I'm left picturing their entire staff huddling under their desks in fear as the masses of customers become increasingly hostile. I've heard it said that the true test of someone's character and composure is their ability in a crisis. Well, Invite has failed miserably. I think they may have officially passed Microsoft and the Department of Motor Vehicles as the absolute worst customer service.

Yes, this is all harsh, but this problem has been no small inconvenience. For many of us, things such as email are as fundamental to our business as the telephone. I think very few people would tolerate loosing all of their business phones for seven days and having no way to communicate with their clients. And it is all made worse by the fact that for several days our client were getting their emails kicked back to them as undeliverable. That would be like a business loosing telephone service and having a message stating that the number is no longer in service. After seven days, their customers would have found another option!

So, I came to this site to investigate other options and I've found a couple. I have two sites hosted by Invite and they will be moved just as soon as I can access my email. Plus, I have over a dozen clients whom I have referred to Invite in the past and I am so outraged by this that I have offered to help them all get their accounts moved to other hosting companies, and I'll be doing it free of charge! (When was the last time you heard a consultant say that!)

Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to share my experience and I hope others can benefit from our experience with this fiasco and find a different company!

[BarefootMamma]

So glad I found this site!!!

Yep...I'm afraid Invite has gone down the big toilet. My client's site was down from the 9th-13th. E-mail, despite the "help" they offer, is still down, not to mention the entire database has been obliterated. Their new admin panel is less than helpful and is difficult to use...although there isn't much point in using it since it doesn't offer much help.

They used to have a live chat support, which was great in the past. They quickly changed that to "leave a message", but now, it's totally gone. They are not answering e-mails, and they have the guts to tell US that sending duplicate e-mail will slow them down more.

All of their telephone numbers (even to billing and sales) have the same recorded message saying to send an e-mail and they will get back to us when "they have further information on the issue or when it has been resolved." Yeah...well...I get a very bad feeling about this company...VERY BAD.

Thing is, my client signed up for services with them in May. They had the free domain registration thing, and he took it. Well, it was too late when I told him that Invite actually "owned" the domain for 6 months...

So, I'd love to change over the service. My client has a major thing coming up where his site needs to be running properly, which of course, it isn't right now. The dbase is totally gone, and I have no way of reinstalling it at this point, because Invite needs to fix it for me. E-mail hasn't worked for a week, either...also bad for my client.

I feel totally stuck. I'd love to change the service for him, and I can do that today. I know of plenty reliable hosts within his price range...but what do I do with the domain thing?

[akashik]

Seems this problem may a little deeper than it originally appeared to be. A slowdown in support replies is understandable if there's a major muckup like it sounds they've had. It does seems to have past the point of good taste though. Times like that are when your customers need you the most after all.

Regarding the domain, there's not a lot you can do it they are listed as both registrant and tech contact. You could plead a case with the registrar itself and hope they are feeling sympathetic. Mention to them the domain has been registered a long time (so it's no a brand new one), and how you've recently discovered it's not registered to you as you thought it was going to be (or your client in this case).

You could grab an alternate domain in the meantime (say a .net the same as the .com), and use that until the problem with the original domain is solved, or it can be just tossed in favour of the new one. Do they have a mailing list? A note sent out to the list would no doubt get people to switch over - people are pretty adaptable to domain changes when the site remains the same. With the domain down it would have to be done via an ISp account fo course (just make the return address go back to the new domain once it's up)

Must be a bad month for the net as I've seen a lot of things go down lately. Makes you wonder who's running these places...

Greg Moore

[BarefootMamma]

Right, I understand a couple of days for migration, even though they promised no less than 24 hours. That was fine..annoying...but fine. But, a week later...that's horrible!

I called their 800 number looking for their billing dept or anyone that could help me. I played around punching in numbers and I found the ext for the billing dept (1001)...but, yep...send them an e-mail...

I also found a few other extensions, but none of them answered the phone (surprise, surprise).

I find it hard to believe that they are fixing things right now. Their update page hasn't been touched for three days. Like I said, I have a very bad feeling....like that I'm going to check their page later today and find the one-page announce,ent that they've "shut their doors" or something like that.

That's a good idea to go to the registrar..I'll try that...I just can't handle this anymore.

[howdydudes]

I was glad to see that BarefootMamma tried the same trick of calling all of their phone numbers and trying to somehow reach an actual human being! I too had no luck!

I live in Colorado (home of the brand new state-of-the-art Invite.net Data Center) and I'm going to be in Denver next week. Maybe I'll see if I have any better luck trying to contact them in-person. Something tells me the doors will be locked and the lights will be out!

If I actually get inside, maybe I'll relive my old protest days and I'll chain myself to the servers until they agree to release our email to us! I'll tell them that they don't want to make me and BarefootMamma any more angry than we already are!

(OK, I just thought I'd add some levity to this frustrating situation, but I won't actually chain myself to the servers...I'll just sit in the lobby until someone agrees to provide some customer service! Is that such an unreasonable demand?)

I'll let you know if I make any progress!

[BarefootMamma]

Sounds like a plan to me...I'm in Utah, but I could be in Denver in a few hours no problem....I'd sit there with you!

The problem is that Invite "owns" this domain until November. My client signed up for the service himself, but he didn't realize that most of the hosts out there that offer "free" registration also have strings attached.

So, I can't transfer this domain until I can talk them...which obviously...is proving impossible.

I played around on their phone system and I managed to find their directory, and I wrote down a few extensions, including the one for the owner/founder. Nobody is answering the phone at all, and I'm feeling entirely riped off at this point.

[BarefootMamma]

Here's an update:

I did a little research and found that Invite is a customer if Inflow. The migration went to Inflow's Data Center in Denver. I spoke with a lady at Inflow and she says that they have an additional list of phone numbers for all their clients in the event of some kind of escalation. She's going to call me back to let me know what's happening.

That's where we're at, though...since I can't possibly do anything else, I might as well try to find out what's going on, huh?

She did tell me that the problem is not on Inflow's end, however, because sites are running. She said that if the sites are down, it could be because Invite didn't pay their bill, but she said that's only a possibility when sites are down. Because they are running (technically) the problem has to be somewhere at Invite.

I know it doesn't help much, but if I hear anything else, I'll post it here.

[BarefootMamma]

Another Update:

NOt long after I phoned Inflow, the following e-mail was sent out:

Dear Invite Internet Clients,

You are receiving this message because you recently contacted Invite
Internet's Tech Support with an issue related to our recent data center
migration.

At this time, all system wide issues have been resolved. This includes DNS,
SMTP(outgoing mail), POP(incoming mail), and password issues.

If you feel you are still experiencing trouble with any of the above issues,
please visit the following URLs, to ensure you are following the proper
steps when accessing any of the services:

GENERAL:
Knowledge Source
Reference Source

SPECIFIC TOPICS:
Control Panel
Counter
Forbidden Error Message
FormMail
FTP
General Email
Index Page
POP Account
Shopping Cart



Invite Internet is still working on a handful of accounts with problems not
addressed above. If you have already sent an Email regarding any issue not
addressed above, please do not send in a duplicate request as this will only
delay our ability to address your issue. We will be contacting each affected
account individually.

The staff at Invite Internet has been working round the clock to resolve all
issues. We sincerely apologize for lengthy response times to each of your
requests, and for not being able to respond directly to each individual. We
understand that a form letter such as this is not the preferred method of
communicating with each client. However, due to the number of requests and
duplicate requests received recently, this is the only efficient means of
communication at this point.

The staff at Invite Internet, would like to thank you for your patience and
understanding during our migration period. Our recent migration has enabled
us to improve upon our previous services and continue to be serve as one of
the top hosting companies in the industry.

Sincerely,
The Staff at Invite Internet


Well, that's pretty funny...because despite following all their lousy directions, my e-mail is still down...and my database is still nowhere to be found. I find it extremely hard to beleive that an e-mail that is 5 days old has gone unoticed in their tech support. Yeah, they may have many messages, but if they really are working 'round the clock, someone should screen the e-mails as they come in. They still aren't answering their phones...

Hopefully, howdy has some luck by going to their office.

They said that system wide issues have been resolved...yet it seems that there are many customers having the exact same problems...I don't get it.

Oh yeah...and the Inflow lady never called me back.

[brossman]

INVITE.COM is still the leader in bad customer service!!! It is the 17th and I and 3 other people I know are having serious problems. My password will not let me in, I can publish from Front Page, and my email transfering is not working!!!

Then they have the nerve to post this on their web site:

Friday, August 17, 2001

At this time, all system wide issues have been resolved. This includes DNS, SMTP(outgoing mail), POP(incoming mail), and password issues.

If you feel you are still experiencing trouble with any of the above issues, please visit the following URLs, to ensure you are following the proper steps when accessing any of the services:

This is just a BOLD FACE LIE!!!! Does any one know of any group lawsuite I could joine against invite.net . This is killing my business. and has gone on since Aug 8th when they said it may be down from 3 to up to 24 hr.

What a great model of how not to handel a major problem!!!

Martin