2degrees - iServe and Kiwi Web hosting services Upcoming change to your domain registration

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › 2degrees - iServe and Kiwi Web hosting services Upcoming change to your domain registration - Heads up

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MurrayM

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#2985801 21-Oct-2022 11:57

I bet management totally didn't know about the Lifeplan users and are now scratching their heads and wondering how they're going to get out of this one.

mattwnz

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#2985806 21-Oct-2022 12:11

It would be a worry if they didn't know. But it still no excuse not replying within a reasonable time.

RogerMellie

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#2987819 25-Oct-2022 14:51

I've been an Orcon customer since 2004, paying monthly for a single domain name.

The first I heard about this change was 4 days ago when I received an email from 'MyHost' (never heard of them) and I suspected it was a scam until I found this thread.

I am not impressed that I first heard about this from MyHost, and not a single word from Orcon - until this morning when I received my Orcon bill, charging me not only the usual monthly amount, but also for a full year. No explanation why, no mention of MyHost.

Seems to me they're preferring to keep their customers in the dark.

I will be on the phone to them tomorrow morning, and will then transfer my domain away to another company.

mattwnz

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#2987852 25-Oct-2022 15:42

Still no reply from @2degrees at all despite sending them multiple emails and asking it to be escalated to a manager.

MurrayM

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#2989008 28-Oct-2022 09:15

3 weeks today since I first sent in a support request for clarification on what was happening with the iServe hosting and it's still radio silence from them. Not even a "Thanks for your inquiry, we're looking in to this and will be in touch in the near future". Just... silence.

MurrayM

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#2991470 3-Nov-2022 11:47

Yesterday I received a reply from iServe. It says (in part):

Currently, we have no information about when iSERVE hosting will be closed.

With regard to your Lifetime plan, we are currently checking with our Legals and Products team to confirm how they will be managed.

As soon as we have an update available, we will be in touch again. We do apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Not terribly encouraging. I was hoping more for a "Don't worry, we'll do the right thing and honor your Lifetime plan and ensure that any future hosting will also honor the agreement".

mattwnz

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#3010300 15-Dec-2022 13:06

Have just had an email announcing they are closing on the 1st of July 2023. But still no information for life plan owners.

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MurrayM

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#3010321 15-Dec-2022 13:23

Hmm, the email I received says:

Hosting

LifePlan and LifePlan Plus hosting will be discontinued on 1 July 2023. We understand this is a disruptive change, so we have decided to provide plenty of notice to give you sufficient time to engage a new hosting provider. You’ll need to locate and download your website, export your website database and obtain any backup folders to pass on to your next provider.

We will send you a reminder closer to the time.

If you have a separate hosting account with a plan other than LifePlan or LifePlan Plus, this will be transferred to MyHost on 31 January 2023. If you don’t want to move these services to MyHost, please contact us as soon as possible.

I read that as any hosting plans that aren't Life Plan will be transferred to MyHost at the end of January and Life Plan people just need to make their own arrangements to move off the iServe platform before they're closed on 1st of July.

mattwnz

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#3010327 15-Dec-2022 13:35

It fails to mention that life plan owners have paid for their hosting for life and what they plan to do about that.

MurrayM

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#3010343 15-Dec-2022 13:44

mattwnz: It fails to mention that life plan owners have paid for their hosting for life and what they plan to do about that.

Maybe they're hoping that if they just ignore addressing the fact that Life Plan owners were promised free hosting for the life of the owner, and that the promise would carry over to whomever was running the hosting company, that the problem will just go away.

mattwnz

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#3010344 15-Dec-2022 13:48

I contacted them a few months ago and they eventually replied with a similar reply to yours and someone would get back to me. But noone ever did. I have emailed them again about it.

MurrayM

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#3010353 15-Dec-2022 14:24

I've emailed them again too, specifically asking how they intend to honour the promise that was made in the Lifetime Plan contract.

PootieTang

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#3010574 16-Dec-2022 00:39

You're all acting as if the brands are being sold to MyHost and therefore MyHost must honour the life plans.

They are shutting down their servers and have simply made a deal with another company to provide a default migration path for the bulk of customers who don't know how to do this themselves, whilst providing time to opt out if you want to make your own arrangement. Those terms and conditions regarding selling the business do not apply.

Do you expect them to keep these servers running just for you when they are leaving the web hosting business entirely? Do you really want to keep your services hosted on servers which will never receive updates or maintenance?

If you care about your websites then it's about time you moved to a reputable web hosting provider anyway.

Your gripe should be with the original owners of iServe who sold you the life plans knowing full well that they wouldn't be in control of the business after a couple of years. You fell for their marketing promises which by the time they weren't kept, they weren't going to be their problem as they were not going to be in business anymore.

If you paid $3,995 for the Life Plan Plus in 2006, you've paid $20 a month for that plan.

Does the life plan contract say what a future owner must do if they decide to close their web hosting services entirely?

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