I have interviewed many individuals and companies as I wanted to expand my SEO team and needed professionals who could do the work to the same standards as me. Yet, when I interviewed them, it quickly became clear that they were clueless. While I always hesitate to call these people scammers, I find it hard to find a better description for what it is that they are doing. It would be like a salesman selling you a fridge only for you to find out that it’s not a fridge at all, but a cooker. I simply detest anyone who claims they can do something and wants to charge for it when they actually have no idea at all how to do it. They are simply assuming that their client has less of an idea of how it is done and will never know that they are being ripped off.

When I see companies who do this, I can never idly stand by. I have to do something. I have to notify people of the situation.

This happened again yesterday. I saw a press release that claimed to be a PR company who used SEO. I checked the companies details and quickly built up a list of suspect information such as the poor SEO that had been done on their site. It seemed so poor that it was almost as if no SEO had been done at all. I also found out that the business was a “virtual business” with no postal address and the only phone numbers were mobile numbers. The final and most damning fact being that they were not even registered with the government here in the Philippines where their business is based.

After a few hours of research I had a lot of information and published it as a comment on the press release. It quickly attracted a lot of attention and comments came in from users who said that they were impressed with the level of in depth research that I had done on this issue.

Soon after, the business owner commented. He avoided all the issues I had posted and instead decided to simply try and brush it off by saying that as I was technically anonymous I can say whatever I want without consequences. That being true, I also stand by all my research. I am, after all, a professional. However, he is yet to actually reply to the issues that I had listed and the questions that I asked after his comment.

Now, it would seem as if I am going to have to take this issue further. The rest is top secret, but I will post full details as soon as it has been completed. You will be surprised to say the very least. I am sorry that I can not tell you any more, but you will get all the details as soon as I have authorization to release the information. For the time being, I have to keep it to myself.

However, I get one of my patented gut feelings that the business owner will threaten to kill me once he finds out what I will do. I do not just know how to do SEO with great success, I also have awards for clay pigeon shooting, obtaining 100% accuracy using a double barrelled semi automatic shotgun on fast, airborne, moving targets! Time to go gun shopping I think!

For now, this is 5uperman.

Now, onto those fuckers at LunarPages.com. I have had a mixed response from them. They used to be good, or at least they were until I hit problems.

I have a full dedicated server with them and have had nothing but problems. Here are a list of the problems:

1) DNS Server Corruption

The server DNS became corrupt. LunarPages refused to accept that there was a problem until I proved beyond any doubt that there was a problem. They then migrated me to a new server causing a shit load of downtime. Even when they had finished, they left the old server turned on for 2 months while they told me at least 3 times that it had already been switched off, unplugged and wiped.

2) cPanel Account Hacked and Compromised with Virus Download Links

I found that one of my accounts on my server had new files that were linked to virus downloads. I backed up the account (which at the time was blank) and emailed it all to LunarPages to investigate. They refused to investigate it. I had to put in a complaint and ask for the manager to call me who told me that the account must have been hacked. Even though I had sent the files for them to investigate, he admitted that not a single person who had dealt with this case had checked the files in over 3 months! He went on to say that he thought this was acceptable!

3) Server crashes

I called LunarPages as my server was not working correctly. I waited in the queue for 15 minutes before someone answered the phone. It turned out that the person I spoke with (Greg) was at that time the only person within LunarPages that was supporting dedicated customers for the entire world. I opened a formal complaint as I had also had another issue with their support staff when I was opening a ticket and I supplied all the details they needed, but they then replied asking for the same details.

Get this! When I spoke to them after the server became unresponsive just 1 hour after it had been restarted they told me “the resources were maxed out by Clam Anti Virus as it was updating virus definitions”. WHAT? How can a server with 2GB of ram and a decent speed cpu become unresponsive and have its resources maxed out by a simple virus definition update? Their reply was “some virus definition updates are bigger than 1GB and can overload your server”. You have got to be kidding me! Show me just one virus definition that is larger than 1gb when the anti virus is set to update automatically! The only resolution was to disable the anti virus updates and instead do updates manually, but I was told that this could cause the server to become unresponsive once more if the anti virus definition is the same size or bigger. Personally, I think that this excuse is entire bullshit.

Below you will see the e-mails to and from LunarPages. Keep in mind that I contacted their customer service team and opened a Formal Complaint.

Initial Reply From LunarPages (Oct 24th)

I have looked into ticket ##### and sincerely apologize for the delay caused by asking for the ownership confirmation info again. Do please be aware that we also ask for the phone number on file as part of verification though that was not the issue here.

I also apologize for any delay on our phone support.

I am leaving this ticket open on our feedback desk for our admins to view your complaint. (this was their resolution to my formal complaint)

If you have any more questions, or if we can be of further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Katrina Kane

Customer Service Supervisor

My Reply (Oct 27th)

The prime problem was not too much the delay, it was that you had ONE PERSON dealing with dedicated server customers for the entire globe!!!!!!

I do not think that simply showing my complaint to your staff is a satisfactory resolution to my complaint. What about the money I wasted calling you? What about the time I wasted? What about the $150 I pay every month and in return you supply just one member of staff for the whole globe?

I do not believe that this complaint has been dealt with properly. I am not satisfied with this resolution, although to be honest I don’t even think it can be classed as a resolution. I would like you to escalate this ticket so that it can be dealt with properly.

Reply from LunarPages (Oct 28th)

Your ticket is in our feedback desk where it will not just be seen by staff but will be brought to the attention of and seen by our upper managers. This is the right place for it to be and will be looked into.

If you have any more questions, or if we can be of further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Katrina Kane

Customer Service Supervisor

My Reply (Nov 6th)

Hello, that was not clearly explained in the previous reply. Exactly when will your upper managers look into this and get back to me? It has been TEN DAYS since you last replied and FOURTEEN DAYS since I sent in the formal complaint.

FOURTEEN DAYS and my complaint has not yet been addressed.

Reply from LunarPages (Nov 7th)

Your feedback was passed on to management to discuss with our dedicated team. They don’t usually reply to individual tickets. (the customer services supervisor is seriously telling me that my formal complaint will not be replied to by a manager, but instead, they will investigate it and then discuss it with their dedicated team as feedback. WTF?) I have emailed this ticket to my manager directly as well.

If you have any more questions, or if we can be of further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Katrina Kane

Customer Service Supervisor

My Reply (Nov 8th)

What on earth are you playing at? This is a formal complaint and you are seriously telling me that the managers that my complaint has been escilated to “don’t usually reply”. This is complete lunacy.

Is no one going to deal with my complaint? Surely you can see how insane this is. I have contacted you with a formal complaint and you’re telling me that I basically shouldn’t have bothered because no one is going to address the problem. I understand that you have emailed it to your manager, but it seems that if I did not chase this complaint up, I would have never heard anything back.

Previously you had said “This is the right place for it to be and will be looked into”. I kinda assumed that they would have contacted me after looking into it.

Can you please confirm what you are saying. Lets face it, I dont know anyone who would continue to pay $150 a month to a company who does not reply to, or attempt to resolve customers formal complaints.

Reply from LunarPages (Nov 9th)

I’m sorry for the delay in response. I attempted to contact you with the number listed on file but it does not seem to be a valid number. I do apologize for the experience you received during our Graveyard Shift we are currently in the process of hiring more staff for the shift. If you would like we can set up a time to call and discuss the matter with you please provide us with a valid phone number and a time you would like to be contacted.

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

Shoji Harada

Junior System Administrator 1 – System Admin Department

My Reply (Nov 9th)

Before you call me, I would like you to read through this entire ticket and prepare yourself to answer all of the questions that have thus far been ignored.

Also, I would like to know why your customer service supervisor is telling me why you do not normally reply to or address formal complaints?

Had this been dealt with properly, you would not have to waste your time calling me and I would not have to waste my time replying to your ticket replies. With all due respect, it has taken 17 days to get this far and I feel that I should not need to push so hard when I have opened a complaint.

I am very reasonable. I totally understand that sometimes things simply go wrong. No technology is perfect.

I also understand how hard it is to find good staff, but your staffing issues are none of my concern. My server has gone down so much in the past month, I doubt it has had an uptime of 99%.

I will await your phone call.

My Follow up Reply (Nov 11th)

2 Days pass and still no reply to my last e-mail. Am i going to be phoned? When will I be phoned? Why have I been ignored? Why havent my previous questions been addressed yet?

It is now NINETEEN DAYS since I opened a formal complaint and as yet, no one has dealt with it to any reasonable, let alone satisfactory, resolution.

I am so annoyed with your service, I have been posting full details of my complaint and all replies I receive on my personal website so that everyone can see the insane things that your supervisors and other staff are saying. I hate to do this, but your staff seem to be completely uninterested in dealing with my complaint and I feel as if lunarpages simply does not care about existing customers.

Can you give me an ETA so I at least know someone is dealing with it and how long I can be expected to sit on my hands waiting for someone, anyone, to call me and show that you at least value my money, even if you do not value me as a customer.

If you can not deal with this complaint, please pass it to someone who can. I assume the person that will be calling me will be a complaints manager.

Had this issue been dealt with initially, we would have been able to come to a satisfactory resolution within days and I would not have been left hanging here in limbo not knowing what was going on and getting more and more annoyed as the days pass with no resolution, to call, no e-mails etc.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 12th)

I apologize we have your contact details and noted the time difference, you will be contacted as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Matt Boster

Customer Service Supervisor

My Reply (Nov 12th)

I am amazed at your ability to reply to a support ticket without answering a single question contained within the reply I last made, or any other reply before that containing questions. Why was my ticket reply on 9th of Nov completely ignored? Why did no one think that it might be a good idea to acknowledge the information I had provided so that I knew you were dealing with the complaint? Ignoring a customer is possibly the worst thing you can do, especially when it is part of a formal complaint.

How can this possibly be reasonable? It is now bordering on twenty days since I opened this formal complaint. There have been five replies and yet not a single one of them offered or suggested any resolution.

You are seriously telling me that in the past 3 days there is no one who can be bothered to deal with my formal complaint?

Next time you invoice me I assume it will be fine if I tell you that I have staffing issues and as such my sales have been effected, however I will spend at least 20 days e-mailing you every few days to tell you that the billing issue is going to be dealt with by one of our managers when they get the chance. Of course it wouldn’t be fine, yet you expect me to be fine about paying my monthly fee of just over $150 while you are in the process of “dealing” with my complaint after your supervisor told me to not expect any reply to my complaint. This is just complete insanity. You have shown me very clearly that you simply do not care about your customers.

I am sorry for the long e-mail, but ANYONE who has done ANY real customer services training will be well aware that the kind of behaviour that you have displayed is entirely not acceptable and is, if anything, an horrific example of customer services.

You may as well go ahead and get your cancellations department to call me too on the numbers I previously included in this ticket. I am so sick and annoyed, I see absolutely no reason to stay with you when this is how you behave.

Phone Calls From Lunar Pages

Shaun Williams called me, but he did not seem to know about the technical side of my server, so was unable to answer most questions. I asked for my money back for the phone call I made (It’s only a few pennies, but I don’t see why I should pay it) and he refused. He suggested that I upgrade to full managed hosting (I am presently on lite hosting management). However, the e-mails that I should have received when my server went down were never sent. I told him that I would happily upgrade once they investigate why the e-mails were never sent when a problem happened with the server. Shaun Willams was quite rude and told me that I had been emailed about the most recent server disk check. He even read out the email to me. He then told me to check the support tickets for the e-mail as that is where it would be. But it was not there. After further checks, he found that the agent who had created the ticket had used their personal email address instead of mine, which was why I never received the email.

A little while later, I received another call from AJ who told me that the ticket was “horrible”. AJ added R1 Soft backup to my account free for 3 months. AJ told me that he would look into my ticket and get back to me, keeping me in the know.

During this time, another ticket had been opened to say that R1 Soft Backup had been installed on my server. I replied asking for the price and they told me “Currently, the price per month on R1 soft backup software is being updating and we will have a price soon.”. Finally I got a price from them and it is $150 per month. My server only costs $150 per month, so this will double my costs. I immediately called them to tell them that they can make sure they cancel it before I receive a single charge for it.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 13th)

Hello,

Thank you for your time today over the phone.

As per our conversation, I have passed this account to our administrative management where they will look over your account to ensure that all services are running normal.

If you have any other questions or concerns don’t hesitate to use this ticket or contact me using the details I provided.

I look forward to helping you in the future.

Best Regards,

Shawn Williams

Customer Care Manager

My Reply (Nov 14th)

Hello, yes, they called me shortly after I talked to you.

Today, as I was working on one of my websites, it stopped loading and I instead got a lovely wordpress Database Connection Failed error message. This happens a lot and is normally just before the whole server becomes unresponsive. (image attached)

Could you please provide me with your logs showing when the server crashed or was restarted. I assume you have these logs, but as you know, I have only received one email saying that the server was restarted, yet I know for a fact it has been restarted a lot more than that. On one day it was restarted twice within one hour and fourty minutes. Ideally, I just need the dates and times that it has gone down during November and October.

Thus far, I am very pleased with how well the administrative management (AJ) has dealt with this ticket.

As you stated AJ, this ticket is “horrible”. I have noticed that you added the backup plan to my account free for 3 months, but no one has been able to tell me the price as they say they are updating it. How much was it in the past? Do you expect much of an increase? I just dont want to be using it if it is going to be far too expensive for me.

Why did the server crash when I talked to Greg on Nov 4th? This was the instance that I was told it was due to a 1GB virus definition download. Now that we know the hard drive has become corrupt, it is naturally worrying as it may continue to happen, causing issues. Do we know what was corrupted? I have had this before with HostGator where the drive corrupted, was fixed, but it left a load of problems with emails not being handled correctly, inboxes I couldnt delete and inboxes that were full with nothing inside.

These server crashes are a major issue. My server runs a licensing system, so when it is down, my users license requests all fail, not to mention the loss in sales and loss in reputation.

Guess what was the cause of todays most recent crash? Anti Virus. Not exactly brilliant protection. I instructed them to disable it until we can address the other issues that you are dealing with. Once you have finished with the current issues, please enable it again and we will see if it still crashes the server.

Many thanks for your assistance AJ.

All the best

My Reply (Nov 15th)

When is AJ next in? What is happening with this ticket? What are we waiting for. It has been two days since I contacted you about the most recent crash and once again I have not received any reply at all.

Come on. Get with the game. I have already complained once, this ticket is in fact a complaint.

I really do expect a reply well before now. Not a resolution, but so that I at least know what is happening, how long I can expect to wait etc. But for the love of god, unless you want to pay me an hourly wage, why on earth should I have to tell you how you should be treating customers?

Come on, get with the program, pull your fingers out and lets make our relationship a proper business relationship where I pay you for a service and receive it most of the time.

Phone Call to LunarPages

After I again did not receive a reply within 2-3 days, I called them to find out what the hell was happening. These are the bullet points of their reply.

• AJ Was in on monday and had left the office just a few hours earlier. My ticket is permanently tagged to the top of the list and is flagged for AJ. I was told that AJ had replied and dealt with other tickets in the list while he was in. “we are very busy” he told me, but I refuse to accept that he is too busy to deal with a formal complaint from a highly annoyed customer who’s main problem was lack of contact.
• Notes had been left on the account to say that another disk check had been completed and this time they have found so many errors that it was clear the drive was about to fail. The only solution was a brand new server (again), yes people, this will be my 3rd server with them in a year! The first server failed as all the dns entries were screwed, the second one is now failing as the hard drive is dying. Where do LunarPages get this hardware from? It seems like it is the cheapest of the cheap. However, no one contacted me to say that a disk check was happening, one had been completed, they found the hard drive failing and were going to move me to a new server.

I asked for AJ to call me as soon as he could to talk about why he failed to respond to my ticket. He had, after all, told me that we would keep me updated and it seems that he didnt even bother to respond to my replies that had been sat there for 3 days.

Now, I am waiting for them to complete a full backup of the server (which I had previously been told was already done), they will then build the new server, restore the backup and then take any updates from the old server before completing the switch.

Reply from LunarPages (Nov 16th)

Hi,
The restore of your server has completed however I cannot reach you by phone. We have on file. When is a good time to stop your server to complete the migration process? And regarding the price for r1 its not going to be expensive.

Thanks in advance.
Best Regards.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions
Ation Gilliam
JSAI – System Admin Team
Phone: 1-714-521-8150 (International)

My Reply (Nov 16th)

I would call $150 a month expensive when my hosting plan is only $150 per month.
You can call me using the numbers that I have provided within this support ticket.
The best number to call me on is my home number which is **********
Has the new server been built already? How long would the migration take? I was told that there should be little disruption as you would forward from the old server using dns settings, so there should technically be no downtime. The main issue that I have is that I have a sales system and want to make sure that I do not end up with mismatched orders, account details, stats etc as this would create a hell of a lot of work on our end, costing us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
I will wait for your phone call.

Pop Quiz

Do you think they called me before completing the migration and resync?
Do you think they called me to tell me what was happening?
Do you think they called me to keep me informed on anything they were doing?
If you answered “YES” to any of the above questions, you are wrong.

This is what happened.

The team in charge of migration etc was told by AJ to migrate and not re-sync until they talked to me (so I could freeze all my software to ensure no errors). But for whatever reason, they decided to re-sync the server without calling myself or their supervisor AJ. Because they did this, it meant that my plans were entirely fucked. During the re-sync process, the old server went down completely and refused to come back up. The cage team was paged, who went out to the cage the server was in and tried to get it to run, which they did after a few hours. The re-sync process was restarted as the new server was useless with half a sync on it. Luckily, after a few hours, it completed and Greg phoned me to say that it was finished.

No one could tell me when the backup that was used was from. They said “it may be from the 14th, or possibly earlier, we simply do not know.”. Youre fucking shitting me? You’re using an update that you simply have no idea when it is from??? Yes, that is what they did!!!

What now?

I am waiting for AJ to call me tomorrow to personally explain to me why he failed to reply to my formal complaint in 3 days when I know full well that he was in on those days and dealing with my specific issue, yet decided to totally ignore my replies as well as my requests and his guarantees that I would be kept informed.

I will naturally keep everyone reading this well informed. I have already had hundreds of people contact me about this horrific story. As you can imagine, this issue has cost me a shit load of money on my end to deal with (staffing, phone calls and time involved) not to mention the horrible effects it has had on the SEO of my high ranking sites as search engines would go to index it only to find it is not there! God damn it, I want some compensation for this bullshit, even if it just covers my costs I would be happy. What is worse is that they incorrectly diagnosed my problem, installing R1 soft backup onto the server, causing a dying hard drive to have less of a life span than it already had. Their actions caused my server to be pushed closer to the edge and maybe over, of its eta of death.

My Reply (Nov 16th)

I am so furious now.
I will bullet point my issues at the present time:

• AJ has instructed the migration to be done, but also said that it should not be re-synced . However they went ahead and re-synced the server which not only was against my instructions and AJ’s instructions. This then caused the old server to die completely and not come back online. I am now stuck with no websites online, staff working and nothing to do, the worry that my warning is now coming true and I am about to face hundreds and thousands of dollars of expenses to resolve the problem that you have created.
• Once again. NO ONE CALLED ME or even kept me in the loop. When the server hdd was checked earlier, I was told that I had called too soon as an email would be sent once it was complete. Now, hours later, I still have no e-mail!!!!!! 38 errors were found. No one called or emailed me!
• Had the server been correctly diagnosed, you would have seen this problem and would not have installed that rubbish backup software onto the hard drive, causing an already dying hard drive to have an even shorter life span due to the read/writes involved with installing the software.
• After being told that I would be kept in the loop and informed of everything. You have once again devastatingly failed to keep me informed. Which in this instance has caused the server to fail to start as well as the likelihood that I will have to spend a hell of a lot to resolve the problems you have created, despite my warnings to you.

I simply can not believe how you are treating me. This is completely insane.
I provided you with specific instructions and you have ignored them completely, screwing my business and causing a hell of a lot of money to be wasted that I doubt you will cover.
I am so annoyed right now, I am literally spitting blood.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 16th)

Thank you for your time today over the phone. Again, I want to apologize for any confusion that has occurred with the new setup. As I stated over the phone the rsyn has been completed updating your database with the most current information. Your sites appear to be loading correctly on our end the one thing we need from you at this point is a verification of the sites and services you are providing your customer.
Again I look forward to speaking with you in the future and hope that everything is going as planned. If you should have any further questions please feel free to contact us directly and we will be happy to assist you.

Kind Regards,
Greg Bratton
Junior System Administrator 1 – System Admin Department

My Reply (Nov 16th)

Hello, Thank you very much greg. Although my complaint started with a situation involving you, you are the ONLY support staff who has EVER called me back when they said they would. Please retrain AJ and all other staff on how to use a telephone as well as giving a severe beating to the idiots who couldn’t follow the instructions from AJ and myself. You may also want to teach Ation Gilliam so that he knows how to write un-fragmented sentences. My staff are trained to write their reply in word and do a spelling and grammar check so that they know they are correctly forming sentences etc. I would expect more from your staff as they are paid more than mine.
They are damned lucky that the old server came back online. Had the hard drive failed completely, they would have dug a hole they could not get out of.
During times of recession when almost every business I know is downsizing, you should be on your hands and knees with me as I am looking to expand. Heck, I would even pay for knee pads so your staffs knees do not get sore! Granted, I am not a high paying customer, but I will never be if this is how you treat me.
I would love to upgrade to a bigger server, but I need you to prove to me that you are worth the money by dealing with my “formal complaint” to a satisfactory resolution based on the horrific errors and decisions you have made thus far. This is after all my 3rd server and I would be surprised if I have been with you as a dedicated server customer for more than a year.

My Reply (Nov 17th)

Note: AJ called. Issue resolved mostly.
Remaining issues I am waiting to hear about:
1) Suspected HDD failure for past 2 servers
2) Why I am never e-mailed when the server goes down. Although I have been emailed one or two times, the server has crashed more than that in one day. AJ mentioned that he would check to see if the software was installed on the server.
Results and conclusions for both of the above tickets should be e-mailed to me when available. If longer than 7 days, please let me know so that I know it is being dealt with.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 17th)

Hi,
We have verified that manage hosting is installed and does alert when your server alerts for services. We have also made sure that Smartd tools was installed and enabled so when your server has signs of hard drive errors you will be emailed at ########@googlemail.com.
The other server drive that crashed last year was sent back to its manufacturer for a replacement so we are unable to to check that one.
The disk diagnostic test reported sector errors. Bad sectors can be created by software errors, or slight errors in the read/write heads which cause the data laid down on that particular sector to be completely illegible, and thus appear as bad to the operating system. This type of ‘soft’ bad sector can generally be fixed by completely erasing the disk (by writing every sector over with a pattern of zeroes).
Our cage tech checked the row where your server is located for other servers that may have failed in the last 11 months however we did not find any. So its definitely not a temperature issue, unfortunately I don’t have an exact cause of the sector errors. But I do know that we have implemented somethings to avoid this from happening again and to minimize your servers down time.

Best Regards.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions
Ation Gilliam
JSAI – System Admin Team
Phone: 1-714-521-8150 (International)

My Reply (Nov 17th)

Hello, thank you for your reply. I am assuming that this was not a soft corruption issue as I was told numerous times previously that it was dying.

Database Connection Error
This morning, one of my staff called me to say that I was getting an error on my site ####.com “Error establishing a database connection”. The database is there and I have not changed any files or passwords. This then made me remember an issue that I reported a few weeks ago on a separate ticket. I had exactly the same problem happen on every site of a specific cpanel. I was told that this had happened because (someone) had changed the password for the db admin. However, I am the only one with access and I did not do it. Shortly after, it then spread to a second cpanel account that again I am the only one with access to and again the database could not be contacted. I should point out that it was assumed to be the db admin password as it worked when the password (the same old one) was re-saved. The support staff simply shrugged their shoulders as to the cause of the issue (and who is to blame them with such a cryptic, difficult issue like this). At one point, I even commented that “My personal theory is that something went wrong within the server (it has done this before) and this caused the password to become corrupt, thus it was not the same as the password that was initially entered. I guess I will just have to mark this up to lunacy. However, it is worrying as it means that the server is doing things that it was not told to do, or maybe it has a corrupt hard drive.” (ticket ref: XL68CQ24WUI5). This ticket went on for a long while before a hard drive check was offered. Again, I am not pointing blame as it is not an easy issue to deal with and I could clearly see that from your perspective (if I were you) I would have looked like a lunatic ranting about highly unlikely and improbable events. At least that is what I would be thinking given the situation and probability that the second server I was on was failing.

Background
Let me give you a rundown of my websites and server usage so that you can get a better picture without going though every site etc.
Every single website that I run uses WordPress. Every website has a caching system so that requested pages are held in the cache until they are altered or trashed. I try to monitor all loads and the heaviest load that I can see is on the database. Probably due to all my sites being database and not file based.
The only non wordpress sections of websites are scripts such as whmcs and other hosting scripts.
This takes me onto another point. I use a database backup system for wordpress which e-mails the backed up database out to me. With the new backup system I assume I will no longer need this as I think you said that R1 will backup the database. If you could confirm this for me, I will then remove the database backup from wordpress to reduce the load.
As you already know, I do not have any large files on the server. The files available to customers are around 3mb for the most popular file and no more than 10mb for the biggest file.

The other websites that are on my server are customers sites, most of which are wordpress, but some are html and very few are php (non wordpress).

Server Crashes – No e-mails or phone calls
Back to your comment that the server software was installed to keep me updated when the server needed to be rebooted. You and I both know that the server has been restarted at least 10 times this month without me phoning or otherwise contacting you. Yet, I have only been sent one e-mail. Could you please provide me with a list of dates (i dont even need times) that the server crashed and then cross check this list with how many times I was e-mailed regarding the server being restarted. I am not disputing what you are saying, but you will see that something is not working and nor has it ever worked properly throughout my entire time with lunarpages.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 17th)

Hello,
First of all please accept my deeply apologize for the inconvenience. Your website #### should be up. It was because of database was crashed which is now repaired.
Buagent will take backup of your server with different options where you will get backup of each file and complete system image as well so you can stop your scripts to take backup which are responsible for load and its really good catch to control server load.
Your server was rebooted 14 times in this month by the following admins with time stamp: (details included)

If everything working fine please send your valuable comments to our management chain at feedback@lunarpages.com. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us, we will be happy to answer them. Please feel free to contact us for further help. We are committed to making your hosting experiences pleasant and fulfilling.

Thank you for contacting lunar pages support team.
—
Best Regards,
Er. Sarwan Singh Jassi
Senior SysAdmin I – System Admin Team
B.Tech (I.T.), Red Hat Certified Engineer.
Add2Net Inc., LunarPages Division

My Reply (Nov 17th)

Thank you for your reply about the times and days that the server was rebooted, however in my e-mail I said “Could you please provide me with a list of dates (i dont even need times) that the server crashed and then cross check this list with how many times I was e-mailed regarding the server being restarted. I am not disputing what you are saying, but you will see that something is not working and nor has it ever worked properly throughout my entire time with lunarpages.”

From the list that you provided, we can see that the server has been restarted 14 times in November and yet according to the ticket and email system, I was only e-mailed once. That is a 92.85% failure ratio! While a second email was sent out, it was sent to the agents personal email address and not mine! Plus, it was not even an email saying the server had crashed, it was an e-mail sent after the server had crashed and I called requesting that they e-mail me the details why the server crashed once they got it back up and checked the logs.

Presently, the pending issues are:
1) Server A List DNS IP Change
2) Server Crashes and No e-mails
3) Any advice on what can be done to prevent future HDD failures

LunarPages Reply (Nov 19th)

Hi,
Your servers ip has not changed that email was just a warning to let you know that your server hostname did not have an “A” record.
I have enabled smartd to prevent this from happening again, its a SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon for Linux. SMART is acronym for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) system built into many ATA-3 and later ATA, IDE and SCSI-3 hard drives. The purpose of SMART is to monitor the reliability of the hard drive and predict drive failures, and to carry out different types of drive self-tests.
In Sarwans reply he provided the dates and times for the server being rebooted. (same list provided as in previous email)

My Reply (Nov 19th)

AJ, please read what I said. in my last email. I have been told that I am being emailed every time that the server is rebooted. This is not happening. I asked you to cross check the list of reboots with the emails you sent. You will see that I have not been emailed when the server was rebooted.
This is one of the remaining issues in your hands, yet here we are a few emails later and I am still getting the same damned reply from you guys as if you never read my emails.

Here are my communications with you:
Nov 17th

Back to your comment that the server software was installed to keep me updated when the server needed to be rebooted. You and I both know that the server has been restarted at least 10 times this month without me phoning or otherwise contacting you. Yet, I have only been sent one e-mail. Could you please provide me with a list of dates (i dont even need times) that the server crashed and then cross check this list with how many times I was e-mailed regarding the server being restarted. I am not disputing what you are saying, but you will see that something is not working and nor has it ever worked properly throughout my entire time with lunarpages.

Nov 17th

Could you please provide me with a list of dates (i dont even need times) that the server crashed and then cross check this list with how many times I was e-mailed regarding the server being restarted. I am not disputing what you are saying, but you will see that something is not working and nor has it ever worked properly throughout my entire time with lunarpages.”

I am well aware that the details that I asked for were provided in part, but this is still an issue. 14 server reboots and only one e-mail. Where are the other emails you claim would have been sent when the server was rebooted? THREE e-mails later and you are still not addressing this issue. Why do I keep thinking “here we go again”?

LunarPages Reply (Nov 19th)

We really apologize for the inconvenience. We had informed our all dedicated server monitoring team that in case any of our customer server need reboot then they should call customer and also email them incident report about the reboot and check customer server logs to find the cause of server unresponsive behaviour. I have also informed our technical staff to take care of it in future. In case we found any admin forget to email the customer then we will take strict action again them. I have also informed management about this incident. Its my promise that we will provide you best service in future. If you want to send your valuable comments (Good or bad) to our management chain then you can drop a email to feedback@lunarpages.com. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us, we will be happy to answer them. Please feel free to contact us for further help. We are committed to making your hosting experiences pleasant and fulfilling.

Thank you for contacting lunar pages support team.
—
Best Regards,
Er. Sarwan Singh Jassi
Senior SysAdmin I – System Admin Team
B.Tech (I.T.), Red Hat Certified Engineer.
Add2Net Inc., LunarPages Division

My Reply (Nov 21st)

Hello, I can not believe that it is taking so many e-mails to get this resolved.
I was told that as a managed lite hosting customer, I would get emailed whenever the server was rebooted.
I have been paying for managed lite hosting since I became a dedicated customer, yet, in all that time, I have only received two e-mails.
I talked about this with AJ when he called me. AJ told me he would investigate it because I wanted a refund for the managed lite hosting service as you have devastatingly failed to e-mail me when the server was rebooted.
Please inform AJ that you have confirmed the following and also ask him to refund the $9.99 per month paid from the first day I became a dedicated customer:

• The server has been rebooted many times (14 times in Nov alone).
• The customer (me) has only ever received two e-mails since I became a dedicated customer (only 1 in November).

Come on, pull your finger out please, you have sent me the same data twice and I most certainly do not feel that this is progressing as it should. This is still an unresolved formal complaint. I listed the remaining details in my reply after AJ called and we are still dealing with these issues when in my mind, you should have resolved them.
Why do I get the feeling that you are trying to hide from refunding me for a service I paid for every month and you failed to deliver.

If I receive one more reply that does not resolve this issue, I will call you (again) to demand something is done there and then as well as charging you for all the phone calls I have had to make thus far. I have given you more than enough time. This is now the 29th day since I opened my formal complaint. 28 days is normally the acceptable time for a resolution before taking it further.

I know AJ will be in on monday, please make sure that he addresses this and phones me if needed, no matter what time it is here.
So far my complaint has shown that your support is lacking, your servers fail more frequently than they should (This is my 3rd server) and your ability to deal with a formal complain correctly within an acceptable time frame is non existent. Heck, you couldnt even keep me informed of what was happening and to top it off, your staff couldnt follow the specific instructions they were given by AJ, causing the old server to go offline and my sites (all of them) went down for a few hours. Had they followed the instructions, it is less likely this would have happened.

You are supposed to be digging yourself out of a deep hole, but you are just digging yourself deeper. Everyone who has read this complaint (posted in full on my personal website) is horrified at how I have been treated, the length of time that you have taken and the way you have done it.
Fix it and fix it now, I have had enough.

My Reply (Nov 22nd)

Please look into this formal complaint. More than 30 days since it was opened, it has still not been resolved and no body seems to know what they are doing. I am on the verge of packing up my files and walking away from lunarpages entirely. You have made so many mistakes and cost me so much money I see no reason to continue to host with you.
The main issues STILL TO BE RESOLVED are:

• Managed Hosting Lite has failed on almost every attempt to e-mail me when the server reboots. I want a refund for all the payments I have made for Managed Hosting Lite as it simply did not do what it should have done, leaving me with no knowledge that the server had been rebooted. By the time I found out, the server hdd was on the edge of total failure and you were very lucky to be able to get the files copied to a new server, even if the staff doing it could not follow simple instructions, causing me to experience hours of unexpected downtime. I have asked about this many times and to be honest I think most of your staff need to go back to school to learn how to read. I do not mean to be insulting, but if your staff can read, I want to know why they didn’t answer the questions that I asked and instead chose to only answer the questions they wanted. For example, I asked you to cross check the server reboots with the list of server reboot emails I was sent, but twice you sent me the same list of server reboots, ignoring my request for you to check it against the list of server reboot emails. As the Managed Hosting Lite has not emailed me, I want a full refund for every month that I paid you for this. Had you emailed me, I could have seen there was a major issue with the server long before your staff detected it which would have prevented all the losses I have now been faced with.

• I am STILL getting emails warning that the server is resolving to an incorrect address. I was told the server was setup and configured correctly, then I received an automated email saying that it wasn’t. Your guys fixed it and said I would never get the email again. Then 18 hours ago I get the email again.

• Read all of the ticket and tell me if you think it is acceptable how I was treated and the length of time it has taken. I have published all my complaint details on my personal website and all the people who have seen it are shocked at how badly you have treated me and how much I am paying. When shawn called me to resolve this issue, he had no idea that the server was about to fail. Had I listened to him, I would have only had the option to upgrade to a higher hosting management plan, all the while my hdd became more and more corrupt and closer to its death.

My entire business is in your hands and this month was the last chance I would get at making decent money before xmas rolls in, but now that is entirely out of the window. Below are a list of problems that have been caused by your terrible handling of my dying server:

• Customers licensed products failing to install.
• Drop in sales due to servers being offline, rebooting, crashed etc. Working this out using a minimum of 5 minutes where the server is unresponsive or not working correctly before being rebooted, a minimum of 15 minutes for the server to reboot and the fact that the server was rebooted 14 times in November alone, that gives us a total of just over 4 and a half hours downtime for November, not including the 2-4 hours that the server then went down when your cage team couldnt follow simple instructions from AJ, putting my entire business at further risk.
• Increase in customers contacting us due to these issues causing a higher payout to my staff who are paid hourly.
• Loss in advertising costs as we were still paying for adverts and visitors when the server was offline, crashed, rebooted etc.
• Loss in sales when customers came to our website when the server was offline, crashed, rebooted etc.
• Loss in integrity and status as customers who visited our site and found errors or no site at all would have told their online friends in forums, blogs etc.
• Loss in staff wages when they arrived and the server had crashed, was rebooting and also when your cage team failed to follow instructions and caused the server to completely crash and fail to reboot. I gave specific instructions to ensure this wouldnt happen, AJ passed these on and the cage team completely ignored them. (I am assuming it was the cage team, but whoever it was, it was your staff). This cost me a lot of money as my staff arrived for work only to find the server was down and I had to pay them for their time.
• Future losses. These problems, errors and downtime have seriously effected my sites SEO. Almost all my sites were #1 on google and they have now slipped due primarily to the slow load time, errors, crashes, reboots and downtime. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on the SEO of my sites over the years and to see it all waste away like this is heartbreaking. Not only have I lost a hell of a lot of money, I stand to lose even more in the near future. With xmas and the end of the financial year fast approaching, it seems unlikely that I will meet my target for this year (a target that seemed to be easily obtainable just 1-2 months ago).

I am so annoyed I am spitting blood. I can not believe that your company has made such a mess. Everyone that I talk to within Lunarpages is shocked at the time it has taken for you to resolve these issues, the serious issues I have had on the server and the way I have been treated (repeatedly kept out of the loop despite being guaranteed I would be kept fully updated). There were times that you were working on the issues and I sat here for 4 days with no reply to my tickets and no updates.
AJ has been dealing with this issue and has been doing it well, it has been everyone else who has been messing it up. To make it easier for you, I even said that AJ or anyone else could call me at any time of the day and night. I would rather be woken up to deal with an issue than not hear from you at all.

I need this ticket addressed and a full resolution given.
Seriously, why should I stay with LunarPages? I honestly feel like I should just publish my full story and move to another server. For gods sake, we are in a serious financial crisis and here I am ready and willing to be your customer, but you do not seem to want to keep me.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 23rd)

I would like to offer you the managed lite service free for a year. I apologize for all the issues that you have had so far, that is why I have given you my personal contact information in case you have issues or concerns in the future. Please call and have someone transfer you to me so that we can discuss these issues by phone.

Best Regards.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions
Ation Gilliam
JSAI – System Admin Team

My Reply (Nov 23rd)

Hello, what times are you in work this week? I will then call you at a time you are in work. I did not hear the phone ring last night, but I may have slept through it.
Thank you for your offer, but I do not want the service for free, I want the money refunded that I paid for this service which LunarPages failed to deliver, putting me dangerously at risk. When we talked on the phone I asked you to check how many times the server had been rebooted and how many times I had been e-mailed as I have paid every month for this service and if you have not been e-mailing me when the server was rebooted, it will be a lot of money that you will owe me. You confirmed that it would be a lot of money owed to me. But then your staff decided to annoy the hell out of me by refusing to read (or understand) my reply. How else could at least two people give me the same wrong answer?

The only main remaining issue is the hosting managed lite. Here are the facts. In Nov alone, the server was rebooted 14 times and I was only emailed once. The service did not deliver as it should have done, leaving it completely useless and a dangerous risk.
I have paid you this money every month for the hosting managed lite service and I would like it refunded to my paypal account or bank account (via the card I used with you at times).
If you can refund me for this as you ethically should, then there is no need for me to call you and talk about this.
I had thought Managed Hosting Lite was 9.99 per month, but I was wrong. Here are my calculations:
Price Per Month: $29.97
Join Date: 2009-09-04
Total Months: 14 Months
Total Owed: $419.58
This is money that I have paid you every single month for a service that you have failed to deliver. I am not asking for any compensation or extra money (not even a single penny), I just want the money back that I paid you for this service.

This leaves only one issue remaining that has arisen throughout this ticket. Your staff do not read the ticket before replying. You have seen yourself that this has happened in this ticket many times (including one of your replies). What can be done about this? What am I to do if I have any issue in the future and I get the same time wasting replies that are totally useless to me? I notice that your main webpage is now stating “intelligent hosting”, I assume this is some kind of dark joke I don’t quite get. Looking at my account, I see little intelligence. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 23rd)

Hi,
Managed hosting lite is $9.99 a month which would be about $140.00 if there was a refund given. I have already given you a free month of web hosting, r1soft for 6 months and managed hosting lite for a year free of charge. Unfortunately I am not going to be able to give you a refund for $419.58. Please call me anytime, my extension is 3005. I will be in the office m-f 9:30am to 5:00pm PST.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions
Ation Gilliam
JSAI – System Admin Team

My Reply (Nov 23rd)

Hello. My mistake. I see now that the initial listing is for 3 months, I had assumed it was one month. The items that you have offered thus far are listed below along with the reasons that they were offered to me:
R1Soft (free for 3 months) – Server issues and staff failing to answer questions and address issues outlined within support ticket.
1 Months Free Hosting and a further 3 months R1Soft – Server downtime when EVERYBODY failed to keep me informed as to what was happening. Your staff failed to follow your instructions and my instructions, starting the re-sync early and causing the server to crash and fail to reboot. You even took 4 days to reply to me to tell me what was happening. Not to mention everyone else who dealt with this specific issue and failed to tell me anything. Sure, they kept notes on your system, but unfortunately my crystal ball was getting cleaned that day so I couldn’t see information that I did not have access to. yet I sat there with no ideas as to what on earth was happening with my server.

These are the reasons that you offered the discounts to me. NOT ONCE have I EVER asked for a refund, I instead asked for credit for the months hosting that is due in December. I do not mind paying for R1Soft from December of Even January. I accepted R1Soft from you as it was offered for free and would be something that would be very useful, however its usefulness is only due to this now being my 3rd server in 14 months and not due to my usage.

All along you told me that I should get an e-mail everytime the server has been rebooted, yet this has not been the case at all. All I am asking for is a refund for the service that I have been paying you for which you have failed to deliver. As you have failed to deliver this service as you described, I think that I am entitled to a refund. Had this service been working and e-mails been sent out to me, I would have been able to spot this severe problem long before it was spotted by your staff. I have received emails less than 6% of the times that the server was rebooted. I am guessing at this, but based on the initial 16 days of November, the server was rebooted no less than 14 times and I was emailed ONCE. That is a success ratio of just 7%. That means that only 7% of the times my server was rebooted did I receive an e-mail. I do not expect these stats to be any better outside of november. In my entire time with you, I have only received two e-mails e-mail for all the times the server has been rebooted.

Damn it, I had to repeatedly ask you for these stats and NOT ONCE did ANYONE who was dealing with this ticket do as I asked. I EVEN had to send you excerpts of my replies to show the futility of the incomplete answers that I was being provided with. I ended up obtaining the rest of the information myself as it was clear none of your staff were going to assist me with it.

LunarPages Reply (Nov 25th)

Hello,
This email is being sent as effort to bring closure to this ticket and the recent concerns you have brought to the table.
Please know that I fully understand your position and appreciate your desire to receive compensation for the managed services you feel you have not received.

I will not mince words or waste your time, a refund is being scheduled for the managed services. You will see a full refund of $129.87. This accounts for a full 13 months of paid managed services valued at $9.99 per month. ($9.99 x 13mo)

Please note that since our previous efforts to provide compensation via the form of a free month web hosting services were not successful we will bring your expiration date to your current valid expiration of 12-04-2010.

I apologize for any inconvenience that has been posed and as further effort to show good faith I desire (with utmost respect and courtesy) to try to “prove you wrong” about the managed services. Although this rare occurrence with the issue or failure of delivery of managed service has not proven to be what I would say is in your favor, I will be leaving the entire year of free managed services with no further obligation. The program is intended to be useful for customers and serve as a direct framework for server management and monitoring. I truly feel it will help you and add no to the services you are receiving in a beneficial way.

If you wish against this, please let me know and I will immediately remove the service as per your request.

In the end, Mark, I ask you to please stay in touch with me if ever you have a concern or issue with anything regarding the services you are receiving, or any possible discrepancies that you feel are present. My goal is to ensure that you are getting the highest level of service available.

Also, If there is an outstanding concern or question in relation to this issue or in relation to the current status of your account, be it a technical issue, billing issue, or any other concern at all, please contact me via this ticket or at my direct extension and I will address your concern as soon as time permits.

I am at 8775862772 x 2427
I can also be reached via personal email (but wont be reliable if you are in need of urgent attention or immediate assistance, its best for an update, or leisure request to contact you – anything not time sensitive)
My email is shawn.williams@lunarpages.com
Thank you very much for your time, I truly appreciate your patience and willingness to communicate with us. We desire to assist you the next time you make contact with us, please dont hesitate to reach is and we will be happy to help.

Best Regards,
Shawn Williams
Customer Care Manager

My reply (Nov 25th)

Hello, thank you for your reply. I honestly hate asking for refunds, but with this issue, I could not see any other way to progress.
I was offered 3 separate refunds from you for 3 issues. These are as follows:

1st Offer: R1Soft (free for 3 months)
Reason: Server issues and staff failing to answer questions and address issues outlined within support ticket. This was initially offered as one of the reasons you provided for my server crashing was that it was backing up and gzip was causing the server to become unresponsive. I never asked for this service, but it was added to see if it helped stop the server from becoming unresponsive. At this time, neither yourself or myself had any idea that the server was on its last legs and was about to fail.

2nd Offer/Request: 1 Months Free Hosting (requested) and a further 3 months R1Soft (offered)
Reason: Server downtime when EVERYBODY failed to keep me informed as to what was happening. Your staff failed to follow your instructions and my instructions, starting the re-sync early and causing the server to crash and fail to reboot. You even took 4 days to reply to me to tell me what was happening. Not to mention everyone else who dealt with this specific issue and failed to tell me anything. Sure, they kept notes on your system, but unfortunately my crystal ball was getting cleaned that day so I couldn’t see information that I did not have access to. yet I sat there with no ideas as to what on earth was happening with my server. Initally, a further 3 months of R1Soft was offered and I accepted it (I wasnt going to say no to something that would be useful that you were offering for free), but I then asked for 1 months free hosting so that it would contribute towards the money I have lost due to the way your staff handled my server migration. The 1 months free hosting was then confirmed and AJ told me that Management had allowed me to have it.

3rd Request: 13 month refund for Managed Hosting Lite
Reason: Due to incomplete service which I had paid every single month for the last 14 months. Ethically, I saw no reason that I shouldnt ask for a refund for this service.

The reason this last refund was not done at the same time is due to the investigation taking longer to resolve than the previous two issues.
You stated in your e-mail “Please note that since our previous efforts to provide compensation via the form of a free month web hosting services were not successful we will bring your expiration date to your current valid expiration of 12-04-2010.” but that is not the case. It was successful, but it was being offered due to the reason stated above. I do not mind at all paying for managed hosting from now on, I simply wanted a refund for the payments that I made when the service was incomplete. The previous two offers were made to me and I accepted them. Are you saying that you have now removed your offer of 1 months free hosting? That does not bring a close to this ticket as that would leave the issue stated above open, which had previously been closed. I never asked for R1Soft for 6 months. The only things that I have ever asked for are 1 month free due to the complete mess that you made of migrating my server and keeping me up to date (I think given the situation, that is only fair) plus the payments that I made for Managed Hosting Lite which was not delivered as it should have been.
I expect that the 1 month free hosting that I was offered and I accepted, would still stand. If you have removed this offer I would like to know why and who authorized it as I was not consulted on this.
I fully understand that you normally do not provide refund for services and free months hosting, but this is not a normal problem. After all, this formal complaint started as just a complaint about your support staffing and then quickly turned into the server dying, no one keeping me informed, your staff making mistakes no one should make and causing hours of unnecessary downtime.
If the issue you are facing is how much you can credit or offer on a per account basis, lets negotiate so that we are both happy.
The only two refunds or credits I have asked for are 1 months hosting and a refund for the Managed Hosting Lite (the latter of which you have provided). I would gladly pay for the R1Soft sooner than the currently set 12 months. I also do not mind paying for the Managed Hosting Lite, I only wanted a refund for the time it has not been working.
To make me a happy customer, all I need is what I was told I would get (1 months hosting for december free and refund for the managed hosting lite), anything else you can offer would make me happier, such as a few months free R1Soft (maybe 2-3 so that I can get used to it and change how my server backs up as it is presently set to use ftp and I assume it is doing both ftp and R1Soft at the moment).

Your have presently offered the following:
R1Soft (12 months) (value $240)
1 Month Hosting (December) (you seem to have revoked this offer) (value $150)
Managed Hosting Lite (12 months) (value $119.88)
Managed Hosting Lite refund for 13 months (value $129.87)
Total value: $639.75

I would be happy with the following offers:
R1Soft (2-3 months) and then $20 per month thereafter as quoted by AJ (value $40-$60)
1 Month Hosting (December) (value $150)
Managed Hosting Lite refund for 13 months (value $129.87)
Total value: $319.87-$339.87

As you can see, the difference between what I was offered (top) and what I would be happy with (bottom) has a difference of $300. If you have really revoked your offer of free hosting, then that means there is still a difference of $150 between what you have offered (excluding hosting) and what I would be happy with (including hosting). By offering me the 1 month free hosting that you have already offered to me and I accepted would save you $300 in credit. If you refuse to give me free hosting, I will be getting $150 more than if you gave it to me for free which seems totally insane.
I most certainly do not want any compensation, I just want credit where credit is due.

AJ has guaranteed that the Managed Hosting Lite will result in me being emailed in future. The only reason I asked for a refund instead of credit is because I have no way of knowing if you will do as you say, so it is better to start from zero so that we do not end up in the same situation as before with the service not working and me then having to ask for a refund for a longer period of time.
I have a hell of a lot of work to do to check all my sites are running as they should be and I know for a fact that you do not want to deal with this ticket. I most certainly wouldnt want to have to deal with this ticket and I have even apologised to AJ for him having to deal with this ticket. However, had I not pushed for you (shawn) to call me, which resulted in AJ calling me, we would have never known that the server was about to die and I would have been left in a worse situation. When you (shawn) called me, you had no idea of the horrific state that the server was in and you refused point blank to refund the cost of my phone calls I had made when the server needed to be rebooted (costing a total of $2-$3). I have staff to pay for the times they turned up for work and the server was down as well as explaining to customers why their site went down or why their licensed product failed for a few hours at a time.
I entirely sympathise with you as I have worked as a manager of a supermarket and I was solely responsible for over $6’000’000 per year, if a single penny went missing, I had to find it. My point is that I am probably one of the best customers to deal with as I will not give you the usual garbage of “I want compensation for my losses”. Instead, I have only ever asked for credit where it is due.

Please can you send me the login details for R1Soft. I thought they would be sent out, but I have not yet received them and did not write them down when AJ gave them to me over the phone as I assumed they were temporary details.
Is my server still using FTP backup? If so, could you please have someone deactivate this? I can then deactivate all other db backup systems that I have. You had confirmed that the database would be backed up. Is this using R1Soft? If not, how can I access my backed up databases?

Then…

Four days pass with no reply. So I call LunarPages and am told once again that the person who has answered the phone is the only Dedicated Support member answering the phones at the moment! This time I was recording the phone call so LunarPages can not deny it like they did last time. To make it worse, they then told me that their supervisor regularly ignores their requests for assistance with a customers account. WTF?

I am now waiting for them to contact AJ who was dealing with this ticket to explain what the hell went wrong (AGAIN). This is a joke. Everyone at lunarpages shakes their head and mentions the insane time this has taken to get any resolution on their part every time I call them up.

Note

I will continue to update this as I have more, but you can see from this back and forth that they are refusing to address complaints made by a customer (me) who is paying them $150 every damned month.

Be sure that you “like” this post and then share it with your friends. There are so many horror stories about LunarPages that it is clear they care more about new accounts with their juicy setup fees than they do retaining existing customers.

I have always thought there must be some funny words that it sticks together and this one seems to be unintentionally racist. It happened while I was adding pieces to facebook.

Have a good friday!

In this video, a talk show host tries to interview his guests (one of whom I assuume has had a sex change operation). Could you keep a straight face?

SEO (search engine optimization) is a process that involves streamlining a website and its content, pusing it to search engines and obtaining exact results and ranking. Websites do not get to the top of Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines by accident, they pay me and I instruct my team to do it for me.

The SEO market is a minefield. It is filled with cheats, liars and scam artists. There are a shit load of e-books, videos, guides etc about fresh new ways that you can do SEO. Each gives it a stylish name as if they have discovered some mystical untold search engine secret. Some are even marketed as “Google Search Engine Secrets Revealed” or some similar such eye catching, meaningless bullshit. Every book on this subject that I have ever read has been complete and utter bullshit. Some of which are sold for hundreds of dollars!

There are so many people who have watched youtube videos about SEO, or illegally downloaded a few e-books and suddenly they are talking like a pro. They have no idea what the hell they are talking about, they simply talk shit and drop in buzzwords. When you ask them the difference between the techniques that they claim to know and normal techniques, they will have no idea. The truth is that they have no or little idea about any of it. They’re just following the youtube instructional video they saw or an e-book they downloaded. Yet they think that they have sufficient knowledge to be paid for it. The very same knowledge they got from a freely available location on the net that anyone can go to and then know everything these people know about SEO.

Let me show you an example. This is me interviewing a prospective employee about linkbacks. Link backs are simply links to one site from other sites. This person claims to be able to use White Hat Link Building Techniques. To test her knowledge I wanted them to tell me what the differences were between White Hat techniques and normal techniques. Take a look at what they say and how long they take to reply. This is supposed to be in interview damnit!

(11:30:24 PM) me: what experience do you have creating directory linkbacks?

(11:32:01 PM) Applicant: I have been an assistant of a former odesk provider before I created my own account at odesk. I have gone through many successful projects
(11:32:38 PM) Applicant: I am a user of the white hat techniques of SEO and these are the link building. I can do 70-100 links each week

(11:32:56 PM) me: what type of techniques?
(11:33:10 PM) me: I do seo myself, but have a huge order from a client and can not do all of the order myself

(11:34:13 PM) Applicant: Well, I can do help you with you link building projects.

(11:34:35 PM) me: what type of white hat techniques?

(11:38:45 PM) Applicant: like Link Building

(11:41:49 PM) me: how is it different to link building? what does it involve?

(11:46:27 PM) Applicant: Linking is an important subject for search optimization. Obviously links are important to search engines and to site owners

(11:47:07 PM) me: But how are white hat techniques different from normal techniques?
(11:52:07 PM) me: hello?
(7/7/2010 12:00:05 AM) me: are you there?

It took them 15 minutes to reply to this. I suspected that they were googling for answers so they could sound like they knew what they were talking about. That is why I sent follow up messages. I could tell that they were entering text into messenger slowly.

(12:01:26 AM) Applicant: white hat tends to produce results that last a long time

(12:02:54 AM) me: I dont understand. What techniques are different to normal link building techniques that would make it last longer than when normal link building techniques are done?

(12:05:27 AM) Applicant: i mean, white hat technique produces results that last long unlike the black hat which produces fast results.

(12:06:06 AM) me: ok, but I was asking what the differences were between white hat link building and normal link building

(12:17:14 AM) Applicant: Link building helps in getting quality traffic from relevant sites which increases sales.  Also when there will be high quality incoming links the site will also be seen as a valuable resource. it helps in creating awarness, visibility and credibility of your site.
The site also obtains wider search engine exposure. It also helps the website get indexed by search engines.

(12:19:43 AM) me: I know what link building does. I do it. But what does white hat link building do that normal link building does not do? what are the differences betwen the two and between the two techniques?
(12:20:17 AM) me: I am asking because I want you to demonstrate your knowledge in white hat seo and linkbuilding so that I can confirm that you know what you are doing.

(12:34:43 AM) Applicant: A link building method is said to be white hat if it adheres to the set out guidelines of a search engine. This is aimed at ensuring that Internet users seeking information are provided with links that direct them into acquiring relevant and useful information.
(12:35:02 AM) Applicant: This means that website owners should only submit their website links only to sites that have similar information

(12:48:54 AM) me: is that in your own words?

(1:26:44 AM) Applicant: yes

(1:37:09 AM) me: Do you own http://atniz.com/2010/06/01/learn-link-building-the-white-hat-way/?
(1:37:29 AM) me: cause that is the only place on the internet that has word for word what you said

Applicant did not respond. They had been caught. I knew it was not their own words because I googled it and found it was copied directly (word for word) from another site. You can see the page they copied it from here. (link removed as the site is down)

I could tell as soon as they said “White Hat Techniques” that they were talking shit. I just wanted to pound them for answers so I could demonstrate their lack of knowledge. These scammers could easily trick someone who did not know what they were talking about and its not cheap. You’re looking at $280 for 1000 links.

But that’s not where it ends. I also had some other people contact me asking if I wanted to buy a link on a website. They provided the details of the website and it all checked out. I was interested right up until he said the following:

(11:55:18 PM) Applicant: site is for sale too

(11:59:36 PM) me: why would i buy a link to a site you are selling?

(12:00:11 AM) Applicant: because site has manual traffic.
(12:00:21 AM) Applicant: not crap traffic
(12:00:29 AM) Applicant: its  38k alexa
(12:00:44 AM) Applicant: and has listed in best article directory in internet

(12:01:48 AM) me: yes, but would I get any guarantee that the new owner would keep my link there? for all I know they may delete it

(12:02:13 AM) Applicant: I’m the owner
(12:02:28 AM) Applicant: i will keep it.

(12:03:12 AM) me: I thought you just said it was for sale?

(12:03:38 AM) Applicant: Incase, if i sell the website in future, i will give you details and the owner email to you
(12:03:54 AM) Applicant: i’m thinking about selling

(12:04:01 AM) me: but there is no guarantee that he will keep the link on the site?

(12:04:01 AM) Applicant: i havent sold yet.
(12:04:09 AM) Applicant: he will keep the link.
(12:04:28 AM) Applicant: its my guarantee

(12:04:38 AM) me: sorry, i dont like the idea of paying for a link on a site that is going to be sold.

(12:05:01 AM) Applicant: no, i’m not selling ste
(12:05:05 AM) Applicant: *site
(12:05:23 AM) Applicant: i just want to know if someone is intrested and if yes how much will they pay
(12:05:25 AM) Applicant: thats all.

(12:07:30 AM) me: so youre just finding out how much you can get for it? I was confused because you said ¨site is for sale too¨ so i assumed that the site was for sale too

(12:08:32 AM) Applicant: yes, i just want to know the price of site.

Normally, I would not want to show up people I interview. But with these two people, I thought it was worth showing what a pack of lying bastards these people are. How they can go back on what they say when it is all right there in black and white.

Seeing how these people are makes me proud of the SEO team that I have up and running. We provide high quality, fully guaranteed results. I know what I am talking about as I designed our entire and fully unique SEO process.

The other night I went to get up as he was out on the floor and he ran under the fridge. His feet and tail were still sticking out. I looked under the fridge and he ran up the wall and behind the kitchen tiles, but still his feet were sticking out.

Take it from me, geckos are terrible at hide and seek!

The base of the cloud was an almost vertical wall with the bulbous cloud on top. Even the clouds close to it showed lines and streaks all leading away from the mushroom cloud.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the shit hit the fan in Korea, would I be able to see it from here. I doubt it, but I did wonder.

I made an appointment with the dental hospital to get a tooth extracted, but they said it would take 6 months to get a review and then another 6 months to get an appointment for the extraction. But I did not have that much time.

But while I was here in the Philippines, the tooth worsened and I had to go to see a dentist. In for a penny, in for a pound. I got all my fillings done, but when it came to extracting that one tooth, I bottled out. I have an insane fear of dentists I can not control.

I had also been to the chemist in the uk on the advice of my doctor. I needed anti malarial tablets. “when will you be returning” she asked. “I am not returning, I am moving there” I replied. The problem was that you needed to take these tablets for a week before you left and for four weeks after you return. These are the instructions on the packaging, as such the women in the chemist had no idea what to do if someone is not returning.

I bought a few packs and started taking them as instructed. One per day, plus one per week of the weekly tablet. No problems.

Now, after I have finished all my tablets and am looking for more do I find that the instructions state that the dose I have been taking is half the dose I should have been taking. Is there any point buying more? Should I get more and take the correct dosage?

What the hell do I do when I have moved here and will not be returning to the uk, so can not take the 4 weeks dosage that the instructions suggest?

Here I am working mostly at night and I usually end up with a load of insect bites on my ankles.  If just one of them has malaria, I am fucked. I don’t have any health insurance at the moment as I am waiting for my application to complete.

Fruit and nut flavoured crisps (chips) remind me of when the uk went though a crazy stage and had chocolate flavour.

Later, as I was in my bedroom, I noticed some condensation on the window, I went to wipe it off with my thumb, but it was on the outside. WTF? I was confused for a second until I realised that the air conditioning was on, so it was colder inside than outside, causing condensation on the outside of the window.

Sometimes it is as if I am in a totally different world to the one I knew and know, probably because in reality, I am.