Gigenet Network and their resellers

[chandrika]

My websites were fine when I was with a company called Micfo. My only compiant about them is that they did not honour their promise to me that I have in writing that when I leased the dedicated server from them that I would receive one year free.

Just before the 1 year was up, the said my server needed to be migrated to a new compnay called Bodhost. The migration was totally botched and I have had innumerable problems with my websites. Not just traffic wise, but being unable to access files, the server obvioulsy being used by someone else to run spam bots on , just too many problems to mention.

All these companies the servers are on the Gigenet network. I am getting nowhere with bodhost support...last two days i received over 500 emails saying suspicious proceeses were running on the server, looking at them i have no idea what they are, but the emails mention that it is some kind of explot.

The response from the support team was to ignore the emails, but as I say last two days I recieved over 500 of them. So I wrote again to support who say they will switch off the email alerts being sent to me. Which is hardly a solution in my opinion.

I have tried contacting the network where my server is on at Gigenet, but get short repleis basically saying, not their problem.

Micfo is not replying, Bodhost is giving me the run around and I cant even access my files to move them elsewhere.

The original package I paid for did contain backup service, but this was another thing I have not received.

Ithink that Gigenet is run by exponential-e.com but I dont suppose that they will give a toss either. They will just refer me back to bodhost, but there is something serioisly amiss and I dont know, should I take legal action? I mean I feel as if I ambeing held to ransom, as my server is up for renewal payment soon and I get the feeling that reason I am getting no support is because they are trying to blackmail me to pay up, knowing that as I cant get my websites off their server unless I do. as I say, I have tried and what i have downloaded as backup, does not contain all my files.

[chandrika]

What is really bugging me is that Micfo who were my trusted hosts, advised me that I needed a dedicated server to run my website, the support team (who are same team at Micfo and Bodhost) told me this was necessary to keep my websites running and are now saying they have no relation to bodhost and it is not their problem.

I was sent this email on 21st November 2009


We hope that you are highly satisfied with our product offerings and 24x7 support. At Micfo we have always strived to improve our product offerings and level of support. With this in mind, please read the below statement.

There are some new developments at Micfo which we would like to share with you. As you are a premium customer, you are receiving this news before it is made public. Micfo and Bodhost.com have been partners for the past few years, but we have decided to part ways and each focus on our primary target customer. For Bodhost this has always been Dedicated Server customers, where as for Mico this has always been Shared/Reseller hosting customers. As a result of this, all Micfo Dedicated Server customers have been migrated to Bodhost and all shared/reseller hosting customers have been migrated to Micfo.

Our support operations will continue from the same location until the end of this year. This has been done to ensure an easy transition period for all customers. From 1st Jan 2010, Micfo will move to a new office and will have new support and sales staff.

This migration will not affect your service in any way. There will be no downtime resulting from this changeover. Your existing servers will continue to work as they do right now, but your Billing will now work from https://www.bodhost.com/whmcs/clientarea.php

If you have any questions or queries, please contact us at sales@micfo.com. You will receive official welcome email from Bodhost.com within next 24 hours.


Regards,
Amir Golestan,
CEO / President,
http://www.micfo.com
Toll Free : 0877-817-9595
Email : sales@micfo.com

[chandrika]

Prior to that email in October 2007, on the advice of micfo, who told me my website required a certain spec of dedicated server, I was offered the following package:



Micfo.com wrote:
12-Months FREE Dedicated Server Hosting*:
>Pay for your current or a new dedicated server one year upfront
and you'll get '_*Additional 12 months FREE*_'.

That means you are getting 24 months of
dedicated server hosting for the price of 12 months.

If you want, I can call you on +44 148 035 2287 to discuss
this promotion further and answer any question you
may have. Alternatively you can simply reply to this e-mail and I will get
back to you immediately.

Please remember that we have only allocated 50 servers, whether
new or existing, to this promotion. I highly recommend you to
purchase one before 6:00 PM PST Monday October 1st, 2007 as that's when
this promotion will be launched and made available
to the rest of our customers.

I hope to hear from you very soon and get yousigned-up
with this amazing promotion.

Sincerely,
Luca M.

Luca Massimiliano
Account Manager
Dedicated Servers
Micfo LLC.
>
*Head Quarters (US)*
237 Tramway Drive
Lake Tahoe, NV 89449
P. 866-686-8611
F. 866-216-0961



They did not honour that deal at Micfo and of course after I signed up, one year came and I was billed again.

When I showed Micfo the initial terms of the agreement, they said that the salesman who offered it no longer worked for them and so they did not honour those terms and at that point I received the letter above, saying all micfo dedicated servers were bing migrated to their partner company.

Which not only was the migration totally botched etc etc, of course then Micfo decide they have nothing to do with Bodhost, despite evidence to contrary.

And of course next email I get after this forced migration from Micfo, was a bill from Bodhost.

My servers a mess and neither company want to accept any responsibility. It is on the Gigenet network, who I have written to but been told its not their problem.

So what should I do, it is difficult to know who to contact about it, because I am being lied to and every support question I ask is evaded by bodhosts support team, who are the same as micfos.

It seems like I am some victim of battle between these two companies, and I am wondering what my rights are and where I should go to deal with the problem, because sending emails to either company or the network, is not getting me very far and my websites that are on the server are valuable to me and I am unable to acces them to download and now Micfo is saying that if I migrate back to them, and pay yet again for another dedicated server that everything will be ok. But I mean they forced the migration in the first place.

I guess I want advice on who to turn to get advice, as Micfo just keep telling me that it is Bodhost who are liable, despite the fact that they forced the server migration, I did not ask for it.

Does anyone have any advice what I can do to sort this out?

[chandrika]

My server is now hosted by bodhost and micfo are telling me to address them, but I have issues with both companies. http://www.micfo.com/ as well as http://www.bodhost.com/

[chandrika]

And what is really annoying is how now Micfo is offering yet another great deal on dedicated servers saying I am welcome to sign up and move back to their service.

But it is not possible because Bodhost have somehow made my website files impossible to download. So it feels like it is just yet another attempt to force me into a corner where I have no choice as I am unable to download or get a full backup of my server myself and Bodhost will not address that issue.

[chandrika]

So this is the reply I get from Micfo....


It is not forced, since the ownership of the servers have been Bodhost since you have gotten the account originally, and it just simply changed the management of the account from Micfo to Bodhost for it. So it is not forced, since it is split from Micfo when we parted ways. So, they are the one who is responsible for it, since it is their asset to begin with. So, you have to deal with them on those issues, and from what I have read on the forums, it seems that Bodhost is not giving you the tech support that you deserve in the first place for managing your dedicated server. However, we at Micfo cannot help you in this matter, since it is their server, and their account, not ours. So, you have to deal with them on this matter.

regards,
russell rademacher | technical director

micfo


followed by another saying



I just read your latest update, and I would like to note that if you feel that you cannot get your data, we can help by looking at it, but we would need details to access it, so we can look at it to give you an assessment on what we can do to migrate things over to our server if you sign up with us. But if you decline to take up on that offer, then we cannot help you at all since the issues you are having are with Bodhost for your account, not with us.

regards,
russell rademacher | technical director

micfo





Still no acknoweldgement of the fact that micfo offered me 12 mths free and initially claimed to be partnered with micfo. Now they want me to pay another $3000 or so to move back to them and bodhost are saying nothing...


Am I right in thinking these are just two braches of the same compnay who are trying to mess me about. As I have no doubt that micfo can contact bodhost whenever they like seeing as there relations just last year were in their words "a partnership", now they want me to pay yet another $3000 and bodhost are keeping quiet and making my files impossible to download that micfo in their most recent emails are saying they can fix if I simply send them my log in details and sign up for their new service.

[chandrika]

The initial letter I received from Micfo on 21st November 2009 stated the following


Dear Clare Ross,

Further to my previous post, committed to providing our clients with the best and most reliable infrastructure, Micfo continuously refines its technology and hardware.

I'm glad to announce that as a part of our continued quality assurance and improvement strategy, Micfo shall be migrating its servers from the current datacenter to its new facilities. Multiple datacenters strategically located and directly connected to the Internet backbone, guaranteeing perfect hosting solutions and the most redundant high speed possible.

Our state-of-the-art datacenters comprise high-quality connectivity, networking gear, climate control, secure physical access and redundant power sources. We also guarantee 99.9% network up-time, with zero packet loss and extensive peering with all major backbones. Furthermore the migration will not only improve the connectivity of our networks, but it will ensure the ultimate reliability and fast load time for your data. So of the key features of our new facilities are as follow:


1. sFlow-optimized: Smart routing network with extensive peering with all major backbones.
2. DOS Protection: Global protection against distributed Denial of Service.
3. Brocade Redundant Network Engineering: Fully redundant network with up to 1.92 Tbps internal capacity.
4. Congestion-Free Multihomed Network: Congestion-free upstream connections to Internap, XO, Mzima, and nLayer.
5. 99.9% Network Uptime: Zero packet loss over our internal network and 99.9% uptime (SLA)
6. Staffed 24x7 : Our facilities are staffed 24x7 by experienced systems and network engineers.


I find it necessary to reassure you that the migration itself shall involved zero downtime, as long as your domain names are pointed to our name servers (ns1.micfo.com and ns2.micfo.com). For those of you which are using your own name servers (ns1/ns2.yourdomain.com), you will need to update your DNS records prior to the migration. It will need to be updated no later by November 29th, which should be pointed to the following IPs as follows:

ns1 - 70.32.39.123
ns2 - 174.34.135.99

For the resellers, if you want to move from ns1/ns2.micfo.com to anonymous nameservers, we have ns1/ns2.hostnac.com available, and it is pointed at the following:

ns1 - 70.32.39.124
ns2 - 174.34.135.100

The old nameservers will still be in operation for short time, and it will have the new IPs updated when the accounts are moved to the new servers. Plus, all new servers are under new naming convention, and the reseller server is now named with hostnac.com to separate the micfo.com as customers have requested.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the migration, you may send an email to our migration department (migration@micfo.com).

Thank you again and we look forward to provide you with the most professional solutions and services.

Regards,
Amir Golestan
__________________
Founder & Executive Director
Micfo.com, LLC.
www.micfo.com

[chandrika]

The second post on this thread was NOT an email sent to me on 21st November 2009.....I have corrected it in the above post, as i am unable to delete or edit it and do not know why it staed otherwise, I do not even have such an email from micfo, the email I received is above..
http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/103439-Gigenet-Network-and-their-resellers?p=527645&viewfull=1#post527645

[chandrika]

So anyway after I wrote to micfo and asked them to contact bodhost I received following reply......why should I play man in the middle between these two companies, it is blatantly obvious who is liable from the above email I was sent on 21st November, just before I was rebilled and told that that deal was made with Micfo and had to pay out another $3000


Hello,

Unfortunably, we do not have any relations with them at this point, so you have to deal with them on this problem. So if you want to have that 12 month free hosting, you have to deal with them and have them enforce that agreement, which they are bound to honor at this point. So if they do not want to honor it, then there is nothing we can do for you since you are their customer, not ours.

regards,
russell rademacher | technical director

micfo

[chandrika]

So what do i do, I have the original email that I received November last year, that did NOT mention Bodhost, so do i seek legal advice if neither side is willing to accept responsibility?

[speed]

Seems to be 2 issues here, a technical and contractual.

As bodhost seems to be providing fully managed servers and that's where your server is, it would appear to be their responsibility to resolve the issues to your satisfaction.

Normally I'd say make sure you have backups for everything and full access to the domain registrars, that way if the worst happens you just restore to another provider, but it sounds like they have the only copy of the files and the server is not functional. Once you sort this out it might me worth employing a 3rd party backup service so your backups are not under your hosts control.

Therefore as you're not getting anywhere then assuming you have root access details for the server you do have the option to employ a server admin to resolve the issues or at least get your files off for you so you can move somewhere else, this is what I'd be looking to do at this point.

Once you have your files/sites safe then you would need to talk to a lawyer as to what can/can't be done, you may very well find that there's no comeback on them due to clauses in their terms. I would avoid getting heavy until you have your data unless you feel you've exhausted all other means, but either way you do need to seek professional legal advice.

[netroact]

The first thing I would do is set up an account on a virtual private server (VPS). I had to go through about 10 companies before I realized I needed to be on my own dedicated server. Then I realized I didn't need an expensive dedicated server. A VPS would suffice with the same privileges.
If both servers use cpanel/whm, you might be able to move the acccounts from the other server to the new one from the web host manager (WHM),
Whether it's incompetence, bad service, or a misunderstanding, that doesn't matter now. You need to migrate to a different company as soon as possible. Can you use an FTP to download the files, and then reupload them on the new serve?. If there are too many files and websites to move via FTP, I would at least start downloading the most important stuff now.
I have faced the same situations in the past, and I feel your pain. I hope this works out well for you.

[hotels]

I did a qoogle quickie
http://www.web-hosting-top.com/web-hosting/web-hosting-top.bodhost.com/type/add-review

Maybe you can contact others who have run into this nightmare and see what solutions they used.

Good luck

[speed]

I'll add that if you're going to take legal action stop posting on forums until you've taken legal advice or you might say something that will harm your case or be used against you. You'll have to make your lawyer aware of this thread and any others.

[weegillis]

Yes, do seek legal advice. Name both in your complaint. Seek all costs incurred including a move to another hosting provider. If you are feeling like a victim, then don't exacerbate the situation with public posting, as cautioned above by speed. Go for damages. Get a settlement.

In the meantime, this thread will be suspended. Let us know the outcome, please.