Am I getting a good deal from Rackspace?

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Posted by gunzee1, 06-23-2006, 01:31 PM
Hi, I've been reading some of the posts here and have a quote from Rackspace. Another guy said he got an Athlon64 3200+ with 2GB of RAM and 3x73GB SCSI hard drives for $250. The Rackspace people said that's because he prepayed for 36 months...is that true? Here is what they offered me Athlon64 3200+ 1GB RAM 2x73GB SCSI drives in RAID 1 No managed backup (usually it's 35GB) 1000GB bandwidth 8 IP addresses 15 days free and a 36 month contract (no prepayment) $285.00/month
Posted by Laws, 06-23-2006, 04:06 PM
Perhaps you should attempt to get hold of different reps there and see whether they offer you the same price I cannot say whether their pricing is high/low or not...
Posted by eDedi, 06-23-2006, 05:56 PM
Looks high to me. I would not pay more than $210-220 for that server. 36 month contract. Man. i would re-think that one.
Posted by gunzee1, 06-23-2006, 06:44 PM
Is $220 about right for that server from Rackspace or another company? I want to get something specifically from Rackspace, not another company. Right now I'm paying $100/month for a Celeron 2.6Ghz with 512MB of ram and a 60GB IDE drive...but it's at CI Host and they are terrible! I'm trying to move before they go out of business, lol. I get up to 80% packet loss, even to cihost.com which is hosted in the SAME datacenter as my dedicated server. Ridiculous!
Posted by gunzee1, 06-23-2006, 06:47 PM
Also, I don't mind going with the long contract if it brings down the price. I don't like the hassle of moving all my sites, so I just need a host that I know is good and will stay in business for a long time.
Posted by PixelManual, 06-23-2006, 06:53 PM
It's all about bartering/negotiating with them gunzee. When I was deciding on buying from them, I went from rep to rep with different ways of presenting myself. Sometimes noting how I could barely afford it, but needed it and others pretending to be this large business man representing a company. Boy do those costs differe, almost by $250+! Get the reps personal e-mail for RS, and keep speaking to them about it. The above price is A LOT better than what they used to charge
Posted by Spyro, 06-23-2006, 06:53 PM
That's pretty reasonable if you ask me, especially given the level of support and service. For the record its only about 20 or so dollars higher than a comparable server at layeredtech.
Posted by advancedhosted, 06-23-2006, 11:43 PM
It i was going to go with anyone I would go with The Planet www.theplanet.com I have used them for years. I started off with using their server matrix servers. check them out. they are really good and they are also owned by verio.
Posted by PixelManual, 06-23-2006, 11:46 PM
It's great and all that you enjoy their service, but TP and RS are in 2 entirely different categories. ThePlanet is great for someone who needs some hand-holding, but full? Nope. RS stands out right there
Posted by Shock260, 06-24-2006, 07:37 AM
I would say it was worth it - but there are many other dedicated server hosts out there which offer some cheaper. - John.
Posted by mark0168, 06-28-2006, 07:07 AM
Our package in Rackspace is more expensive than your deal because we went for one year term contract and paid for monthly. Though we are pretty bad at bargaining, our MIS thinks it's worth because he can sleep well finally. He thinks his life quality is the most important. Our sales and customer service don't need to worry about the down time again. Only our boss needs to worry about how to pay the expensive monthly fee to Rackspace. : )
Posted by vidahost, 07-07-2006, 10:09 AM
Too true. I've used a variety of providers, and TP are very good but they are not in the same class as Rackspace. This is a very good point and I agree...I sleep well at night, though my collegue tells me it's because my wallet is so light.... (For the record I don't use Rackspace - but we do use another premium provider - so the experiences relate )
Posted by deep_blue, 07-16-2006, 01:11 AM
Hi I think you got a good deal. one of my friend has take sapce specs with Plesk and 2 Ip for 400 USD. anyway how do they enforce contract ??? if you exit after 12 months what they will do??
Posted by PixelManual, 07-16-2006, 02:39 AM
You mean if you sign up for 2 years and leave after 1? It's called a collection agency knocking on your front door and breaking your legs
Posted by Shock Hosts, 07-16-2006, 02:44 AM
Rackspace are more expensive because of the 100% SLA.
Posted by deep_blue, 07-16-2006, 03:05 AM
well that is scary somebody breaking the leg but seriously do ppl cancel contract b4 hand??
Posted by sprintserve, 07-16-2006, 04:31 AM
It's a good deal. We have a much lower end server, and much less bandwidth and pay about that at Rackspace. Generally when you negotiate with them, use the following to get a better price: 1. Contract Term - They can improve their offers dramatically 2. Play around the specs a bit. For example if you don't need 1000GB, try asking for 500GB. They do priced the bandwidth at a nice sum. 3. Offer to pay setup. As much as you can do. Try asking for $500 setup, $1000 setup etc. This is also something that can cut your price dramatically. Support wise, I must say they are not as good as we wish they are. However network wise, they really are good. Maintainance doesn't affect the network. In fact we have never have a single downtime, ever as far as the network goes. And we have a few years of experience using them. That in itself is worth the price they quoted you.
Posted by sprintserve, 07-16-2006, 04:35 AM
Generally no. I believe you have to pay the full term if you cancel.
Posted by HostTitan, 07-16-2006, 05:59 PM
I would check on that. I did hear someone paying a cancellation fee that wasn't pretty but that may have been an exception to the rule. I don't see why they wouldn't let you cancel if you pay retro-actively for the month-to-month fee.
Posted by royaldesi, 07-17-2006, 01:03 AM
btw does rackspace have resellers??
Posted by PeakVPN-KH, 07-17-2006, 03:26 AM
AFAIK rackspace doesn't offer reselling. They are an excellent company but you pay for it.
Posted by SaniX11, 07-17-2006, 08:40 PM
Thats fairly good considering im getting a server from them for dev thats not as good as yours listed for 500/month (fully managed with platinum management for free) and its not a rack, so be glad! If you go over their contracts and agreements youll see why its expensive, their services is 24/7 support on call whenever needed.. You will not find that quality anywhere else in the market.
Posted by HostingFuze, 07-17-2006, 09:06 PM
They are very expensive but support and quality is very good. Remember, you get what you pay for, and paying this much you should expect excellent service from them. Although you may want to rethink that and get a fully managed dedicated server rather than premium bandwidth and all the fancy things that rackspace has
Posted by Mitra, 07-18-2006, 10:58 AM
I get so frustrated when I see members saying that Rackspace has high costs. If you can get something for less than $500/month you should jump all over it and be happy that you did. I'm paying more than that and I have no problem with that. That's because I understand that the main cost of my monthly bill to Rackspace is the people that support my config, not the specific hardware. You can get a dual proc 2GB RAM 250 IDE drive config all over the net for $99, $150, or $200/month somewhere else. But those other companies are selling hardware. They are done with you once you sign the contract. Rackspace treats the business as a SERVICE, not a hardware dealership. I know that if something goes wrong (whether its my fault or not) that Rackspace has the people there for all three shifts that have the skills needed to fix me quick. Personally, my favorite thing about Rackspace is the 1hour hardware replacement guarantee. Dell, Cisco, IBM, HP, they can't even offer that. If you want cheap, go somewhere else. If you want to sleep, go with Rackspace. (not a bad marketing idea... cheap.. sleep... I should tell my AM about this).
Posted by dkitchen, 07-18-2006, 12:58 PM
Uptime is priceless. That's a good price for a company with a track record like Rackspace... The kind of people here who are saying that is expensive are off their heads. Dan
Posted by layer0, 07-18-2006, 01:03 PM
The outage just this morning at the LON 2 location doesn't inspire too much confidence though. They clearly were heavily reliant on a single fiber provider, and that's just plain stupid.
Posted by Linn_Boyd, 07-18-2006, 04:36 PM
This is not stupid, but some locations you can only have a single fiber provider. The cost of building to some of the locations that the select have problems like this. This is not the only facility that they have a single fiber provider at. I know of one that doesn't have diverse entry points. Overall they are very good, but pricey, they have their own problems as does each hosting provider. -Linn
Posted by layer0, 07-18-2006, 04:42 PM
Interesting, however Rackspace has stated that there is another fiber provider in the area that they are working with as they speak...so since the opportunity was always there to go with that other fiber provider, I do think Rackspace was stupid...
Posted by HD Fanatic, 07-26-2006, 08:59 PM
that's pretty good price. how many carriers does rackspace have?
Posted by Mitra, 07-27-2006, 11:42 AM
Verio might provide network services to The Planet, but The Planet is NOT owned by Verio. They are owned by some financial firm that also owns EV1 in Houston TX. They are operating both companies as separate entities.
Posted by Mitra, 07-27-2006, 11:49 AM
Five or Six different providers. Each one provides a separate Gigabit connection to their Dallas data center. That's a lot of bandwidth. Here's something else I've learned. Rackspace operates their network at a low 'overhead' threshold. This means that they only allow their network to reach roughly 40% utilization for any exptended length of time. They leave the remaining 60% unused for large spikes in traffic that sometimes occur. This is TWICE what many other hosting providers offer. They may operate at a 75-80% utilization level, meaning that they only have 20% unused network capacity left over. In other words, Rackspace could experience a 100% increase in traffic (from 40% to 80%) and still ahve 20% network capacity left over. The others at 75% can only handle an increase of 25% before their network gets SATURATED. That means packets lost and visitors getting "404 Site Not Found" errors. FWIW, having an Account Manager is another Rackspace benefit. That's where I'm getting this info. Pick up the phone, ask a question, phone flirt a bit, have a nice day! Other companies offer a CALL CENTER where you have no idea who you will talk to.
Posted by NameSniper, 07-27-2006, 02:20 PM
Here is what they offered me Athlon64 3200+ 1GB RAM 2x73GB SCSI drives in RAID 1 No managed backup (usually it's 35GB) 1000GB bandwidth 8 IP addresses 15 days free and a 36 month contract (no prepayment) $285.00/month I cant believe it because i have asked for less powerfull server with the same bandwidth and know what was the price ? $1000++ ! I have also asked them nay times to ask their US department handle my needs as the UK department charge the same amount as in USD but in GBP which is 1.8 times more expensive. I heard some nice things about their support,can you please tell me whats their average ticket response/resolution time ?
Posted by Mitra, 07-27-2006, 03:40 PM
1) $1000 for a single server? I can see that in the UK, but not in the US. Did you ask for a 36month term? FYI, London is the second most expensive city in the world now (behind Tokyo), so I would expect costs to be higher there (labor, floorspace, power, etc.) 2) If you are in the UK and asking for a UK data center server you have to go through their UK office. Is it possible for you to install your server in the US? If so the US sales people should be able to help you. 3) Support is excellent. My experience is that they always answer the phone, I've never had a problem reaching anyone. If I submit a request via the customer portal they are on it right away (as in within 10 minutes).
Posted by NameSniper, 07-27-2006, 04:14 PM
Probably the costs in London are higher but for soem reason they are sending any request from me or anyone else from Europe to their UK department no matter what you ask them. I ddint know about 36 term or any other like setup as they dont disclose that information on their website No i am not in the UK and i have asked for the US datacenter.
Posted by Mitra, 07-27-2006, 05:06 PM
If you go to www.rackspace.com and hang out for a second you should get prompted by a chat window from a sales rep. They are in the U.S. and should be able to help you out with a U.S. server.
Posted by NameSniper, 07-28-2006, 09:17 AM
I did it yesterday and except that they didnt gave me the quote online (they prefer to call and ask dozens of questions before they call the price) the sales person ha smentioned that the server will cost at least $400 Thats what they told me last time and this time again,thats why i said that i cant believe that someone got less than $300 quote from them
Posted by Biju, 07-28-2006, 10:57 AM
I think you are getting a good deal from them, they are well known in the industry. in terms of cost i think they are little high,

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