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38h.com problems

has anyone had problems with 38h.com?

my website www.nitelifeuk.com has been down for almost a week. ive tried calling them, left messages and emailed several times yet i get no reply.
is anyone else having problems

please let me know
thankyou
 
Have not heard of this host before.
I seriously hope they respond to you soon, that sucks!.

mod edit: the user is asking about another hosting company, he is not looking for suggestions, this is your first and final warning on the issue
 
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hi,
thanks for your reply!
ive tried their ticket system so many times now i bet theyve run out of paper!
no seriously ive sent about 15 tickets, numerous emails and about 20 phone messages. ive been with them for 2 years now and never realy had too much trouble, but this is rediculous!
what can i do to get my site up and running i dont know that much about technical stuff.
i hope someone from 38h can see this message and maybe call me as soon as poss before i lose any more sales.
thanks again for your reply
 
Well i think you should give them the benefit of the doubt, anything could have happened.

Wait another 24 hours if your site is still down with no response then make plans to get your site online at another host.


Would be happy to hear how it turns out.
 
Hi NiteLifeUK.

I am a web hosting reseller and, like you, use the 38h.com services. I have nearly 100 websites hosted with 38h.com. One of their servers (WEB3) went down for a 6 day period in June - which affected 13 of my websites - I guess this is what affected you.

38h.com have gone desperately downhill over the last 18 months and, as you have discovered, they do not answer Tickets, phone calls, or emails.

Although WEB3 is now working, I have four major Ticket incidents logged with them for 3 weeks now (plus several minor incidents). I have lost several customers during the last week because I cannot even tell my clients when problems will be fixed (because 38h.com do not reply to me).

I'm pretty sure that 38h.com must have gone bust and would recommend that all their clients do what I am doing now - looking around for a new host.

If anyone can recommend a UK-based host (makes tech support easier) that offers cheap shared Windows 2003 Server-based hosting with unlimited PHP, Perl, ASP, ASP.NET, SSL, POP3, SMTP included - or dedicated Windows 2003 Server hosting with the same facilities - then please let me know.

Cheers,
Alan
 
I too have sites on 38h - and the support has been fairly poor over the last couple of months. The forums are down and the Helm control panel is so slow it takes ages to navigate.
So sad really as they were really good - fast replies to support questions and helpful. I am also looking elsewhere - don't really want to but when needs must!! -
not happy though as I paid the annual fee and so most of that could be wasted
 
Appalling Service

I'm giving up on 38H, with not a little regret... I've got a bill that they haven't explained to me, have not replied to e-mails or tickets and have an out-of-order phone number.

They host three sites for me and it's going to be a pain in the proverbial to move but sadly there's now no choice.

Knowing that technical tribulations can make the life of a service provider like this sometimes difficult, I have always been inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. Now, they're just costing me money and time.

Chris.
 
when a web host stops replying to emails or support tickets with prolonged downtime periods of their own site along with others', it's a bad sign!

if a host can not manage to bring a server back up within 4 hours (regardless of hardware or software failures), it means their system restore procedure is either not in place or not tested.
 
Worried

I have had big problems with them also. I've been host 4 sites with them.

Have tried logging tickets, leaving loads of phone messages, etc. Had no reponse.

Again their site is slow to navigate; the control panel is almost un-useable due to the slowness.

I thought that I would try one last try to get in contact with them. I thought that I would try a different tact though. Instead of posting a ticket with a support question I posted one with a sales question, (account upgrade). I got a response almost straight away! I then replied saying that I had concerns about their service and mentioned about slowness of their site and CPanel etc. Guess what no response!

I wish that they would just say what problems they were have and that would go along way in helping me understand. But to hear nothing is very bad and makes me worry all the more.

They used to be really good. Offering great support and I had recommended them to lot of other people. What a shame.

I am now looking into other hosting companies. If anyone has changed from 38h.com to another hosting company with similar packages, please could you let me know your recommendations?

Regards
from a frustrated 38h.com user.
 
Hello "frustrated 38h.com user".

UPDATE @ 15:45 23/8/2005: I just had an email back from James Griffin of 38H saying that WEB9 should be back up in around an hour's time.

I've now given up with 38H. I had 100 sites hosted with them and am now in the middle of the extremely painful process of migrating to a new host.

The new company have been trading for quite a while and provide virtually identical-spec hosting (Helm, Windows 2003, etc.) - but a lot cheaper, a lot faster, and replies to all questions usually within a few minutes (just like 38H used to be). They also seem to keep up with latest updates (Helm is v3.2.5, PHP is v5, ...)

It's very sad that 38H have gone so desperatley downhill - I've given them every chance (and encouragement) to improve their service during the last 9-12 months - but they usually ignore my emails (even when I send supportive and/or sympathetic emails).

I did manage to catch James Griffin (the Managing Director) via email around a month ago and he pledged that things would improve within days (he avoided giving reasons for the persistence of the problems).

One month later and there's no improvement. In fact - WEB9 has been down for the last couple of days and I have been busy moving 5 critical domains from 38H to my new host (and I still have 13 more domains on WEB9 that, when my clients discover their websites are not working, I will receive "hate-mail".).

I STRONGLY suggest that you make sure you have full backups of all the websites and a record of email, FTP, ODBC settings, etc. - because I just had to move 5 websites blindly from a backup I took 3 weeks ago (because Helm is down I couldn't get to the settings, and because WEB9 is down there's not even FTP access to the affected domains!!!).

38H are being VERY unprofessional in their failure to acknowledge and discuss their problems with professional Reseller clients such as myself. Never mind - they've shot themselves this time - I'm well and truly on the escape path and have still got around 60 websites to move - it's a long and painful process - but I don't have any other option.

If you Personal Message me I will tell you the new host that I'm using (it was recommended to me by someone else in this thread).

Cheers,
Alan
 
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Hi all.

I notice that 38h are now officially no longer taking on new customers. They have also formally acknowledged that WEB9 server has been down for several weeks. FTP has also not been working on WEB1 and WEB4 for several weeks either. Control Panel is still very slow (if you can get it to work at all in the first place!).

I have just formally written to 38h to conclude my dealings with them. In searching Companies House to find their registered address and the address of their directors I noticed that Sion Jeremiah is now the only director - their other director resigned their directorship two weeks ago (James Griffin, I would imagine?).

Me thinks that 38h have now gone for good. I'm glad that I've managed to find an even better host (even better prices too!) thanks to this forum. I'm still severely troubled (hence my writing to 38h) that I have still got around 25 of the 100 domains, that I was hosting with 38h, left to transfer to my new host - but am unable to do so because I can't access the web pages and databases because FTP is broken.

Good luck to all my fellow 38h sufferers!! Let me know if you need advice/assistance/moral support moving to a new host.

Regards,
Alan
 
I noticed to

I noticed to that they have changed their front page and put some emails addresses for domain backup on CD etc. I have sent an email with a request for my domains to be burnt to CD.... well see what happens I'm not going to hold my breath.

I've been pretty blessed in that I had taken backs just before all the problems. I wonder if there will be any chance of a refund?

Anyway very happy with the new host RedFox Hosting.

Regards

Darren
 
Hi Darren.

I've been sending a polite email each day to all the new email addresses at 38h since 28th August requesting backups - I've not received a single reply yet - not even when I've specifically asked for them to at least simply confirm receipt in order that I can rest assured that they're working on my case.

I've now just written to 38h at their Registered Office and at Sion's home address (obtained from Companies House) asking that they provide backups or risk a Small Court Claim for damages because they are massively in breach of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

I too took backups of all 100 of my reseller domains before the big crash (backups taken on 31st July) - but my customers are very active and many use databases that get updated upon each browse to their website. I always made it clear to my customers that they are responsible for their own backups - but that doesn't make me feel any less professionally obliged to do backups as well.

Oh well - like you say - at least RedFox are a good bunch!

Cheers,
Alan
 
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I have also sent emails to all the email addresses and had no reply to any of them.
I really can't believe how they went downhill so quickly as it takes no time at all to put information on their site and we as users may have been able to help - or at least keep the number of moaning emails down.
I paid the annual fee for my reseller account - and trying to get a refund - but I am sure that thay have no money left in the kitty.
I am just trying to get two databases back from them - luckily I replicated all the code on my home system.
Ian
 
Hi Ian.

I, unexepectedly, received an email from James Griffin yesterday afternoon promising to supply the backups I requested - explaining that they had been inundated with requests for files (surprise... not!). He said that he'd email me back later that evening with the details - but he didn't (again - surprise... not!).

I think the real reason I got an email from him yesterday was in response to my written letter threatening a claim via the Small Courts system.

I am 99.9% sure that 38h have formally disbanded. They are no longer a legitimate Ltd Co according to Companies House (they only have Sion Jeremiah listed as a company officer - being listed as both the Company Secretary and the only Director - which is not a legitimate configuration for a Ltd Co.).

Casting my mind back over the last year - I suspect that 38h suffered some sort of cashflow/personnel problem around a year ago - that's when things started to get real bad (when you and I started posting the critical-yet-supportive posts on 38h's forums). Like you said - we couldn't have been more supportive to 38h - offering Laurel leaf after Laurel leaf - but they were too proud (or damaged) to react sensibly. I asked them several times if there was anything I could do to assist them - but they didn't even reply.

I'd love to know what's really happened - just so that I can learn from their mistakes (how NOT to run a web hosting business!). I'm sure that the hacking and DOS attacks that they claim are the reason for their interruption in service are simply a consequence of 38h failing to keep their servers adequately up-to-date with patches, etc.

Anyway, I've JUST finished transferring all 100 of my domains across to an alternative host now - and am extremely pleased with their service so far. The transferring process has taken me several hundred man hours - which is why I am threatening a Small Courts Claim against 38h. The transfers have significantly impacted many of my clients as they have had to regenerate their systems from older backups (thanks to 38h's FTP service being down on WEB1, WEB4 and WEB9).

This episode with 38h has caused me such a headache with also running my other company (property development & investment) that I have no alternative but to prepare to shut down my web host reselling business. My customers will be well chuffed off when I tell them - only recently having to suffer the hassle of me transferring their domains between hosts - and soon having to do it all again themselves!!!

Oh well! Keep smiling! Cheers.
Alan
 
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Has anyone at all recived their requested files? I have several customers with databases that they update frequently, not to speek of all the customers on web9 which I fear is, a-las, lost :(

:confused4
 
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38h woes

Hi All,

I too have many domains hosted (or not) with 38h.com. I have had no joy whatsoever getting hold of them or my database files.

This morning the 38h site and all the rest of mine that were still active dropped from the radar.

I have one major problem - having started to move my domains to your excellent recommendation Red Fox, I have hit a wall with one or two domains - I got 38h to register them for me and now cannot change the Name Servers to point the domains to Red Fox instead of 38H as I can do with the domains I purchased via UKREG.

If anyone has any solutions or suggestions please let me know.

regards,

Sean
 
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