RackNerd forced DC migration, refused prorated refund.

mainmod · May 24

How sketchy. How does a provider sell services with an contract but not have a contract with their provider as long?

Then they won't refund... Unless you complain loud enough???

shuier · May 24

No, please just fucking shit RackNerd

hmx27 · May 24

@dustinc said:
Hi @tommyren -- we appreciate you being a long-term customer, and we certainly understand the concern.

Just to clarify, our upstream provider for DC-02 is exiting the 707 Wilshire / Aon Center facility, which directly impacted the viability of continuing operations in Los Angeles DC-02 for us. As such, the migration to our newer Los Angeles DC-03 location became necessary. Generally speaking, facility moves can and do happen within this industry, and when they do, the goal is to ensure long-term service continuity while keeping customers in the same general market/region whenever possible.

With that being said, your service is still being delivered from Los Angeles, and the new Los Angeles DC-03 facility at 1200 W 7th St is less than 1 mile away from the previous facility (0.6 miles to be exact). We’re not moving customers out of the region they purchased, we’re moving them to our newer Los Angeles facility, one that still supports native IPv6 capabilities too.

Moving out of DC-02 was a decision made to best support RackNerd and our customers long-term. On top of that, we had struggled to continue growing in that facility as it had been sold out for quite some time, and with the additional changes taking place there, it made sense to move services to a newer Los Angeles facility where our customers have already been enjoying service.

By the way, separate from this migration project, we’re also in the process of turning up 200 additional nodes in this same region to help meet demand. Our growth has been amazing, and our offerings continue to align with what customers are actively asking for.

Regarding your specific situation, we’re happy to review your account and see what makes sense. If preferred, we can offer a prorated account credit, though a refund back to the original payment method is not something we are offering for this. Please e-mail me directly at dustin[@]racknerd.com or DM me with the related service label(s), and I’ll personally take a look.

In addition to the recent Crown Castle/Lumen improvements, we also have plans to continue improving the DC-03 network, including adding additional carriers over time. We’ll likely be sending out an expansion survey here soon as well, which may include the opportunity for customers to share network provider suggestions.

That said, for the volume of physical servers involved, the migration has been progressing very smoothly overall, and we’ve already received a lot of positive feedback from customers since the move. We’re proud of the work our team has put into this, and we’ll continue refining things as we go.

As you can imagine, it has definitely been all hands on deck on our side lately, so we greatly appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we continue working through this, and we do appreciate your years of business with us.

I have a suggestion: For VPSs migrating from DC2 to DC3, offer them an option:

Extend the expiration date of affected VPSs by one month (after a flash sale, existing users will have more options, allowing them to make cost-effective choices—whether to abandon the service or renew, etc. VPSs with less than one month remaining will automatically have their validity extended by one month).
Add an extra migration quota (if they've never migrated before, they'll have two migration opportunities).

Give users one week to consider; otherwise, option one will be the default.

Many purchased VPSs specifically for the DC2 data center; a forced migration would disappoint many. I think this would be a consolation prize after the migration (the final interpretation rests with the provider).

rpqu · May 24

@davider said:
Same shit with @Cloudcone . When will this AI bubble pop?

2027/2028 at the latest.

L00ted · May 24

Huh, nodeseek user lmfao.

phigros · May 24

@lowendclient said:
You buy a Los Angeles VPS, you get a Los Angeles VPS.
They never promised you "China optimised route" before you buy or in any contract.
You get what you want. It's fair enought.

They promised

rpqu · May 24

@phigros said:

@lowendclient said:
You buy a Los Angeles VPS, you get a Los Angeles VPS.
They never promised you "China optimised route" before you buy or in any contract.
You get what you want. It's fair enought.

They promised

direct link ?

phigros · May 24

@rpqu said:

@phigros said:

@lowendclient said:
You buy a Los Angeles VPS, you get a Los Angeles VPS.
They never promised you "China optimised route" before you buy or in any contract.
You get what you want. It's fair enought.

They promised

direct link ?

https://t.me/racknerd_promo
Search: “优化”, Events like Black Friday and Easter are always posted here on time. This appears to be an official channel, and the descriptions are written in Chinese.

phigros · May 24

@rpqu said:

@phigros said:

@lowendclient said:
You buy a Los Angeles VPS, you get a Los Angeles VPS.
They never promised you "China optimised route" before you buy or in any contract.
You get what you want. It's fair enought.

They promised

direct link ?

https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/3563566#Comment_3563566

tommyren · May 24

@JabJab said:
According to the user he asked support about it earlier and got denied so stop with that 'tantrum'/'rude'. (Until he didn't ask in that tickets and went straight for tantrum, but doesn't look so). He did all he could in "official" way. We now here with current state that after asking support you got told in forum to ask support. FFS?

He bought DC-02, it was separated location (for many reasons) in billing platform. Provider cannot provide it anymore - sure, things happens, refund / credit / migrate [if user is willing too].

Be serious. First we start with "LA is LA", then we go "USA is USA" and then "North America is North America" and in 10 years when Elon Musk will get Moon Datacenter the excuse gonna be "You bought it on Earth, it's still on Earth"?

He bought DC-02 in LA, specific location, specific DC, selectable as location in billing platform. Sure, routing (aka China route) is not guaranteed and I would understand you guys mocking people for uproar if RackNerd would just kill it, but physically moving servers to different DC when you bought specific one is a no-go.

Only thing that I am shocked is that it took that long for a thread to popup knowing people and reasons for selecting DC-02. I am also pretty sure that Dustin was aware that topics like that gonna popup and they have full plan for those. It's all PR control at this time.
It was also a deliberated choice to not automagically (maybe money, maybe support time?) create a ticket for each service "1. Yes, I want to migrate. 2. No, I want refund to original payment method. 3. No, I want credits refunded".

Sure. I submitted a ticket and went back and forth with them, but they cannot refund to the original payment method. So I can only share my thoughts here.

It feels like there is no customer choice. Somehow it even feels like this is my fault.

to be honest, DC02 was the only reason I chose RackNerd since 2021.
I already bought and tried another DC03 service before to supprt Racknerd. I truly do not want to keep two DC03 services. But it seems I have no choice.

samtom · May 24

This practice of forcing migrations with nothing more than an email is undoubtedly frustrating. At the same time, the VPS provider lacks the capacity to address the various issues users face as a result of these forced migrations. We purchased your services because we trusted you; you should be ensuring a positive customer experience. Even if a migration is necessary, you should be able to address the dissatisfaction it causes. Simply sending an official excuse is irresponsible.

mainmod · May 24

They're obviously a scam who has no idea how to manage their customers. Seems all hosts on here are all just trash and scams

ralf · May 24

I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

code95z7 · May 24

During their promotion, RackNerd set different prices for the two data centers, with DC2 being the more expensive option. This clearly shows they know the two locations aren't just "both in LAX" — there are real differences between them.

rpqu · May 24

@phigros said:

@rpqu said:

@phigros said:

@lowendclient said:
You buy a Los Angeles VPS, you get a Los Angeles VPS.
They never promised you "China optimised route" before you buy or in any contract.
You get what you want. It's fair enought.

They promised

direct link ?

https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/3563566#Comment_3563566

So, it means their Chinese marketing team did it. Their resellers most likely copy-paste this as well

mainmod · May 24

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

You're ok with providers moving services to other countries then just ignoring when you complain unless you complain loud enough

deafcon · May 24

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

PolyAnthi · May 24

@deafcon said:

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

Technically, depending on who provides said optimised routes, they can also be moved over to DC3. That'd resolve pretty much all the bitching here if I'm not wrong?

zed · May 24

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

if the connectivity in the 2 datacenters are different and the services are thus advertised and priced differently and the customers therefore purchase accordingly, what are you even saying?

people absolutely should complain when they don't get what they paid for regardless of your opinion of the price point.

anyway i assume @dustinc will handle the issue appropriately, seems like they do a fair amount of business with the nodeseekers. hopefully it's not too many requiring compensation, for everybody's sake.

deafcon · May 24

@PolyAnthi said:

@deafcon said:

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

Technically, depending on who provides said optimised routes, they can also be moved over to DC3. That'd resolve pretty much all the bitching here if I'm not wrong?

If I were Racknerd, I'd 100% be doing whatever I could to get the upstream from DC2 into DC3, but who knows if that is possible.

mainmod · May 24

@PolyAnthi said:

@deafcon said:

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

Technically, depending on who provides said optimised routes, they can also be moved over to DC3. That'd resolve pretty much all the bitching here if I'm not wrong?

Bro, they can't even honor contracts... Do you really think they can afford to actually buy network or any infrastructure??

They're just another trash provider that's all over this site.

zed · May 24

@mainmod said:

@PolyAnthi said:

@deafcon said:

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

Technically, depending on who provides said optimised routes, they can also be moved over to DC3. That'd resolve pretty much all the bitching here if I'm not wrong?

Bro, they can't even honor contracts... Do you really think they can afford to actually buy network or any infrastructure??

They're just another trash provider that's all over this site.

give them a chance to fix it man.

tommyren · May 24

@zed said:

@mainmod said:

@PolyAnthi said:

@deafcon said:

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

Technically, depending on who provides said optimised routes, they can also be moved over to DC3. That'd resolve pretty much all the bitching here if I'm not wrong?

Bro, they can't even honor contracts... Do you really think they can afford to actually buy network or any infrastructure??

They're just another trash provider that's all over this site.

give them a chance to fix it man.

i do not think they will fix anything. we have to take the dc03 shit. and i have two...

Saragoldfarb · May 24

@dustinc

You said you can do credit, why not just refund? If the service never switched owner that should be possible.

mainmod · May 24

@zed said:

@mainmod said:

@PolyAnthi said:

@deafcon said:

@ralf said:
I've had servers (from other providers) that have switched countries multiple times while I've had them. Switching data centre isn't a big deal. And at the end of the day, you're still getting the location and service you paid for.

And this is a lot of complaining when most of the customers are $10 - $12 per year.

I think the mjjs have a point here. It seems that Racknerd sold DC2 as a differentiated service. They didn't buy service in LA, they bought service in DC2. Clearly it was a decision because DC2 had China optimized routing. Racknerd can't deliver that differentiated service any more, so they need to make it right with these customers somehow. I'm not here to say what making it right looks like. Clearly these folks are a large part of their business, so they need to consider what this going to do reputationally. However, it's pretty clear that people here making buying decisions solely based on price, and will defend providers who have fucked over others as long as their service is working.

Technically, depending on who provides said optimised routes, they can also be moved over to DC3. That'd resolve pretty much all the bitching here if I'm not wrong?

Bro, they can't even honor contracts... Do you really think they can afford to actually buy network or any infrastructure??

They're just another trash provider that's all over this site.

give them a chance to fix it man.

They already said they wouldn't prorate refund OP. Only now he complained loud enough they might? Any decent company wouldn't need to

dustinc · May 24

Hi All -- it is still very much all hands on deck on our side, so do excuse my brevity, but I did want to clarify one point here.

I looked into the ticket that OP messaged me about, and the story being presented here is not fully aligned with what I’m seeing. Our team did offer a prorated account credit option in that ticket, and this was offered to OP via ticket before this thread was created. By the way, after reviewing the service history, the original order itself appears to have been for San Jose, not Los Angeles DC-02 and the product OP ordered was never available for DC-02 selection to begin with. At some point, via a support ticket request by the customer it looks like an exception was made by our team in good faith, and the service was later accommodated in DC-02 to help the customer out. So there is a bit more account-specific history here than what is being presented publicly. With that said, we still offered a prorated account credit option, and to be clear, this is not a matter of someone needing to “complain loud enough” on LET in order for us to work with them.

As mentioned earlier, we have already been working with customers on a case-by-case basis, including moving services to other in-stock datacenter locations where available, and reviewing prorated account credit requests where appropriate. This remains our stance. These situations do need to be reviewed case by case, as not every service/account is structured the same way. As most here know, we’ve run different promotions over the years, flash sales, renewals, upgrades, customers push transferring services across different accounts, etc - so it is not always as simple as treating every situation identically from the outside.

We understand there may be some confusion, and we’re here to clarify and work through it with customers directly. Our team has been highly responsive through tickets despite the workload, and customers are welcome to continue working with us there. As always, I can also be reached directly at dustin[@]racknerd[.]com if someone feels their situation needs my attention. We do our best to go above and beyond for our customers, but every account is different and at times needs to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. In this particular case, we do believe the prorated account credit option offered was reasonable.

We understand that not everyone will view this situation the same way, and that’s fair. Facility moves are never fun, especially for users who selected a specific deployment location years ago for their own reasons. At the same time, our priority has been service continuity -- keeping customers online, maintaining Los Angeles-based service delivery, and completing this transition in a way that supports customers long-term. We are continuing to work with customers, review reasonable requests, and handle each situation as fairly as we can.

By the way, the DC-03 network is not something we consider “done” or final. We have already made improvements with Lumen/Crown Castle, and the network will only continue improving from here. We are actively reviewing feedback, MTRs, routing behavior, and future carrier expansion opportunities.

Also worth mentioning, this migration project is not yet fully completed. We still have additional physical migration batches scheduled after the Memorial Day holiday next week, so our team remains fully focused on getting through the remaining work as smoothly as possible.

As always, we appreciate the customers who have been patient and constructive with us throughout this process. We’ll continue doing our best to support everyone through it.

elmago · May 24

@dustinc all services, included shared/reseller on DC02 will be migrated to DC03?

dustinc · May 24

@elmago said:
@dustinc all services, included shared/reseller on DC02 will be migrated to DC03?

Hi @elmago -- shared/reseller hosting services are not in Los Angeles DC-02, and have not for quite some time, so this is not impacted.

Due to power constraints in Los Angeles DC-02 at the time, we had already moved forward with deploying our upgraded Ryzen/NVMe/CloudLinux 9 shared/reseller hosting platform in a different LA facility at the time:

https://blog.racknerd.com/racknerd-unveils-next-generation-shared-reseller-hosting-platform-powered-by-ryzen-nvme-and-cloudlinux-9/

That helped us better support the shared/reseller hosting side of the business from a power and scalability standpoint. As such, as an indirect result of that project already being completed, shared/reseller hosting customers are already taken care of, and the current physical migration work being discussed here is focused on the other remaining services in Los Angeles DC-02.

AlteredParadox · May 24

I feel like lately there's just been a flood of mjj posts that: have zero patience, never ask "hey, can we look into this" and always just assume the absolute worst and instantly blast/blame the provider without any discussion / chance for anything to be fixed. That's where I'd 100% agree with the comments about screaming loudly enough and throwing tantrums. Maybe its a language barrier / cultural thing, but holy crap do a lot of these style of posts come off like something a 10 year old would write. If the DC02 servers were advertised specifically as having a China Optimized route, and are moving to something that doesn't, yeah, that sucks and IMO racknerd should offer a refund, but as seems typical of these threads, it's sounding like there's more to the story here anyway. Am not a racknerd customer at present, so no skin in the game... but I feel like OP and a lot of other posters in these style threads would get a lot further having a bit more of a calm conversation and not immediately starting with a huge blame game blow up about how awful and unfair everything is.

emperor · May 24

You should take the credits. If you indeed ordered in San Jose , even charge back would not be in your favor. Provider can just move you to San Jose at this point and be done with you.

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