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WholeSale Internet - Good Prices, Bad Service (1 and a bit months)
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WholeSale Internet - Good Prices, Bad Service (1 and a bit months)

hawchawc Moderator, LIR
edited May 2015 in Reviews

Hi all,
I am bringing you a tale of WholeSale internet.
It all started on the 12/04/2015, when I ordered the server. I was looking forward to this server as it was my first one in the United States. I ordered at around 11:15 in the morning. Normally with all of the other servers that I use, delivery has been very quick. The server was delivered at around 17:15. (The email from them to my @virginmedia.com account ended up in my spam filter for some reason)

Wholesale's support was very good initially (Heck, they even installed Windows Server 2012 R2 for me as when I tried to upload the ISO from London, the install corrupted due to the fact that my upload was so slow)

All was fine with the server for the first month, and it has been in the past 4 days that my trust and faith in WholeSale internet has been completely trashed and destroyed. It all started when I RDP'ed into my server on Wednesday evening (British time) to work on it. I logged in, and after a longer than normal waiting time for it to connect, I was greeted with a black screen.

Because of this, I contacted support and asked them to either sort it out or provide me a KVM connection so that I can sort it myself. They asked for my login details to the server and then said that they would take a look at it for me. I got a message back that stated

"I saw the black screen you are talking about. It has doing that because Windows is not fully loading. No matter how I try to boot up, even safe mode, it will not come up to a login prompt. I think the best thing to do is reload the OS. Do you need any data off the drive? What OS do you want installed?"

Luckily at this point, I had a full backup of this server, so I did not need to get any data recovered. This is where I started to worry about the hardware condition of the server.

When I got the server reloaded and I got the RDP details, I then logged in and instantly started to run Acronis disk manager to see what was going on with the disk in this server. To my surprise and horror, I saw that it was having sector issues. http://harrycross.me/a22.png https://kb.acronis.com/content/9133 - talks about the issue

This is a drive that is failing. So I contacted support again and pointed this out. While I was there, I wanted another drive for this server and I asked for a price for that. They stated:

”We are replacing the current hard rive disk, as well as adding a new one to your server which we will be invoicing you for.” This is their exact message
As well as:

”Please pay the fee so that we can swap out your current failing disk for a new one, and install a 2nd one at the same time, to avoid taking your server offline twice and more down time for you.”

So I paid them the $4 dollars they wanted and I thought that they were going to solve both issues, so add the new disk and replace the original one at the same time.

I forgot to remember that this is WholeSale internet here.

I then checked the server after I got the new set of login details and THEY HAD NOT REPLACED THE ORIGINAL DRIVE

So I contacted support again, and they stated:

"I have attached the new disk that was added on to this service. If you need us to pull the Drive that has the OS on it and test and replace it we can, but all information not backed up will be lost.”

I sat there confused, as this is what I initially thought they were going to do!

Back to support I trotted, and
”Okay I will pull this server and load the OS on the drive added as well as swapping out the old drive, Would you still like 2012 installed on it?”

HALLELUJAH! THEY ARE GOING TO DO WHAT I ASKED THEM TO DO 6 HOURS EARLIER!

So, I got login details (for the third time), three hours later and I logged back on.

I reinstall Acronis, and think I will check the drives again. Yes, the drive has been replaced. I sat there hoping that it had been fixed, and I see http://harrycross.me/eb1.png

SO THE THING IS NOW REALLOCATING SECTORS!

By this time, I have had enough of WholeSale internet and wanted to cancel and refund the server. So I go back to support and inform them that I would like out and to cancel the server.
”Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to request an immediate cancellation and refund for the rest of the month on this server, as I have lost complete faith in you as a provider, due to the fact that the replacement drive that you fitted in my server, has been reallocating sectors and only has one left to reallocate. This drive is a replacement for one that has been failing. I await the refund for the remaining period of this server, to my PayPal at [email protected] Thanks Harry Cross”

I then get this back from them

”I am forwarding this to the Billing Department and they will attend to this during normal business hours of 8am-5pm CST, Monday - Friday.”

And of course, they are closed on Monday, so let us see what Tuesday will bring!

Overall, DO NOT USE THEM

«1

Comments

  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran

    Well, generally if you rent a server, you are not asked to pay for replacement of failing hardware. Secondly, whenever you rent any server, first thing before doing doing anything is to check drive health.

    I have used WSI few years back, they are good in support, but their infrastructure is not that kind of corporate one and hence has its own shortcoming.

    Thanked by 2alexvolk yomero
  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    The reason that I paid was because I wanted another drive adding to it.

  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran
    edited May 2015

    @hawc said:
    The reason that I paid was because I wanted another drive adding to it.

    Well, I had similar issue once , the DC guys happily added new drives and making my old drive slaves so that I can recover some data. I was not charged for anything, those drives were failing anyways.. they remained there unless I asked them to remove.

  • jenokjenok Member, Host Rep

    Hardware failing everywhere. What can I say is you are unlucky, not bad service. Based on your review, I would give high thumb on their support. But not for their management due to failed hardware management.

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    They said that they were going to replace the drive at the same time that they were adding the second one that I ordered, to save on downtime, and as you can see. It was not done this way. The OS was installed on the failing drive

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    New update

    **"Unfortunately, once a server is deployed we do not offer prorated refunds or credits.

    If you are still experiencing issues with your hardware, please reopen a new ticket and our onsite techs will be glad to assist you.

    Jon"**

    Safe to say, a PayPal dispute has just hit them

  • I don't see anything there other than bad luck? Am I missing something?

    Thanked by 1sc754
  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    Am I the only guy here who think their support was quite good and willing to help you further?

    They probably swapped your HDD with another old HDD that was having issues as well... You could tell them that and they'd swap it again. It happens, and could happen with any company IMO.

  • @Microlinux said:
    I don't see anything there other than bad luck? Am I missing something?

    They replaced a failing drive with another failing drive and started the install on said failing drive.

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    @MrGeneral Yes, but do you think I trust them with anymore time or money?

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    @hawc said:
    MrGeneral Yes, but do you think I trust them with anymore time or money?

    I've used them in the past, for several months and I do trust them. Try to work it out with them :-).

  • @MrGeneral said:
    I've used them in the past, for several months and I do trust them. Try to work it out with them :-).

    I think its pretty amateurish to not check SMART data on the drive prior to installing in a clients machine. This is something they should of done, no excuses.

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    Yes they could have done that, but for the price you pay.. You get what you pay for.

    I see your point, though, they should test the HDD before deploying it.

  • @MrGeneral said:
    I see your point, though, they should test the HDD before deploying it.

    "You get what you pay for"
    This always annoys me and shouldn't be an excuse. If the provider can't make a profit then they shouldn't offer it. Many companies offer stuff in this price range, e3s and all so its not like they're the only option out there.

  • rds100rds100 Member
    edited May 2015

    Just FYI 11 reallocated sectors do not indicate that the drave has failed or will fail soon. It happens. With some drives it happens more often than with others. The drive might work for years more or might fail after 5 minutes, just based on the data you have this cannot be predicted.

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    But it demonstrates that the drive has a higher chance of failure then a normal drive should do.

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    I agree with you, but still, they're more than willing to swap the HDD, it may happen with any provider, unless all providers test their hardware before deploying it.

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    Yes, but the fact that they replaced it with a failing drive, after a fight to get them to replace a failing drive

    Thanked by 2MikePT ATHK
  • DamianDamian Member

    hawc said: Safe to say, a PayPal dispute has just hit them

    Please don't purchase service from anyone here. We don't need the headache of Paypal disputes when you don't get your way.

  • rds100rds100 Member

    hawc said: the fact that they replaced it with a failing drive

    This is not a failing drive. You don't know that.

  • ReeRee Member

    A couple years ago I had a server provisioned with 3 x 250GB drives. One was fine, one was benchmarking about 1/3 the speed of the first, and the third was DOA.

    They quickly agreed to replace two of the drives, and even bumped them up to 500GB since they didn't have any 250GB drives left, but they pulled the wrong drive so I was left with 2x500GB and 1xDOA!

    Again they quickly replied and corrected the situation, but it left me with very little trust in them so I used the server for testing purposes for a few months and then cancelled.

    So I totally understand where you're coming from, but their refund policy is very clear, so no offense but I hope you lose your paypal dispute :)

  • IThinkUFailedIThinkUFailed Member
    edited May 2015

    @Ree said:
    A couple years ago I had a server provisioned with 3 x 250GB drives. One was fine, one was benchmarking about 1/3 the speed of the first, and the third was DOA.

    They quickly agreed to replace two of the drives, and even bumped them up to 500GB since they didn't have any 250GB drives left, but they pulled the wrong drive so I was left with 2x500GB and 1xDOA!

    Again they quickly replied and corrected the situation, but it left me with very little trust in them so I used the server for testing purposes for a few months and then cancelled.

    So I totally understand where you're coming from, but their refund policy is very clear, so no offense but I hope you lose your paypal dispute :)

    You clearly expressed how Wholesale Internet cocked your request up and have done the same to @hawc and now you wish for him to lose money? What a wonderful person you are.

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    @Ree, you are clearly a great person. With your mentality, they cocked up my request, BUT they should not have to pay for it? To put that in a more real life example, if someone murdered someone else, would you try and ask them to make the person live again, or send them to jail?

  • heiskaheiska Member

    @hawc said:
    Ree, you are clearly a great person. With your mentality, they cocked up my request, BUT they should not have to pay for it? To put that in a more real life example, if someone murdered someone else, would you try and ask them to make the person live again, or send them to jail?

    Well that escalated quickly.

  • @IThinkUFailed said:
    now you wish for him to lose money

    Read the TOS the op agreed to.

    @hawc said: they should not have to pay for it?

    Read the TOS you agreed to.

    Bad luck does not entitle you to a refund. Shit happens.

  • shovenoseshovenose Member, Host Rep

    Any bad sectors (pending or reallocated) means the drive is failing and should not be put into production use. WSI should be checking drives before deploying them.

    That said, I think a refund is unreasonable. More reasonable would be for them to replace the drive with a working one, and extend your renewal date a few days to compensate for when you were unable to use the server.

  • @Microlinux said:
    Bad luck does not entitle you to a refund. Shit happens.

    Bad luck shouldn't and isn't what he has the issue with. The issue he has is the incompetence of the staff to install drive that is failing in his server after he had just alerted them to the near failure of the current one. His server had actually needed to be reloaded entirely because the drive had crashed, that's how bad it was. The failing drive that the OS was then installed on by Wholesale Internet was in such a bad condition it corrupted the install for him.

  • qpsqps Member, Host Rep

    @hawc Based on what you said, yes, they installed a replacement drive that was also failing, but your only recourse here is to get them to replace the drive again. They didn't purposely give you a failing hard drive. Cut them a little slack.

    If you still aren't happy after they replace the drive again, cancel it at the end of the billing period and move on.

  • I found wsi / shack to be acceptable but if you don't like hardware failing don't buy a server anywhere.

  • hawchawc Moderator, LIR

    Its that they have failed to carry out what I asked, and it took multiple attempts to get them to do it.

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