Severely Frustrated with Support - External Email Problems with webforms

[VPC]

Hello, I am writing here in the forums to not only get some help, but to simply let other resellers in on the experience with my type of hosting requirements.

I have about 20 accounts under my reseller account. 15 of these accounts either do not use email or utilize the email on HG servers. 5 of my clients accounts use external exchange servers that I manage. All 5 of these clients utilize their website for their business functions day to day, constanty. One of the functions of their websites is to email information back to themselves and others in the office. So we have xyz.com domain hosted at HG and user@xyz.com email is hosted at external exchange servers.

Well, as a reseller, you have to make a decision. To allow HG to control the DNS for the domain, or manage the DNS through a 3rd party DNS service. If I allowed HG to control the DNS, and the server went down, email + web would be affected. If I control the DNS at a 3rd party DNS vendor and simply point the www record to HG, if HG server went down, email is still ok. I chose to use 3rd party DNS services.

The problem is any email that is generated for user@xyz.com on a web form at the website xyz.com will defaultly look inside first for delivery. So you call up support, or email them, and ask that those 5 domains be removed from the local email config files in CPANEL. This then allows any web submitted forms sent from xyz.com to user@xyz.com to go outbound for the auth MX record on the net. Cool right? Well, then comes the fine print....

About 2 weeks after account setup, email stopped going to these 5 clients external email servers from web based forms being submitted through their websites at HG. From what HG support stated, CPANEL updates itself about once a month and does not have a set time/date that it updates. Once it updates, it rebuilds the local email config files and thus re-enters my 5 clients domains back into the local email config. So at anytime, anyday, any hour, all 5 of my client websites stop functioning as far as email is concerned, which is as important as having the website up and running.

So, 4 days ago, yes 4 days ago, email submitted from 4 out of the 5 clients websites stopped working. I emailed support, [HGSupport #ZIO-60465-439] and asked them to correct the issue assuming that CPANEL updated itself again. Well, I have so much correspondence back and forth from support ranging from try using sendmail (which I am and have always been) to we do not see anything wrong on our end. You see, the funny thing is, these websites have been running as configured on HG servers for a month without changes. Then overnight, 4 out of 5 are now broke. No changes by me. Funny how then it is somehow my exchange servers fault as suggested at one point. Fair enough to check out though. So I did....looked at all logs and see no attempt to connect except the one client domain that is working. Oh, by the way, all 5 client websites are hosted on the same exchange server. That really narrows this down....

I have called into support and spoke to someone who stated they have sent the issue up to the top level admin to get resolved. Mind you, I am working off of 4 days now without the ability to use 4 out of 5 client websites.

I have asked if this could be worked out to where CPANEL is updated at a certain time/date of the month so I can prepare for a monthly support ticket to be sent to fix this. I was told no.

I asked if some sort of notification can be set to notify HG suppor that CPANEL has updated and they can have a list of domains that need this done and then it could be done. I was told no.

Well, I found this to be odd. So I went over to CPANELs website, registered and posted the question. Here is what I got, verbatim....

"Yes, the functionality is already there, so whoever is doing it isn't doing it correctly. When mail should be delivered off-server for a domain, the domain should be:
1. Removed from /etc/localdomains
2. Added to /etc/remotedomains
I would suspect they're not doing step 2, as it is that which stops cPanel from re-adding a removed domain whenever the localdomains file is rebuilt."

Hey cool right? And you cannot expect HG support to know everything, right? So I pass along the info to support. [HGSupport #HKO-45578-654] - I have not heard if both steps have been done difinitively. I got an initial response of saying that they had already done this, but since my problem is ongoing with 4 out of 5 clients, I have no comfort in accepting that both steps have been completed and confirmed.

At this point, I am so frustrated with HG I am beside myself. I have another thread on here asking about backups on the servers to which Justin stated he would ask Brent to come in and comment. No comment has been posted.

So HG, what do I need to do as a reseller to get my issues resolved so I can conduct business as a real business and stop wasting time on issues that should not be happening in the first place? What do I need to do in order to get an acceptable response time? What can I do to help you HG in getting my business back online? Thanks for reading this ridiculously long post that I should not even have to have spent the time writing and I really hope these issue get resolved soon and not bandaided permanently. Any viable help is appreciated.

[VPC]

Wow, not a single reply from anyone in support here on the forums. Real helpful.

[VPC]

I would like someone from support to address this. Thank you

[GatorJustin]

Sorry for the delay, VPC. I will have Brent or Ben respond to this asap, as I am not in a position to be able to offer an informative reply.

-Justin

[VPC]

Thanks Justin, and actually, simply responding with an honest answer is good enough. FYI, Lyron is working on this. The problem is really odd. HG staff can email me (so DNS inside HG looks at the ext auth MX - good) but mail from HG hosted websites or sendmail to self domain fails to 4 out of 5 clients.

[GatorJustin]

Yes, I have confirmed that this is currently being investigated by Lyron. Please let me know here when it has been resolved, or if you feel as if nothing is being accomplished. Thank you for being so patient.

-Justin

[VPC]

Justin,

We are working on 1 week now without the ability to use forms on my clients websites. It is becoming a bit tiresome.

I have had to make workarounds all the way from moving 1 domain to another hosting provider till this gets fixed, and even kicking off a new domain for 1 client for these formmails only, then setting up domain aliases on the exchange box per user so user@xyz.com formmail now sends to user@xyz2.com since that domain is not hosted with HG.

Hours of work editing scripts, domain aliases, DNS, etc... that is unnecessary. Proof that there is a problem on the server, since it now works sending to non HG hosted domains. I mean really....at what point does it become not even funny? I would say days ago.

Please email me your ticket ID, I was under the impression Lyron had resolved this, please email me at sales@hostgator.com

Thanks, Ben

[VPC]

Ben, the email has been sent. Just as an fyi, the ticket num is in the 1st post, HGSupport #ZIO-60465-439

Thanks for anything you can accomplish on this.

Originally Posted by VPC

Ben, the email has been sent. Just as an fyi, the ticket num is in the 1st post, HGSupport #ZIO-60465-439

Thanks for anything you can accomplish on this.

Thanks, sorry I missed it. I'm having Lyron look at this and will update you later tonight or in the morning.

Thanks, Ben

[VPC]

Ok, for those who have emailed me outside HG to inquire on this....the problem has been resolved.

It was tested by HG staff and myself. I test it every morning and did so this morning and it was still not working. As of tonight, it is working. I will update this thread with a reason once I get it because I think it is important to reference not only the issue, but the resolution for others if they ever find themselves sinking in the boat I was.

[VPC]

Well, I said I would post this. It is not pretty, but then again, my experience is not pretty.

Read the opening message to this entire post. The answer lies in there that I said DAYS ago to support with a support ticket.

"1. Removed from /etc/localdomains
2. Added to /etc/remotedomains"

Take heed resellers, this is a problem at EVERY hosting company I have been with. The difference is HG did respond to my emails. The response was slow, one of the support personnel completely disregarded (in my mind) my suggestion above on the FIRST day this was happening costing me hours of work and days of pissed clients, but it did get resolved....at least for now.

The true test is to see how long it sticks. I sincerely hope HG takes this experience seriously and TRAINS support staff for better action to this specific issue as this IS a valid problem in the reseller hosting community using CPANEL.
Like I said, no one should expect HG or any other hosting co to know everything, but NEVER disregard customers emails when the customer has taken the time to research the problem and is posing a possible solution.

For HG staff, reference ticket [HGSupport #HKO-45578-654] and tell me what happened. You can read my reply to her and see she said my suggestion was already done. Was it really? or was I gaffed off? If it was, then how is tonights solution the same as last weeks that did not work? Just wondering.

I'll check into this and talk to that tech. One problem is our level 1 techs are just that, level 1, they know the answers to common questions and how to solve 90% of the problems people have. After that it goes to our head system admin, myself, and Level2/Level3 techs, we are working on trying to speed the transition between when a ticket is moved from level 1 to a higher level as they seem to be delaying that transition. You should see a big improvement in the coming weeks, our system admin spent the early morning of today talking to our level 1 techs about this issue and we will be monitoring to make sure it occurs at a faster pace.

Thanks, Ben

[VPC]

Ben,

That is what keeps me here. Simply knowing that you recognize and accept that there is a workflow problem and are taking the time to correct it so your customers are happy and my customers happy and we all win. No company is perfect, and no tech knows everything, no matter what their business is, and investing time to make the company better in direct relation to customers is a value I do not see a lot of, especially in hosting companies.

Thank you for being upfront and for your time involved in fixing this. Word will spread...