Disappointed and deflated :(

tremane

New Member
Well, despite the encouraging pre-sales and testimonials online, I don't know whether our company will be staying with knownhost ... and this is only after 24 hours :(.

I explained to sales that I was a complete newbie, only been on shared hosting with our site that is now too large for shared and expanding. I was told that cpanel was pretty easy and that all I'd have to do to re-set up our site was "grab all the files, databases you need and then via FTP you can upload it to the VPS".

Nothing could be further from that and I was a little overwhelmed when I logged on and the cpanel looked nothing like the demo I'd tested. I requested support and although the responses have been immensely quick, I did complain about the content as again sales had told me "If you have questions just let support know while doing the backup's, etc. The SMF I would also discuss with support as I am unsure on that.". I was told that by support knownhost don't support third party application set-up, so that rules out help with migrating SMF and our online shop. I was rather hoping for the support promised by sales for the migration, particularly as it wasn't as straight forward as I thought.

Don't get me wrong, your support staff responded quickly and were polite but not very helpful and didn't seem to want to spend any time guiding me through the process. I was however given a link to tutorials on cpanel/WHM, which had the following advice "We expect you have some knowledge of what cpanel actually is and know a bit about server administration" :rolleyes:. Perhaps sales should actually include a link to that too? I've obviously also put support's noses out of joint as they didn't reply to my last email ... and agreed (wholeheartedly I get the impression) that perhaps I should take the 30 day option ...

So what to now? Such a disappointment :(
 
Hello,

I was the one who talked with you and I will take the blame but I did reread all our communications and there was obviously some miscommunication. We definitely help our customers but being cPanel is brand new to you there is a basic learning curve just like there is with everything in this world when it is something you haven't used before. We can help troubleshoot things and have no problem installing 3rd party applications (link with instructions may be asked if required) but we don't do the configurations of forums, etc as that is for the end user to do per their requirements. Again, sorry but I never said we would migrate your data from a custom control panel. We would help address questions but we won't actually do it. If you need all this done by us then we aren't the right host. We will refund you right away if you ask for it. I believe in professionalism and have taken the blame as I talked to you. In no way does KnownHost not deliver what we advertise but with this example there was a misconnect.

Thanks,
Joel
 
It's not really a fair criticism to blame a company for your own lack of experience--one does not jump off a tricycle straight into the cab of an 18-wheeler without some amount of training. I'd venture at least 95% of the people in the world with websites do not need root access or a VPS account.
 
Thank you Joel for your reply, I didn't realise you had moved this thread and replied to it (there was no email notification).

Fair point, khiltd, but when you incorrectly have the impression you're just taking the trainer wheels off your bike, to use your analogy ;) , rather than take over an 18 wheeler then the driver does panic! Our current hosts won't allow us to have a database the size our forum requires, nor will we have the capacity to host videos.

Back to the matter in hand, I think that there was indeed miscommunication on both sides and a certain amount of panic on my part, as I said (understatement of the year there). I think I need to take a deep breath and start again. I can only apologise if I came across negatively, which I probably did.
 
In your position I would consider either a fully-managed dedicated server or getting an IT guy on the payroll to handle the technical issues for you. Both of these options will obviously cost you more than $20-$50/mo, but it's simply not possible to become an expert at everything overnight.
 
In your position I would consider either a fully-managed dedicated server or getting an IT guy on the payroll to handle the technical issues for you. Both of these options will obviously cost you more than $20-$50/mo, but it's simply not possible to become an expert at everything overnight.

Ah, but there's the rub, my boss wouldn't pay over $50/mo and although my IT skills haven't been tested by setting up or managing servers of any description, I had managed to a few bits and pieces over on the shared host, like install SMF and transfer our old forum over to it (already very large with a 500MB database) and generally maintain, update and make daily backups of the site. It is still a big jump, but to be honest I don't think there's a smaller one from shared unless you've got the $$$.
 
Well, if you have issues with cPanel or anything else, I'm sure there are plenty of people on these forums that could help you out. I don't have a VPS, so I can't help too much, but I do know that, ever since my first experience with cPanel, it's been fun to learn more and more about. You'll get used to it! Don't worry!
 
Ah, but there's the rub, my boss wouldn't pay over $50/mo and although my IT skills haven't been tested by setting up or managing servers of any description, I had managed to a few bits and pieces over on the shared host, like install SMF and transfer our old forum over to it (already very large with a 500MB database) and generally maintain, update and make daily backups of the site. It is still a big jump, but to be honest I don't think there's a smaller one from shared unless you've got the $$$.

Then it's a fairly straightforward case of champagne taste and beer pockets. If your web presence is in any way important to the functioning of your business, cutting corners is going to cost you a lot more than you can even imagine in the long run. Someone who does have some IT skills should probably sit down and explain that to your boss in terms he can understand clearly, though I understand all too well that such tasks are frequently impossible until it's far too late.

Either way, I'm inclined to agree: Knownhost is probably not quite right for you at this point in time.

Good luck.
 
Then it's a fairly straightforward case of champagne taste and beer pockets. If your web presence is in any way important to the functioning of your business, cutting corners is going to cost you a lot more than you can even imagine in the long run.

Amen!!

I just wanted to add that yes...there are people out there who will help...just ask. Also, the forums over at the cPanel site are VERY helpful. You can probably search for most things you need help with over there. There is also specifically a New User forum, for those who are new to cPanel.

Also in cPanel itself is decent documentation. It will basically walk you through everything you could possibly do with cPanel.
 
Ah, but there's the rub, my boss wouldn't pay over $50/mo

there are plenty of 3rd party providers who will do ALL the admin for you while you do the bits you know and want to do. platinum are one that come to mind and if I recall correctly only about $30/mo. That way you save the added expense of a fully managed dedicated server recommended by another poster on this thread, which will cost you a lot more than the vps with a 3rd party doing your support.
 
And rest assured you will get exactly what you pay for.

hmmm, did I put your nose out of joint for commenting on your dedicated recommendation?

anyway, there is some truth in what you said about 3rd party maintenance, but if you google or use the WHT forums you will see mixed reviews about platinum - some ppl love them and others not.
 
No wars in public please ;)

anyway, there is some truth in what you said about 3rd party maintenance, but if you google or use the WHT forums you will see mixed reviews about platinum - some ppl love them and others not.

This is something that can be said about every single company. 100% customer satisfaction is reachable only when you have no customers at all ;). As soon as company gets at least one customer there is a chance that customer satisfaction will go (way) below 100%.

Regards,
Paul
 
This is something that can be said about every single company. 100% customer satisfaction is reachable only when you have no customers at all ;).

Really? What about Knownhost? You know that VPS company everyone seems to rave about? :p

Anyway to the OP: Though I currently have a Plesk CP VPS it still was a tremendous learning curve from a 1and1 shared hosting account to a VPS. I started out not even knowing what SSH was and how DNS works. However, in a few weeks after hours of researching(on forums and websites) and through numerous tickets to knownhost (they can attest!) I really learned the ropes. I cant say(1 year later) that I'm a real pro and am ready to mange servers for the stock exchange but I definetely learned a lot and I can manager daily VPS operations with ease(still with the occasional help from KH staff).

Knownhost is a great company. For a semi-managed company they truly go above and beyond and their reliability is top notch. Dont leave so soon, you might regret it. ;)
 
Knownhost is a great company. For a semi-managed company they truly go above and beyond and their reliability is top notch. Dont leave so soon, you might regret it. ;)

Thanks for the encouragement :) . It has been an enormous learning curve the last few days and, with my full time job as well, I must have put in about 70 hours the last week (including research and testing). Responses to tickets have been swift and if whatever I've asked is beyond support's remit, they've given me some good links. They also installed APF for me.

The site's now moved completely, the online shop was only off for less than an hour and forum for half a day to allow downloading the latest database backup (which I managed to optimize down to a more manageable 200ishMB), migration and resetting up. Everything seems to be working fine so far ...

Unless everything goes dreadfully wrong in the next couple of weeks, I think we'll be around for a while ;) . (Is that tech support I can hear screaming in the background?)
 
Thanks for the encouragement :) . It has been an enormous learning curve the last few days and, with my full time job as well, I must have put in about 70 hours the last week (including research and testing). Responses to tickets have been swift and if whatever I've asked is beyond support's remit, they've given me some good links. They also installed APF for me.

The site's now moved completely, the online shop was only off for less than an hour and forum for half a day to allow downloading the latest database backup (which I managed to optimize down to a more manageable 200ishMB), migration and resetting up. Everything seems to be working fine so far ...

Unless everything goes dreadfully wrong in the next couple of weeks, I think we'll be around for a while ;) . (Is that tech support I can hear screaming in the background?)

I'm glad that you got your stuff transfered and everything ironed out.

KH really is an outstanding company. But since it is not fully managed, there is a learning curve. I'm still mucking around a bit on the command line stuff, but people here have been extremely helpful.
 
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