[Neil]

Hi Jim

Please can you contact us by email with the KVM order number and we can refund it if you never used it.

[Jim]

And so this sorry saga continues. (for anyone interested, I gave up, nuked the server and completely reinstalled everything - it was the only way to get the thing working in anything approaching a timely manner.)

For OVH/SYS specifically, would you like to try and justify this level of service (I have archived every email so I can prove every single step of this) :

10/04 : 03:20 :- KVM order placed, paid for & accepted by SYS system.
10/04: 09:00 :- Called SYS. Told KVM was 'Being installed'
10/04: 15:00 : Called SYS. Told they'd need to speak to the datacentre and would call me back.
10/04: 16:00 : SYS call, tell me they actually sold me something they couldn't provide. Promised it'd be installed 'Tonight;
10/04 : 17:49 : Email saying the KVM install is finished. NO LOGIN DETAILS. Reply to email & reopen ticket asking for login details.
10/04 : 2016 : Still no details. Give up, nuke server, start over. (at least I can now get some work done)
13/04 : 17:04 : Email from SYS support saying the KVM install went into 'error' and they'd get it fixed. (pointless...)
14/04: 14:05 : Email from SYS finally providing login details for the KVM I ordered 4 days ago and no longer need.......

Please, someone from SYS/OVH management feel free to contact me. I really do want to like your company but that's not even remotely close to being an acceptable level of support from any hosting provider. God help me if that had been a production server.

Jim

[alvaroag]

There are some points where you are missunderstanding....

The 120 seconds installation time is almost correct. At lest, it was when I rented a dedicated server on OVH last year. But it have restrictions, which they are failing to publish: Only for customers with validated accounts, only with credit card or paypal, and on working hours. The latest should be obvious, but the first two now, and that might be missunderstood by customers.

About the billing repeat option, don't know about SYS, but on the OVH manager there is an automated renewal option, which looks to be what you are needing. Again, don't know if such options is present on SYS manager.

About the feedback during the process, your right, there is little feedback. But also note that those are automated processes. Being myself a developer, sometimes it's difficult to provide more detailed feedback on such processes.

About the KVM, you should understand that, as with servers installation, orders are only attended on working hours. If you order a KVM overnight, you sould wait until next working day for your order to be seen by anyone. What is a real failure from OVH is not having available KVMs at time.

So you are right on some things, but wrong on some others....

[Jim]

Thanks for replying Danny, I have checked my mail filters & indeed the mail logs on my server and no message with KVM access details was received. Plenty of others from SYS but not that one, leading me to think it was never sent. Likewise, no response to the reopened ticket or reply to the e-mail I sent.

Ultimately I gave up & flattened the box to start again, I can't afford to waste any more time on it. Very, very annoying that so trivial an issue to fix has now resulted in my losing 3 days and having to repeat several hours of work.

Very much a case of must do a lot better, low cost is no advantage if lack of worthwhile support negates the saving in lost time.

Jim

[Dani]

Hi

The KVM details would of been sent to your email address.

Do you not have the details within your email account?

You may wish to check your spam/junk folder as the emails may end up in those folders by accident.

Thanks

Danny

[Jim]

Never in the many, many years I've been running server remotely (1999 was when I activated my first server) have I encountered such frustration.

The server looks great. The hardware is good, the bandwidth is good, the price is good. Sadly that is where the good bits stop.

Lets start with setup. Advertised at 120 seconds it actually took the best part of 18 hours. Not a horrendous time but certainly far from what's advertised. If you're in a rush to get a box up and running SYS is probably not for you. The order process is far from clear about what's happening either - would it really hurt to spend a bit of time improving the website and actually letting the customer know what's going on?

Next, billing. WHY is there no repeat billing option? This is an absolutely basic function that is essential for all but the smallest of businesses. It's omission is completely crazy and incredibly frustrating - I have better things to do with my time than manually renew servers.

Now, on to the server itself. Setup is an unusual process but should be fairly painless. I say should be because the first attempt failed due to a hardware problem that took an hour to resolve. Again, there is very, very little feedback during the process, clients are left guessing what is happening and what they're supposed to do (if anything).

Once it's up, good. You can start putting it to work... but be wary. If like me you are prone to finger trouble when configuring boxes late at night and manage to lock yourself out of the server your options are limited (at least for windows based systems anyway - others may be a little more forgiving & it seems the rescue environments are much better equipped to handle Linux issues - shame this was to be a Hyper-v test box). This sort of thing is a hazard of working with any hosted system and it's why KVM is such a useful tool. Unfortunately KVM isn't included with any SYS server and costs a somewhat eye-watering £26 per day to have made temporarily available. Still, stupidity costs money and it's my fault so I paid the cash and waited patiently on the KVM being activated so that I could fix the mistake I'd made & get back to work.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

9am the next day I ended up calling SYS support. Now this was the first time I'd called there and to say I was shocked would be an understatement. The announcement greeting callers is undoubtedly the most depressing thing I have ever heard in my entire life. The lady who recorded it could not have sounded less enthusiastic... sadly it set the tone for what was to follow. Que the support agent, who after taking almost no time at all to look at the case told me someone was working on it now. Oh good.. back to work soon I thought.... WRONG

SIX HOURS later (3pm) and still without the working KVM I'd paid for I called back. This time I was told someone would need to contact the datacentre and they'd call me back.

A full hour later someone did, and explained that despite selling me the KVM rental they actually didn't have one available and that was the reason for the delay. It would be installed 'tonight'. Very apologetic, honest and he did call back like they promised.... unfortunately.....

The KVM got installed. AND NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ME WHAT THE ACCESS DETAILS WERE. Ticket closed, support team gone home, KVM sitting there just as useless as my server and steam now coming out of my ears.

So far I've wasted about £100 on this and got absolutely nothing to show for it aside from grey hair and wasted time.

I have e-mailed support and reopened the ticket though I'm not exactly expecting it'll do any good.

I'm just about ready to nuke the whole box and start over - at least that way I'll get something done. SYS/OVH, you have a very, very steep hill to climb in the next month to persuade me the lower prices are worth the hassle & risk that seems to go with it.

Shame... good hardware being let down by very, very shoddy customer service.

Jim