Server Trouble [resolved]

[Mrdudecool]

I have used several hosting companies before this and I think the past 3 days have been the worst I have experienced. Yes, I am on Gator 605.

It started Sunday with my site down with database errors and then randomly it would come back. I thought at first somone our end tampered with something seen as we run a forum but when it randomly came back, I thought it had been solved at our end. 10 minutes later it would drop again and it was like this for a couple hours. I went onto support who said create a ticket. So I did and they repaired the database. Great I thought. Little did I know 10 minutes later it again would crash. Again told them through a ticket and about 4 hours later they would repair it. In the middle the site would be up and down. Well it was like this all day on Sunday.

Monday comes along and it was down when I first tried it. Again lots of live chat wondering what is going on etc. They then post a thread saying they are taking the server down for emergency maintenance to the disk. I thought after this the problems would be solved. How wrong I was. They did this after approaching 35 hours up and down and then they say it has been completed. I was thinking at this time we would now be able to run the site with no further downtime. Wrong! More live support and tickets and they just kept repairing the database. Bear in mind the ticket replies were about every 3-4 hours.

Then today comes along. It was up and down all morning. Live support again and told to submit yet another ticket! Can these guys on live support not do anything like this? Hours later they repair the database, yet again. This is about the 5th time now? Then a thread pops up saying that they are now changing the chassis on the server. So 3 days in they are doing this. The site is still currently up and has been for about 1hr now (touchwood) so I hope it doesnt go down again.

Now, I know I wasnt the only problem experiencing this however we were never updated with what was going on. No ETA was ever given to us. Live support just said create a ticket so you then had to wait a good few hours for a reply and I also understand that someone else went onto live support from my site trying to solve it and he said the person on live support was 'clueless and left me hanging.' He also said that it was our database connecting which was the problem and the customer had to inform the staff member of the 605 problem! To me, it didn't seem a run of the mill problem and that it was quite big. Shouldn't the staff on the front line at least be briefed about what was happening so they at least knew? Common sense to me?

I did contact sales also requesting some compensation as I think that the length of downtime with no updates was ridiculous. We got 1 month credit but it isn't that. It is the fact we were not kept updated on this issue and always just passed on to tickets that took hours to respond. I feel sorry for any of those on 605 who were a business as they must have lost quite a bit of business from the downtime.

I have loved HostGator up until Sunday and it was like talking to a brick wall sometimes and going in a circle. If we didn't have the hosting for 1 year, I am sure we would be looking somewhere else right now.

[GatorDHanna]

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you had. Server hardware problems cannot always be predicted and when they happen, we obviously have to deal with them.

We've been working on this server since late evening of February 15 and we did post about it here. Another post was made here earlier this morning.

I just asked an administrator to check out the server and things appear to be working now. Are you still having trouble? I'm happy to check out any problems you're having and ensure you get a resolution.

[Mrdudecool]

Thanks for your reply.

I totally understand that problems happen and technology sometimes fails. Everything seems to be working now which is great it was just the fact that live support bounced you to the tickets which then took hours for a reply and I felt we were never kept in the loop on what was happening.

I appreciate things happen I just was rather angry how little we were informed of what was happening and the fact staff weren't sure either.

[GatorDHanna]

I understand your frustration and apologize about the confusion. There is not much that live chat can do when a server is down, so their best course of action is to direct you to the team that works on the servers (the admin team, which works through the ticket system).

[Mrdudecool]

The server I believe is now running fine so thanks for working hard to solve this issue.

I am now a happy customer.