Problems with Mochahost (when it's good to tell people you suck)
Last Updated on Friday, 05 March 2010 19:45 Written by Oz Warren Friday, 05 March 2010 17:45
I will start by saying sorry to my British readers for the title of this article - there is a reason for it. I recently received the worst service that I've ever experienced from a web hosting provider in 16(?) years. That company was Mochahost. I'll get to that in a little more detail below, but something more interesting came to light as part of a quick Google search. Entering the phrase 'Mochahost Problems' brought up the usual mix of results, but the article at the top of the results is cleverly written to ensure that it does float to the top for anyone who is investigating the quality of their service. Many people will now go to Google and enter the same sort of search term that I used above to establish how many complaints there are on The Web about a particular provider. Mochahost (I assume) have tackled that by writing an article that starts "Heard that MochaHost.com sucks? How about MochaHost hosting problems? Saw some MochaHost down times, Mocha Host complaints or bad customer experiences? Can these negative reviews be trusted? Heard some horror stories about Mochahost webhost?". They go on to provide some quotes like:
- “…and things in the cPanel don’t work. and when you ask them why they say “oh it wasn’t meant to do that, someone just coded the wrong title on that page…”
- “…WORST HOSTING COMPLAY IVE EVER DEALT WITH. I face errors left and right, and now I feel I have no one to turn to when I have them. They answer their tickets with stupid answers even when I’ve stated that I want a personal answer…”
- “I tried phone supportm and this TERRIBLE guy called me back and insisted for 20 minutes that I should use the help and tutorials on the site….“
Of course, from then on it tells you what a wonderful hosting provider they are and what a good deal that you'll get with them. Now call me naive, but in all my years of using the web, it's never occurred to me to use this approach. Funny isn't it? If I were a Mochahost employee, I could have created an article that says 'Mochahost are a bunch of t*ssers' or 'Mochahost really are nasty, brainless people' or 'Mochahost eat babies', all with the aim of bringing people to my pages to telll them how fantastic we are. As it happens, some of the comments on that page give a true picture of the service that you can expect from them, so it's a bit of an own goal.
Anyway, back to my own issues.
I used Mochahost for a development site holding a Struts application for a charity. For one reason or another, it was being temporarily used as a live system. On the 11th February 2010, one of the users notified me that the site had gone and when I checked, I found it had been replaced by the usual lapsed domain spam page.
I used the Mochahost support system and got an automated response:
Thank you for contacting us. This is an automated response confirming the receipt of your ticket. One of our agents will get back to you as soon as possible. For your records, the details of the ticket are listed below. When replying, please make sure that the ticket ID is kept in the subject line to ensure that your replies are tracked appropriately.
Subject: My Website has gone
Department: MochaHost - Tech Support
Priority: Critical
Status: Open
Now, it looked like they'd forgotten to bill me for the domain, it had then expired and all of my content had gone into limbo or been deleted. The alternative access that they'd given me prior to the domain being live didn't give me access, so I guessed the content was gone. Anyway as it happens, I had a reasonably recent offline backup, so it wasn't a dire emergency, but a site disappearing is something that you expect a host to resolve quickly, isn't it? Having a look on Twitter at the @Mochahost account, there was a message about problems with servers that has now been deleted, but there is still a followup message that says "Courtesy Weekly Daily Update: All servers and networks within our data centers are operating as normal". After what, one might ask?
12th February 2010
We are sending your request for further investigation and processing. We will update this ticket as soon as we have more feedback or solution for you.
Ticket Details
===================
Department: MochaHost - Tech Support
Priority: Critical
Status: Open
My hosting payment was due on the 9th Feb. I usually pay it a few days late because they send the first reminder about two weeks before it's due and I object to paying that much in advance. With a deleted site, I had no intention of paying and told them so.
From me on 12th February 2010:
Hi,
It is unacceptable to have an entire website deleted with no notice
and then have to wait several days for a response.
Please advise by return when the website will be restored.
Thanks,
Oz.
Their response
We are sending this request to Account Dept for processing. Our Account
Dept will update this ticket as soon request is processed.
Ah so.
My response to billing reminder number 2 on the 14th February 2010:
Hi,
Several days ago my website and content disappeared.
I am still waiting for it to be reinstated and will not be paying until
this happens.
Regards,
15th February 2010. Let's chase them:
Our Account Dept will update this ticket as soon request is processed.
===================
Department: MochaHost - Tech Support
Priority: Critical
Status: Open
My reply:
Hi,
When will that be? In an hour, a day, a week, a month?
I have a number of people relying on the content there, so I need to
know when this is going to be actioned.
Thanks,
Oz.
16th February 2010 from The Baby Eaters:
we can't activate your site without payment. Invoice No. #### due 09 February 2010 and after that date the site was stopped.
We haven't deleted anything, but we have suspended it due to non payment. Once the payment is made we will unsuspend the account.
I say:
Hi,
I think we just need to be clear here:
1) I've never paid a bill exactly on time. You send out your bills too far in advance of when they are due and I am never here on the exact day.
You have never suspended an account on the day it is due in the past and your own emails state that the account hasn't been suspended for payment reasons (but may be if I don't pay).
Your claim doesn't hold up.
2) The 9th of Feb ties in very nicely with your own reported server outage. What a coincidence, eh?
3) It's taken you the best part of a week to tell me that. I deal with a number of different hosting companies and am a member of various development groups.
This is probably the worst example of unresponsiveness by any host that I've ever experienced in 15 years.
4) After the poor service that I've received and the fact that I have offline backups of content, you're not really in a position to blackmail me.
I will have only have lost a few days of data and the domain is unimportant.
5) The poor service I've received so far gives me no confidence that you are able to restore any content.
6) You've lost a regular and previously long-term customer and I will make sure that lots of people know exactly what level of service to expect.
Regards,
16th February 2010 Cont:
Your domain is expired. Please refer to ticket OVR-##### for
instructions how to pay.
We can't renew the domain without payment.
Ticket Details
Department: MochaHost - Billing
Priority: Low
Status: Open
Ah ha! We get to the crux of the matter! They've expired my domain after having forgotten to bill me.
After another couple of emails about domains:
Notice: Your account has been suspended pending payment of
outstanding debts.
Invoice Amount: $18.95
Invoice Due Date: 02/09/2010
Lets chase them again. Here's the response:
We are sending this to Account Registration Department for review. One
our account manager will get back to you.
So I say:
Hi,
Please don't bother.
I feel disappointed and let down
by the way that I've been treated. I've already explained the problems
that I've had and given you ample time to fix them, so I'm not going to
go over them again.
You can consider me another customer lost.
Regards,
22nd February 2010 from The Baby Eaters:
We're sorry that you are leaving our service, and are looking forward
seeing you back in the future !
To cancel your account hosted with us, please complete the online form
at:
As Harry Hill may say 'What are the chances of that?'.
Hi,
You must be joking. You've already deleted my content and
cancelled my account. It wasn't my decision to cancel, but I have
absolutely no intention of maintaining an account with you in future.
I'm just trying to figure out whether this email is sent because of
complete incompetence or as some kind of ironic statement.
Either way, it doesn't look great.
Oz.
Baby Eater:
According to our system, your account is suspended, not canceled. To cancel it you need to fill in the cancellation form.
Me:
Hi,
I've explained the situation several times. I've explained how you've
deleted my content without any warning. I've also explained how you
took the best part of a week(!) to respond to my reported problems.
I'm not filling in any forms. As you have removed my content, you are
failing to meet your contractual obligations, so the account is
terminated as far as I am concerned.
Oz.
Baby Eater:
How much warning do you need we sent you multiple emails asking you to
paid before you account get suspended.
Regards,
J.T.
So who is the mysterious J.T? Wil the same fate befall him as befell J.R? Do I care?
Anyway, just to add some flavour, here are a selection of Twitter postings to Mochahost
simplychrista @mochahost Can you please take a look at server gt3? It keep resetting the connection and seems to be very very busy right now...
Conclusion
If you do you happen to have any infants at home, don't use Mochahost.
This article may contain traces of irony. It is unlikely that any hosting company really eats babies. Often.