~
http://www.yourftp.info

And then to have that same user hang you out to dry for failing to provide a professional level of service on something you gave them for free, that would be a good reason for me to terminate that arrangement.

Ofcourse there is the complication factor that you also have a business relationship with them, and pay them for other hosting services. But it seems that you are the one unable to separate the two, not BK.

Your acting like a child and abusing your “fame” to damage a company that may have responded in a more diplomatic manner to your behaviour, but their only real mistake seems to be doing you a favor.

Personally, I would be glad to host with a company prepared to go the extra mile without expecting anything in return.

Looking at this form an outside perspective I can’t really see who is to blame. It seems to me like a series of misfortunate events. Again I don’t think it happened at a great time for anyone involved.

I guess ill leave it at that. Thanks, Jason.

I’m sure you where fairly irate while talking to sales and support when this happened. Would I be correct?

No, I don’t think you would. Judge for yourself. The original email I sent to support said:

Guys,

I’m getting a domain unreachable error on the domain
podcasts.tomrafteryit.net - anyone know what the problem might be?

The reply I received from Michele was:

Tom

The company we were using in Amsterdam went bankrupt!

The reply i sent then was, I think reasonably polite (not irate):

Okaaay,

a couple of questions occur to me.

when were you going to tell me?
does Ralph in ENN know yet?
I assume you have a backup so what plans and timelines do you have in
place for getting the podcasts back up and running on another machine?

The rest you know.

Jason, I have often said good things about Blacknight - far more often than badmouthing them.

To be fair, you haven’t held blacknight in the highest regards just have a look at. http://www.tomrafteryit.net/index.php?tag=blacknight

I’m getting professional podcast hosting from Libsyn for $5 a month now.

I would hardly call the basic package a “professional service�. From what I can see they also have no policy on backing up your files. Libsyn do however have a professional service over at http://libsynpro.com/. Maybe it would be good to have a look at this.

I do agree, its bad form on them not informing you that a server hosted by a third-party (who went bankrupt over the Christmas period) went down. I’m sure you where fairly irate while talking to sales and support when this happened. Would I be correct?

All I’m saying is, maybe you jumped the gun a bit. It has happened before. I admit that I have done the same myself. All this could have been avoided dont you think?

George did not misrepresent our position and you will be receiving an email confirming same tomorrow morning.

Regards

Michele

You have a reseller hosting plan with us. This comes with an allocation of disk space, bandwidth etc., on our servers in Dublin.

It has never had any relationship to any arrangements, formal or informal, that may have been made with regard to your podcasts

Rubbish. All my podcasts were hosted in my reseller account until you asked me to move them to the server in Amsterdam where you had more disk and bandwidth.

We were more than happy to support your podcasting endeavours and had got involved with both IT@Cork and ENN at your request.

That involvement was in the form of sponsorship - for which you received plenty of good PR. In fact through your sponsorship of the it@cork pre-conference podcasts, you received more PR than any of the other sponsors.

As you will be making alternate arrangements with regard to your hosting I have asked our head of sales to liase with you in order to ease the transition to your new hosting provider

I will? The way it was presented to me by your head of sales Blacknight no longer wants my business and I am to move all my sites off your servers.

Did George misrepresent your position?

I tom I have a great deal of respect for what you do and have done for Irish blogging and podcasting.

Thanks Jason

Sure you spent 600 euro a year on a reseller package, but I can guarantee that is nothing compared to the cost that you could have had to pay if you provided this service yourself

Sorry Jason, but that’s just not true. I’m getting professional podcast hosting from Libsyn for $5 a month now.

They have never let me down through think and thin.

Long may it stay that way.

Jason, I have often said good things about Blacknight - far more often than badmouthing them. I have brought new customers to them and recommended them to others as well as the customers I hosted myself.

However, their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

I had over a year’s worth of podcasts hosted with them. The server went offline and what did they do to inform me? Nothing.

I still don’t know when the server went offline but as far as I know it was several weeks ago. I didn’t realise because, due to family circumstances, I was offline most of the time the last few weeks.

When I emailed support to ask what the issue with the server was, the reply I got from Michele was:

The company we were using in Amsterdam went bankrupt!

That’s it. No more. There was no apology. There was no, “I realise this inconveniences you”. There was no effort to offer any alternative solution.

When I asked for more information, I was told it was my fault in the first place for looking for a temporary solution (untrue).

If you feel this is satisfactory customer service, then I was wrong to put up this post but I think this was handled in an unbelievably appalling manner.

I don’t know about you, but when I get something for free, I don’t expect all the stuff I’d have got if I was paying for it

Neither do I Keith. But, as Frank said, I do expect what I was promised, reliable hosting and terabytes of bandwidth. I was never told there was any possibility that the service could be withdrawn without notice.

here’s my question: why weren’t you keeping backups yourself?

What makes you think I wasn’t keeping backups myself? How do you think I got the podcasts back up again so quickly? From my backups of all the mp3’s. Of course I kept backups.

Now how about answering my questions.

I have in the past worked as a network engineer for one of Ireland’s top datacenter this company has facilities over 24 countries in Europe. During this time, I have had dealings with a wide variety hosting service providers. In my estimation, blacknight provided you a level of service about and beyond the point that you as a customer should ever expect.

Blacknight went out of there way to give your practically unlimited resources to support your site and podcats. In all honesty coming from this background myself, I can guarantee you that they took a financial hit to help you out. Sure you spent 600 euro a year on a reseller package, but I can guarantee that is nothing compared to the cost that you could have had to pay if you provided this service yourself.

I am disappointed that backnight did make such a mistake. Howerver, mistakes do happen. Behind the vail of any company there are still normal people like you and I. Have you ever made a mistake that you regret? I know I have.

All this being said you where also in error. As a responsible customer you must have known that keeping a backup of your content would have been a smart Idea. Did it never strike you that one day something like this might happen? A server might fail or even worse a catastrophic event might fall upon gods green earth? One bitten, twice shy as my mother always said.

I have the up most respect for blacknight and their staff. They have never let me down through think and thin. Just remember what they did provide you with before you go bad mouthing an honest hard-working team and company.

This is a comment on your views on free lunches by the way, not a comment on the larger issue - I think that’s between Tom and Blacknight, speaking of which…

You’re posting in a personal capacity but on a post to do with the company you work for… so really, from the outside, you are representative of that company regardless of your own perception…

Just think that’s worth bearing in mind.

As Michele said, the situation could have been dealt with better, but here’s my question: why weren’t you keeping backups yourself? I backup everything and would never rely on anybody else or any other organisation to keep my stuff backed up, especially the service is free.

Unlike Keith I can speak in an official capacity.

I have been avoiding responding to you for the last couple of days.

While I will admit that our handling of the “podcast situation” could have been better it was an honest mistake.

Your statement above, however, with regard to the hosting you pay for is grossly misleading.

You have a reseller hosting plan with us. This comes with an allocation of disk space, bandwidth etc., on our servers in Dublin.

It has never had any relationship to any arrangements, formal or informal, that may have been made with regard to your podcasts. As you were happy to quote in your original post:

We provided you, at no cost, with unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth on one of the servers we had in Amsterdam

This clearly has no relationship with your reseller hosting account.

We were more than happy to support your podcasting endeavours and had got involved with both IT@Cork and ENN at your request.

It is obvious to all parties that any good relationship that may have existed between us is no more. As you will be making alternate arrangements with regard to your hosting I have asked our head of sales to liase with you in order to ease the transition to your new hosting provider.

Regards

Michele