You need to have flash installed and javascript enabled to view this site properly

Archive for the 'Business' Category

Webserve.ca Review/Complaint

Ok well after a few months of hell with webserve.ca hosting I have had to bite the bullet and switch to a new hosting company for my business, clients and personal sites. Consider this post a review of the shoddy service provided by this filth that masquerades as a hosting company. Where do I start?

Customer Service:
This topic is unknown to webserve as they don’t actually provide any. Anyone you can actually get on the phone is actually an outsourced call center you are just glorified human answering machines that take a message and send it off to “someone” at webserve who if they actually exist will choose to ignore the message and not get back to you.

After months of hassles, a 7 day stint with no service I opened a Better Business Bureau complaint which webserve chose to ignore also. After a few months someone from the company finally contacted BBB to inform them that they had just credited my account 2 months. WOOHOOO two more months of crappy service and downtime.

Service:
Well were do we start? There were weekly downtimes where the server was down for 15mins to 4hours at random intervals. There was a 2 day downtime when a RAM module went. There was 1 week downtime when the OS got corrupted. Most recently there was a week of downtime when the server got hacked, when they finally got the server online again they disabled the ability for anyone to log into blogs, forums, CMS or anything with a submission field. Did I forget to mention that this was all within a 6 month period. Here is the best part my home IP address yes MY IP ADDRESS was put on a black list because I accessed multiple sites on the server via FTP, and HTTP, POP3 and logged in to my forums and blogs. Is there any web developers out there that can manage 9 websites on one server without showing you IP accessing the server multiple times. Oh and doing all this without checking email. On numerous occasions I was not able to upload files to the sites because the HDD was full however my allocated 12GB of space was 10% used so how could the HDD be full. I never used more than 2GB of the 1TB of allocated bandwidth, I never even came close to using the allocated 12GB of storage for the RESELLER ACCOUNT that I had with them. I did not even host all of the 10 allocated domains.

Tech Support:
OMG here is where it gets interesting, these incompetent outsourced glorified answering machines using scripted messages to send you when you open and ticket or god forbid actually get a rep on live chat. They don’t know anything either other than to tell you:

“We are Sorry for the inconvenience caused”

“The issue should resolve within few hours”

“We are aware of this situation. Unfortunately [SERVER OR SERVICE] is down but we are working to resolve this issue ASAP. As with any service we provide we realize it must meet the expectations of our clients. Rest assured that we do take the business of hosting people’s websites seriously and are constantly upgrading our systems and services to address any points of failure within our control. We also review all service interruptions and outages for ways to prevent such problems in the future. Again I do apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your business. Our technicians are working on the issue but at present we do not have an estimated time to repair. Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated.” - This particular blithering ID10T did not even have the common decency to choose an option SERVER or SERVICE before pasting this script into the chat window.

The Worst part of all:
I opted to upgrade to a VPS account after finally talking to a director in the company. Yah I know stupid me why stay with them? Well I have 9 websites all with CSM and or complex MySQL Databases and settings/permissions. I figured a VPS would cure all. I asked to have my accounts transferred over and was told they would. The account comes with 5 IP addresses but they only alocated 1. I had a domain transfered over to webserve and asked that it be added to my billing account DUH not rocket science. Well 3 months later I still have 1 IP address. The only domains on the VPS are the 2 that I managed to make the time to transfer myself and the original server is spending more time out of commission that actually up. And I cant find the billing information for the domain transfer anywhere. I did remind them on a dozen occasions that these simple processes needed to be done.

Conclusion:
BEWARE OF HOSTING THROUGH WEBSERVE.CA FOR ANY REASON THIS COMPANY GUARANTEES 99.9% UPTIME BUT DELIVERS NOTHING CLOSE TO THIS. THEY HAVE NO CUSTOMER SERVICE OR TECH SUPPORT AND REALLY DONT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS AT ALL. OUT OF 10 I GIVE THIS COMPANY A RESOUNDING 0 A COMPLTE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY DONT’T EVEN CONSIDER THEM FOR ANYTHING LARGER THAN A PLACE TO MAIL YOUR MOST TREASURED FINDS IN THE KITTY LITTER!

Posted in Business, Rants&Thoughts, Reviews | 4 Comments »

Vista64 bit System setup

Well I am getting my workstation ready for a fresh install of all my OS and software. New license of Adobe CS3 Master Collection and Vista 64bit Business are the main application packages.

Specs are:

Intel Extreme Quad Core QX6700 CPU
8GB Corsair XMS2 DDRII 6400 RAM Cas Lat 5-5-5-18
Gigabyte GA965-DQ6 Mainboard
Geforce 8800GTX GPU from BFGTech
WD 74GB Raptor 10K SATA System HDD
Seagate 500GB Storage Drive
Linksys NAS200 w/2X320GB Seagate HDD
Seasonic 700W 60AMP PSU in ANTEC P180Case

System should run well on vista64 bit, this system is mainly for graphics development and gaming. I will post more details when I get it all fully setup and running.

Posted in Business, Computers, Personal | No Comments »

Help Wanted!

First off for clarification purposes psyc3d.com is my personal website however it recieves more traffic lately than the company site so I am going to post a help wanted ad here.

Mk2 Business Solutions is getting busier and busier a 2008 progresses and I am suffering some growing pains. :) If you are an HTML, PHP, FLASH or 3D person then I might have some Sub-Contract work for you NOW and in the future.

For more details on what is available and what contracting with my company is like visit Mk2Solutions .

Or apply directly at http://www.mk2solutions.com/mk2_contact-form.html .

Please include a list of your skills, links to samples of your work, your daily and hourly rate for contract work. This is not a permanent position but a contract to contract position if you are needed. Quality work however may lead to partnership or permanent employment opportunities. I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted in Business | No Comments »

Working in 3D again

Well after a couple of years of web design and DVD production I am again working on a 3D project. Racerocks Digital is working on an upcoming television series and has asked me to help with modeling and preparation of the 3D cars that will be used in the series. Once aired I will post some images of the work and a video sample from the show.

It’s so good to be back into the CG scene again. I look forward to more work in the future. Web design will of course always be available through my company Mk2 Solutions. But my passion has been 3D for Television and Film. The show we have been working on with RaceRocks Digital is called Fringe by J. J. Abrams.

Posted in 3D/Animation, Business | No Comments »

Matthew Chitty Portfolio Psyc3d Animation Google