Hosting A to Z (hosting service provider)
First let me say that I am going to be extremely angry with what I write here, more out of frustration than anything else.So feel free to read on, but please be warned. You know the one thing that really pisses me off the most, is people who suggest bandaid solutions. The best book that I have ever read, and the title escapes me. But it was along the lines of website maintenace, and the one thing that it drives home is the pitfalls with band aid solutions.
Now although it was aimed at websites in general, the same principle can be applied to many things that we do in our lives. And the consequences that arise from this, and what you can do to help prevent these things from occuring.
Anyway, I have had some heated battles with my hosting provider over the times. And the truth is in the old saying, you do get what you pay for. But to be point blank told to #$%^ off, with out these guys doing the right thing.
So what is this problem.
Well after redesigning my blog, I discovered that when I changed the email address for contact and when subscriptions go out etc. I do the right thing, when it comes to band aid solutions. I categorised everything, and brought all the emails to one domain. Clean house so to speak, but then I found out why I had this problem in the first place.
Now if I had my mail with these guys, there is no problem. But I switched all my mail to google mail, and that began a seriouos of never being able to use my own domain name to send emails to myself. Because I am using google and not theres, they cracked it. I understand where they are coming from, now here where I am coming from.
When I designed this site I did so because I wanted to remove all the headaches of where mail is going, and to provide a better maintenance and upgrade path. To once again met a brick wall with these guys, so sorry for the frustration here. But the way I see it these guys (all hosting providers), should be able to accommodate security and what the customer needs.
And mine is pure and simple.
I have the right to use my domain to send emails, and not a 3rd party source that I can't take control on. Because if for any reason they change one thing, I am screwed and have to make changes to accomodate this. Which is why we have domain names, so that we can do this more easily.
Anyway, thats not the issue. The issue is that I should not have to move away from my domain name, and these guys need to find a solution. After 12 months of emails on this subject, I have had enough with these guys. I don't care how cheap or expensive they are. The customer support really is not on this planet.
Again sorry for the rant. At the end of the day I was doing the right thing, that I have never ever in my wildest dreams had to deal with before. I know that there is a solution to the problem, these guys just refuse to budge and see it from my point of view.
The last thing I want to do is to keep making unnecessary changes everytime a 3rd party changes a config setting or something. As unlikely google will ever change their domain names for pop / mail access, the point is that if I can remove that issue from ever being a maintence problem then as a customer, I have that right.
So anyone thinking about them, please don't. This is not the first time that there customer support has pissed me off, but it will be the last.
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<p>It's Hosting A to Z, not Hosting at Oz ;)</p><p>In a dozen paragraphs (or more) you haven't actually managed to describe the problem, or what it is that Hosting A to Z are refusing to do... Are you using Google Apps and are having problems with your domains MX record or something?</p><p>If your support request tickets are this long and ranty then I'm sure the support people can't actually work out what you want from them :P</p><p>I've been very happy with Hosting A to Z for the last 2.5 years!</p>
# Posted By Justin Carter | 8/28/08 6:56 AM -
<p>Justin, normally I would agree with you.<br /><br />And yes it is to do with the mx record.<br /><br />The conversation is very long, but when I switched my mail over to google. I asked them if they could make the necessary changes, so that any mail for the domain name gets received by my domain name sitting at google.</p><p>The problem boils down to the fact that, internally, they will not allow you to send an email from one account to another within the domain. This is regardless of whether I use Outlook / Thunderbird, Coldfusion cfmail.<br /><br />They told me what I had to do, I made the one change I could safely make. A few months ago I asked them about why I am not receving emails, in which it took them 2-3 dfays to get back to me on. And told me what needed to be done.<br /><br />My first question was to ask what are the complications of doing what they suggested, I got a pretty much it will be ok sort of deal. I then gave them permission to go ahead an make the changes, since then those changes where never made, and the issue cropped up again with another website.<br /><br />So basically because they use the mail server for authentication, i can send emails to every other doman, but not within my own domain and as far as I am concerned that is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.<br /><br />The frustration comes about because they don't see the need or a reason to make what I need possible. Forcing me to use another domain name for sending of mail, and that is the issue.<br /><br />As I said to them, I don't care about how the servers are setup. I just want it to work.<br /><br />Here is my problem, here is what I need to be able to do just make it happen. And I am still asking them 12 months later to fix the damn thing.</p>
# Posted By Andrew Scott | 8/28/08 7:16 AM -
<p>I used to use them and their customer service is pathetic. I would never use them or recommend them to anyone.</p><p>I has a server down for 2 days with no warnings, no replies and when it did get fixed, no appology or explanation.</p><p>Im prety sure this is a backyard operation, one guy in a garage somewhere. Steer clear!</p><p>PS: Your comment system is broken, it shows all HTML codes.</p>
# Posted By Dale Fraser | 8/28/08 7:33 PM -
@Dale: Thanks Dale, yes I am aware of that small little problem. Due to the fact to keep older blogs, I am currently using a modified version of blogCFC in some parts.
That is just a small glitch that I am hoping to get fixed this weekend.
As for Hosting A to Z, you now the stupid thing is that their TOS contradicts themselves. I fully understand what they are trying to acheve. However as I have constantly pointed out to them, they no longer provide an email service for me.
And that means that the smpt server which can be located at mail.andyscott.id.au is not a service governed by their TOS any more. And that is the argument I have with them, they have technically hijacked my mail to route through the authentication system that they have in place. Reasons are clear, if you were using them as a service provider for email.
But that is not the case, and the TOS doesn't cover external smtp servers that I should be allowed to use.
# Posted By Andrew Scott | 8/28/08 9:39 PM
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