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BlueVM Review - Definitely NOT Recommended - AVOID BlueVM!
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BlueVM Review - Definitely NOT Recommended - AVOID BlueVM!

emgemg Veteran

IMPORTANT NOTE: I recently canceled my BlueVM VPS and gave the BlueVM credit to another LET member. At the same time, I promised to create a new thread with a review of my experience with BlueVM. Someone else opened their own somewhat positive review of BlueVM shortly thereafter. I will not say that it was an attempt to preempt my pending negative review. Nonetheless, I decided to start my own thread as originally promised, to make sure that it began with a clearly negative review of BlueVM. Read below to see why. See also:

http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/31187/looking-for-a-satisfied-bluevm-customer-no-bluevm-complaints-here-please

http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/31299/bluevm-review

HERE IS MY REVIEW:

AVOID BlueVM!!

Don't be tempted by the value of their offers - you will regret it. They will never refund money to customers, even if your BlueVM VPS is down for a month and it is entirely BlueVM's failure to deliver the VPS you paid for. (They will offer BlueVM credit for BlueVM services, but who wants that after a month long ongoing service failure?) Buyer beware!

My BlueVM KVM VPS went down a month ago. It took a week for BlueVM to bring it up at all. It is still unusable several weeks later.

The node drops all communications for two minute intervals several times an hour. The communications dropouts continue to this day, with no end in sight. Every VPS on that node is affected. There are no inbound or outbound communications at all. Even BlueVM's own Feathur control panel times out trying to connect to the node/VPS. Imagine what it is like for your VPS to lose all network communications (outbound, too!) several times an hour.

WATCH BLUEVM DROP ALL YOUR PACKETS! YOU CAN SEE IT FOR YOURSELF RIGHT NOW!

Type "ping zu2.bluevm.com" (Windows: "ping -t zu2.bluevm.com") and watch for a few minutes (20 minutes or less). On Mac or Windows you will see the Request timeout messages. On Linux, just watch the icmp_req number suddenly stop incrementing or jump when the node does not respond.

Did I open a ticket? Sure. Did they respond? Yes, although response times often took longer than they should. BlueVM told me that they had fixed the problem four different times in the same ticket, but the same problem continues.

Here is my summary of BlueVM responses edited for brevity. I omitted irrelevant and automated messages.

  • 25 June (me): I opened ticket number 985117 about frequent communications dropouts.
  • 25 June (BlueVM): We're aware.
  • 1 July (BlueVM): Fixed.
  • 1 July (me): Not fixed. Nothing has changed. I included detailed instructions showing many ways to see the issue.
  • 1 July (BlueVM): Fixed (again).

  • 2 July (me): Not fixed. Another outage is occurring now.

  • 2 July (BlueVM): We're now aware that there is still a problem.
  • 2 July (BlueVM follow-up): Working with the DC on the problem.
  • 6 July (BlueVM): This is resolved now.
  • 10 July (me) I was busy, but on 10 July, I notified them that dropouts continued. How could they NOT notice?
  • 10 July (BlueVM): Offers to move me to a different node or cancel my VPS and give me credit from BlueVM. They will not credit my PayPal account. I declined both - I wanted a VPS outside the US, and what could I possibly do with a credit from BlueVM??
  • 11 July (BlueVM): We believe the DC has fixed it.
  • (12 July: I told them that the problem continues. Again, how could they not know?)
  • 13 July: Ok. We will continue to work with the DC to fix this.

  • 13 July: I opened a new ticket, asking them to cancel my VPS and apply the credit to another BlueVM customer that I found on LET.

Summary: BlueVM's Zurich KVM node (zu2.bluevm.com) has been unusable for a month. All communications fail for every VPS on that node several times an hour. It is trivial for anyone to see (whether or not you are BlueVM customer) by simply pinging the node. In one ticket alone, BlueVM claims to have fixed the problem many times, yet it still continues, with no end in sight. In the time it took to type this message, I saw multiple communications dropouts occur.

I could provide many more examples of why I do not recommend BlueVM, but I believe the above information is sufficient. Do not give them your money.

«13

Comments

  • linuxthefishlinuxthefish Member
    edited July 2014

    Did you ask to move to another ZU node? I think they are having issues in ZU, although I think it's some datacenter problem from what people have said on irc.

    EDIT: Yeah, i see now: 146 packets transmitted, 80 received, 45% packet loss, time 145617ms

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • edited July 2014

    BlueVM scum... I have told a friend not to buy from them. He did and suffered... Yeah...

    @linuxthefish don't believe everything you read

    Thanked by 2darkshire IceCream
  • BlueVMBlueVM Member

    This is very inaccurate, it's only happening on our only ZU node and we're aware of it. Our DC are not being helpful.

    We were not lying when we said it was fixed, because it was but for a short while.

    You saying "watch BlueVM drop packets" is just false because we're not dropping anything.

    We offered to move you over to a US node, for which you refused. So options were provided for sure.

    I'm sure before this (which was almost 10 or 11 months service was fine, and you would know that because your service was due for renewal soon)

    Thanked by 2Raymii IceCream
  • emgemg Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @linuxthefish said:
    Did you ask to move to another ZU node? I think they are having issues in ZU, although I think it's some datacenter problem from what people have said on irc.

    EDIT: Yeah, i see now: 146 packets transmitted, 80 received, 45% packet loss, time 145617ms

    I asked, and they do not have another KVM node in Switzerland. I paid a 50% premium to have my BlueVM KVM VPS hosted in Zurich rather than one of their US sites. I already have 3 VPSs in the US and wanted one in Europe. If I owned BlueVM, I would have moved all of the affected accounts to a new dedicated server or a new DC in Zurich, or maybe somewhere else in Switzerland, or at least somewhere in Europe, which is what I believe their customers wanted. I would have done it weeks ago - how long would you tolerate this level of failure from your DC, assuming it is their fault? If it is the DC's fault, then the damage they have done to BlueVM's reputation is incalculable.

    At different times, BlueVM has claimed the following reasons for the communications dropouts:

    • Abusive VPSs on the node. While I watched in multiple chat sessions in the IRC, BlueVM staff tossed off three different KVM VPS "abusers" on the node. It didn't fix the problem.
    • MAC address limitation issue at the DC, supposedly fixed.
    • Network card driver issue.
    • NIC card hardware problem.

    I was most frustrated by BlueVM's lack of communication about the situation to its affected customers. I expressed it several times to them, but they ignored my pleas to be more forthcoming about the situation and to keep their customers informed.

    I was also frustrated by their frequent claims to have fixed the problem, when it was so easy for anyone (including BlueVM, gasp!) to see that they had not.

    Their self-published 99% uptime guarantee is laughable. Their business management skills are nonexistent and sadly, not laughable.

  • emgemg Veteran

    @BlueVM said:
    This is very inaccurate, it's only happening on our only ZU node and we're aware of it.

    I agree that it is happening only on the ZU KVM node. Unfortunately, that was the node where my BlueVM KVM VPS was hosted. I do not agree that my statements are very inaccurate.

    Our DC are not being helpful.

    I believe that BlueVM should take responsibility for delivering the VPSs it promised to its customers, rather than blaming the DC. It should deal with the DC's failure to deliver services to BlueVM as a separate issue, rather than holding BlueVM's customers hostage to when the DC fixes the problem.

    It is possible BlueVM cannot or will not provide the KVM VPS in Zurich that it promised its customers. In that case, it should act responsibly and support their customers. It should either migrate the node to another DC, or shut it down. If BlueVM decides to shut down the node, then BlueVM should notify customers, help them backup or migrate their data, and refund their money. Real money, not "BlueVM credit".

    How long will BlueVM hold its ZU2 VPS customers in limbo?

    We were not lying when we said it was fixed, because it was but for a short while.

    Sure. It was fixed for the duration between communications dropouts, which was did not last very long. Usually far less than one hour. Most people would simply conclude that the problem was not fixed. I checked the node as soon as I became aware of BlueVM's replies indicating that it was fixed and every time I discovered instantly that it was not fixed. Every time. Four times in the ticket. Several times in the IRC. Even now, the communications dropouts continue for all to see - it is still not fixed.

    After the first one or two times where BlueVM determines that a problem is "fixed" and then finds that it isn't, any competent technician would say to themselves, "I should test longer and better before declaring the problem truly fixed."

    You saying "watch BlueVM drop packets" is just false because we're not dropping anything.

    That's disingenuous. Maybe it is the DC or its network that is dropping packets, but my computer is not seeing the echo replies from its pings. RIGHT NOW.

    When I set my BlueVM VPS to ping out, it displayed many lines of "Host node unreachable" once communications were restored. I interpreted that to mean that not only were inbound communications lost to the node and my VPS, but also outbound communications from the VPS, too.

    From my point of view, the BlueVM KVM node was unreachable. Not just pings, but all communications were dropped, including SSH connections, web services, and even BlueVM's Feathur control panel. Whether it is "BlueVM" that is dropping packets is a matter of interpretation and splitting hairs.

    We offered to move you over to a US node, for which you refused. So options were provided for sure.

    True. You did offer to move my VPS to a US node, but I did not need or want a US BlueVM node. Certainly it wasn't what I paid for.

    I'm sure before this (which was almost 10 or 11 months service was fine, and you would know that because your service was due for renewal soon)

    (To be honest, I thought that it was paid through early November, but that is probably my mistake, and I have not brought it up here as an issue.)

    My BlueVM VPS was adequate at best. It had the poorest performance of any of my four comparable VPSs from different vendors. It suffered crashes the most often by far. It suffered the longest service outages of any of them. It was the slowest to be provisioned.

    Would any reasonable person say, "I got 10 months of fine service before my VPS became unusable for a month, so BlueVM must be a good provider overall?"

    I appreciate your need for damage control, but I have stated the facts as I see them. I view your attempts to disparage me and pick at the minor details to be counterproductive for you.

    At least you are communicating about the issues, which is good. Why not share with us what is really happening on the ZU2 node, and your plans to fix them? Why not share with us what improvements BlueVM has planned, especially in customer communications?

    Thanked by 2lazyt IceCream
  • lazytlazyt Member

    Nice rebuttal.

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • I have a 3 idle VPS which I've purchased on last August (yearly plans). After reading this thread I logged into BlueVM's Feathur control panel and saw 2 of my VPS's are suspended. I'm surprised as I never received any notification from BlueVM. I had no idea a provider can suspend your VPS if you don't use your VPS.

    Thanked by 2IceCream default
  • NeoonNeoon Community Contributor, Veteran

    Thanks for the review, added to the list: http://list.lowendserv.net/flagged.php

  • ZettaZetta Member

    said: They will never refund money to customers, even if your BlueVM VPS is down for a month and it is entirely BlueVM's failure to deliver the VPS you paid for. (They will offer BlueVM credit for BlueVM services, but who wants that after a month long ongoing service failure?)

    Can not agree more. The first and last time I tried them their Feathur auto-provisioning messed up big time. The "support" I got was a desperate attempt to hold on to my money by not giving me what I paid for, and instead delivering lies.

    If you like bad stories then I got one:

    I bought a VPS in the NJ node, but Feathur had auto-provisioned a non-functional (no IP assignment) VPS. I contact support and 2 hours later they "fix" the problem.

    Now I have two: a working VPS in CHICAGO, and a non-functional VPS in NEW YORK.

    This is a problem, I paid for a NJ VPS (best latency, etc) so where is it?

    I follow up with support and 4-5 hours of some back and forth confirmation, the VPSes are terminated and I get a VPS in NJ. Took 22 hours since I paid but it's smooth sailing now right?

    The VPS again is non-functional (no IP assignment), this is the exact situation where I was at initially.

    Support tells me they ran out of IP space, so I obviously ask for a refund since they can't deliver what I paid for.

    Apparently that gives support the OK to ignore my ticket for days and not respond.

    I can go on about how they "fixed the problem" one whole week later by giving me someone else's IP (which didn't fix the problem by the way), but I'll keep it short by saying they have lost my trust and I never got my money back. They are literally scam artists in my eyes.

    According to their ToS and confirmed by the responses by support, once you give them money, you can't get a refund. They will give you NOTHING, your VPS could be not working for DAYS, you could have 0% uptime, but you don't get a refund because the ToS says no refunds. Thanks BlueVM, here's to another satisfied customer.

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • 0xdragon0xdragon Member
    edited July 2014

    My ZU VPS was only up for a week from purchase and has been down ever since (2 months). Basically I paid $37 for a week of usage on a VPS.

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • jvnadrjvnadr Member

    I checked today my s2-zu vps with bluevm and seem stable, is 22 days up and I monitored for 6 minutes from my home pc without any packet loss (ping at 96-115ms).

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • FritzFritz Veteran

    Infinity580 said: Thanks for the review, added to the list: http://list.lowendserv.net/flagged.php

    That's not fair dude, if you flag them for bad reviews, you must also flag them for positive reviews if any. All of them.

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • @Fritz said:

    I'd agree, but BlueVM has gone down the drain. It's nearing GVH levels of bad reviews.

    Thanked by 2IceCream default
  • cheaptimecheaptime Member
    edited July 2014

    Bluevm isn'a a bad host, they are scammers.
    if they sold rotten ham instead of not working vps they were already in court, at least in my country.

  • I'm not getting in the middle of this, but:
    2. vi-127.aggm01.den05.viawest.net 0.0% 141 0.6 8.3 0.6 209.8 28.0 3. teng-01-02.crsw01.den05.viawest.net 0.0% 141 1.4 2.5 0.6 170.0 14.3 4. 66.51.2.153 0.0% 141 1.3 4.3 0.9 179.0 19.7 5. teng-02-06.crsw02.den03.viawest.net 0.0% 141 2.5 4.4 0.9 129.8 17.1 6. teng-01-01.crsw02.den02.viawest.net 0.0% 141 1.9 4.6 1.2 141.0 16.1 7. teng-00-02-00-s40.brdr01.den02.viawest.net 0.0% 141 1.5 1.6 1.1 8.2 1.1 8. he.any2.coresite.com 0.0% 141 1.7 4.1 1.4 23.2 4.1 9. 10ge4-3.core1.chi1.he.net 0.0% 141 25.7 31.7 25.0 86.9 9.9 10. 10ge15-7.core1.ash1.he.net 0.0% 141 56.7 46.8 40.1 98.5 10.2 11. 10ge9-2.core1.par2.he.net 0.0% 141 121.5 124.0 120.6 136.0 4.5 12. 10ge3-2.core1.zrh1.he.net 0.0% 141 134.6 136.7 134.3 147.6 3.5 13. tengigc03p03.edge01.privatelayer.com 57.9% 141 144.1 138.2 131.6 307.7 25.5 14. tengigc07p03.dist01.privatelayer.com 54.7% 140 134.4 134.9 131.8 171.5 8.1 15. 46.19.142.130 0.0% 140 132.0 132.4 131.8 144.5 1.7

    Seems to be an issue with the DC, Privatelayer.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited July 2014

    BlueVM is definitely not for a production service, but it is great for my needs, as long as it works.
    I had a bad experience in the CA location, after many attempts to make the server work with 30% steal cpu, kernel crashes and whatnot I asked to be moved to buffalo and it worked, the KVM is no champion, but it works eversince, even with win 2008 R2.
    I would say some locations are crap and the servers are somewhere in the middle between not working and average but the prices are great.
    Overall, OK for the price. Also, they are around for some time, unlikely to deadpool soon, I am past the times when I was testing every new listing on LEB :)

  • NeoonNeoon Community Contributor, Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Fritz Added Everything now what i could find, down to May. Mostly Bad Reviews, one Prositive. When you found a Good Review let it me know.

    Thanked by 2windytime90 IceCream
  • emgemg Veteran

    @cncking2000 said:

    ... Shows traceroute where Privatelayer drops packets. ...

    >


    Seems to be an issue with the DC, Privatelayer.

    Fair enough, but BlueVM has failed to manage the problem, which is still ongoing one month later. At the moment what I see is:

    • BlueVM gets to keep its customers money. BlueVM's strict no refund policy assures that it does not have to deliver any level of service whatsoever. In effect, BlueVM's customers do not make payments, they make donations.

    • BlueVM chose the DC, but assumes no responsibility for the choice because it has no financial incentive to do so.

    • BlueVM won't pay out of its own pocket to move to a different, functional DC, even after a month of no service. I wonder whether Privatelayer has its own "no refund" policy? Obviously BlueVM senses the loss that they might suffer if they switched to a different DC, but they cannot project the same loss that their customers experience when they lose faith in BlueVM and move their VPSs to alternate providers.

    I have not yet commented that BlueVM's FAQs allow for real money refunds in "special cases". In BlueVM's mind, failure to deliver a paid-for VPS for a month (with the problems continuing and no solution in sight) is not a "special case". From BlueVM's own FAQ:

    https://www.bluevm.com/faq.php#

    Q: Do you offer refunds?

    A: Unfortunately due to abuse of our previous refund policy we no longer offer refunds on our services except in special cases. [...]


    Imagine that you paid BlueVM to roof your house, and BlueVM subcontracts the roofing felt (underlayer) to Privatelayer. The rain comes and your roof starts leaking. How long must you suffer rain damage to your house while BlueVM negotiates with Privatelayer to fix the roofing felt? How long is it reasonable for BlueVM to go before it must step up and either pay out of its own pocket for someone else to fix your roofing felt or admit that they cannot fix it and refund real money back to you.

    (Sure, BlueVM offers to move your house to the US, but you paid for a house in Switzerland. After a month of failures, false fixes, etc., do you really trust that the BlueVM house in the US won't spring a leak in the near future? Especially when so many others complain about faulty plumbing and appliance failures in their BlueVM homes?)

    Thanked by 20xdragon IceCream
  • @cncking2000 I think private layer have ICMP discard enabled. This is the same on many servers there, also note that Hurricane Electric have sold a 10GE service to PrivateLayer, I am not convinced they have more than that going into Zurich in terms of backhaul

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • alexhalexh Member

    BlueVM said: This is very inaccurate, it's only happening on our only ZU node and we're aware of it. Our DC are not being helpful.

    Are you calling the OP a liar? This is extremely rude.

    I don't give a flying fuck how helpful your DC is being. That's for you to resolve, not me, or your customer in this thread. Everyone seems to make excuses for shit like this rather than trying to fix it; Maybe if you spent time working on it rather than typing shitty, insulting posts here you'd have more success with keeping a stable network.

    Given BlueVM's history though, that's not likely to happen. I'd get away.

    BlueVM said: You saying "watch BlueVM drop packets" is just false because we're not dropping anything.

    Yeah, you are dropping packets. Stop lying to yourself and fix it.

  • BlueVMBlueVM Member

    @emg - If you would like me to issue you a refund I can definitely do that. I try to avoid it simply because people do abuse refunds if you offer them.

    I am not happy with the datacenter in Zurich and frankly if they don't get their shit together before the 30th of August we will be migrating clients elsewhere.

    Aside from that we've been working very hard to improve our services and support times, it's unfortunate that this hasn't been resolved and frankly I am extremely irritated that it hasn't been.

    I apologize if my prior reply was a bit heated, it shouldn't have been.

    @alexh - No I was not, it is only inaccurate based on the datacenter it's in. We're working very hard to maintain our services and that reply was just me venting frustration (in the wrong direction).

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • emgemg Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @BlueVM -

    Thank you for the gracious apology and the offer of a refund. I already turned over my BlueVM credit to another BlueVM customer. It turns out that the credit was far less than I imagined - probably my mistake, but not worth the effort to figure out at this point.

    You may want to make the same refund offer to other BlueVM customers who have been equally affected by long service outages.

    You deserve credit for taking the time to clarify the situation, and encouragement to continue reaching out to customers with timely communications when services are not fully up and running. When something is not working as expected, we crave information about what is happening, what is being done to correct the situation, and a reasonable estimate of when it will be fixed. (It is also more than acceptable to admit what you don't know, when you are still investigating the issue.)

    My VPS went down around 20 June and the node remains unusable. In my opinion, waiting until 30 August to correct the situation with the datacenter is unreasonable. Anything more than one day or at most one week would be intolerable for all but the most patient VPS customers. You are a "value" VPS provider, and service level expectations should be set accordingly, but outages that span many days are unacceptable for any service that is normally expected to run 24 hours a day. In other words, you are already way behind the curve with the datacenter in Zurich. Immediate action is appropriate, in my opinion.

  • hostqzhostqz Member

    Nice rebuttal.

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    Having not read all the comments, I just want to say, to be fair...

    1. BlueVM has always been a budget service. My first impression was that they were out to undercut BuyVM when BuyVM was barely a logical business model. Of course, Fran knew the value of a dollar goes a lot further each year in the business, and I guess the BlueVM guys banked on that idea too.

    2. ICMP is not a valid method of judging network. Routers have better things to do than respond to echo requests.

    3. The guys from BlueVM are all cool people.

  • BlueVMBlueVM Member

    @emg - While yes, we could move everyone to a node in the USA tomorrow it's not something I'd like to do. I'd like to have this issue fixed and expand in that location because very few LEB providers have unique locations like that one.

    I will extend the offer to other LET members on a case-by-case basis (email me if you're one of those people admin[at]bluevm.com). I'm not in the business of screwing people, but at the same time I do have to pay for the hardware and my technician's time even if the full usage isn't where it should be... that's the reality of being in this business.

    Thanked by 2jar IceCream
  • And they just suspended my 3rd VPS although I've 5 more weeks ...

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    @razibhasan said:

    And they just suspended my 3rd VPS although I've 5 more weeks ...

    and the other vps?

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • @razibhasan said:

    And they just suspended my 3rd VPS although I've 5 more weeks ...

    Why does the due date say 2013?

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    @hellogoodbye said:
    Why does the due date say 2013?

    Troll

    Thanked by 1IceCream
  • Yeah! Their client area shows same date too which I've just noticed. lol

    Thanked by 1IceCream
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