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OVH and ServaRICA completely horrible setup experience
Heya all, I'm new here, but not to low-end techy stuff. I'm pretty poor. Infact, I am in my 40's, in the middle of filing for disability insurance from severe PTSD at the moment, but that's another story: point being is I'm broke, and I need to move some of my services around, from the price hikers I've been stuck on since 2017 or so: Linode and Vultr.
My needs are fairly simple. I was using a couple test boxes on vultr, just for testing out my own distributed programming work on Arch Linux with the same OS, without running my own VMs.
And I was using a cheap $5 nano node, which I used to have for $2.50 on Vultr. About 5 years ago, that node was allowed to be upgraded from a whoopping 512M to 1G for free. Amazing (well, for the time anyway, not so useful anymore for its intended use-case). I use it simply to host a tmux session with remote chat protocols connected to it, such as IRC, for programming collaboration. I also ran a small low-traffic personal web site on it.
Now, funds are running lower because my wife wants to start a hobby/business storefront, and I demand a bit more horsepower for that I would think, so I went looking around, foolishly, at cheap options.
"You get what you pay for". There is simply no other way to put it when it comes to ServaRICA.
I paid for this, and incase the too-good-to-be-true offer from Summer 2023 sale link goes down (ha, believe it or not, they still have both their 2024 and 2023 crazy offerings still available, which raises a red flag to begin with):
Flying Fish NVMe
4 CPU cores shared
4GB RAM
200GB NVMe disk
Unlimited transfer on 100mbps
or 4TB limit on 1gbps
1x IPv4
IPv6 available by request
Price: $5.00 USD/mo.
I spun it up with one of the listed Linux distribution choices, since it didn't have Arch Linux. I then posted a ticket asking if I could load a custom ISO. They said sure, to provide them with the link, and I did. And, still the list of available images was empty. It took them over an hour to respond and fix whatever problem it was on their end. The repository link works now, although very slowly, like an old FTP directory listing, with every other customer's requested ISO image listing, in non-lexicographical, or any order for that matter. Mine was hidden in the middle.
I booted it up fine, I installed it fine as I did hundreds of times over (I actually started using Arch since the alpha days), and behold: after writing the boot record (GPT 1M head partition since no EFI, and MBR made me feel too old 
)...it boots back into Debian. I tried a few times, to analyze the problem, and I was seeing all sorts of block device errors.
Support offered to install the operating system for me. Managed services for a $5 VPS might be another red flag to some, but I went with it, just to see what they would be able to do, because funnily enough, I watched them do what they did in the remote web qemu console. They mounted Arch, booted it...stared at the login message explaining what to do for a good while, and then proceeded to try to load a wifi module (because that was the first thing it mentions if you have such devices....this has one ethernet device provisioned. After that, and with a bit of pause time, we proceeded to try to search for the pine keymap, presumably to load it, and after unsuccessfully invoking misspelled commands for a while he found it, but then proceeded to instead list the virtual hardware with lspci (after a lot of syntax errors and pauses between, as if they were Googling for what to do again). Then it went blinking cursor idle for a good hour, and the live chat on the site went offline simultaneously. So I reached out to the ticket and asked if they needed help, or if I should just use the FreeBSD image also included in their repository, which I wouldn't have minded, since I mentioned I was in a time crunch, spending quite a few hours with the back and forth already. Quickly they responded to let them know when I was done with the FreeBSD install. I was like....ok then. So I booted that one up and proceeded to install.
I didn't get very far before I noticed that I didn't have a single 200G NVMe disk. I had 4 separate 50G disks provisioned as one. They explained to me that this package is supposed to have 4 disks, and I kindly pointed to what I agreed to pay for in the above specs. They said it wouldn't be a problem to switch it out for a 200G SSD, which they did, and it was the very same hardware, with the very same bits written to it.
After rebooting FreeBSD again, I got hardware failures during boot. The SCSI controller failed. Repeated boots; same thing. This is when they offered to switch out the disk for me to the 200G.
After that, I tried Arch Linux again, this time with a different block device. It was a /dev/xvda* rather than a /dev/md* now, and installation completed fine, and booted fine this time.
Until the first thing I noticed is my instance was consuming almost all of it's allocated 4G, just from logging into bash, on a clean bare-bones install. I kept getting OOM killer invocations, and it kept rebooting.
I became suspicious the moment I tried this price point, and it only got worse after signup. Spinning up a VPS should be a relatively painless (and automated!) process, for those in need in a pinch. A lot of services do this, except for those that much do identity fraud checks, which, I'll get to next with OVH.
The only good thing about this service, is that I got an ACH transaction for a refund after accusing them of false advertising, improperly provisioning my instance, and, of course, repeatedly lying to me, by a completely incompetent service representative, that seems to be the only person behind the curtains, somewhere probably not in Canada with the grammar I was seeing, in addition to the failure to read or answer some basic questions, instead opting to side-step them in their favor always.
My OVH story is shorter. I signed up yesterday, and I knew I'd have to go through that awful fraud check thing. My wife was paying, since it was hers, so we made the account in her name, and I was another contact added to their platform. I placed the order before their support staff leaves, as mentioned on the site and email correspondance (7A-8P M-F). I ordered an hour before hand, my wife uploaded the 3 photographic proof items, and...waited. Right before they were about to close, I asked them if this would be ready today. I got the runaround. The first response was it will be ready soon. Another hour goes by and the response turned into it will be ready when the validation team looks into it. 13 hours later, the validation team considers the proof not adequate, but not before I gave up, requesting them to close my account.
It is absolutely insane that such a large company has a web site where it is completely impossible to delete your sensitive information on your own. You cannot remove the credit card, even though it has not had an authorization check to it yet even. I could not delete my account. And I couldn't even delete my wife's pictures of her holding everything needed to steel her identity.
I reached out and asked them to delete it, very frustrated. The next day, someone did. Or said they did. I can still log in right now, and see all of her sensitive information, including the pictures and her credit card, still unable to be deleted. Although the only thing that changed is that my validation status is cancelled now.
Ugh.
I'm still looking around for something cheap for a poor fuck like me to run 1 small business on nginx, and a lightweight backend programming stack of my own.
I might give AlphaVPS a try. Contabo, RackNerds, and a few others looked rather sketchy to me after these two.
The end, and nice to meet ya all!
Comments
TLDR;
The author is switching web hosting services due to bad experiences with ServaRICA and OVH.
ServaRICA issues:
* False advertising: promised 200GB NVMe disk but provided 4 separate 50GB disks instead.
* Incompetent support: long waiting time, inability to follow instructions, and basic troubleshooting mistakes.
* Difficulty installing custom OS.
OVH issues:
* Slow and tedious fraud check process.
* Unclear communication regarding validation status.
* Difficulty deleting account and personal information.
The author is considering AlphaVPS for their next hosting service.
Thank you AI!
Praise LLMs. I doubt anyone is going to read your blog post, OP. Learn to keep it short.
Close -- I was on Linode and Vultr, and simply tried to use these as an alternative to those. I was never on the first in any usable manner, and the latter decded to disqualify my proof and keep my sensitive information on their server, stating they deleted it.
and definitely not NVMe, but the same now admitted SSD.
or using any OS without kernel panics and OOM killer undefined behavior.
Very, very slow. Especially since the only message of waiting periods at the moment is for Bare Metal installs.
The email and website are clear when support is active. What isn't clear is I now know there are 3 teams, and I was speaking to the usual overseas support, avoiding my direct questions until hours later (after asking 3 times).
I am still looking around. I am quite new here, but it is looking to be a good option so far.
I guess you didn't get it.
He was ironically summarizing your poem
I recommend you to netcup. Their RS1000 has very strong performance, is cheap, and is very stable.
I shouldn't have, but I ended up reading the whole damn thing lol... I'm outside with a cigar trying to pass time XD
Bad advice. He'll not manage to handle german contracts, vat and support. Then blame it on whatever is written somewhere on their page. Then there is fraud check as another hurdle. PTSD is real.
Best of luck to the next provider.
Maybe @kanuba should take a look at @Clouvider ? Very nice support! And installing Arch works also with no issue!
Don't buy upfront or you forget and it gets deleted before you getting know of it.
He's living on the other side of the world, if he cannot commit to his contract I think they will hire a hitman to collect the 20 bucks he owes
you guys are scared to dead it's really funny
Do not use RackNerd. Initially I was tricked into thinking it was a good deal and added a bunch of funds to order a bunch of the 11.11 specials a few years ago. Those funds finally run out this year. Even with the service being paid, I still don't/can't use the services. On the best day of the year, I get about 120KiB/s downloads to the server. Usually it is between 0-120KiB/s. Most often the connection drops or times out when trying to download even the smallest package, just to update the OS. The support staff seems to not even have the most basic understanding of the services they provide. Escalated support or management are even more frustrating and do not care if they lie to you. Overall this is the worst provider on this forum that I have used.
Thanks for the info about OVH. I won't use them now that I know your experience.
As far as ServaRICA, I'm surprised you weren't concerned about how they absolutely do not respect any type of privacy and it's so bad, that they make it a point to put in writing about how they are outside of the US and do not have to respect US privacy laws (As if Canada is better). As far as I am concerned their own policy regarding privacy is far much worse than anything laid out in US law. I would be far more worried about your personal information on this provider than any other provider in this forum. I don't do anything illegal, so I am not really concerned with the US invading my privacy. The invasion by the US is completely unnoticed by me and doesn't affect me. The invasion of my privacy by ServaRICA does affect me and it's an unnecessary and unprofessional burden that nobody should have to deal with. Top it off with angry, violent support who want to make problems for you for disagreeing with their invasion of your privacy.
Good luck with finding a decent provider and please let us know if you find a decent one here on this forum.
I heard that he went through a few rebrandings to try to clean his image after much fraud.
I didn't get to use them, but if you can wait for the fraud check they do, maybe it will work out for you.
I sort of take pissed customer reviews with a grain of salt, but in this sector, and with all the negative issues surrounding a key few privacy and ethics concerns, I won't be trying them, especially after experiencing a glimpse myself.
Thanks for the warning, and I'm sorry you had to go through that. Speaking with their support, which I firmly believe to be to same person despite what the chat may say, given their actual qemu activity and the activation of their livechatirc login.
Thank you very much, and I will be sure to do so. So far, AlphaVPS is the only one I can't really find anything negative that isn't without reason, or from a very confused customer.
One last thing everyone, remember:
Most of these products are not products -- YOU are the product.
Be careful what you say/send/save, follow the 3-2-1 backup rule, and do your research please.
Well yeah but the digital world isn't permanent. Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule, and encrypt any sensitive information, not just the communication to/from their (likely unencrypt, easily parseable disk image formats) server with that data.
Please stay safe and remember we are products not customers. Our data is more important than our money, even if it is just browsing habits and interests sold, or incompetent security practices, like not salting a password hash.
No I'm pretty sure the VPS is the product and the provider doesn't have a google-tier dataminig operation running to find out what their hundreds of $5/month customers are doing on it (idling, serving personal websites, VPNs, torrents, ...).
Datamining only really becomes profitable at massive scale and I'm pretty sure it would be very illegal for providers aswell so I don't see the economics working out.
I just had a look at their offerings, and I'm pretty impressed!
That said, it's hard to consider over some current other choices, as I require a bit more flexibility in hardware, and can't justify paying for resources I won't use.
@Clouvider reach out to me if you are able to provision VMs slightly differently. If not, no problem. I'm just poor and need to be sure I'm going to use what I pay for.
Not to sound rude but..
You sound like pain in the ass customer. You expect every little thing to be done for you while you pay for peanuts.
Serverica might oversell, but what did you expect for those specs lol.
OVHCloud verification might take up to 2 weeks for some countries. What they ask, is scan of some bill to your physical address. If your payment method does not match what ur profile says, i.e you pay with ur card while ur wife is the account owner, they will ask additional verifications.
You are buying their most abused product for 5 usd and you expect expedited verification process when you order few hours before closing time? Im sure they prioritize larger orders first.
You looked for sympathy but it was exhausting as customer support agent for another company irl to read this. You start process and then back out when its not instant and suddenly you are all the way on blackmailing and asking refunds and requesting account deletions while previous stuff is still being handled.
Maybe try Hetzner next. Its large, wont scam your 5 usd and has godlike reputation on this forum.
Good luck to the provider who settles with you. Hopefully im wrong about you though.
That's fine by me, but thanks for offering that constructive part to this discussion. You're entitled to your own opinions, though, so fair enough.
As I mentioned, I went in expecting the worst. I've tried many VPS's over the last 20 years, and this was one of the worst. It was to confirm my suspicions after countless counter-reviews by the owner across the Web.
Not true at all. My wife created an account and was asked to hold a photo of her government ID and credit card, with face visible.
Of course. My wife created the account with her name and billing address. You seem to assume a lot about people on the Internet.
I'm not even going to bother responding to the rest, as it devolved into clearly troll material. I'm here reviewing 2 of many services I've tried. If you don't like it, that's fine. If you want to assume things without reading, that's fine too. Not everyone is perfect.
I'm just going to stick with Akamai. At least they my machine hasn't been offline since on migration years ago. After all of the feedback in my first post here, with what seems like a demography not of my tune, I'm out.
By Akamai are you referring to Linode? The hosts you've used and mention are all super low end budget hosts, they can't even be compared with a "standard pricing" host like Linode. Two vastly, vastly different service models. If you're paying Linode pricing with any company, you'll likely never have any problems.
@stefeman
Not to sound rude but..
Spoken like a support agent for ServaRICA and some of the other providers here on the forum.
Blame the customer for wanting what he wants, act like he should have to pay for services he does not want or need, complain about having to do a job you get paid to do and finish it off by trying to justify it all by making up imaginary details that aren't true.
Can you please tell us what hosting companies you provide support for? It would save your boss and the customer a lot of time and money not having to deal with your shithost.
Good luck with the customers who purchase services from your shithost.
It's possible to boot from any ISO provided via an URL. So using the next mirror with archlinux.iso works fine.
Before I leave, I'll just say that I got my refund from them too. I was not happy about both of my VPS's having bad blocks preventing boot, without touching them. That was the reason I gave for the guaranteed 14-day refund policy.
However, there is a more pressing concern. I urge anyone with a head on their shoulders to read their terms of service carefully. There are some obvious things that no sane person would agree to, such as, the user requiring to agree to them only once at registration time, with them freely able to change any part of it at any time without forward or any notice. While I understand why a company would want a similar policy, I think this needs to be revisited in the wording at the very least, unless they expect people to agree to, for the most part, anything, without exceptions.
I dont work at hosting industry. So no need to worry running to me with your support tickets.
My rating is 4.8/5 according to ticket feedback. Suppose the OP was a customer of mine, I would still appear friendly obviously.
I guess I broke your pitiful illusion about the friendly support agent who in reality curses you for wasting their time.
Is there any host you did not receive a refund from?
Linode, vultr, hetzner, and perhaps some others before I closed them due to technical age
Again, most of that information could have been obtained from reading.
That's a new one. I like it. How you turned that around as if your responsibility to solve problems on our time, is your time.
I solve it and end it with nice message that might or might not reflect my true thoughts.
Its not like I skip work cause I dont like something. I simply shared my thoughts about customers who are hard to please as they do not wish to follow established procedures but instead jump around and expect special care despite not paying more or at worst request refund after all the work you put to please them.
90% of the support tickets come from 10% or less of the customers.
We do our best to keep good offers up and running and restock them regularly. I believe this is one of the things that our users like is the ability to reorder the same good deal over and over and expecting it to be in stock most of the time
For the installation issue I dont see what we can do better in this case
1- you asked for custom ISO which we provided you with and asked to proceed with install
2- when you couldn't install it one of team tried to help you install himself
3- the admin has never used Arch and he was googling the process I dont understand why that is supposed to be red flag !
I see this as the team member went extra and beyond trying to help a customer as much as he can
For the OOM issues you faced we didnt face any of them in the past and this is not related to our resource allocation as in Xen HVM the ram is dedicated so the 4gb ram is only used by your VM so when you get OOM it means something in the VPS is using the memory
I still dont see where is the false advertisement ! , and where did anyone lied to you !
This is a non manged service and the team spent hours trying to help you and looking at the ticket logs I see they are fairly answering you to the point
I am honestly not sure what we could have done to make you satisfied
Couldn't have put it better myself. Consider doing all this for 5 USD which you need to refund anyway.