compensation

**zoid** · 08-11-2002, 12:25 AM

Well, in the meantime everything seems to be back, however as this was probably the largest (in terms of time and affected users) downtime ever I wonder if and how Aletia will issue a compensation. Such an incident requires IMHO that. What would you consider as appropriate?

Alexander

**Chrisfu** · 08-11-2002, 02:17 AM

I think there's more chance of scientists discovering that the earth is, in actual fact, flat than Aletia giving you refund.

I'd cut out the middle-man and go directly to PaySystems.

**zoid** · 08-11-2002, 02:28 AM

While you are probably right in practice, I would say it is the least necessary thing Aletia has to do to apologize for what happened yesterday. Otherwise there would be really no reason to stay anylonger.

Alexander

**jkeller** · 08-11-2002, 02:57 AM

This is something that has come up several times before, and the math shows that any possible refund just doesn't match what people have gone through. As for an apology, it doesn't soudn like it was Aletia's fault. Rather, they messed up for not communicating enough.

I think that an apology is less in order than an explanation. This post shows that other hosts do post informative, in-depth messages about outages. I can't vouch for that company's track record, but I certainly would expect at least the same kind of communication from Aletia for this particular DNS outage.

This has been an ongoing theme, and I've long railed on it (before and after I've become a mod). Aletia needs to keep its clients updated, in a timely manner and with enough detail that those clients can make informed decisions. Barring proprietary or sensitive information, all technical problems should be communicated to us. Whether it's through these forums or through another mechanism (I'm still waiting for them to use the e-mail address that I entered in my CPanel), it's their duty.

Before we look for ways to patch past problems, let's focus on getting Aletia to avoid having them in the future. Apologies (though important in any relationship) and refunds are only signs that not enough was done before the event in question. I've said again and again, I don't expect a perfect technical track record from Aletia. I expect a good service, which means more than quietly rebooting servers or telling us "it's fixed".

**zoid** · 08-11-2002, 03:06 AM

Unfortunately I have to agree that a free month (or two) cannot compensate what happened here yesterday. However there has to be some official statement and apology about that (not only an "its fixed"). No one here has been told what exactly happened, why it took so long and why Aletia did not do anything to prevent it. We just heard rumors that another webhoster had similar symptoms. I am still not quite sure why a DNS server should be affected by an upgrade of an entirely different control panel for managing mainly web/ftp associated things.

Alexander

**jkeller** · 08-11-2002, 03:37 AM

That's exactly what I was saying (especially my last sentence). My point is, posting apologies alone doesn't cut it. Aletia needs to communicate more complete information -- and then, in some cases, add an apology to that information.

**Automile** · 08-11-2002, 05:55 AM

If Aletia really wants to compensate us for yesterday, it won't require money or an apology. What's done is done, we can't undo it, nor can they.

What Aletia CAN do is prove to us that yesterday was a turn around point for them: show us that they are taking steps IMMEDIATELY (LIKE TODAY!) to improve communication with their customers.

PROVE to us that they do read these forums, and respond to concerns

PROVE to us that they are concerned about our sites uptime

PROVE to us that they want us to remain customers

PROVE to us that they are going to keep us better informed

How do they prove this? Communication. That's it. Period. They communciate with us, and keep us informed. When a site is down due to a problem, especially as wide ranging as yesterday, we should have been updated every hour on the hour. Even a "nothing new to report, we're still on it..." is better than what we got: NOTHING.

Personally, what Aletia does or does not do in the coming days will determine whether or not I stay here. There are lots of hosting companies out there that want our business. To stay with one that has no appreciation for their customers is suicide.

At this point, I say keep the money, keep the apology. IMPROVE THE SERVICE!

Andy

**woppat** · 08-11-2002, 03:54 PM

WHERE? WHERE?

Looks like Eagle is down. Again. For how long I don't know, and for how much longer is beyond me.

Better communication and warnings of downtime would be great. Compensation? Not necessary. An apology? That'd be great. Better service would be a miracle. I won't hold my breath on that one, tho.

**Zacrifice** · 08-11-2002, 08:59 PM

Uh.. i think you are all forgetting something..
Your only at the minimum paying 9 dollers a month here.. Now for my 9 dollers i expect 200 Mbs of disk space i get that.. 10GBs of bandwidth a get that.. and good uptime I get that too.. yes the DNS servers went down.. get over it.. You cant control computers all the time.. things will happen beond your control.. you will have to live with it.

You cant expect perfection from someone whos imperfect!

**zoid** · 08-11-2002, 09:57 PM

Originally posted by Zacrifice
Uh.. i think you are all forgetting something..
Your only at the minimum paying 9 dollers a month here.. Now for my 9 dollers i expect 200 Mbs of disk space i get that.. 10GBs of bandwidth a get that.. and good uptime I get that too.. yes the DNS servers went down.. get over it.. You cant control computers all the time.. things will happen beond your control.. you will have to live with it.

You cant expect perfection from someone whos imperfect!

Good uptime? Aletia has been worst for many customers over the last months. It seems to get better now, but the DNS issues were once again a setback. It is correct that I pay US$ 10 per month, but I can expect (in theory at least) 100% uptime. While this is certainly not achievable, I do not think a downtime like that is acceptable. You are right, DNS servers go down, but not for more than 14 hours.

Alexander

**jkeller** · 08-11-2002, 10:16 PM

I agree with Zacrifice in that we cannot expect 100% uptime. Yes, the servers need to be watched over better. There is little that could be done in this case as Aletia depends on a third party to maintain the CPanel software. If indeed CPanel was the culprit, then it is that third party's fault.

I don't agree with Zacrifice in the "get what you pay for" theme in general. While you need to expect to pay more for better uptime or service, communication is almost free. By posting announcements on a regular basis, Aletia could save itself a lot of grief.

There are business solutions that guarantee uptime if you want that, but you're going to pay more. Remember, we all share relatively few servers -- that's the way the shared hosting business model works. Small surprise that there is downtime; the only person I can trust is myself. But when something goes wrong, I expect to know what is being done about it and what measures are taken to prevent the same from happening again.

**timechange** · 08-12-2002, 03:12 AM

Originally posted by Zacrifice

You cant expect perfection from someone whos imperfect!

But you say you are perfect, under your nick

**Automile** · 08-12-2002, 03:54 AM

Uh.. i think you are all forgetting something.. Your only at the minimum paying 9 dollers a month here.. Now for my 9 dollers i expect 200 Mbs of disk space i get that.. 10GBs of bandwidth a get that.. and good uptime I get that too.. yes the DNS servers went down.. get over it.. You cant control computers all the time.. things will happen beond your control.. you will have to live with it.

Uh...excuse me, but being down every day of the week to the tune of a total of 30 hours last week alone is not "good uptime."

I understand the problem with the DNS servers, excluding that problem, my site was still down for almost a full day last week.

I will not get over it. If Aletia isn't making enough money at the rate they charge, they need to raise it!

You can live with it if you want to...tolerate substandard service, and that's what you'll get. Raise your expectations. Expect others to do what they promise and say they'll do.

Geez...

**Zacrifice** · 08-12-2002, 04:00 AM

Uh.. excuse me. I personally have never every experianced 30 hours of downtime and i think your exagerating!

And yes i get good uptime thank you!

Yeppers I am perfect but i don't run aletia so i cant make it perfect now can i :P

**Automile** · 08-12-2002, 04:57 AM

No exaggeration.

Be careful about bragging about good uptime...your server could be the next one to bite the dust at Aletia. We'll see how you feel about it all when your site has been down as much as some of the others around here have.

My server was once one of the best ones Aletia had, but no more.

Yeppers I am perfect but i don't run aletia so i cant make it perfect now can i :P

Yeah, right. Perfect. You might want to check your spelling and punctuation...