Issue with 24/7 Hosting

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10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1054144 27-May-2014 10:01

So what does anyone know about a recent buyout? 24/7 support service has been average at best since Caleb purchased the company, but at least it wasn't as bad as recently.

Caleb I believe has been involved at least until Jan 2014. These domains issues aren't a recent though, they've been having domains expire for about a year now. Maybe just because the staff are failing to renew them.

Has Caleb sold in the last few months and this new owner has completely dropped the ball? If it has changed hands, why on earth would the new owner keep it all in Caleb's name and his Klibtech company? You can't keep the companies in the previous owners name. And why wouldn't they make an announcement; a lot of customers wouldn't probably welcome to owners.

The good thing about 24/7 is they are the cheapest around, with decent servers not overseas rubbish.

danfaulknor

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Prodigi

#1054150 27-May-2014 10:08

AidanS: For anyone interested: the current parent company's details, there are a couple - presumably - new addresses since a recent buyout?

Auckland "Office" address

Napier "Service" address

Everything seems a little bit "covered up" with little transparency within the company.

-A.

The service address is being used *without* consent of the company at that address.

they/them

Prodigi - Optimised IT Solutions
WebOps/DevOps, Managed IT, Hosting and Internet/WAN.

danielwd

46 posts

Geek

#1054213 27-May-2014 11:07

Steve Amstad used to own 247. He sold it to Caleb and started Flexihost, which Web Drive later acquired.
I know Tim Johnson from Jethost was involved at some point. From memory, I recall he sold Jethost to 247 before/after moving to Canada where he is now director of Dot Kiwi.

As for 247 there is no "management" or "support staff", it is just Caleb. He operates the business by himself.
Most of these smaller hosting companies give the impression they are much bigger than a sole operator, and it's
normally those sites with only a contact form and no phone number that give it away.

kona333

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1054220 27-May-2014 11:22

Steve Amstad sold it to Tim Johnston/SafiTech. They ran it (quite well) for almost a couple of years before liquidating and it sat there for about 6 months with no one running it until Caleb took over. I didn't realise Web Drive purchased Flexi Host...

What makes you think it's JUST Caleb? He does a pretty good job of sounding like different people in the support tickets. Usually with Caleb he's pretty knowledgeable. With some of the others the response is often "have you switched the computer on?" type nonsense.

[Moderator edit (MF): remove some comments]

danielwd

46 posts

Geek

#1054225 27-May-2014 11:30

Ok, I thought I had it right, but your version is jogging my memory.

I'm from Web Drive, by the way, and the Flexi deal was a good purchase. Not without some issues, but any restriction Steve had after selling 247 obviously had no impact when starting up Flexi.

He does a pretty good job of sounding like different people in the support tickets

Isn't this evidence enough?

I've seen plenty of one-man-band hosting operators come and go over the years.
The illusion of their size and scope is all smoke and mirrors.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1054227 27-May-2014 11:38

Don't know if this will help anyone, But when I got my .com domains transferred directly into my name the transfer receipts said they had been pushed from me@klib.co.nz to [my email address].

sifly

69 posts

Master Geek

#1054247 27-May-2014 12:01

Isn't this evidence enough?

I've seen plenty of one-man-band hosting operators come and go over the years.
The illusion of their size and scope is all smoke and mirrors.

That's what I've been thinking. Yet ticket responses more often than not had same spelling/grammatical errors.
Now I've just had an email stating my account is going to be suspended if I don't pay a domain bill.

Yeeeeeahhh..good luck with that...

Sharesies

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freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1054258 27-May-2014 12:26

I have been told a couple of posts here may have come from someone with personal interest in this saga - either a director or close friend to a director of the company involved.

toppo

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1054277 27-May-2014 12:54

If it looks like dog sh*t and it tastes like dog sh*t then...

kona333

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1054315 27-May-2014 13:41

danielwd: Ok, I thought I had it right, but your version is jogging my memory.

I'm from Web Drive, by the way, and the Flexi deal was a good purchase. Not without some issues, but any restriction Steve had after selling 247 obviously had no impact when starting up Flexi.

He does a pretty good job of sounding like different people in the support tickets

Isn't this evidence enough?

I've seen plenty of one-man-band hosting operators come and go over the years.
The illusion of their size and scope is all smoke and mirrors.

He registered Flexi under a business partners name, not his own, to get around the trading constraint, but it was him running it. This was during the period where 24/7 was in liquidation so it was the solicitors that ended up threatening legal action, sending lawyers letters etc. He may have stopped doing it after this, I never heard anything more. But yeah I probably overreacted calling it a dud purchase, hehe, the customers he had were probably quite satisfied with the service. Steve did put effort in and certainly offered fair pricing.

[Moderator edit (MF): see my reply below and why I crossed this post]

freitasm

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#1054344 27-May-2014 14:26

DNC Warns registrants:

the Domain Name Commission (DNC) is warning people who have a relationship with 24/7 Hosting, or who are considering using their services in future, to beware of their activities in respect of the registration and management of .nz domain names. This warning does not include their hosting services, for which the DNC has no responsibility.

The DNC has received complaints in relation to the following:

24/7 Hosting receiving money for a 12 month renewal of a domain name but only renewing the name for a month
24/7 Hosting registering some of the names they register in their own name rather than in the name of the person requesting the registration meaning the true registrant cannot manage or control the domain name
24/7 Hosting putting their email address in the record meaning that if the registrant requested a UDAI (the code to allow a transfer to a new registrar) it would be sent to 24/7 and not to the registrant
24/7 Hosting failing to respond to email enquiries and apparent disconnection of the company’s 0800 number.
The DNC has investigated these complaints and sought a response from 24/7 Hosting. As a result of 24/7 Hosting’s failure to respond to DNC’s requests, DNC has found the complaints to be valid.

As of 26 May 2014, 24/7 Hosting have made contact with the DNC and acknowledge that they have not been fulfilling their requirements to their customers but that a change of ownership of the company is in progress and that their priority is rectifying the concerns outlined above. The DNC notes this contact but still has concerns about their ability and capacity to address fully the concerns raised by the DNC.

Debbie Monahan, Domain Name Commissioner, said 24/7 Hosting’s behaviour has been contrary to the .nz policies that were created to protect registrants.

“It is this lack of protection for registrants that is of concern to the DNC and why this warning is being issued,” she said.

24/7 Hosting is not an authorised registrar for .nz domain names. Anyone who has a .nz domain name registered through 24/7 should consider making contact with the authorised registrar used by 24/7 Hosting. In many cases, it appears 24/7 Hosting used Voyager and they can be contacted at 0800 477 333 option 2 for support or support@voyager.co.nz to discuss their options if they have any concerns or questions.

Alternatively, 24/7 Hosting have given an undertaking that they are now in a position to address complaints from their customers. They say a support ticket can be submitted via the interface athttps://support.247hosting.co.nz/clientarea.php, and that they will respond to e-mails sent to support@247hosting.co.nz. Anyone with any questions about .nz domain names can also contact the Domain Name Commission atinfo@dnc.org.nz.

freitasm

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#1054359 27-May-2014 15:15

kona333:
danielwd: Ok, I thought I had it right, but your version is jogging my memory.

I'm from Web Drive, by the way, and the Flexi deal was a good purchase. Not without some issues, but any restriction Steve had after selling 247 obviously had no impact when starting up Flexi.

He does a pretty good job of sounding like different people in the support tickets

Isn't this evidence enough?

I've seen plenty of one-man-band hosting operators come and go over the years.
The illusion of their size and scope is all smoke and mirrors.

He registered Flexi under a business partners name, not his own, to get around the trading constraint, but it was him running it. This was during the period where 24/7 was in liquidation so it was the solicitors that ended up threatening legal action, sending lawyers letters etc. He may have stopped doing it after this, I never heard anything more. But yeah I probably overreacted calling it a dud purchase, hehe, the customers he had were probably quite satisfied with the service. Steve did put effort in and certainly offered fair pricing.

Actually the business was registered under his name, not of a partner, according to the companies website.

godofmischief

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1054604 27-May-2014 20:32

One of my site's has been hosted through 24/7 since late last year, and after receiving an email from them yesterday which addressed their poor service etc, I went googling for further info. That lead me here. I started thinking "hmm, I should move" but I did nothing. Now today I received an "account suspension pending" email from them. I paid the account on time a fortnight ago, and after contacting them to tell them this, I came back here to see if I could find info on how to move.

My main website is actually hosted through an Auckland company called Net Needs, and I've had no problem with them at all for 7 or 8 years now. Any probs I do have from time to time (exceeded bandwidth or just technical help) they've been really fast and helpful with.

I decided to give 24/7 Hosting a try with a new site when Imaxed out my bandwidth with Net Needs (because of a fansite that had proved suddenly popular during a movie release.) While looking around for a host that could offer more bandwidth, I found 24/7. It offered unlimited bandwidth for a lower monthly fee, and they had a special on .org domain names so I registered the 'sister site' to my main fansite and signed up for hosting. I didn't move my main site from Net Needs, thank goodness, as they graciously increased my bandwidth allowance without additional charge. But the 'sister site' is still with 24/7. I've backed it up - fortunately I can still access my cpanel and in fact the site's still online which I'm surprised about, but it seems I can't move the domain name as 24/7 has blocked me from accessing my UDAI.

I've contacted Voyager asking if they can assist with this (realising they've been getting a lot of these requests, I figure it might take some time) and I guess all I can do is wait and see what happens? Anyway... I figured I'd just add my voice to the 'disgruntled 24/7 customer' list. :/

danielwd

46 posts

Geek

#1054612 27-May-2014 20:43

While looking around for a host that could offer more bandwidth, I found 24/7. It offered unlimited bandwidth for a lower monthly fee

This business model is unsustainable. You always end up paying more when the host goes belly-up and you end up scrambling to move.

godofmischief

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1054617 27-May-2014 20:54

Yeah... In hindsight I realise that now. Should have listened to the little voice inside my head that whispered warnings of 'too good to be true...'

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