[cobalt-users] Re: Visuallinks / Cobaltracks

["Michael Bittle" <m.bittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To Cobalt Users Group:  I received this inquiry as to why I am looking for a
new ISP, and thought I'd share my response with the group as a warning.

**********************************

Hi Kevin,

I strongly recommend that no one does business with Visuallinks /
Cobaltracks.

For me, it all started when I signed up with them back in July. My plan was
to transfer over sites I run on 4 virtual servers elsewhere - and here we
are at the end of November and I'm still running the 4 VS since the
Cobaltracks service has been so unreliable.

First it was a problem for them to assign additional IP #'s. Apparently they
didn't have a policy. And when they got a policy, they didn't have a rate.
And then when they got a rate, they decided to double it. And once they
decided on the new rate, they made it retroactive. Meanwhile, I waited three
weeks for the IP #'s and couldn't transfer any sites if my life depended on
it. And frequent email to Cobaltracks simply went unanswered.

Next were the outages. They started in July and continue to today in fact.
They range from 10 minutes to 10 hours, several times a week. The problem is
with their communications lines, which I understand they are finally
upgrading. My downtime with them has been approximately 10% of my total
time. So much for 99.9 uptime! And every time I complained about the
downtime, they have ignored my email.

A couple of times the server itself has frozen up, and has needed a
hard-reboot. They provide no contact names or phone #'s in case of
emergency. I finally got their tech line from a salesman. Visuallink and
Cobtaltracks have never returned a phone call.

Most recently, they reassigned by Primary DNS to another of their web
clients. When I called them to complain about this, they first denied it,
thought I had screwed it up myself (!), and then when they finally went to
check, they discovered they had made the mistake themselves. They were
supposed to call me back, but never did.

I asked for an explanation; they have ignored my request.

If the initial contract wasn't for 6 months, I would have quit months ago.
As it is, I have wasted 6 months and a thousand dollars, AND i now have to
go through it all again. I  have asked for financial compensation; they have
ignored my request.

Five times I have made a specific request for the name and contact info for
the president of Cobaltracks, and 5 times they have ignored my request.

My biggest beef is that (1) they did not provide relevant emergency contact
info upfront and (2) they NEVER return phone calls or email.

As I said, I strongly recommend that no one does business with Visuallinks /
Cobaltracks.

Michael Bittle

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin D*R***
To: m.bittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <m.bittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, November 30, 2000 11:31 AM


>I have just switched to them, can you please tell me
>what issues you were having so I can attack them every
>time that issue comes up with me? I have already seen
>a few outages, short ones, but irritating.
>
>
>Thank you,
>Kevin D*R****
>
>
>--- Michael Bittle <m.bittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>wrote:
>> For the past 5 months I have been leasing a
>> dedicated Raq 3 server from
>> Visuallinks.com / Cobaltracks.com in Winchester, VA
>> and have had nothing but
>> trouble with the company. So I am looking for a new
>> service provider.
>>
>> I went with them because they seemed cheap - $ 150
>> monthly for a 20G HD.
>> (You get what you pay for I guess.)
>>
>> Name ANY screwup that a service provider can do -
>> and they've done it. Other
>> than taking my money (which they do regularly and
>> without any problems) they
>> have given me nothing but trouble.
>>
>> Several times a week, the server is off-line - it
>> has been non-functional
>> for hours on end. I receive no response to phone
>> calls or email to the
>> provider - and I have never received an explanation,
>> apology or rebate for
>> the trouble this causes me and my clients.
>>
>> The final straw was today - when they "accidentally"
>> reassigned my Primary
>> DNS server IP address to another of their clients.
>>
>> When I called them, they didn't believe me.  After
>> arguing with their
>> technicians for 20 minutes, they finally checked and
>> saw that I was correct.
>> Then they promised to call me back in a few minutes
>> - that was an hour ago!
>>
>> So - I'm out shopping for a new server from a
>> service provider who provides
>> reasonable service for a reasonable fee. Does anyone
>> have a recommendation?
>> I manage about 30 sites, and need individual IP's
>> for each one.  Please
>> email me privately.
>>
>> Michael Bittle
>> m.bittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> cobalt-users mailing list
>> cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> To Subscribe or Unsubscribe, please go to:
>> http://list.cobalt.com/mailman/listinfo/cobalt-users
>>
>>
>>
>
>