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MackinNZ

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#119213 24-May-2013 14:46
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If you have a domain and website hosted with Telecom and decide to transfer the domain to another registrar, Telecom will cancel your web hosting and irretrievably delete your website WITHOUT ANY WARNING OR NOTICE.

I migrated a customer to Office 365 this week and transferred the domain name to Metaname, then after setting up the Office 365 account went to configure the A record to point back to the website and discovered that the website was not responding.  After a query to Telecom I was informed that the hosting account was cancelled when the domain was transferred.  This is a customer I only do occasional casual work for, so of course there is no backup of the website.

I've migrated plenty of customers to Office 365 and most of them have had websites with various hosts, I've never had an issue leaving the website where it is 'till now. 

I think this it pretty poor form, as when the customer called to ask for the UDAI to be e-mailed, the CSR made no mention of the fact that the hosing account would be cancelled, nor was their any mention of this in the subsequent e-mail.  It may be buried in the T & C's but the website has been running for 3 years so it's not likely that any of the staff would remember what was in them, even if they were aware of the fact.

You would think that at least a warning could be included in the UDAI e-mail that a consequence of transferring the domain would be cancellation of the web hosting account.

I've been quite supportive of Telecom in the last few years as they seem to have got their act together and provide good service, but this harks back to the bad old days when they didn't give a flying fark about customer satisfaction.

I think that cancelling a customers web hosting account without notice is just not on!


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NonprayingMantis
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  #824792 24-May-2013 14:50
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sounds pretty bad.

Why wasn't there a backup of the website?



michaelmurfy
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  #824799 24-May-2013 15:07
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This does indeed sound quite strange, are they paying for hosting through Telecom or were they on a pack where the domain included hosting?




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ubergeeknz
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  #824801 24-May-2013 15:08
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That's terrible, honestly.

I've had the opposite problem where I couldn't setup hosting for a domain UNTIL I'd altered the records to the new host.  Not nearly as bad, but it makes a smooth transition from one host to another impossible.



MackinNZ

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  #824878 24-May-2013 17:20
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michaelmurfy: This does indeed sound quite strange, are they paying for hosting through Telecom or were they on a pack where the domain included hosting?


Not sure about that but it shouldn't make any difference surely. 

The customer needs to be made aware of the consequences of transferring their domain.

ajobbins
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  #824880 24-May-2013 17:23
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Lesson learned. ALWAYS have a backup.

Anything you retrieve from Google cache or maybe wayback machine?




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kyhwana2
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  #824943 24-May-2013 19:38
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Restore from backu.. oh wait..

mattwnz
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  #824962 24-May-2013 20:17
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I came across another host that did this. I transferred the domain, and they instantly deleted all the email accounts etc too, so they lost their emails. They should have backups thoughh to restore them. Domains and hosting should be totally separate services. But you have to be careful

Isn't telecoms hosting now subcontracted to some US company?

 
 
 

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mattwnz
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  #824964 24-May-2013 20:19
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MackinNZ: 

The customer needs to be made aware of the consequences of transferring their domain.


A domain transfer shouldn't affect any other services.

MackinNZ

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  #825001 24-May-2013 20:58
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mattwnz:
A domain transfer shouldn't affect any other services.


I agree, that's why I was so surprised to find it had happened.

nitrotech
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  #825021 24-May-2013 21:36
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I do feel for you and your client but I can't help thinking to myself that maybe you could have managed the transition better.

Any changes required for a business critical system should be well thought out and every possible outcome planned for.

The first thing to do would be to check and test your backup.

What was your backup plan? can you rollback? These are all questions you need to ask at the planning phase.

I've seen these things go wrong so often and really your price to the client should include the planning - lets face it quite rightly they will be blaming you for this stuff up.

So to fix it up have you made a nice call to telecom admitted your mistake and asked nicely if they can help you fix it?

mattwnz
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  #825042 24-May-2013 22:18
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Telecom should have some form of backup, as even the worst host should do at least weekly backups. May cost though to restore the files. But domain services can be hosted on many different servers. Eg you may have email with Gmail and the website with a Web host. And the domain with another provider.

mattwnz
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  #825044 24-May-2013 22:21
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Have you checked telecoms fine print for hosting account deletions.? I would have thought they would have to agree to it being deleted prior to it being deleted.

MackinNZ

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  #825224 25-May-2013 14:49
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I admit I failed to perform a backup of the website before switching the domain to Office 365. I accept responsibility for that.

However my point is that even so, I would have expected some kind of warning from Telecom that transferring the domain name would result in the hosting account being deleted.

I struggle to understand the business rational behind such an arbitrary decision to program the system to delete the account as soon as the domain is transferred. All I can get out of Telecom is that they do it to "prevent conflicts". That sounds like BS to me.

kingjj
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  #825244 25-May-2013 16:00
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Would have expected a reply from one of the Telecom guru's by now. For a premium priced service, their hosting does seem to lag behind industry best practice. As long as the bill is paid and the account is still in good standing the webhost should not alter the account until instructed otherwise by the client.

mattwnz
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  #825286 25-May-2013 18:32
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MackinNZ: I admit I failed to perform a backup of the website before switching the domain to Office 365. I accept responsibility for that.

However my point is that even so, I would have expected some kind of warning from Telecom that transferring the domain name would result in the hosting account being deleted.

I struggle to understand the business rational behind such an arbitrary decision to program the system to delete the account as soon as the domain is transferred. All I can get out of Telecom is that they do it to "prevent conflicts". That sounds like BS to me.


I looked in their terms at http://www.telecom.co.nz/business/helpandsupport/termsandconditions/overview/websitehosting/  and couldn't see any mention of that being a reason for deletion. Before I delete any of my own clients data when I do work for them, I make them fill in a form, to tell them that I am deleting that data, and that they understand this. I am aware of hosts that do this to.

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