LiquidWeb Not Taking New Customers

I'm currently considering a host change, so I'm putting out feelers to potential candidates. As always, I'm putting on my difficult customer mask (turning down my rationality and patience module) to find out if the host can actually handle real-life customers (one of the things I find most important and that I don't want to find out once the server is already on fire). Most companies pass the test very well. Here's how LiquidWeb handles new customers:

Quote:

Originally Posted by yosmc

Hi guys,

I'm looking to switch hosts in the next couple of months. I'd probably wait until January, but since the recent experience has been a bit bumpy with our current host, I'd like to get some basic info now so we can move more quickly if circumstances force us to do so.

MY SITUATION: I'm a do-it-yourself webmaster who has been managing his own server for years. It's become a curse though because managing your own server means you have to be online virtually every day. I'm looking for a solution that will allow me to be offline for several weeks (a REAL vacation, something I haven't had in a decade), knowing that whatever major issue there is with my sites, someone will take action and make sure the service stays available.

- Last year, I've switched to my first managed solution, but as it turns out, they're not doing what I need. Yesterday, for example, I came home to find my sites offline. The site was unavailable for over 40 minutes, and after asking about it I learned that they didn't take action because the server wasn't quite dead yet, only really, really, really slow. To me, this is hairsplitting, the only thing that matters is whether or not my site is available to visitors. - And once the service has been restored, I would also expect a managed host to figure out what caused the issue, and to propose a solution (or just implement one, e.g. change the mysql configuration) so that a similar issue won't happen anymore under the same circumstances.

- If my sites are unavailable due to a fatal error (e.g. a table needing repairs, or max users reached, "can't connect" or whatever else) I would also expect my managed host to catch it on their own, restore things to normality, and possibly think of ways to keep similar issues from happening in the future.

- If my site suffers a DOS attack, I would expect a managed host to think about how my site can be protected.

And so on.

- My largest database tables are 2.5 GIGs in size, but the /tmp disk my host configured has only 600 MB available, so everytime I perform a major operation (even if it's about slimming it down and running an OPTIMIZE afterwards) everything goes down the crapper (/tmp 100% full and load average shooting up to 200). Seems like the fact that /tmp is 100% full doesn't even trigger any alarms with my host, they send the alert to me, and expect me to contact them and ask for a fix. - When I needed to run a business-critical script that keept failing due to the small /tmp, it was me who reconfigured mysql so that it would temporarily use another partition for /tmp - no suggested solution from the host whatsoever. Not good at all.

- I would also like to see a host being able to learn from past incidents. This would require the host admitting though when they made a mistake, or gave the wrong advice. A host not admitting mistakes means that they will not learn, and will therefore keep making the same mistakes all over again (for the client that's a horrible outlook).

- I also think it's embarrassing if a host tells the client that fixing a certain issue is beyond the scope of their support, if it turns out afterwards that the issue happened because of some update done by the host. If in doubt, the host should always provide assistance.

- And if an issue does go beyond what can be expected from managed hosting, it would be the icing on the cake if the host could offer to fix it anyway, possibly against a fee. Such a situation could occur if a major site error is due to a broken script that was provided by the client. ("Looks like your script blah.php is causing the fatal error, we can look into it but this will likely take X hours and cost you Y USD.") Again, the ultimate goal for me is to be able to be offline for several weeks at a time, knowing that any major interruptions to my sites can be resolved without me.

- I would also appreciate a system that will allow trusted site members to report issues - i.e. one where I can give users the ability to report problems without at the same time giving them the privilege to push any red buttons that may damage my site.

So in a nutshell I'm trying to figure out if Liquid Web is the right hosting solution for me. Please let me know if your hosting philosophy meets me needs (and don't hesitate to let me know if it doesn't ).

Thanks!

Quote:

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting us. Liquid Web offers Heroic Support which covers the
hardware, OS, and installed components. We will also monitor your server, and
if a service fails one of our reps will log into your box and restart the
service. We do not provide support for your content (including backups). If
you are having a problem we will help you to troubleshoot the problem, however
if the fault is in your content or scripts we will not be able to assist you
with that.

For more information on what your support covers please see our website at:
[url]

If you have any further questions please let us know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yosmc

Hi,

I hadn't written such a long email because I'm bored, but because I wanted to know where Liquid Web stands on the issues mentioned ("what would have happened in these situations if I was hosting with Liquid Web"). You have basically answered the question about fixing script problems, and for the rest sent me to a page with unspecific promotional teasers. If that's all I can get as a reply I guess that also answers my questions (I'm already Googling for alternatives) but then again maybe you just want to give it another try?

Thank you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiquidWeb


Greetings,

We will take care of server administration issues, we do not take care of any
content issues. From the email you sent it sounds as if you are looking for a
web developer that can watch over your site, and make corrections and
adjustments as needed. This is beyond the scope of what we offer.

If you have further questions please let us know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yosmc

XY, right now I am just looking for someone to answer my questions. For what it's worth, I didn't draw the name "Liquid Web" out of a hat, and I had already been to your website prior to sending you my mail. Anyway, here's what I read from your responses:

THE BAD NEWS:
- Even if it's a one-time emergency, you are paid extra and not providing help would ruin the client's business because the client is currently in a thunderstorm in the middle of the Atlantic, it is not possible to convince Liquid Web support to fix a fatal error that may have been triggered by a programming error in one of the client's scripts.
- Although Liquid Web's server monitoring is called "Sonar" it is - in practice - just as slow as the one I've described in my intitial mail (because if it was any better, you would have told me by now how LW would have handled the given example differently).
- Even if all my sites are down because your staff has misconfigured mysql to break under heavier traffic, or because one of the tables crashed, Liquid Web's staff will do nothing until notified because as long as the mysql service itself is up, you don't see any reason to intervene (if this is something you'd care about and fix, I'm sure you would have let me in on it by now). - EDIT: Or wait - you guys are installing mySQL but you're not configuring/tweaking it so it actually works for the client? Not sure, seems like I actually have to *guess* on that one.

- Liquid Web's ticket system cannot provide sub-accounts with lesser privileges (because if it could, you would have advertised it to me).

- When Liquid Web sets up new servers, /tmp is below 1 gigabyte as well, and when this causes issues, it is definitely not Liquid Web's fault (because if you would be handling this any differently, you would have pointed it out).

- Liquid Web has too many customers already, which is why even customers who know what they want aren't told what they can get, but instead receive links to canned information that doesn't answer their questions, along with the info that Liquid Web probably isn't for them anyway.

- Generally you're in a hurry and can't spend more than 5 minutes on the average ticket.

THE GOOD NEWS:

- LiquidWeb offers DoS protection (I had missed that, but see it clearly now).

Hope there was nothing I missed. So - thanks for all the extensive information you gave me (and sorry for using up so much of your precious time), I will make sure to honor it when I reach my decision.

No further replies.

Anyone know what's wrong with these people? Are they full, or do they only take on easy customers who need nothing?