So Long Media Temple
Posted by: nGen Works on Friday May 25, 2007
After a week of headaches and being in the dark we’ve decided to leave our current host Media Temple. It was a difficult decision because we, and our clients, have invested so much in the hosting company. The reasons why we’re leaving are varied but the inconsistent technical support is the biggest reason.
Support at Media Temple has degraded to mediocre at best. Some support people are knowledgeble and helpful. Others are uninformed and want to get you off the phone so they can get back to whatever they were doing. When you call and who you speak to makes all the difference.
The most frustrating thing about Media Temple support is the email ticket system. I can’t tell you how many times I have crafted a well written question, detailing the problem as best as I can, only to be met with a response that did not address my question. Most times you are pointed to a knowledge base article that broadly covers the topic you’re asking about, but almost never addresses the question in particular.
Almost as frustrating are the different answers you get depending on who answers the phone. For fun call them with a problem you know the answer to. See what they say, then call back and talk with someone else. Same question, different answer. And the odds are both are wrong. YAY!
Between all the server down time, trying to fix things ourselves and phone calls to support we’ve easily wasted $8,000 worth of our time. And that was just in the last 7 days. Not to mention the time our clients lost as a result of down email or websites. And of course this doesn’t include the credibility hit we’ve taken as prospects try to find our missing site and clients question what’s going on.
When we used shared servers, they told us the solution was the grid (or the grate as we called it). When we went to the grid they told us the solution was a dedicated virtual server. When we moved to a DVS they said we were on our own. After all we bought the expensive solution, we should know what we’re doing.
It turns out the culprit this time was a denial of service attack from China. I’m sure Media Temple’s perferred clients (Nike, etc.) were informed immediately. We were told it was an issue with our server, an issue we had to resolve on our own. Thanks fellas.
Media Temple was one of the most highly regarded hosting solutions when we first joined them. There were a few exceptions. One of those was Rackspace, which was rumored to cost $1,000/month, only have windows boxes and offer no support.
Well today we called Rackspace. For a few hundred dollars more per month we get a dedicated team to help us with our server. A real human actually answers the phone. And they seem to know what’s going on. If something seems funky, we call them and someone looks at it. Imagine that, they actually look at our server and then tell us what they found. Amazing concept.
After answering a barrage of questions, and being open to work with us on what we need, we’ve decided we’d be stupid not to move to Rackspace. It takes one business day, but they said they could get the server ready on Sunday.
I told our sales rep Trey he didn’t need to kill himself, that Tuesday would be fine. He let us know that they’d be working anyway. Seems their phones are ringing off the hook with Media Temple clients trying to get rescued.
Comment RSS Filed under: nGen News
jharr
05.25.07 at 1:34pm
Please keep us posted on where you go and how the migration goes. One thing about hosts, it’s always a chore to break free and get rolling on a new setup.
Richard Yoo
05.25.07 at 4:29pm
Glad you’re enjoying your experience at Rackspace!
-Richard, Founder – Rackspace Managed Hosting
Luke
05.25.07 at 4:34pm
Rackspace is awesome. Their service is top-notch. If you ever have issues, it’s never a hassle to get them to look at it. The company I work for has had 3+ servers with them for about the last year. We are just now building servers to co-lo locally, but only because we realized how much money we could save. Aside from cost, they are great!
Suzanne
06.22.07 at 3:25pm
I assume that from the users’ and clients’ end, this is seamless and I need not worry my pretty little head about any of our sites. Love your new look, it’s soooo becoming.
Travis Schmeisser
06.22.07 at 3:38pm
Indeed, you need not worry your pretty little head as this doesn’t affect your sites. This was only for clients who’s hosting we manage. Otherwise, we would have told you, silly!