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Must Reach Simon or EIRCA - ASAP for existing server issues!
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-11-2010, 07:03 PM |
Does anyone here know (especially his friends here) how I can reach Simon or anyone at EIRCA? It is vital that I reach them tonight! I have no way whatsoever to contact them and they are my host!! We are having extremely series problems today with both mail & web servers.
Cannot submit a ticket because their site is down as well.
Thank you! |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-11-2010, 10:10 PM |
I cannot believe that nobody here knows or is a friend/acquaintance of Simon's??? I was a member of this site since around 2004, under a similar user name, and have personally conversed with several of Simon's closest friends and business associates via this forum.
Where has everyone gone?
Where has Simon gone?
Where has EIRCA gone?
For no less than the last 8 to 9 hours straight:
- ALL of our sites & client sites have been down.
- ALL of our email & our clients' email has been down.
- The EIRCA website has been down.
- There are no phone numbers that we can call to reach them.
- The ticket system is down.
Is anyone else here an EIRCA customer? Is anyone else having these same issues?
It's bad enough being totally down in every way, but it is extremely embarrassing to have to tell your own clients that you can't fix the problem because you can't reach your upstream provider!!!
Please, please, please... someone, anyone with knowledge of this situation, please respond!!
We are completely helpless at this point and need someone (hopefully Simon or EIRCA) to respond to this plea for assistance. The worst thing is not knowing if this is a temporary situation or if it will never be repaired. I hope it is not the latter!
Please help! |
| Posted by MannDude, 06-11-2010, 10:16 PM |
Technical Contact:
EIRCA Ltd
Simon O'Rourke ()
+1.9028740796
Have you tried the number in their WhoIS information? |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-11-2010, 10:25 PM |
I called that number and got his voicemail. It appears that Simon is at the World Cup... at least that's what I've inferred from his twitter stream.
I'm at a loss too. I've migrated some of my clients over to another host just to get their email back online. It's not the perfect fix, but certainly is a band-aid.
Here's hoping that they'll wake up and get back online soon.
Anyone know what datacenter they're in? I can't recall if it's Softlayer or The Planet. I thought about trying to contact one of those companies to see if they have any idea what's causing the outage.
Glen |
| Posted by MannDude, 06-11-2010, 10:32 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by OnlyOneN
Anyone know what datacenter they're in? I can't recall if it's Softlayer or The Planet. I thought about trying to contact one of those companies to see if they have any idea what's causing the outage.
Glen
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Good question, usually http://www.whoishostingthis.com/eirca.net that would show what Datacenter they're in, but it can't... |
| Posted by mds85, 06-11-2010, 10:50 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by OnlyOneN
Anyone know what datacenter they're in? I can't recall if it's Softlayer or The Planet.
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http://whois.domaintools.com/72.249.46.44
IP resolves to KHNOC which is in Colo4Dallas.. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-11-2010, 10:51 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by SurmountedNET
Technical Contact:
EIRCA Ltd
Simon O'Rourke ()
+1.9028740796
Have you tried the number in their WhoIS information?
|
Thank you SurmountedNET. I hadn't thought of that. I called and left Simon a voice message. Hopefully he will call me.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by OnlyOneN
Anyone know what datacenter they're in? I can't recall if it's Softlayer or The Planet. I thought about trying to contact one of those companies to see if they have any idea what's causing the outage.
Glen
|
Glen,
I think they are at The Planet in Texas if my memory serves me right. But they also have two other centers, one in Washington State and the other in Washington DC. I'm not sure which datacenters are in those locations though.
Our sites are spread onto several servers in several locations... this I know. That scares me even more because they are ALL down! What are the chances that all of the sites and emails would be down in several States at the same time?
I hope they didn't just decide to close up shop without telling anyone! That would be an absolute tragedy for me. |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-11-2010, 11:03 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by b2b3-2
That would be an absolute tragedy for me.
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Yup... you and me both. I'm going try to contact Colo4, The Planet and Softlayer to see if any of them know anything. I've got a server at Softlayer, so maybe they'll be forthcoming.
I'll update this thread with any new info.
Glen |
| Posted by XeHSean, 06-11-2010, 11:57 PM |
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I'll be surprised if the datacenter will help you out. This is very disappointing though that EIRCA has non-existant service right now, especially if your websites are down |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-12-2010, 12:09 AM |
You're right, XeHSean... Softlayer said they feel my pain, but can't help due to security policies.
I found Simon's facebook profile through the Eirca fan page, and sent him a message through there, too.
Any thoughts on what to do next?
Glen |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 12:12 AM |
I agree, but this is not all that unusual lately. The last time I spoke to Simon I think was about 3-5 months ago. We used to talk on the phone fairly often until he sold part of the company.
One of my largest client's CMS website was hacked about 3 months ago and EIRCA basically told me it was my fault and didn't offer any help whatsoever. In fact, they didn't even have a backup of the site and/or database. Very unlike the EIRCA I once knew.
Simon has had problems in the past with DIY (his old company) and now this, but he used to be very involved in the day to day and would bend over backwards to help any way he could. I think that several recent personal tragedies he had to deal with has put him in a different state of mind. Unfortunately, that is now affecting all his clients as well.
Bill |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 12:16 AM |
Glen,
Earlier today, I posted to his personal blog site. I doubt that will get me anywhere though since the last time he posted there was sometime last year.
Bill |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 12:53 AM |
This is really bad. How can a web host survive all day long without having even (1) of their own sites up? I'm beginning to believe they cut the cord here and left us all hanging.
Bill |
| Posted by HostStellar_Jansen, 06-12-2010, 01:08 AM |
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Hopefully you have performed backups of your files just in case anything goes wrong. Have you checked your PM Sent Messages, etc to see if any of the "close friends and business associates" you mentioned are listed there as recipients? |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 01:22 AM |
Hi Jansen [FH],
We do have backups for some of the sites, not very recent though. We have been paying them for several years to perform daily backups for us. That is part of our agreement. But I know what you're saying. We would be in trouble to some extent. "Our bad".
No recipients listed in this PM. They were listed in my old account here from several years ago though. I can't remember who they all were. I'll try looking up my old user name here and see if the old posts still exist. That should yield some of their names.
Bill |
| Posted by MannDude, 06-12-2010, 01:32 AM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by b2b3-2
This is really bad. How can a web host survive all day long without having even (1) of their own sites up? I'm beginning to believe they cut the cord here and left us all hanging.
Bill
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"Lets all go to the World Cup! Servers? I don't want to hear about servers! Put the operation on auto-pilot, paint yourself up, and lets go have some fun!" 
Hope you're able to get ahold of them soon enough, I would like to think a host wouldn't just disappear or 'cut the cord' without first announcing their plans to customers. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-12-2010, 02:04 AM |
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Hope they will soon be up again - have a couple of sites with them. Unfortunately it is not the first time people having problems getting in touch with them - but thought that was solved. |
| Posted by webrajesh, 06-12-2010, 02:15 AM |
Ya, this is turning out to be a nightmare.
Even though we have very less a/cs in EIRCA, we had thought them as an alternative to VORTECH. but when things like SUPPORT went down, we had most of the a/cs from EIRCA.
I do have hopes for them to come back ! (to recover backups and runaway)
Rajesh |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 02:39 AM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by SurmountedNET
"Lets all go to the World Cup! Servers? I don't want to hear about servers!
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Trust me, neither do I! But unfortunately, my clients keep on talking about them. And, the only time my servers are on "auto-pilot" is when they're working.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by SurmountedNET
Hope you're able to get ahold of them soon enough, I would like to think a host wouldn't just disappear or 'cut the cord' without first announcing their plans to customers.
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I would love to be as optimistic as you are, but unfortunately, I was also a victim of the DIY fiasco. Remember that one? I'll never forget it.
Bill |
| Posted by webrajesh, 06-12-2010, 03:32 AM |
I believe the HTTP server needs a restart...
see this :
http://www.checkdns.net/quickcheck.a...net&detailed=1
Found NS record: ns1.eirca.com[72.249.46.41], was resolved to IP address by g.gtld-servers.net
Found NS record: ns2.eirca.com[72.249.46.42], was resolved to IP address by g.gtld-servers.net
Domain has 2 DNS server(s)
CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive
DNS server ns1.eirca.com[72.249.46.41] is alive and authoritative for domain eirca.net
DNS server ns2.eirca.com[72.249.46.42] is alive and authoritative for domain eirca.net
2 server(s) are alive
CheckDNS.NET verifies www servers
Checking HTTP server www.eirca.net [72.249.46.44]
HTTP server www.eirca.net[72.249.46.44] answers on port 80
Received: HTTP/1.1 200 OK (Server: Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) PHP/4.4.7 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_ssl/2.8.31 OpenSSL/0.9.7a) d7a .EIRCA: The Genius Network. . . . . . . Inside EIRCA. . Latest news. . .19b . . (September 1, 2009) . EIRCA Ltd announces new CEO, company sale. . (July 8, 2009) . EIRCA Ltd unveils The Genius Network, new product lines. . (March 10, 2009) . EIRCA Ltd. unveil
Whereas : when I check with one of the domains there
CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive
Error fetching SOA from [75.126.147.204], request timed out. Probably DNS server is offline.
Error fetching SOA from [75.126.147.205], request timed out. Probably DNS server is offline.
Error fetching SOA from [67.228.216.247], request timed out. Probably DNS server is offline.
0 server(s) are alive
No DNS servers alive, tests stopped
JFYKI
Rajesh |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 05:04 AM |
It has now been 14+ hours and our network is still down. I left Simon voice message but still no reply. Their support site is down as well.
Eirca hsphere (at least our cluster) is at Softlayer in Dallas as far as I know.
If anyone has any info please reply. Last week there was also an outage that turned out to be an upstream provider issue and Eirca website and support site also went down but it came back after I believe around 3-4 hours. I asked what happened and they said they were investigating with data center but I never heard back and now no clients can receive any emails, all websites are down and I cannot even connect to the servers in any way for over 14 hours now. It is like the web cannot find the network at all.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 05:19 AM |
If you go to http://twitter.com/simon_orourke Simon replied to a customer that they are aware of the issue and working on it. It does very much so appear he may be at the games.
"we are aware of the outage and currently working on it about 5 hours ago via Twitter for Blackberry". In Eastern standard time, that would be around 1am he replied.
I just wish a support staff would post and give us an idea about what the heck is going on!!
Quietcalm |
| Posted by Lakpura, 06-12-2010, 05:47 AM |
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any update on Eirca? |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 06:06 AM |
Another Erica hsphere dedicated server customer (not reseller plan) told me that service came up and went down again earlier this morning.
Interestingly, some people seem to be able to get to http://www.eirca.net. See this thread http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=955586
It may be an upstream provider issue. But if so.. this is awefully long time. I am of course only speculating.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by mushtaq, 06-12-2010, 06:37 AM |
There has been no support from this company for months, none of my support tickets get answered, I have been trying backup my sites and can't because of some permission or space problem, but no one seem to be running ERICA, I just think this ship is on autopilot heading for the rocks.
I need to just backup few of my sites and move away from this doomed company.
It's a disgusting way to treat customers. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 08:53 AM |
I haven't logged in here for months.. wow.
Eirca is by far the worst hosting company I have worked.
Right now (and for many many hours) everything is down, support is down. 2 days ago their kayako support license expired, could not contact 'em about a server issue - could not upload files to a server, could not login to phpmyadmin, could not login to filebrowser.... that problem was there for days and they did not fixed it... even my backups were corrupted...
The whole network down has happened again for 1 or 2 hours a few weeks ago...
The problem is with eirca network, not sl... none eirca location is online across usa... |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 08:59 AM |
Across the USA? Can you give me an example?
Quietcalm |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 09:02 AM |
The locations at Softlayer: Texas, Washington DC, Seattle...
Only Eirca network is down, Softlayer network operates correctly.. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 09:05 AM |
Eirca.net is coming up... hope it gets resolved quickly..
Hopefully, downtime occured late Friday (till now Saturday) and none angry client has called me. But I am moving all of them right now to another provider... enough is enough. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 09:25 AM |
Still not workig for me.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 10:34 AM |
Erica.net is now coming up for me too. Howevere their hsphere url is still not working. Neither is my hsphere cluster url.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 11:01 AM |
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I've transfered out 5 domains so far... goodbuy Saturday night... |
| Posted by mushtaq, 06-12-2010, 11:05 AM |
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01globalnet, any ideas how to backup mysql database? Like you I was not able to login to phpmyadmin, that's assuming the service gets back online sometime soon. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 11:21 AM |
Latest twitter by Simon...
"Working on a network issue, massive downtime hopefully resolved soon!"
Quietcalm |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 11:45 AM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by mushtaq
01globalnet, any ideas how to backup mysql database? Like you I was not able to login to phpmyadmin, that's assuming the service gets back online sometime soon.
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As the network is down, you cannot access any server - hopefully I keep daily database backups on external servers.
When the servers/network come online, try to login to phpmyadmin from H-sphere. If you cannot login, open a ticket so they can investigate. 2 days ago the whole web3 texas server seemed to have problems, could not write to filesystem, errors while trying to backup mysql etc. |
| Posted by webrajesh, 06-12-2010, 12:15 PM |
Eirca.net loads fine now
http://genius.eirca.net/ shows
-------------------------------------------------
We are aware of an issue affecting all clients at this time and are working to resolve it. More information will be posted shortly
For more immediate updates as they become available, you may also follow Simon O'Rourke on twitter by clicking the button below
Follow simon_orourke on Twitter
------------------- |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-12-2010, 12:20 PM |
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I don't really understand it - does hosting companies not monitor their sites - receiving an alert if they are not up? |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 12:26 PM |
That is not the issue here. The issue is when something like this does happens, and it can happen even to the real big boys, the response is EVERYTHING.
Their support ticket system is on same network. There is no off site way to reach anyone at Eirca. They ditched their phone numbers even. A third party website hosted elsewhere for their own support ticket system would make better sense. Or at very least have one on standby where a simple "A record change" at a registrar would redirect customer to a support site so customer could be well informed.
We afterall have to inform our customers.. but what do we say when we have no idea what is going on.
It is communication failure on a scale that is very uncomfortable. Not to mention costly due to lost customer confidence. There was a complete failure here. Even if Eirca knew of the issue within minutes and starting working on it.... failure remains.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 02:23 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by QuietCalm
... the response is EVERYTHING.
We afterall have to inform our customers.. but what do we say when we have no idea what is going on.
It is communication failure on a scale that is very uncomfortable. Not to mention costly due to lost customer confidence. There was a complete failure here. Even if Eirca knew of the issue within minutes and starting working on it.... failure remains.
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My thoughts EXACTLY!
For months now, EIRCA has been virtually "out of business" in the sense that they have offered absolutely NO WAY to contact them... EVER!! Their phone number has not worked for months or at least no one ever calls you back; Their live chat has never worked; they have not been responding to any tickets for months, or if on the rare occasion they do, it is two or three days later!!
What amazes me the most is the marketing content all over their website... especially the part about their "Cloud Computing" clusters!! Cloud Computing is designed to NEVER go down... 100% up time - 100% of the time, yet they claim that this is the basis of their network! RIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!
Everyone of us were conned by these guys.
The ONLY reasons that I did not leave there months ago are because:
- I have always been friends with Simon and I secretly "hoped" he was always in charge.
- This isn't my #1 gig and I really don't have much time to deal with it.
- I only have a handful of long-time client's.
- I am always strapped for time and I was just crossing my fingers that everything would keep going without any issues.
I realize that this is MY fault as well as theirs. I should have taken my few sites and left long ago. But, that is still NO EXCUSE for EIRCA and their downright lack of concern for their own clients!
I know everyone here will agree that I dropped the ball by staying with them so long, and they're right! But this time around (DIY was the first time), I refuse to take all of the blame for this and think that if not re-compensating for this loss, at the very least EIRCA should OWN UP to their own shortcomings and release a detailed & sincere PUBLIC APOLOGY for this, IF it ever gets resolved, that is!
I personally have had it with Hosting Companies taking everyone's money and wildly claiming all sorts of falsehoods just to keep growing, only to fall apart in the end and leave everyone else holding the bag!
Yes, everyone is responsible for themselves, but let's aim the blame at the source! We all pay varying amounts of money each month based on our own individual needs. And, at least I can speak for myself, I expected to get what I was paying for. That just did not happen!!
STOP ALL OF THE FALSE CLAIMS, OWN UP TO YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES, ADMIT AND APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR OWN FAILURES!!
I know I'VE been apologizing to my clients' for the last two days for this!
Bill |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 02:28 PM |
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Only 2 domains left to transfer... I need a break... |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 02:50 PM |
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You are lucky... my cluster is still not up |
| Posted by mushtaq, 06-12-2010, 02:55 PM |
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I have also transferred my domains from my backups, just have 2 left with databases which I need to backup and can't because I can't because of problems that no-one at ERICA is even trying to fix because just ignore the support tickets. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 03:07 PM |
I have 5 sites left to move and two of them have DB's. I can't back them up either. I cannot even log in to my CP.
No new tweets from Simon... I hope he is enjoying the games! 
Bill |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 03:18 PM |
We have now reached 30 hours here down. Four hours have past since the Simon twitter says "soon".
Am I the only one still not back Online?
QuietCalm |
| Posted by mushtaq, 06-12-2010, 03:23 PM |
You are not alone, you still Calm?  |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 03:55 PM |
I'm still waiting too. I am really sick of trying to explain to my callers why they don't have mail or sites anymore. All I can tell them is that I had trusted an upstream provider who is currently not responding to me and that if I can get this resolved, I will try and make it up to them somehow.
I know for sure I will have to reimburse them for the down time and who knows what else.
My weekend is over. I manage a large senior apartment complex for my main job and I am used to emergencies that sometimes occur on the weekends. But I wasn't expecting to have to deal with this, "this weekend".
This really sucks! |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 04:12 PM |
Hopefully, I had transfered my major clients when the problems appeared more than 1 year ago...
Same here... a ruined Saturday... |
| Posted by devorem, 06-12-2010, 04:15 PM |
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I'm stuck, too. I've got my clients distributed between Eirca and Vortech. I kind of hate to transfer everything over to Vortech since they're struggling through a bankruptcy/restructure or whatever. Any advice there, assuming Eirca comes up long enough for me to be able to do anything? I do have file backups, not sure if I might have some DB sites with no DB backup. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 04:21 PM |
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From my research, Vortech was not stable either. I highly recommend Cartika. I will also signup with Jodohost to host some "minor" clients. |
| Posted by plumsauce, 06-12-2010, 04:27 PM |
genius.eirca.net loads here if that is of any help
and also:
Code:
http://eirca.net/
server seems ok
time taken: 0.547 seconds
average of all server tests: 0.371 seconds
test requested by: xx.xx.xx.xx
reported by newsreports.org
2010.06.12 20:24 GMT
raw http response data
200 OK
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:24:56 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) PHP/4.4.7 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_ssl/2.8.31 OpenSSL/0.9.7a
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.4.7
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/html
So, perhaps a problem isolated to specific network routes? |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 04:43 PM |
That is THEIR website. The networks they manage are stil down.. or at least mine is!
Quietcalm |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 05:32 PM |
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It is ridiculous... if the problem was a network outage it should be solved quickly... its the whole network and eirca cannot control the sl network... did sl shut 'em down? is there a problem with the private label dns? |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 06:07 PM |
Maybe they couldn't pay their bills to their upstream providers. After all, their SSL Cert on their billing site expired months ago and someone else on this thread said earlier that something else had expired.
That might explain why the server can still be found but not accessed.
I know this outage is affecting lots of people, so you'd think that EIRCA management would address this forum with a blanket statement so that we AT LEAST can FEEL that SOMEONE is on it! Kind of hard to know that when reading an hours old line on their site or waiting for Simon to Tweet again from the World Cup! The perception here is that YOU ARE NOT WORKING ON IT.
SO, CAN YOU LET US KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING EIRCA??? 
I would still like to get a few things done today that don't pertain to this situation! |
| Posted by mushtaq, 06-12-2010, 06:21 PM |
I'm just speculating here, because without any real information from the company that's all we can do. Where do we stand if EIRCA can't pay their bills and the service don't come back up online to enable us to backup our data?
Who can we sue and how? Because our customers will want compensation. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 06:34 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by mushtaq
I'm just speculating here, because without any real information from the company that's all we can do. Where do we stand if EIRCA can't pay their bills and the service don't come back up online to enable us to backup our data?
Who can we sue and how? Because our customers will want compensation.
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Good question mushtaq!
I would think that we would sue the parent company, which is EIRCA Ltd. On the other hand, the company has changed hands recently... so I'm not certain who the parent company is now.
Also, suing them would take a long time to resolve and I don't even know if it would do any good, especially if they file for bankruptcy.
To be honest, at this point I just want my sites back! We need to salvage what we can, while we still can, IF WE STILL CAN. I'll worry about suing them later.
In that case though, we may have to sue with a class action lawsuit.
Bill |
| Posted by allsimple, 06-12-2010, 06:34 PM |
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I hope you manage to get your sites sorted out, not a great start to the weekend! |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 06:50 PM |
A trace route to our hsphere cluster nameservers with Eirca ends at 66.228.118.186 - so it resolves all the way to the data center now but is not reaching my servers.
That is VERY concerning.
Also the name server and ip for eirca.net and genius.eirca.net point at collo4dallas. That is not softlayer.. http://www.colo4.com/company.html Spo they got their own sites up by relocating them maybe? Not sure if they were there previous to all this or not.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-12-2010, 07:11 PM |
I was calming down when I read Simon's tweet about the outage soon being resolved but after many more hours have passed with no more information I am getting very worried again. Another sleepness night.
Eirca MUST know the reason... so why is it being kept quiet? This is not looking good at all.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 07:29 PM |
Quote:
Taken Directly from the www.eirca.net website
Uptime: Guaranteed
Uptime guarantees became something of a joke around early 2002. Many web hosting providers were marketing their "awesome uptime guarantee" as the second coming. The punchline was that customers were later informed, via the fine-print hidden in a legal form, they could only claim 10% (-/+) of their monthly subscription fee for significant downtime. Check with your current hosting provider. It is highly likely that they are still operating under the same policy.
In 2005, EIRCA decided to change things up. We introduced "Double Your Money"; the industry's first and only guarantee that gives subscribers double their monthly fees back in the event of an unscheduled outage that last more than 43 minutes in total. You did read that right. A guarantee that gives you the ultimate in protection, and doesn't have you rolling on the floor with laughter (or despair) when it comes in to play. We take your web sites seriously. We don't believe that giving you a credit that wouldn't even buy you a cup of coffee is fair. It's not fair to your users, it's not fair to you.
Read more on the uptime guarantee that has the hosting industry in such a spin.
There are many other aspects to Signature Support. You might not always see or feel them, but for every minute your web site is up, every support ticket you/your users create and every time you read a support document, you are experiencing Signature Support: Technical support the way you want it, the way it should be.
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Anyone wondering about compensation for this disaster can "attempt" to hold EIRCA responsible for their own Uptime Support Guarantee. That's IF you will ever be able to reach them. I highly doubt that any of us ever will, unfortunately.
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| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 07:42 PM |
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Yes, I will try to take the "deal"... - this is the first time I will do it. I do not need the money anyway, I have to do it. I doubt if I ever get the money though... |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 07:47 PM |
Here's the fly in the ointment:
Reading further into their SLA, it states the following:
Quote:
|
In order for you to receive a credit on your account, you must request such credit within seven (7) days after you experienced the down time. You must request credit by submitting a request to accounting, at our helpdesk . For security, the body of this message must contain your domain name, the dates and times of the unavailability of your web site, and such other customer identification requested by EIRCA Ltd. Credits will usually be applied within thirty (30) days of your credit request. Credit to your account shall be your sole and exclusive remedy in the event of an outage.
|
- How can we submit a request for a credit within (7) days when there is no way to contact them?
- How can we submit the request to their helpdesk when it doesn't work?
- All you can possibly receive is a "credit", not a cash back payment, which means that you would have to remain their customer to even take advantage of the credit.
- For people on shared servers, the amount of the credit wouldn't even cover the total compensation they would have to repay to their own customers.
- Most importantly is the last line here: Credit to your account shall be your sole and exclusive remedy in the event of an outage - Which translates into : We are all scr*wed!!
|
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 07:49 PM |
And cancellations... haha
In 2 days, the 5 day period is coming for me... no helpdesk haha. As soon as the servers are online, I grab some data missing (emails, some files etc.) and I cancel asap.
Quote:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...07#post6845307
6) Cancellation policy
EIRCA Ltd reserves the right to cancel service at any time. All fees paid in advance of cancellation will be pro-rated and paid by EIRCA Ltd if EIRCA Ltd institutes it's right of cancellation. Any violation of policies which results in extra costs will be billed to the customer (i.e. transfer, space etc.)
Due to security concerns, all account cancellations must be done via our helpdesk. Phone requests, and email requests will not constitute acceptance of any cancellation.
Liability and Obligations on Cancellation
If the Agreement expires or is cancelled for any reason, EIRCA Ltd is not liable to you because of the expiration or cancellation for compensation, reimbursement or damages on account of the loss of prospective profits, anticipated sales, goodwill or on account of expenditures, investments, leases or commitments in connection with your business, or for any other reason whatsoever flowing from the termination or expiration.
If you terminate this Agreement, EIRCA Ltd will not relieve you of any obligations to pay fees and costs accrued before the termination date or any other amounts you owe to EIRCA Ltd under this Agreement.
Cancellations are based on a five (5) day notification period. We require a five (5) day notice of cancellation. All fees due within that five (5) business day period will be processed unless specifically noted by a EIRCA Ltd representative via our helpdesk. All cancellations must be made with the following points in mind:
1: By submitting a cancellation request, you expressly agree that EIRCA Ltd is not liable to you because of the expiration or cancellation for compensation, reimbursement or damages on account of the loss of prospective profits, anticipated sales, goodwill or on account of expenditures, investments, leases or commitments in connection with your business, or for any other reason whatsoever flowing from the account cancellation.
2: If your cancellation request also includes a request for a credit to your account, you must send all documentation of the respective outage report to us within the afore mentioned five day period. Failure to provide full documentation of; 1: The affected domain, 2:the date of the outage, and 3: the length of the outage, will render your credit request null and void.
3: By not responding to this cancellation request ticket within five days, you are expressly requesting that EIRCA Ltd remove all data pertaining to your account, from our servers.
4: If this cancellation request has been inputted, and your account is currently in an overdue state, this cancellation does not remove your responsibility to settle all amounts owed to EIRCA Ltd. EIRCA Ltd will not relieve you of any obligations to pay fees and costs accrued before the termination date or any other amounts you owe to EIRCA Ltd under this Agreement. Unpaid accounts are purchased by a contracted agency, namely "Contact Resource Services Inc." Failure to remit all outstanding balances to EIRCA Ltd will also affect your credit rating.
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| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 08:06 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 01globalnet
I grab some data missing (emails, some files etc.) and I cancel asap.
|
Just curious and playing the devil's advocate here 01globalnet, but, how are you going to cancel? 
Bill |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-12-2010, 08:14 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by b2b3-2
Just curious and playing the devil's advocate here 01globalnet, but, how are you going to cancel?
Bill |
If the helpdesk is still offline, I will post the cancellation request here and at twitter and i will send it via email (even if I do not get a ticket id, 99% i will not get a ticket id as their kayako licence had expired and their system seems to be down...). And I will not pay my next bill as I will not use their services anymore. Fair? It is their problem that their helpdesk is offline... they should have a term: if our helpdesk is offline, make a cancellation request at our support forum at WHT hahah! |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-12-2010, 09:04 PM |
Fair enough!
EIRCA's legal speak was written to shield them in just about every situation that could possibly arise from any negligence on their part. If a judge decides to uphold their position based on their posted legal content, the rest of us (EIRCA's Customers) would be out in the cold.
Hopefully, the content of this and any other threads pertaining to this particular issue, would help us all justify our own actions based on our right to protect our own businesses.
This remains to be seen, however.
Bill |
| Posted by plumsauce, 06-12-2010, 10:48 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by QuietCalm
That is THEIR website. The networks they manage are stil down.. or at least mine is!
Quietcalm
|
Of course it's *their* website. The two hosts were specifically mentioned as being down. And, as being on their own network. So, that was the basis for the comment.
As for *your* websites, guess you can look for yourself. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-13-2010, 02:50 AM |
From genius.eirca.net:
Update (12:35am June 13th): We are currently trying to work with Parallels to fix the current issues. We now expect we may not hear more from them until Monday morning.
We understand that this outage is very prolonged and thank you for your patience as we try and resolve this matter
Seems it might take some time before our sites is up and running. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-13-2010, 09:36 AM |
This is completely unacceptable. Parallels? They are telling us the problem is something Parallels has to fix?? This outage is not just for Eirca's reseller hosting hsphere cluster(s). It is also for Dedicated hsphere clusters like we have under Eirca's management. And we pay a pretty penney for it.
Our hsphere cluster Nameservers are resolving to the data center and just stop. Firewall issue? No. If so, they would not have to wait for Parallels for help as parallels is a control panel software company. They have nothing to do with the hardware other then hsphere based servers at the data center. It is not servers being down.. so what does that leave?
I am wondering if the data center bills have been paid at this point. Speculation? Yes it is. I am the first to admit I may be wrong. But tickets can be placed to parallels for any issue 24/7. We are Parallels customers for our new Plesk hosting environment network. Their sales/billing desk is Mon-Fri though. But just paying parallels any license money owing still does not explain why our hsphere 3.1 cluster is not online now.
Hsphere license issue? Well, maybe for those that upgrade to hsphere 3.2/3.3, but we did not upgrade and Parallels made it clear to me that it is ok to continue with ver 3.1 but that they would not be able to support it is all. As we are in the middle of migrating there is no reason for us to upgrade and so if it was a licensing issue with Parallels... we would still be up and online.
Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Today at noon will be 50 hours downtime. Fifty freakin hours! And by monday at noon, 75 hours down. I cannot believe this is happenning with Eirca. This will kill many customer relationships. Any compensation Eirca gives, if any, is pittly money in comparison.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-13-2010, 11:14 AM |
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I think we are in the middle of a sale. The other company is transferring sites away? |
| Posted by mushtaq, 06-13-2010, 11:15 AM |
It's a very unprofessional way to run a business and to treat your customers, EIRCA or Simon O'Rourke should have the courage and come clean and tell their paying customers what the problems are and try to resolve them, we are all adults here and know there can be problems, sometimes things are out of our control, but these BS excuses and silence for all these hours is not acceptable.
So come on Simon tell us what's really going on and let us at least get our data so we can move on and leave you to enjoy your game. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-13-2010, 02:41 PM |
If Simon and EIRCA just stopped for one second and realized that this issue isn't just affecting THEIR clients' (us), but it is affecting potentially thousands of our clients' as well!
I only have a few accounts, but they are with some Large U.S. companies. I am a developer. I only offer them hosting as a convenience service.
One of them has been contacting me every 1 to 2 hours asking if the problem has been resolved yet. And when I tell them that it has not, but we are doing all we can to fix it, they want to know:
- What are you doing to resolve this?
- How did this happen in the first place?
- What major changes are you going to put in place so that this never happens again?
- How could a professional hosting company let it get this bad?
- Are you using faulting hardware or software?
- We are completely shut down over this, how are you going to compensate us for that?
- This can never happen again, so how can you guarantee us that it won't?
THEY HAVE HAD NO COMPANY EMAIL ALL WEEKEND LONG INCLUDING FRIDAY, NOT TO MENTION, NO WEBSITE EITHER!!!
When EIRCA doesn't communicate with US, how are we supposed to communicate with OUR Customers?
EIRCA and EVERY hosting company should have at least one individual in place that keeps the lines of communications open, with everyone, throughout every crises like this! To leave us all hanging for dozens of hours and multiple days, relying only on two posted messages that basically say:
"We can't tell you what's wrong and we can't tell you when it will be fixed, but we're real sorry!"
THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL SERVICE COMPANY???
What am I supposed to tell my clients when I don't even know myself? Do I have to lie to them because I'm too embarrassed to tell them the real reason?
How would they view my competence if I tell them that the company I've put my trust into simply doesn't care what anyone else is going through, and so therefore isn't doing anything about it!
In fact, they aren't even telling US what is wrong in the first place!
Even if you ARE trying to fix this problem EIRCA, your lack of Public Relations makes it look like you don't care and that you are deceiving all of us.
I guess that makes ME a total FOOL for trusting you!
I have had to overlook problems with EIRCA's service in the past, mainly because it is such a hassle having to move accounts to another server, but this one cannot be overlooked.
Right now, all I want to do is gain access to my accounts so I can back them up and go elsewhere. You have embarrassed me long enough! |
| Posted by SimonMc, 06-13-2010, 03:36 PM |
|
Wow, I almost went with these a couple of years ago. I feel for you guys who are in this hell right now. I would be devastated! |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-13-2010, 03:58 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 01globalnet
I think we are in the middle of a sale. The other company is transferring sites away?
|
I don't think that is it. The new company would have a vested interest to make such a transfer smooth and to keep things online.
And I know about DIY sale. I was there too. Simon is the one who got the shaft too as the company that orginally bought did not keep up their end of the deal. In fact, I think Simon had to go after them, lawyers and all and then they sold DIY again to another company... it was a mess but I don't think Simon meant to be that way honestly. I loved DIY hosting until then so when Eirca got back in to hsphere, hosting and dedicated hsphere clusters... I was excited and decided on them to expand my operations. Was great until mid 2009.
Anyway... don't think it is a sale. If anything Simon may want to take back the company completely to get things back where they should be. Again.. just my opinion.
One thing is for sure... in this business it has been my experience that such things happen always at the worst time.. going on vacation, weekend is here... don't know why.. but it has been my experience anyway in the last 14 years in this biz.
Being down this long is wicked bad but the lack of communication and details is what is making this worse I think.
Quietcalm |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-13-2010, 06:50 PM |
I'll say it again, I think they got cut off by Softlayer. Parallels is not the culprit here. They were probably given an extended window to cover their costs to Softlayer and simply didn't meet that deadline. Why would they move their own website to another data center to bring it online? Why not just use Softlayer if the problem is really with Parallels?
If it is a payment issue, they are probably just too embarrassed to go public with that. Instead, they are probably trying to move everything to another data center.
Long, long process...
Sorry to have to post my "opinions" on this publicly, but I wouldn't have to guess what was happening if they would just tell us.
If my guess is correct, we all are going to have a much longer wait. |
| Posted by devorem, 06-13-2010, 08:38 PM |
|
I paid my Eirca bill, I'd like to think Eirca paid their bills. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-13-2010, 09:08 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by devorem
I paid my Eirca bill, I'd like to think Eirca paid their bills.
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ME TOO devorem! |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-13-2010, 10:29 PM |
Twitter
Realtime results for #eirca
1. simon_orourke not much going right this weekend. #eirca outage still in effect and no Parallels response in sight. Seriously annoyed and lacking sleep!
about 8 hours ago via web |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-13-2010, 11:01 PM |
|
I am not sure I buy the parallels thing either... what would they do to fix this??? Does not make much sense to me. i would like to have Eirca explain what it is Parallels has to do to fix this? |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-13-2010, 11:15 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by QuietCalm
I am not sure I buy the parallels thing either... what would they do to fix this??? Does not make much sense to me. i would like to have Eirca explain what it is Parallels has to do to fix this?
|
Like you mentioned yourself earlier in this thread QuietCalm, Parallels Tech Support is 24/7/365. If they have to wait until Monday to talk with them, that would probably be their Sales Department working Monday through Friday. Why would they need to talk with their sales department to fix a technical issue?
Does this make sense to anybody?
It would seem to me that a company the size of EIRCA would be an important asset to Parallels. Don't you think if their software was causing an issue of this magnitude, they would be jumping through hoops trying to get it repaired? Not telling them that they must wait until Monday for a solution.
Just doesn't seem plausible even if EIRCA was a small company. Parallels reputation would be at stake here. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-14-2010, 12:12 AM |
Usually that is true but when it comes to Parallels support... Parallels has been making some drastic internal changes too. I believe they actually ditched a good chunk of the old psoft team and moved office to the USA. I have been dealing mainly with the Plesk side of things, a different support team because we created our new MVC Cloud hosting network at 151 Front street data center in Toronto. Even on Plesk - their main product moving forward, support has started lacking.
But again, I just can't see what Parallels would have to do with Eirca network not being accessible, including their managed dedicated servers. Our nameservers on a trace route shows that it does resolve to the Data Center now. At first it did not. So there may have likely been originally an upstream provider issue like we had two Fridays ago. Maybe this is two issues... an upstream issue which got resolved around 11am Saturday and then something else regarding Eirca Network on Saturday.
I mean...I don't know Eirca's network in and out... but Parallels is a control panel company focussing on virtualization. What could it possibly be? License issue is the only thing i can think of but even then.. something does not add up to me. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-14-2010, 12:28 AM |
|
I will be calling my contacts at Parallels Monday to see what they have to say about all this. We have invested a lot of money in our Toronto Parallels Business Automation cloud hosting network and 1/4 through migrations we are dead in the water. We spend alot with them and I hope to get some answers. And if it is a Parallels issue.. it can only help push them to resolution. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-14-2010, 12:40 AM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by QuietCalm
I have been dealing mainly with the Plesk side of things, a different support team because we created our new MVC Cloud hosting network at 151 Front street data center in Toronto.
|
You are probably much more knowledgeable then I am about cloud computing. So, let me create a scenario here for a moment...
If hardware or software develops a problem on a node within a cloud cluster, isn't it designed to instantly transfer data to another node on the network to virtually eliminate any downtime?
From what I've heard, cloud based networks have 100% up-time availability based on this sole premise. Is this wrong?
I ask this because EIRCA claims that their new "Genius Network" is exactly that, a cloud based network environment.
If the issue is being caused by either licensing or payment, then the cloud aspect would be a moot point. But if it is being caused by hardware or software failure, wouldn't the cloud network correct this problem?
Please help to explain cloud networking to me as it "may" pertain to this situation. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-14-2010, 02:33 AM |
I do not either get the Parallels thing. Eirca is a partner of Parallels with thousands of licences, so Parallels could support Eirca in the middle of a weekend!
And Eirca genius marketing network is not so genius... they simply use the cloud offering of Softlayer. And only 1 linux machine (web07 from Washingnton DC, now called linuxpod something) was transfered to a cloud instance (plus a windows machine winpod...)... So, I do not think it has to do something with the cloud and automatic recovery.
Probably there is a bug in control panel / dns zones etc.? But even the IP's cannot be reached / pinged... |
| Posted by webrajesh, 06-14-2010, 06:04 AM |
This might be definitely a PAYMENT issue.
Similar thing happened to VORTECH and we had 11 hours downtime...
We have already moved most of the sites and clients are co-operating on this.
Its better to move away rather than wait.. |
| Posted by Lakpura, 06-14-2010, 07:54 AM |
|
this part of the world (GMT+6) we are ending one of the worst mondays of the past seven years. 20% of the customers wanted to move away and the rest we are trying to move. with no information on hand, move is painfull as well. we wish good luck for the people on the otherwise of the world who is waking up for a bitter monday. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-14-2010, 08:41 AM |
I have transferred all site since Saturday night. No reason to wait. I wanted to move away for a long time now, but transferring sites is always a pain (I wished there was an h-sphere to h-sphere migration tool like cpanel full backup).
I just want my clients to get some emails that delivered to their mailboxes prior to downtime, and get a few files as well. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-14-2010, 08:43 AM |
This is going to be one of the biggest hosting fiasco... we are reaching 3 total days of downtime.
What about the clients that have DEDICATED machines (they do not use private hsphere dns or have cpanel etc.)? If those clients are suffering downtime, then yes it's a payment issue to Softlayer.... |
| Posted by Yash-JH, 06-14-2010, 08:54 AM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 01globalnet
This is going to be one of the biggest hosting fiasco... we are reaching 3 total days of downtime.
|
I've seen worse 
Not commenting on this host, but unless your host owns their own infrastructure and has a real 24x7 in-house team (and I say it again, you need several people to accomplish this) - I don't think they can guarantee long-term stability. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-14-2010, 11:21 AM |
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Just curious - I live in Europe - Is it not Monday morning yet? |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-14-2010, 11:45 AM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by pesnax
Just curious - I live in Europe - Is it not Monday morning yet?
|
It is indeed...
Eastern: 11:45 AM
Central: 10:45 AM
Mountain: 9:45 AM
Pacific: 8:45 AM
Maybe Simon flew to Hawaii where it's only 5:45 AM.
Glen |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-14-2010, 12:20 PM |
This issue will not be resolved for a lot longer period of time.
They (EIRCA) have been obviously trying to string us all along for as long as possible in order to minimize the customer losses they will ultimately experience.
Friday June 11th at: 11:30pm - Simon Tweets from The World Cup:
- "We are aware of the outage and currently working on it"
Saturday June 12th at: 10:12am - Simon tweets & posted on website:
- "Working on a network issue, massive downtime hopefully resolved soon!"
Saturday June 12th at: 10:35am - Simon tweets from The World Cup:
- "network issue is looking like it should be resolved soon. working while watching not much we can do remotely on this issue"
Sunday June 13th at 12:35am - Website posts:
- "We are currently trying to work with Parallels to fix the current issues. We now expect we may not hear more from them until Monday morning. We understand that this outage is very prolonged and thank you for your patience as we try and resolve this matter"
Sunday June 13th at approx: 1:00pm - Simon tweets from The World Cup:
- "not much going right this weekend. #eirca outage still in effect and no Parallels response in sight. Seriously annoyed and lacking sleep!
It's very obvious to me that they know exactly what is wrong, they know they don't have a solution for it, and they are throwing out whatever excuses they can think of in the hopes that we all just wait around for the fix.
Most of you have already left there and some of us have not, YET, but I would bet that EVERYONE will leave there in the very near future.
It wouldn't even surprise me if they knew this was coming even before it became an issue, but had no way of stopping it.
Miserable situation for everyone involved. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-14-2010, 01:44 PM |
New tweet from Simon, about an hour old:
"now working toward a resolution with parallels. could be back soon" |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-14-2010, 03:14 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by b2b3-2
New tweet from Simon, about an hour old:
"now working toward a resolution with parallels. could be back soon"
|
"Could" be back soon. OMG... what the hell does that mean?? |
| Posted by dave - just199, 06-14-2010, 03:36 PM |
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So.. save your business or watch the world cup... Hmm decisions decisions.. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-14-2010, 04:34 PM |
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Is all the staff at the world cup - or is it a one man business? |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-14-2010, 06:04 PM |
Hi,
I spoke with parallels sales desk as we are a customer for our Plesk network in Toronto.
He is looking into this for me. With our hsphere cluster our licenses are already paid for so it is not that the licenses in our cluster were not paid - they were paid, yet.. our cluster is down.
Pinging nameservers stops at the data center and does not go further to our hsphere cluster... and this is a parallels issue? I really wonder about that.
Waiting to see what the escalation at parallels comes back with. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-14-2010, 07:26 PM |
Well, today has been very eventful for me! I lost my three largest clients that have been with me since 2004.
Two more are on the verge of leaving and that wipes my very small hosting business clear off the map.
I wouldn't care so much about losing just their hosting business, but I am a developer and I lost that connection too.
Thanks for all of your help Simon! 
|
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-14-2010, 09:00 PM |
Sorry to hear that b2b3. That sucks. Couldn't you change the dns and host these clients elsewhere? So that they can have at least email services?
From my experience as a hosting reseller, I trust none provider, I always see instability after a period of time. To help me move easier the sites from server to server I now host almost all emais at google apps, so transferring a site is easier (no need to migrate email accounts etc.).
Were you also in charge to keep any backups of their data?
These situations always suck... although I was prepared for such situations, the hours I have spent are too much... many many hours... |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-14-2010, 10:12 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 01globalnet
Sorry to hear that b2b3. That sucks. Couldn't you change the dns and host these clients elsewhere? So that they can have at least email services?
From my experience as a hosting reseller, I trust none provider, I always see instability after a period of time. To help me move easier the sites from server to server I now host almost all emais at google apps, so transferring a site is easier (no need to migrate email accounts etc.).
Were you also in charge to keep any backups of their data?
These situations always suck... although I was prepared for such situations, the hours I have spent are too much... many many hours...
|
Well, I kind of blame myself to some degree. I had backup's for some of my smaller site customers, but not recent ones for the CMS sites and DB's.
Also, about 1-1/2 years ago I took my present job, which is managing a large senior apartment complex. I had to with the way the economy was going and the fact that web dev is not on many people's minds when they are laying people off.
This new job takes ALL of my time and I have not always been there for them when they needed me. So, I guess the writing was on the wall.
The worst thing though is that the clients that left today never even told me they were leaving. They simply went to various hosts and had their Name Servers changed to start the propagation process. I didn't know they did that until AFTER, when they decided to call and tell me. They were not happy having to leave their sites behind either and made it clear that I need to provide them as soon as I can.
This is probably a good thing. I'm getting too old for this anyway. I should just be thankful that I have the management job and forget about this business.
After 11 years at this, I SHOULD have been prepared as you are/were, but I guess that just goes to show how distracted I've been with my job. I should have seen this coming.
I'll be fine!  |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-15-2010, 01:37 AM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 01globalnet
This is going to be one of the biggest hosting fiasco... we are reaching 3 total days of downtime.
What about the clients that have DEDICATED machines (they do not use private hsphere dns or have cpanel etc.)? If those clients are suffering downtime, then yes it's a payment issue to Softlayer....
|
This is what I have been stating in this thread... ours is a dedicated hsphere cluster with licenses paid long ago., Paralles would not even shut down the licenses as they are 3.1 and paid up. So why is our dedicated hsphere cluster down too?
I am really thinking this may be the data center not being paid. We shall see. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-15-2010, 04:52 AM |
|
Does anyone have any contact in Softlayer? So, that they can at least restore access for some hours and let people get some data back...? (if it is not a Parallels issue of course..). |
| Posted by dave - just199, 06-15-2010, 07:56 AM |
1. start hosting company
2. use proceeds to attend world cup
3. normally you would put $profit$ here but evidently that's not the motivation.. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-15-2010, 11:45 AM |
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This is really beginning to be ridiculous anyone heard anything from Eirca the last 23 hours. |
| Posted by SimonMc, 06-15-2010, 11:56 AM |
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23 hours, hasn't this been going on Since last Friday? |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-15-2010, 12:04 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by SimonMc
23 hours, hasn't this been going on Since last Friday?
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Yes - but 23 hours since last twitter update. |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-15-2010, 12:10 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by pesnax
This is really beginning to be ridiculous anyone heard anything from Eirca the last 23 hours.
|
I received an email from Simon yesterday at 11:55 AM CDT.
"Yes, we`re still here. We are desperately working on the issues with Parallels, per the recent announcement. We hope dearly to have this resolved today.
If you do not get immediate responses from us, that`s because we are working on resolving the issue and have no fresh updates"
I guess technically that's right at 23 hours ago, but thought you might like to know anyway.
Glen |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-15-2010, 12:14 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by OnlyOneN
I received an email from Simon yesterday at 11:55 AM CDT.
"Yes, we`re still here. We are desperately working on the issues with Parallels, per the recent announcement. We hope dearly to have this resolved today.
If you do not get immediate responses from us, that`s because we are working on resolving the issue and have no fresh updates"
I guess technically that's right at 23 hours ago, but thought you might like to know anyway.
Glen
|
Don't understand why they do not update us regularly and also telling us exactly what the problems is? |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 01:46 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by OnlyOneN
I received an email from Simon yesterday at 11:55 AM CDT.
"Yes, we`re still here. We are desperately working on the issues with Parallels, per the recent announcement. We hope dearly to have this resolved today.
If you do not get immediate responses from us, that`s because we are working on resolving the issue and have no fresh updates"
I guess technically that's right at 23 hours ago, but thought you might like to know anyway.
Glen
|
Glen,
Were you the only one who received this email, because I never got one??? |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-15-2010, 02:46 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by b2b3-2
Glen,
Were you the only one who received this email, because I never got one???
|
Hard to say, Bill... I've been sending him 1-2 emails per day asking for an update. So far, nothing since that email.
QuietCalm, any news from Parallels?
Glen |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-15-2010, 03:11 PM |
|
4 total days of downtime.. awesome! |
| Posted by sadfjhlsad, 06-15-2010, 03:44 PM |
This is what is happening. They are delinquent on their account and the situation is severe. Believe it or not, we received an email from EIRCA demanding payment for the next ‘N’ months of service and offering a matching number of months as free service. Further they cited this is the only way to get the machines back online given the pending Parallels matter.
Not sure what to make of this; to us it appears to be a money grab. We have already experienced instances (in the 8 months) where payments were made for an item/service yet never rendered nor an explanation or clarification provided. As far as their credibility is concerned, given their performance and behavior there is every bit of reluctance to even consider their generous offer.
I always read on WHT about issues and seldom contribute. Figured given the gravity of the situation it was time to share the knowledge we have since this information is critical on how our jeopardized businesses need to proceed.
I will conclude by saying it is a shame for Simon and his team. And this statement is at a very personal level. They’ve always had a responsibility to not just us but our numerous end customers. The way he has operated his company is not reminiscent of their values and an utter betrayal of the trust we have put behind his ventures. He has jeopardized livelihoods of a significant amount of people directly or indirectly by conducting himself in this manner.
Keen to note how the company is in disarray, customers and their customers are stressed beyond imagination and Simon's twitter feeds indicate they are thoroughly enjoying the soccer world cup.
Good luck to everyone. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-15-2010, 04:33 PM |
A message to Simon: your helpdesk is not online, so we cannot send a cancellation request - I sent an email to support<>genius.eirca.net and returned back. I sent to support<>eirca.net but no ticket id.
Invoice is due on 20th, so I sent the cancellation 6 days before according to your terms.
No payment will be given for this invoice of course, as I am cancelling. Just null the invoice/give credit so that we can get some data back.
|
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-15-2010, 04:36 PM |
You better take 'em to court and fill compaints with bbb or similar organisation.
Simon has money to travel to South Africa, but no money to pay the bills?
This is becoming a joke.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by sadfjhlsad
This is what is happening. They are delinquent on their account and the situation is severe. Believe it or not, we received an email from EIRCA demanding payment for the next N months of service and offering a matching number of months as free service. Further they cited this is the only way to get the machines back online given the pending Parallels matter.
Not sure what to make of this; to us it appears to be a money grab. We have already experienced instances (in the 8 months) where payments were made for an item/service yet never rendered nor an explanation or clarification provided. As far as their credibility is concerned, given their performance and behavior there is every bit of reluctance to even consider their generous offer.
I always read on WHT about issues and seldom contribute. Figured given the gravity of the situation it was time to share the knowledge we have since this information is critical on how our jeopardized businesses need to proceed.
I will conclude by saying it is a shame for Simon and his team. And this statement is at a very personal level. Theyve always had a responsibility to not just us but our numerous end customers. The way he has operated his company is not reminiscent of their values and an utter betrayal of the trust we have put behind his ventures. He has jeopardized livelihoods of a significant amount of people directly or indirectly by conducting himself in this manner.
Keen to note how the company is in disarray, customers and their customers are stressed beyond imagination and Simon's twitter feeds indicate they are thoroughly enjoying the soccer world cup.
Good luck to everyone.
|
|
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-15-2010, 04:41 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by 01globalnet
Does anyone have any contact in Softlayer? So, that they can at least restore access for some hours and let people get some data back...? (if it is not a Parallels issue of course..).
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I did contact Softlayer.. policy policy forbids them getting involved. Plus contractual agreements are in place etc with customers. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-15-2010, 04:48 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by OnlyOneN
Hard to say, Bill... I've been sending him 1-2 emails per day asking for an update. So far, nothing since that email.
QuietCalm, any news from Parallels?
Glen
|
Not yet. The ticket was escalated yesterday. I just called sales desk for an update and left a message with our representative.
I SERIOUSLY doubt this is a paralleles issue. More like a did not pay data center issue. I mean... parallels has already confirmed with me that the license on our hsphere 3.1 cluster were purchased in 2004 and fully paid. If it was licence issue - at least our cluster would still be online. |
| Posted by ldcdc, 06-15-2010, 04:53 PM |
Quote:
1. start hosting company
2. use proceeds to attend world cup
3. normally you would put $profit$ here but evidently that's not the motivation..
|
Eirca definitely didn't start out like that. They're an old host, and from what I read over here in time, it looks like life dealt Simon some hard deals, probably more than he could deal with (in the offline world).
I'm not saying that the picture is pretty, it's not. But Eirca was not thought out as a get rich quick scheme. That the owner (major shareholder) may no longer be so involved in the business, and that he's changed some priorities in his life and the business is now suffering tremendously as a result, is one thing. That the customers chose to wait for so long while fully aware that contacting the company was getting hard, is another thing. |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-15-2010, 04:54 PM |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by sadfjhlsad
This is what is happening. They are delinquent on their account and the situation is severe. Believe it or not, we received an email from EIRCA demanding payment for the next ‘N’ months of service and offering a matching number of months as free service. Further they cited this is the only way to get the machines back online given the pending Parallels matter.
Not sure what to make of this; to us it appears to be a money grab. We have already experienced instances (in the 8 months) where payments were made for an item/service yet never rendered nor an explanation or clarification provided. As far as their credibility is concerned, given their performance and behavior there is every bit of reluctance to even consider their generous offer.
I always read on WHT about issues and seldom contribute. Figured given the gravity of the situation it was time to share the knowledge we have since this information is critical on how our jeopardized businesses need to proceed.
I will conclude by saying it is a shame for Simon and his team. And this statement is at a very personal level. They’ve always had a responsibility to not just us but our numerous end customers. The way he has operated his company is not reminiscent of their values and an utter betrayal of the trust we have put behind his ventures. He has jeopardized livelihoods of a significant amount of people directly or indirectly by conducting himself in this manner.
Keen to note how the company is in disarray, customers and their customers are stressed beyond imagination and Simon's twitter feeds indicate they are thoroughly enjoying the soccer world cup.
Good luck to everyone.
|
This seems a good assement but are they not paid with parallels or data center? Also, you do not mention who you are in this post so we really don't know if it is true or not, although I admit it is interesting. None of us have received such a email from Simon.. why you and only you? Not acussing you here at all.. may be all 100% true as well but just seems an anonymous tip of info and more information we cannot neccessarily rely on. |
| Posted by sadfjhlsad, 06-15-2010, 05:32 PM |
The picture so far is convoluted as to what party is owed monies; obviously we have no insight on the matter from their management. From the diligence we have exercised in approaching parties involved the indication is that it is the Data Center. Logically if it were owed to Parallels it will be a smaller bill that I am certain they would have been able to settle fairly quickly. That leaves behind the data center as the only other option. From their perspective it would not reflect too well if they openly disclosed the fact that they are behind on their payments with the DC. Even the email sent to us makes an inference to Parallels and not the DC.
I remember postings from last year where EIRCA or Simon boasted about securing a good chuck of VC funding and also being a company that owns the most 'some' form of estate in the province. Why the liquidity then? Given the nature of the business if they are unable to maintain uptime, not many customers will be inclined to pay. If the revenue stream is cut off it makes me wonder how this bill will be settled. Assuming it is a matter of an unsettled payment.
I can understand your apprehension in accepting my claims but it is only EIRCA that can validate my identity. I prefer discretion and will maintain that stance. If Simon wants to come to the forum and explain himself then I will gladly oblige and disclose who I am. Given how he has turned away from being active here since last year I doubt this will ever occur.
We don't have a reseller account or 1 server with EIRCA. We are one of their big accounts. If you assume our monthly bill is $3,000 and they ask for 6 months of payment, you are looking at $18,000. It would make sense to pursue a few large accounts and black mail them as opposed to reaching the masses for collecting on a certain amount and get such details out in public. |
| Posted by plumsauce, 06-15-2010, 05:38 PM |
Was it not mentioned somewhere further up that Simon is no longer the owner, but a manager/employee?
If so, it would appear to be the usual "leveraged buyout" scenario. The new owner(s) destabilised the company by not paying the bills to finance the purchase itself. The old owner cannot be faulted for that.
The reported recent "pay X months ahead for a future X months free" is really an attempt to get financing by putting the clients into the position of unsecured lenders to the new owner(s). They want the customers to become finance companies of last resort. This is after they have already blown the money that was supposed to be used to pay for the licenses. So, where is the money for the future license fees going to come from during the "free" months? It's stealing from Peter to pay Paul. |
| Posted by the_pm, 06-15-2010, 05:47 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by plumsauce
Was it not mentioned somewhere further up that Simon is no longer the owner, but a manager/employee?
|
Just for the sake of accuracy (from the Eirca press release regarding VC funding):
"The sale of 49% of the company is a measured step for EIRCA to establish the company as a major player in the shared and dedicated server markets"
The remaining 51% is owned by Simon, according to our last phone conversation, shortly before we migrated to a new provider last September.
Also, according that same report, Simon is the current SEO:
"Simon O'Rourke, will return to his position as CEO on January 4th, 2010 after taking extended leave from the company."
Take all of that for what you will. That's what the Eirca site and Eirca's press releases are stating. |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-15-2010, 07:00 PM |
sadfjhlsad:
In what situation is now your business?
Can't you go directly at Softlayer and transfer ownership of servers? This means that SL will collect at least something. |
| Posted by sadfjhlsad, 06-15-2010, 07:05 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by plumsauce
Was it not mentioned somewhere further up that Simon is no longer the owner, but a manager/employee?
|
EIRCA Ltd announces new CEO, company sale
Date: September 1, 2009
"EIRCA will still be primarily owned by Mr. O'Rourke and Mr. O'Rourke will still have complete control over the general direction of the company upon his return in January," stated Scheaffer."
Simon was and is still calling the shots last I checked over matters we were involved with.
If he has retained the CEO title then he is accountable for the direction the company has taken or the position it is in. |
| Posted by sadfjhlsad, 06-15-2010, 07:31 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by 01globalnet
In what situation is now your business?
|
The classic f word sums it up real well.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by 01globalnet
Can't you go directly at Softlayer and transfer ownership of servers? This means that SL will collect at least something.
|
It's apparently not so easy to reason with the two parties involved. There are contracts that bind them; liability is another concern in such scenarios. Interestingly, and maybe someone can corroborate this but the DC did make a mention that if an account is delinquent for more than 7 days they erase all data and/or remove the setup. |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 07:54 PM |
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11. Non-Payment: All payments are due in full on the Anniversary Billing Date. Failure to remit payment for services on the monthly anniversary date is a violation of the TOS. Failure to remit payment for five (5) consecutive days, including the Anniversary Billing Date, shall result in a termination of public access to Customer services. Customer will, however, be permitted access to data and services through the service network. Failure to remit payment for services within seven (7) consecutive days, including the Anniversary Billing Date, shall result in termination of access to the service network and all services shall be reclaimed. A late fee of $20 will be incurred for failure to remit payment for services on or before the monthly Anniversary Billing Date. A $50 reconnect fee will be incurred for failure to remit payment for services after public access has been disconnected. All Customer data remaining after seven (7) days of non-payment will be destroyed for security and privacy reasons, unless otherwise required by law. |
| Posted by devorem, 06-15-2010, 07:58 PM |
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Sites are up. Take your data and run for the hills! |
| Posted by devorem, 06-15-2010, 08:03 PM |
Ok. It was up for a few minutes, Watch for it.
simon_orourke tweet:
success. looks like t-60 minutes and everything will be back. what a nightmare
20 minutes ago via web |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 08:16 PM |
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I hope this isn't just a sick tease... |
| Posted by devorem, 06-15-2010, 08:21 PM |
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I really did catch several of the sites up for a few minutes and got some mail from the downed system. I think we're just about there... Hoping. |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 08:22 PM |
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Had "server interrupted" errors for a bit. Now back to "server not found". |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 08:36 PM |
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He's saying "We're back" but my sites aren't coming up |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 08:46 PM |
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Is anyone else up? |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 08:57 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mugg
Is anyone else up?
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NOPE! Not a thing yet... |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 08:59 PM |
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Okay. At least we're not alone. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 09:01 PM |
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Maybe they have to reboot all the servers first... or turn them back on, if they had been off all this time. |
| Posted by devorem, 06-15-2010, 09:09 PM |
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It's weird, because they were (several were, all?) up briefly. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 09:10 PM |
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I'm just watching for my own sites. I lost all the rest of my clients this morning, but I still want their data if I can get it! |
| Posted by QuietCalm, 06-15-2010, 09:34 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by b2b3-2
I'm just watching for my own sites. I lost all the rest of my clients this morning, but I still want their data if I can get it!
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Sorry to hear that. |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 09:36 PM |
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Okay, so it appears some of us are still down. Do you think anyone is actually up? I mean, he said "we're back" but how can we check that? I am guessing he may have gotten his own direct servers up but does anyone know a website on them we can view to test? |
| Posted by devorem, 06-15-2010, 09:48 PM |
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I think we're all still down. |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 09:52 PM |
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Do you think they're even working on it still or have they just taken off again? |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 09:52 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by QuietCalm
Sorry to hear that.
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Thanks QuietCalm.
Simon was right about one thing... this has been a nightmare! But, life goes on.
I hope that the rest of you guys all land on your feet! Your businesses are much larger then mine was anyway. No big deal...
Mugg, I think they had a domain called www.thisishosting.com . That appears to be either down or has expired. |
| Posted by Lakpura, 06-15-2010, 10:17 PM |
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are they up? can you all access hsphere? |
| Posted by Mugg, 06-15-2010, 10:18 PM |
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nope. i'd like to know what simon is talking about. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 10:22 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mugg
Do you think they're even working on it still or have they just taken off again?
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Your guess is as good as mine Mugg.
And no Lakpura, at least I can't. |
| Posted by Lakpura, 06-15-2010, 10:29 PM |
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traceroute to ns1 ip address drops halfway. |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 11:09 PM |
Looks like another long sleepless night on the way... I think I'm going to need to buy some stress pills very soon!  |
| Posted by b2b3-2, 06-15-2010, 11:32 PM |
ns1 and ns2 resolved to IP address by l.gtld-servers.net
Error fetching SOA - no dns servers alive. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-16-2010, 12:41 AM |
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I cannot access: |
| Posted by indeltacommunication, 06-16-2010, 01:35 AM |
I am a former EIRCA customer and feel all of your pain...
One of my CMS sites got hacked last year, and the buggers uploaded one of those all-powerful scripts where they can do anything. Anyhow, they blew away much of my tree and messed with permissions on many folders. OK, my fault for not securing the CMS more, but I thought at least I could count on my host for a backup of the tree and the ability to reset the permissions... Or so you'd think...
My repeated attempts to contact support through all channels took many hours or even days before any response came back. I never did get them to fix the permissions and was never able to retrieve full backups of my files. Repeated requests of EIRCA to either retrieve a fresh backup of my entire tree, or at least reset the permissions on what was left so I could get in to grab it, were either unanswered or dodged, as in "a restore is on the way" when nothing ever changed in terms of the site data.
I was at least able to get confirmation from Simon after I set up business with a new provider (with a few less clients than before), that my cancellation request had been approved and they did not continue to charge me after I left, so at least that worked.
Learned my lesson, and based my decision on who to use for my new provider based on their instant live chat and other response time guarantees. They have not disappointed. Support is everything in this business, and EIRCA just doesn't have it anymore sadly. Used to be great to deal up until around September of 2009 when service took a nose-dive.
In my frustration at the time, I did up this little graphic so I could at least laugh at the situation. Maybe it will help some of you.
Feel sorry for everybody here.
EIRCA server-backup configuration:
indelta.com/fun/eirca-backup.jpg |
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-16-2010, 08:27 AM |
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we are back, grab your data! just logged in at cp. |
| Posted by pesnax, 06-16-2010, 09:37 AM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by 01globalnet
we are back, grab your data! just logged in at cp.
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Do they still offer the site up time guarantee? And where do I place the request? |
| Posted by OnlyOneN, 06-16-2010, 10:58 AM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by pesnax
Do they still offer the site up time guarantee? And where do I place the request?
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I'd suggest skipping that, unless you intend to leave your domains there.
Glen |
| Posted by FHDave, 06-16-2010, 11:00 AM |
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What was the reason for the outage? |
| Posted by cartikadave, 06-16-2010, 11:26 AM |
Quote:
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What was the reason for the outage?
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Not a formal posting for the reason. My suspicion is someone forgot to pay the DC bill. I imagine after this incident it's not going to be any easier if thats the case. People will probably jumping ship to Fluid, Jodo, or Cartika. |
| Posted by webrajesh, 06-16-2010, 12:11 PM |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by pesnax
Do they still offer the site up time guarantee? And where do I place the request?
|
Good joke this is...
if you are really serious and care for your clients, dont go to sleep today....
Start backing up the data and move away...if possible RUN AWAY fast...
dont get relaxed...
GOD has given you one more chance ......
|
| Posted by 01globalnet, 06-16-2010, 08:49 PM |
Support portal is not working... cannot connect right now, while a few hours ago (as a few days ago) the kayako license had expired.
I am done, I sent also the 3rd request for cancellation.
To Simon: according to your terms, we need to fill cancellation request through helpdesk. It is not working. As a receipt and ticket id, I am posting part of the bounced mail sent on 14th (6 days before anniversary billing date).
Return-Path: <admXXXXX@01-XXXXXXXet.com>
Received: (qmail 19755 invoked from network); 14 Jun 2010 22:00:02 -0000
Received: from unknown (188.4.41.83)
by smtpauth23.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (64.202.165.47) with ESMTP; 14 Jun 2010 22:00:02 -0000
Message-ID: <4C16A668.2050408@01-global-net.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:00:08 +0300
From: "01-Global-NET (administration)" <v>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Lightning/1.0b1 Thunderbird/3.0.4
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: support@genius.eirca.net
Thank you
Antonis |
| Posted by Lakpura, 06-20-2010, 10:46 AM |
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We are done with Eirca. Moved all accounts to a better home. What a relief!! I am sure others also jumping the ship now and soon Erica will be a part of the history. |
| Posted by Stream101, 06-20-2010, 12:05 PM |
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Good to hear. I've heard nothing but positive from Eirca in the past. I guess around November is when I started hearing negative from our clients who moved. |
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