Corporate Colocation Are Thefts And Liars

just to give a kickback to these guys from Corp. Collo in LA. Let me first explain why we needed their service, and then what happened.

GPLHost, the company that I started in 2003, does VPS hosting from many location. We sell our service with our GPLed solution, using services from other company that we trust for taking care of hardware. As we had already a very good partnership in Florida, we started to investigate who we could host with in the other side of USA. We don't ask much, but at least, that a company knows how to open a chassis, change a hard drive or a memory, nothing more. It has been running this way for years without a glitch until...

Everything started well with them, we were charged 55 USD per month, which was one of the cheapest service we ever found, together with a very good bandwidth.

Until we had the most common issue we have: a hardware failure on our RAID1 software array. So we did mdadm -f /dev/sdb, mdadm --remove, then power off the HDD with hdparm, then ordered for a new hard drive to our usual supplier. When the drive arrived, we asked for a change, and also that the IPMI ip of the board was set, using a special CD from the constructor of the motherboard.

For your total understanding, please see this link, showing the server's chassis:

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At the time, we were using short 1U box, in order to minimize costs. Now we only use longer ones, with bigger PSU and 4 HDD hot-swappable bays like the SCT813. So if you want to remove any of the 2 embedded HDD, you need to remove the top panel and unscrew the shroud pumping air that is in the middle (one unique screw on the bottom).

It took 1:15 for the 2 operations that needed no more than 15 minutes in total. So we were charged 300 USD (150 USD per hour), which is already abnormal. It took them 30 minutes for the HDD itself because they removed the FRONT panel, which is not needed at all.

Then the server failed unexpectedly the 2nd day. I wont explain in details all the stupid things they did for us, but after 6 hours, they finally noticed that there was a red light next to a thermometer icon on the front panel that was flashing! YES, 6 hours to find this...

So, after discussions, we agreed that they would rent us the defective hardware: the same motherboard, RAM + CPU, at a very expensive rate (something like 100 USD per week, os something like this...). So we asked for the defective system to be sent to our hardware supplier for a check. Of course, it took 2 weeks back and forth. And the result is... that the air shroud cooling the CPU was facing the HARD DRIVE and not the RAM and the CPU cooler. For an unknown reason, the technician decided to make a 90° rotation of it, before closing the box, which of course nearly destroyed it.

Because we had quite some customers on this server (as it was serving VPS customers), we still paid to resume the operation. But all together, a simple HDD failure costed us at least:

- 300 USD for the first change of HDD
- 600 USD for the 2nd day trying to diagnose what happened after they destroyed the server. They "nicely" said they would charge 3 hours instead of 6...
- 2 or 3x 100 USD for renting the server
- Maybe 80 USD Shipping of our server back and forth to the hardware supplier
- The new 1U casing for the server (at least 200 USD)

At this time, they still do not agree that they broke something. Nobody, including my supplier and myself, understand how an air blower can make a 90° rotation BY ITSELF without the intervention of god.

We had, about 6 months or more later, another HDD that failed. So we asked them to change it. All together, it took more than 2 months, and there was some other issues that I since forgot.

But that's not it! Read further...

Finally, we have migrated all our customers to another collocation facility that are much more unprofessionals. Then we asked for the server to be shipped, together with a linksys switch that we provided at the same time. Victor took an incredible 2 or 3 weeks to just FIND the switch (he first told me that it might have been lost). Then, he told me he found it, but IT WAS BROKEN! Yes, again, they broke something, and this time, they agreed saying they broke it. And guess what? Victor told me he was ready to charge back on my credit card the CHEAPEST amount that I ever saw for that switch online, excluding shipping or any taxes... Incredible.

But ... THAT'S NOT FINISHED!

I once went to bank to withdraw on the company's credit card and it was over limit. So I ran to home, called the bank, and they told me that corporate collocation has CONTINUED to withdraw on my credit card. So I called the "so called" hotline (which is NOT 24x7, I can tell by experience), and started to shout on the phone that I do not appreciate the "joke". Of course, Victor said he was sorry, and that he would charge back the money for the switch, plus what has been charged wrongly this June.

All together, my company have lost more than 2000 USD with corporate collocation if I include everything. As of today, I have yet received no email from Corp. Collo saying that the money they (agree that) they own me is sent back to my credit card. Maybe if they did, I wouldn't have post here, and accept the apologizes. But that is really too much this time!

In short:
- Corporate collocation charges when they should not, they are thefts
- Corporate collocation doesn't admit they break hardware, they are liars

The only good thing is that we made it so our customers didn't feel too much about all the worries we had, and down time was quite minimized, luckily. It could have been a lot worth with extended down time.