ChaosNetworks Review
I switched to ChaosNetworks as my web
host because I needed more monthly transfer bandwidth, and it seemed pretty
cheap. Since then I’ve not been happy with the support. Some of the support
staff seem pretty rude. If you ask about SSL on the billing site, they say it’s
not needed because they don’t store credit card information., but there are
parts of the site that will ask for the credit card number if you don’t know
which part to fill out. Some of the support folks complain about explaining
things more than once, when he never gave me enough clarification as to why SSL
was unneeded in the first place. It was explained to me that the billing site
uses a different set of credentials from Cpanel/FTP (which can be done securely
if you choose the right options in Filezilla), but still it would be nice to
have SSL on the site for the sake of customer peace of mind.
I was also chastised for not reading
the guidelines for submitting a support ticket on the web site, when I did not
use the web site to submit it, I was emailing support directly. Don’t
automatically assume your customers know all of the ins and outs of your system,
especial when your support ticket systems sends email with a return address that
is not accessible.
Another problem I’ve been having is
that I paid for 500GM transfer per month, but my visitors regularly get the
error:
Error 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is unable to complete your
request because the domain you are trying to access is using too much bandwidth.
Please try
again in another second.
Thank you.
And my total transfer for the month
is in the 200 to 330GB range, and while I understand that my one site should not
be allowed to swamp their connection, I doubt with the limits I’d ever be able
to reach 500GB transfer.
When this month is up I’m switching
to another hosting provider. May be I’d stick around if I did not have to put up
with the attitude and dripping sarcasm of Ralph.
Bellow is part of the exchanges I’ve had with the support staff:
Saturday, January 28 2006 11:30am
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I paid with pay pal on the 24th, see transation ID 3UU98826U8216701B . =
Also, http://modernbill.chaosnetworks.net/ does not seem to support SSL, =
so I would rather not send and finacial ifo over it. Could you fix that?
Adrian
-----Original Message-----
From: chaosne@cn4.chaosnetworks.net =
[mailto:chaosne@cn4.chaosnetworks.net]
Sent: Sat 1/28/2006 3:30 AM
To: Crenshaw, Adrian D
Subject: ChaosNetworks :: Suspend Notice #1
=20
[Payment Reminder]
Dear Adrian Crenshaw,
This is reminder #1 for due payment for services provided by =
ChaosNetworks.
Notice: Not paying outstanding debts will cause suspension of all =
provided services.
Invoice Amount : $7.00
Invoice Due Date : 01/25/2006
You may login to view your invoice(s) online here: =
http://modernbill.chaosnetworks.net/
Thank you,
ChaosNetworks
http://www.chaosnetworks.net
Date: 01/28/2006
Generated by ChaosNetworks
Michael (Saturday, January 28 2006 1:09pm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Financial info is not retained or sent via modernbill. Modernbill just
contains account info for whatever packages you have with us. Finanical info is
managed and stored via PayPal or 2checkout.
Saturday, January 28 2006 12:21pm
ut I would still have to submit my user name and password clear text. =
Also, did the pay pal payment got throu to you or not? By the way, =
messages bounce if I email nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net , which make it =
hard to reply to these messages.
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net [mailto:nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net]
Sent: Sat 1/28/2006 12:09 PM
To: Crenshaw, Adrian D
Subject: [#991161] ChaosNetworks ::Suspend Notice #1
=20
Ralph (Saturday, January 28 2006 1:36pm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where are you getting that email address from? That is not an email address.
Michael (Saturday, January 28 2006 1:38pm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you sure your account is suspended? As of right now it isn't, and we
have no record of it being suspended.
Michael (Saturday, January 28 2006 1:38pm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And your website shows up ok.
Michael (Saturday, January 28 2006 1:40pm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh! As the guidelines say, you're supposed to reply to the tickets, NOT via
email, but via the ticket system. That's probably why you're having issues
replying.
Saturday, January 28 2006 12:48pm
It's the email in the "from:" field.
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net [mailto:nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net]
Sent: Sat 1/28/2006 12:36 PM
To: Crenshaw, Adrian D
Subject: [#991161] ChaosNetworks ::Suspend Notice #1
=20
Saturday, January 28 2006 12:49pm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not suspended, I'm just getting a nitce about non payment but I =
paid on the 24th.
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net [mailto:nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net]
Sent: Sat 1/28/2006 12:38 PM
To: Crenshaw, Adrian D
Subject: [#991161] ChaosNetworks ::Suspend Notice #1
=20
Saturday, January 28 2006 12:53pm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guide lines? I did not think there were guide lines to follow. I imagine =
most customers would expect that email would come from a valid address =
that can be replied to. It would be a good customer service idea to =
change that.
Adrian=20
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net [mailto:nobody@cn4.chaosnetworks.net]
Sent: Sat 1/28/2006 12:40 PM
To: Crenshaw, Adrian D
Subject: [#991161] ChaosNetworks ::Suspend Notice #1
=20
Ralph (Tuesday, January 31 2006 12:11am)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you create a support ticket from the support site, it states, right
below the Submit Button,
"- Support Trouble Ticket response time is within 1-5 hours.
- Please do not create more than one support ticket for the same issue.
- Only reply to tickets via the ticket system, email responses are not accepted.
- Please make sure your Spam Filter does not reject email notifications from
ChaosNetworks."
Please read carefully.
At which point I tell them I was not using the site, but was emailing the
support address so I never saw the guide lines.
Here is the next exchange.
Tuesday, January 31 2006 9:44am
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I got the below in my email, again. But I have paid. Any idea why I keep
getting this message?
[Payment Reminder]
Dear Adrian Crenshaw,
This is reminder #2 for due payment for services provided by ChaosNetworks.
Notice: Not paying outstanding debts will cause suspension of all provided
services.
Invoice Amount : $7.00
Invoice Due Date : 01/25/2006
You may login to view your invoice(s) online here: http://modernbill.chaosnetworks.net/
Thank you,
ChaosNetworks
http://www.chaosnetworks.net
Date: 01/31/2006
Generated by ChaosNetworks
Michael (Wednesday, February 1 2006 12:25pm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we explained before...
If you don't use the same account info in modernbill and paypal, the system will
not recognize the two and the transcation will not carry over. Hence the
accounting system will leave the invoice open.
Our record show originally you use 2checkout to complete the transactions and it
worked ok. Why did you change to paypal? It would solve the issue. Otherwise the
account system will not recornize your payments every month.
Wednesday, February 1 2006 11:38am
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I changed to pay pal because it uses SSL. I did not know my password for
modernbill was different from my cpanel, and you can less rude to people
who pay you for support. Also,
http://www.chaosnetworks.net/modernbill/user.php?op=3Dupdate_cc&tile=3Dmy=
inf
ov=20
Does ask for a credit card, and does not use SSL which is a very bad
idea. If I'm missing something try explaining it to me nicely!=20
Adrian=20
-----Original Message-----
From: support@chaosnetworks.net [mailto:support@chaosnetworks.net]=20
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 11:26 AM
To: Crenshaw, Adrian D
Subject: [#583091] Payment Reminde
Ralph (Thursday, February 2 2006 12:26am)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can check your billing any time via login into modernbill:
http://modernbill.chaosnetworks.net/
You actually never have to input your credit card info into modernbill. That
option is just if you want to manually pay each time via modernbill.
If you gave it an opportunity to use 2checkout you'd see that their website is
SSL. And like we said before, credit card info is never stored on our servers.
It's only retained with paypal and 2checkout. Hence, we have no reason to use
SSL.
And yes, we explain EVERYTHING NICELY. :) Even on the 100th time :)
At this point I just switched to DreamHost. Fuck ChaosNetworks.
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