GeekStorage.com VPS Slow

After my bad experiences with the other provider, I decided to go with GeekStorage.com for my hosting needs. I found plenty of positive reviews for them but so far, it doesn't look good :-/

The support was fast enough, but not really helpfull.
My basic problems, so far, are:

1. The VPS is _really_ slow. Simple operations like listing (ls) the contents of directories with 4-5 files takes around 1~1.5seconds. Editing /etc/vim/vimrc with vim takes around 3 seconds (to open, I mean).

2. While trying to install phpmyadmin from the default ubuntu repository took me almost 10 minutes, from downloading to installing the packages. Something my old Dual P3 (yes, pentium 3) did in less than 2 minutes. Accessing the phpmyadmin page (with a web browser) took around 3 seconds, and no, I don't mean loading the database scheme and stuff, just the login screen. It just stood there for 3 seconds, then instant load. No, it wasn't a DNS problem. My browser was just hanging at "Waiting..."

3. Bandwidth is _really_ low. Tried downloading different files located all around the world and I never seen more than 300k/s, max. Sometimes it drops to a painfull 150k/s and just stays there.

4. Timeouts. First night they got my VPS up I had small downtime periods. I was trying to edit the DNS files and I had like 20 disconnects in 1 hour. The connection was working for 2 minutes, then *poof* dropped for another 2 minutes.

5. The virtualization. I can't install simple software as pureftpd. All I get is "Jan 4 20:38:21 vps pure-ftpd: (?@?) [ERROR] Unable to switch capabilities : Operation not permitted". Tried different workarounds (trying to avoid recompilation with --without-capabilities) but nothing worked.

As answers, all I got so far is:

- for the connection problem:

"Could you please provide the results of a traceroute when this problem is occurring? We will forward it to the DC and see if they can determine any network issues. Thank you, and apologies for the trouble."

Got the answer 1 hour after I asked them if there's something wrong, but it was too late... the problems were gone, for the moment.

- the slow response from the vps:
"2-3 seconds is understandable during peak hours, however we have not seen this issue come up on node3 since the server was rebooted recently. If the issues arise again

please let us know, we will check on the cause."
I *almost* understand about the peak hours, but it's not normal. I remember this was an issue with *shared* hosting. This was one of the reasons I got a VPS in the first place.
Basically they're telling me that during peak hours my customers will have to wait 3 seconds for my websites to load. You know what the average user does after waiting that many seconds for a page to load? Closes the browser or types another address.

I have the VPS512 plan (the $55 one + $3 safetyweb protection) + extra 50% bandwidth and disk space. My VPS is located on NODE3.

Anyone else experiencing the same issues (maybe on another node?) I'm still hoping for this issues to go away, maybe it's something temporary, but if this happens for the whole week, I'll definatelly ask for money back (they have a 60day return policy).