I'm in exactly the same situation, have had mail problems from the start, and more recently the servers been going down completly.

Found out via a lengthy chat with tech support, that it was the spam assassin service that was causing this (a component they added whilst upgrading the vps plus package) because it was using up too much system resources (they didn't add any more RAM). This would subsequently stall the server requiring a reboot, via virtozzo. I turned off the spam ass service and the system seemed more stable, however any restart causes spam ass to come on again by default!

Most alarming so far is the fact my server went down on friday and i couldn't even get on Virtuozzo! ringing tech support, where they said they'd escalate it, however ringing later after a couple of hrs, was told that 2nd line support don't work over the weekend so nothing can be done until Monday(24/7 support?!). As far as i can tell, webfusion can't host a windows VPS, i know a friend with a Linux one, who's never had a problem!
The price is definatly too good to be true.

Hi, I have just cancelled my contact with 1&1 due to the poor service and
poor performance of their servers. So I decided to join WebFusion with their
Fusion Developer package, what can I say this has to be the worst hosting
company bar none? Their MyServerWorld control panel is a joke the functionality
is simplistic aimed more at a home page than a asp.net web developer. They use MS SQL
Database which you get 3, but you cannot import a database with its stored procedures and triggers.
The only option you get is to import an sql script and execute that. So to all you web developers out there give webfusion a wide berth.
p.s Their technical support is not fit for purpose.
Alan :)

Hey guys,

Yep, I think there are a lot of developers out there who are pretty unhappy with Web Fusion.

I've been using fasthosts for a little while and they've proven to be very reliable (the support isn't anything special and they do seem to charge for the most ridiculous things) but after my experience with Web Fusion I'm happy to pay a little bit more for a solid, reliable service. My site has yet to go down on this new fasthosts server :)

Hate to say this - but after 6 years I am leaving Fasthosts. They took a payment from me for a service I no longer require. They stubbornly refuse to refund me, so for the sake of £40 the greedy sods will lose thousands of pounds of my business on a matter of principle.

My point is that most of these hosting customers seem to have this NTLesque attitude that their customers are not important. They are so large that they simply fob you off, hope you'll go away because some other mug will come along.

I'm looking at going with WebFusion but now this thread has put me off. Does anybody have a positive recommendation, which when I make enquiries will not result in threads like this?

Ian 8^)

Hi Ian,

If you want incredible support then I'd recommend Rackspace - but they're expensive.

I have 2 clients that use Rackspace and it's effortless for me - the only time they've not been able to fix a problem is when it was being caused by a bad MySQL component install - but they identified exactly what the problem was with that part of MySQL - which is pretty impressive since they don't even offer support for MySQL. Plus it has nothing to do with the hosting!

Blacknight have been great (we use them for SiteVista) - I don't deal directly with them, David Smalley does all that for SV, but he speaks very highly of them.

You're right though, 'greedy' is an excellent way to describe fasthosts - I transfered to a new server with them and tried to transfer my stuff across via ftp only to be told that I can't access another server in the same data centre as that counts as "a private LAN" which costs £10/mo per machine. Nice!

Hi All,
this is a follow up on my previous post about the poor service
from WebFusion. I sent WebFusion an on line email through their customer
support page and waited for there reply.
On Sat 28/10/2006 I received this email shown below:

***** CAUTION! *****
When replying to this email please do not alter the subject line as your mail may not be processed correctly if you do.
***** Thank you. *****

Hi,
Apologies for the late reply.
We have escalated this case to our Product development team. We will update you as soon as we get a response.
Thanks and regards,

Ammo S
WebFusion Support
PIPEX
www.hosting-support.pipex.net

Telephone: 0115 917 0000
Fax: 0115 877 0221
website: www.webfusion.co.uk

Part of the Pipex Group
www.pipex.net

This e-mail is subject to: http://www.pipex.net/disclaimer.html

-------------------------------------------------------------

Do you ever reply? I have now used this system twice, and have yet to get a response.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I need to run a web service to postcode anywhere through the .net 2.0 which looks like this:

Dim _objLookup As New uk.co.postcodeanywhere.services.LookupUK
Dim _objProxy As New System.Net.WebProxy("webfusion.co.uk", 3128)

Could you please give the WebProxy address and port number e.g. ("webfusion.co.uk", 3128)
Thank you.

Then I waited for their next email:
On Tue 21/11/2006 I received this email shown below:

***** CAUTION! *****
When replying to this email please do not alter the subject line as your mail may not be processed correctly if you do.
***** Thank you. *****

Hi

I'm afraid we don't provide a proxy service at all.

Regards.

Samuel Dale
Webfusion Support
PIPEX
www.hosting-support.pipex.net

Telephone: 0115 917 0000
Fax: 0115 877 0221
website: www.webfusion.co.uk

Part of the Pipex Group
www.pipex.net

This e-mail is subject to: http://www.pipex.net/disclaimer.html

---------------------------------------
From: wishServer@webfusion.co.uk
Sender: wishServer@webfusion.co.uk
Reply-To: wishServer@webfusion.co.uk
Date: 25.10.2006, 23:27

---------------------------------------
Suppport Question from my email address
Please reply to my email address

I need to run a web service to postcode anywhere through the .net 2.0 which looks like this:

Dim _objLookup As New uk.co.postcodeanywhere.services.LookupUK
Dim _objProxy As New System.Net.WebProxy("webfusion.co.uk", 3128)

Could you please give the WebProxy address and port number e.g. ("webfusion.co.uk", 3128)
Thnak you.

In total I had to wait 4 weeks for a simple answer, which as you can see was not
very helpful.
I sent this reply:

This must be the longest time I have had to wait
for a reply from a customer support service.
Your service is deplorably, and I would not
recommended your company to anybody
who was drawing breath.
Your Company is below the level of customer
service that NTL provides, which shows how
bad you lot are!

Alan

Needless to say I have canceled my hosting contract with them.
Alan J

Haha - thanks for posting that Alan - sounds like they're getting worse!

Thanks for that Matt.
I would just like to share this with you and your readers of this Blog.
While I was waiting for their support email to be sent, I decide to cancel
my contract with WebFusion, after what you wrote Matt in your opening
statement I was a bit wary. So I contacted WebFusion customer services
by phone and asked to cancel my hosting package, they sent me cancellation
form by email. I was told to fax it or post it, from what I have read on the
internet about WebFusion not receiving faxes I decided to post it by Royal Mail.
I just new they would try to take another payment to I went on MyServerWorld
control panel, went to Account Details, Update Credit Card Details. I then entered my
details in the form: where you enter your Credit Card Number I put in a test
card number for my card type which is Delta e.g.
4111111111111111
these test numbers pass the Luhn Algorithm.
I pressed the button to update my credit card details, and guess
what it accepted the changes. This shows how unprofessional
this company is when they don’t even check your card number in real time.
I while let you know how I get on.
Alan :)

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I have been with them since June and found them to be utterly shocking.

It took them a couple of weeks to set up my Linux VPS, another two weeks to fix a problem with the mail server and since then there have been sporadic, unresolved downtimes.

They NEVER respond to emails. Their technical support people are some of the rudest, most unhelpful people I have ever come across.

I made the foolish mistake of paying for a year up front to get a cheaper deal. Looking at their TOS I won't get a refund if I cancel early.

Shocking company.

Hi Mike
Sorry to hear about your problems, and paying for a year without any hope of a refund sucks.
Hope you get sorted soon.
Alan :)

I've had a Reseller account with Webfusion for at least 4 years. Things were better in the early days, from my own experience.

Anyway, recently Webfusion lost all the files to one of my hosting accounts. No backups were available. My client had spent a lot of time uploading photos etc. OK, maybe I should been backing up, but this had never happened before. Besides, they use to sell their service with a nightly backup feature. As in, they made backups every night. Not any more. So support tells me.

And support! DIY nowadays. They're so rude!

If you're considering Webfusion - don't! You have been warned.

GRRRRRRR!!!
Just got off the phone with Accounts at WebFusion. With them taking the stance that they won't refund me my annual charge.

Summary:

I subscribed to their WebFusion "Professional" package.

I setup a site for a client with grand plans for SEO on it.

After a month (and therefore exitting the 30 day money back guarantee) its time to review popularity performance at this first and crucial stage.....

"Stats is not working at this time"

Small glitch i guess, i'll raise a fault....

That was a month ago, and after multiple nags from me such as...

"I havent heard anything back about this for a whole week now.
Becoming increasingly disillusioned by the service provided, could you
please let me know whats going on, what actually went wrong, and how likely
it is that it can be fixed and will stay fixed?

This service is running for a client of mine, and theres only so many
excuses and apologies that can be made before it starts reflecting badly on
me.
"

...the latest response is impressive enough to be posted here in its awe inspiring form...



Hi,

We do currently not know when this will be resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,

Matthew James
Webfusion Support

How can they keep money and a service running for you for a year if you find it unsatisfactory?

Is that legal?

I'm determined to get something back, I wouldn't even mind it being pro-rated for whatever partial usage i've got so far.

Has anybody successfully got a refund?

Hi Benn, sorry to hear about that!

As for a refund, I've not been able to get one - they've also ignored my cancel request - although I sent it recorded delivery so I'll be wasting some more time proving I did send it.

WebFusion has cut there prices by 25% I wonder WHY :)

Hi guys.

I'm becoming disillusioned with Redstation - problems are always somebody else's problems and not theirs and having three sites unobtainable from 23rd to 27th Dec was the final straw.

I was looking at Web Fusion, until I stumbled over this blog. It would seem to me that there's a huge hole in the market for a hosting forum where we can all name and shame these companies who are fast to take our money but slow to fix problems or offer assistance. Redstation don't even have 24/7 support unless you take a dedicated server which starts at £1800 PA.

So is there such a thing as a reliable and honest host?

I have obviously the same problem; althogh I'm sure I have the latest updates installed.
Since 2 weeks I notice, that at a certain time each day the mailenable pop service of my Plesk Package stops. I have to open the remote, go to my server, restart the Pop Service in the console manually and it works fine until the next day.

I had to move a site of mine last year. It was with a "friend of a friend" at a cheap rate. The servers was ours alone for £100 a year but the connection was on ADSL so whilst we had blistering ASP processing times, the page delivery was dog slow.

I joined up with 1&1 - what a mistake. The page processing took up to 40 times longer. They kept claiming it was fine despite me sending screen shots showing it wasn't! Support response was worse than the servers with days or weeks between replies and the final straw came when they said I should upgrade to a server package. Bye bye 1&1, hello Webfusion.

So far they have been great. Responses to my queries have been turned round within hours (or less). The support guys I've been in contact have been polite and know what they're doing (compared with the cretins at 1&1).

I'm now at the stage of needing a server package for better DB admin control and was looking at VPS, but this page has made me wary. Surely there must be a decnet host out there? Is our mistake in Buying British? Maybe a US host would be a) more cost effective b) better at support?

WebFusion vps is proving to be less than satisfactory. Our POP3 has dropped out twice since we became a customer on 15.02.07
Updating SQL is not easy either.
The servers are sited in Germany, we are told and if there are problems we are advised that we control the server via plesk and therefore any glitches are down to us!!

We will monitor our satisfaction over the next few days but consider the option to withdraw before the 30 days are up.

Problem-who else can we turn to for hosting?

I've been waiting a week for webfusion to figure out why I can't create a mysql database using their web based admin tool. After reading the comments here I think I'm better off cutting my losses rather than wasting time persuing them. Perhaps Pipex should be told the webfusion is damaging their brand.

Hi I left webfusin nearly 2 years ago for all my hosting accounts and i recentley recieved - 2 years late... the account deletion notices - all i can say is they are run by PIPEX need i say more.

Webfusion and fasthosts are absolute rubbish but you get what you pay for.

Redstation and Rackspace are, in my opinion, the best in the UK for support.

Pay a bit more and you'll usually get a better service.

I am seriously annoyed with WebFusion now.

I purchased a basic fusion host in January and until last Saturday it was fine.

Since then (when I upgraded it to the web developer .net package) it has been absolute crap. I have a site hosted yet when putting in the URL it gives me a 404. Totally useless. All I wanted to do was add a couple of blogs and a gallery. Now the whole site is down and they cannot even give me an estimate of when it will be back up again.

Sorry to hear that guys, it certainly seems that hosting Windows shared/VPS packages isn't their thing!

I have invited a representative of WebFusion to comment, it seems the fair thing to do, this article is appearing on the first page of results on google uk for "webfusion" now.

I know it must be difficult for hosts with users upgrading to VPS and still expecting shared hosting support, but I think in the majority of cases we've heard it's hardware and default install issues - problems the host should handle because the user has no control over them.

I had gone on good recommendations that Pipex would be good for me as a webdesigner and for hosting my clients sites. I thought I would try it out for my main site for me.

Hmm....not good. Try to set up my SQL database, which created then the whole thing went not so good at all. (sounds like some of the other people here are in the same boat!) I contacted them on 19/2/07, it is still not resolved (today is the 1st March!) and I find also that others are in the same boat as me (websfusion states this!), plus no one there can tell me how much longer this will all take, as the error has been escalated to 3rd line support (the telephone support peeps to their credit, do try their best, although are not fed any real info).
Quote from the email sent to me "I do not have any more information beyond the fact that your issue has been escalated all the way to the Product Development/3rd line support team and cannot be escalated any further, and as such I cannot give you an honest answer. "

Well, in short I'm peeved. I've set up three new accounts with other hosts in the last week and a half, for my clients, and got their sites done, installed databases and all up and running. So why can I not get mine? Oh yes - I foolishly went with Webfusion. I am trying to cancel, but am now understanding how faffy that process is too. Oh yippee!
My website is at www.popokatea.co.uk, and yes - I have commented on the page about my problem with them!
there is another 'don't use webfusion blog' going also - www.dontusewebfusion.com, plus I have found lots of stories about others too on the net. I only wish I'd done this before signing up....

Webfusion had gone from okay to dreadful. I am currently unable to access my account details to cancel my account with them through their "myserverwold" system.

Phoned support and it's because they're "moving premises".

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY EVER!

Update - finally, after alot more hassle, I've moved to a nice new host (although still took Pipex/webfusion nearly two weeks to complete cancellation with lots more email conflab; I ended up threatening not only trading standards they are obviously used to that one, but also writing to the Guardian that do a lovely shaming excercise in the weekend papers....just waiting now for the refund...hmmm....
well done Matt on this listing...I'm sure it will go on and on and on....

Update...after promise of a refund (should have realised this was coming....!) no refund.
Please don't use Pipex/webfusion...

We had a number of problems with Webfusion windows vps pro last year - very slow, unreliable and no easy way to point domains that weren't registered through Pipex's own 123reg. Technical support was extremely poor, the main reason being is that no one had a clue about the product at all. The vps servers were (and maybe still are) located in Germany and tech support could only speek to their counterparts over there on weekdays 9-5 and not 24/7

Gave notice to Pipex and had to go through the normal drawn out cancellation procedures they employ which hacked us off even more. After researching an alternative we came across Interhost who offer the same package at the same cost and signed up with them. Servers are located in London, are not overloaded and we're getting a reliable service. The company from what we gather is a one man band (same guy taking sales calls, tech support etc) but tech support is fantastic. We have the occassion problem and if we can't sort it out ourselves through Virtuozzo, plesk, or remote desktop the guy at tech support gets things sorted straight away and is extremely knowledgable about the product he supplies.

I have used WebFusion as a reseller for a couple of years and initially things ran fine but in the past year things have been appalling. Support is non existent. Support tickets are not answered, webfusion contact forms not answered, phone calls to them unanswered, no matter the time of day or duration you hang on. Some of the support answers I have managed to get are extremely fuzzy and put off. As a business now very dependent on the hosting they provide and which I resell, I am in a precarious situation and probably having to move all my hosting accounts out as I cannot get resolution to client issues from them.
Disgusted. Their sister company 123-reg are equally poor in giving help. They, too, do not answer tickets or the phone. Extremely frustrating!

Stay away from Webfusion... there support team have no idea what they are doing !!... thats if they do anything.

Thanks for this. I almost made a horrible mistake.

Rich

I wish I'd read this thread before taking up webFusion hosting... would have saved me days of bother.

I have about 20 sites on a VPS box and in the last week emails have been slowing down - taking up to 24 hours to arrive. I first registered the problem last friday over the phone and was told "We'll get back to you".

Monday afternoon I called again (45 mins in the queue where all you get is ring ring and no other feedback). They said "Oh, you need to submit the problem via email" so I did.

Wednesday I called again and asked "Why haven't you got back to me" - the response was "Oh, you need to submit the problem on headed company paper for it to be processed". By now I already had a ticket (for what they are worth), so wtf? I'm expecting that they will ask for a dna swab and other assorted biometrics tomorrow.

I've spent almost all of today trying to get the problem sorted out but always end up speaking to someone new who seems to just try to fob me off. This is the most dire support (if that's the right word!) I've ever experienced and if it wasn't for the immense hassle of moving my 20 odd sites I would've given up days ago and cancelled the account.

The latest is that they are telling me that it is my fault for having an unprotected email address on one (or more) of the sites, and that spam email attacks are therefore the cause of the slowdown. This is rich as I spent half a day last month trying to get them to take seriously the number of 'delivery-failure' notices that I was getting from spam email attacks. Their response at the time was "Well we get 20,000 spams a day so you are lucky to only have 150".
Having read this thread I suggested to the latest tech support guy that maybe Spam Assasin (which I pay an extra £15 odd for) is the problem and he responded "I've never heard of that being a problem before". Seems to me that the support team are told to deny any 'problems' reported elsewhere and try to fob you off with it being my fault.

Aarrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Hi all,

I used to work at pipex tech support, back when we answered emails in an hour, sigh. The vps's are self managed servers, you are meant to be responsible for them. If you cant handle managing your own server, then dont get a private server.

Also, when i was there, a vps was shared between 60 people, 4000mb ram / 60 = 66mb ram and windows server doesnt work very well at all :D

The linux vps's are recomended as linux typically deals better with low memory availability. Though admitedly running 100 websites as the plesk license allows was a little unrealistic unless running flat, low traffic websites.

Hope this has been informative. When obtaining a vps again it will be worth asking for a figure on how many virtual servers are ran on one hardware node.

I have to agree with joe. I have been with Webfusion for a while and although the may be slow down in the shared hosting due to the sheer amount of accounts and the VPS Windows is troublesome, most customers do not seem to really know how to handle their solutions. A big company like Webfusion has lots of customers that call in for one thing or the other, most of which are trivial issues that even a novice in basic internet computing should know. From what I have heard, they have new staff undergoing training in a bid to improve customer services/technical support. If they didn't care I don't think they would have bothered. All big companies have beauraucracies that in effect seem to degrade service to the client but at the end of the day, keeping customers happy is what is most important and should be the goal of any company.

I have to agree with joe. I have been with Webfusion for a while and although there may be slow down in shared hosting due to the sheer amount of accounts and the VPS Windows is troublesome, most customers do not seem to really know how to handle their solutions. A big company like Webfusion has lots of customers that call in for one thing or the other, most of which are trivial issues that even a novice in basic internet computing should know. From what I have heard, they have new staff undergoing training in a bid to improve customer services/technical support. If they didn't care I don't think they would have bothered. All big companies have beauraucracies that in effect seem to degrade service to the client but at the end of the day, keeping customers happy is what is most important and should be the goal of any company.

The Myserverworld panel is absolutely useless for backing up sites larger than a few kB. They give GB of space, then do not provide a way of backing up the site. CPanel knocks the spots off this MyServerworld toy/joke. They apparently spent years in developing their own support panel , only to come up with something which has limited functionality.

Oh hell, wish I'd seen this a few days ago. WebFusion certainly put up a good first impression, but their shared hosting service is awful.

I've two issues that immediately came up, tried the LiveChat on the website which just directed me to the telephone line. Telephoning didn't help at all, I was just left hanging on and on and on with the increasingly irritating muzak being interrupted by the maddening message that I would be dealt with soon...

My first problem with them was setting up a .htaccess + .htpasswd - the password isn't accepted. Second issue with setting up a MySQL database which from the "control panel" just results in a verbose error message...

No replies to either, and it's been over 48 hours now.

Even if that were working fine and dandy, the "control panel", as others have mentioned here, is a very poor joke. I was seriously trying to find the real one for an hour or so before it dawned on me that what I was seeing was all there was.

Now I've got the hassle of cancelling, I'm well within my 30 day trial period but even getting through to customer support is proving to be a trial. 20+ minutes on hold this morning before giving up in frustration, does anyone know where I can write to to cancel?

So, it's back to reading up on the many UK web hosts and trying to find trust-worthy reviews. There's definitely a huge demand for a website that collates reviews and customer opinions - it's easy to find reviews slagging off 1&1 and co. but recs?

Sigh...

Webfusion are possibly the worst hosting provider I have ever used. The VPS I signed up for in June last year has had numerous problems (I won’t repeat the MailEnable, .Net or Spam assassin problems as these seem to be a 'bonus feature' of most WebFusion windows VPS'.) Their technical support team is an utter joke - I had to phonetically spell 'communications' to them today after being on hold for over an hour. Take my advice and phone Stephanie Marshall from Berkeley Public Relations on +44 (0) 1629 826 942 or email her at Pipex@berkeleyprnorth.co.uk – she is the PR relations bod for Pipex and welcomes any feedback – either that or vote with your feet like I am going to do.

Hi, wish i found this before handing over my £89.95.

Similar troubles; constant engaged phone line, waiting 48hours for email replies, VERY buggy control panel, poor sql support..etc etc.

Overall, I have zero confidence in hosting my clients here so have migrated.

I am still within my '30 Day Money Back Guarantee' as taken from the website, so what are my chances of a refund?

Thought I would throw my two pennies in.

I thought webfusion were great until about 2 weeks ago when my VPS started playing up.

I ended up wiping my VPS, and requiring it to be re-installed.

I spoke to someone at 3.am in the morning which was great and proves they have a 24 hour helpdesk, however they were completly useless (in my case) as I required someone to re-install my vps from the server.

The actual hosting space and servers are actually held in Germany, and the only contact that webfusion have with Germany is over email.

Okay so I have then waited 4 days for them (even after chasing my support ticket) to find out that Germany require me to send an email to state that I want the server to be re-installed (even though I had already got a support ticket open to do so).

THANKS FOR TELLING ME!!! NOT EVEN AN EMAIL OR A TELEPHONE CALL TO NOTIFY ME!!!

I am now still waiting for them to get back to me, and have now found hosting elsewhere that can offer support for servers based in the same country.

In my opinion I would not recommend anyone to webfusion, they lack the support that anyone requires.

I mean my sites (losing money as they are down) still aren't back up and running, all because this company outfarms their hosting to Germany (HostEurope).

During this ordeal I had purchased a second VPS from webfusion, now when I set up my first VPS it took about 24 hours till it was up and running, I was fed up of waiting (total count over 5 days) for my VPS to be made, so I ended up cancelling it.

In conclusion to my rant, STAY CLEAR OF WEBFUSION, they seriously lack the essential support that is required of a web host.

STEER CLEAR OF WEBFUSION, LET THIS BE A WARNING TO YOU!!!.

That's All, I will let you know if it ever comes back up.

On Another note, did you checkout the hosteurope vps's... they are a better spec and lower price, as long as you dont mind email support.

I remember my days in tech support dealing with vps's, the problems were mainly customers unwilling to accept responsibility for a 'SELF MANAGED SERVER', though the typical 4 day response from 'ze germans' didnt help.

Completely agree with what's above, gents...

Have even getting through to "Support" is a nightmare.

I've never been more frustrated in my life.

I Agree with Joe and Silver Surfer.
I have joined Webfusion 2 years ago. VPS Linux PRO for a big website. At the beginning I thought that VPS is bad. I rang them, yes they do respond in 40 minutes. That is fine - people are pretty busy, otherwise NO WORK = NO PROBLEMS.
VPS Management belongs to you and to you only guys. If you know what to do - do it, otherwise don't touch it. Websites are slow on VPS because of a bad coding and not optimised DB variables. In fact, I do manage to run video chat on a dating website with 46 tables, more than 60.000 records in DB (growing every day), more than 120.000 images. So, is hosting good or bad the formula is: provided resources + your ability to manage.
Good luck guys. Sorry for those who had a very bad experience with WebFusion OR may be you are a bad web developer ...

Hey Richard [* e-learning],

I think the issue of bad coding has been brought up earlier in the thread - it's true, it's often the case that shared hosting users move to dedicated/vps and get a bit of a shock - but in this case most of the people here have mentioned they own/run dedicated servers as well - (myself included). I think it's very fair to suggest that poor performance may be down to inefficient code - this is probably often true, but I think insulting the developers in this discussion is a little out of line.

I'm afriad I strongly disagree with your comment that 40 minutes is OK for a customer service dept to keep you on hold for. I consider 40 minutes of my day to be quite valuable ;)

60,000 records is fairly small for a DB, of course it depends what you're storing, how many indexes etc - but 60k is quite a small DB - any basic VPS should be quite capable of running that.

Websites are slow on WebFusion's VPS (while I was with them for that short time) because they are overloading servers with too many VMs. I was only running MovableType on mine remember, and it still failed miserably. I know MT has its faults, but I wouldn't consider it to be coded badly or have 'not optimised DB variables'.

PS. Nothing personal, but I've removed the ad you placed in your name link - just my own little policy :-)

Well, I did not mean to insult developers. Sorry guys.

Hello , can anybody help ?
im terribly dissapointed with the guys called webfusion . They are a disgrace to the IT industry..and to think they are affiliated to a big name company: PIPEX . I took them on thinking they are professionals but Alas..what do i get ..... cant access my mails whenever i want to, and when i do, an error page comes up , and when im able to get to them, they are like ohh...everythings working fine !!!Sometimes the website itself goes off. Its been so many problems right from day one !! . I thought i was the only one untill i stumbled on Matts site through google

3 of my site have gone down with separate hosting packages, all from webfusion. I have had a decent service for 2 years with some occasional hiccups but nothing major. I canoot get onto their site, nor can i get hold of support or any number in fact relating to this company. All lines are dead. Have they closed down?!?!?!?!?!?

Hi Guys

I'm currently on a Linux VPS hosted package with WebFusion but will be cancelling shortly. I'd like to take the time to recommend a small VPS provider I use: www.a2b2.com and their sister company www.cheapvps.co.uk. Although small, they are growing and their support is top notch.

Thanks.

Web Fusion also seem to be very spam friendly. They have over months ignored my requests to remove a mortgage spam site.

Yesterday I reported a fake Natwest Bank website they were hosting for phishing attacks. They said I wasn't the first to report it, but 5 hours later it was still there!!! I think they didn't remove it until this morning, therefore potentially allowing thousands of people to have their money stolen!

Hi folks, what can i say, IM NOT ALONE dam webfusion. I am serious I cant stand them I need to send a fax to change a domain tag wot a joke. I tried calling tech support couldnt get through so I called my 6 year old son, got better advice. How can they do business like this I have not heard a good word about them, seems like everyone with them is dying to leave??

Paul

I cancelled a package 3 months ago - they claim never to have received my paperwork back. What can I do? I hate to brand them LIARS but going by the reviews of their customer services, it seems highly doubtful that they never received it, they were just too incompetent to handle it properly, and I am being penalised for their incompetence.

Been waiting 5 days for someone to take a look at my webfusion VPS problems, and also after 3 telephone calls and 2 emails later i am on the 4th day waiting for a password reset !!

There support is a complete waste of time.

I regret having just ordered a Windows VPS server from Webfusion - I can't even get to it via FTP. I can log on but can't do anything. And they say it's a software fault so not their problem. So whose problem is it? I haven't done anything yet - they've only just set the ** thing up...

However, I've been running a Windows VPS direct from HostEurope in Germany for two years, and it's been fine. And their support has been really good.

I have had a very similar experience with this dreadful company.

A few years ago they seemed fairly good but since Pipex took over something has gone terribly wrong.

I couldn't believe that the customers had to suffer so much when they moved offices this year! Surely there should have been some kind of contingency plan?

Does anyone know of any genuinely good hosting companies? I've tried several and they've all been appalling. Money is obviously important, but I would be quite happy to pay more for good service.

We need to get this to the top of the Google search for 'webfusion' (it's currently 6th)

DON'T USE WEBFUSION!

OH NO!

I have just sigened up with these idiots.

I wish I had read this first.

I have an issue with CDOSYS, my mail script won't connect to the SMTP server.

Can I get any help from WebFusion?

CAN I F**K!

Gutted.

Bollox. Just signed up also. Should know better than to sign up for anything without checking for reviews.

Been a customer less than 3 days - site is down, no email, webfusion site is down as is 123Reg. Nowhere to turn.

Putting in for a refund straight away, can't afford to wait a couple of weeks to see if it ever gets better.

what a crap service
never reply back
haven't even been able to get domains from 123 to find webfusion space......

they couldn't even get into my account with passwords they supplied me a few weeks back

and now they are down 123 and webfusion, not even a note to say what is happening.....

i have been messing with dreamweaver all day thought that was on the blink

Bollox wish i had read this

Hi, just found this website whilst trying to find a support number for webfusion to complain. A clients website has ben down for over 8 hours now and it seems that their own website has also been down for the same amount of time!! What a joke!

Alfie

can we start a campaign to bring down pipex/webfusion etc.etc etc etc....
I've had bad service from them for over a year..and now they cant even keep their own site up....

Their site is down coz they've obviously pissed off one too many hackers...

Time for the web to fight back eh?

sorry folks !!!
i can only praise webfusion.
due to their shit service, they have got me off the hook with a website i haven't done this weekend for a client. i can just blame them for a crap service, which is true anyway. Brilliant.
key in the url, it doesn't come up and i have a bill from them saying I payed over a week ago. thanks pipex, 123reg and webfusion. believe me the 170 quid waste is a god send. but i do feel sorry for the people you have let down.

Looks like a few of us have been vainly googling to find out what on earth has happened to Webfusion today.

I spotted a google link to "Webfusion www.webfusion.com Review in Web Hosting Companies at ... Read reviews of Webfusion www.webfusion.com " blah blah. I tried the link, thinking to find perhaps some independent review of Webfusion's hosting service, but the site was down. Well well well - what a coincidence. Or not.

Another unhappy bunny here!I was able to FTP new files to the server (basic hosting package) this evening but when I came to view in browser - nothing. Everything still shows up as being there on the remote server - how can that be?!
Email server & myserverworld also down.
Have been reasonably OK with webfusion so far (though haven't had problems needing support!)but this isn't good.
How can we cancel an account if we can't contact the company?!
Glad I found this blog - I thought it was just me!

The problem is with the 123reg/webfusion/hosteurope call it what you will nameservers. I actually noticed problems with our sites' nameservers last Thursday and informed Webfusion - no reply and no action yet taken... then next day the whole lot went down.
In theory, one could simply switch to 3rd party nameservers and solve the problem. A bit harder if your domains are hosted with 123-reg as their website and, therefore, the domain control panel is down. No matter, just phone them up and request a nameserver change.... oh, hang-on, 123-reg is only open during weekday office hours. The poor saps manning the webfusion helpdesk are not only incompetent but also impotent to actually do anything.
First thing Monday I am switching to a half-decent host. What is the point being cheap if the service simply is not there?

Hi

Am also having problems with 123-reg with nameservers. But i do have a good hosting company i have been using for a good few months now. jaguarpc.com very good at support and quite a good price.

Neil

so guys .. any of you affected by them taking the london datacentre out for 6 hurs every night for 6 days ?

Its a planned outage, but so well planned , we were informed at 11am on sunday, 1 hrs before the outage ... nice .. it gets worse but id only start to cry .. 24hrs to answer requests etc ...

who you using , I just lease servers from them and do all the nstall myself etc .. any usggestion ?

Andy

hi
i don't use webfusion anymore because of all the problems i had with them but i still have some old sites with them
i have been trying to upload to their server tonight
no luck
but i can upload to other companies i use
anyone else having problems tonight ?

daz

Would just like to say I have the basic webfusion package, I do not pretend to want to know the complex side to web design, but I do know how to create a basic site that would not present hosting problems. Unfortunately webfusion do not seem able to string a week of reliable hosting together before the have total melt down. Why should I expect to be able to update my site?, why should I expect to be able to view my site?. Webfusion are totally unreliable, and could not care less. I will never use them again.

Avoid WebFusion like the plague. I transferred my website across to a high-spec WebFusion VPS 2.0 Pro account three days ago and since then my website has slowed to a crawl or been offline.

My website's forum visitors are now going to a rival site in droves, which will cause major long-term damage to my business.

To add insult to injury, the support request which I logged with WebFusion THREE DAYS AGO hasn't even been acknowledged.

Incredibly, when I telephoned them, I was told that my request is "not urgent enough" and I would have to wait until after the weekend before the engineers could look into the problem - that's 48 hours. They're an utter disgrace.

Just to keep it going: for the second time in 3 months my WebFusion site has stopped giving me statistics. 36 hours so far and no reply to my logged question.

It's so good to know that I'm not alone in my experience of Web Fusion's utter incomptetence.

All I need to do is a simple form-to-email in asp.net. But their mail server is causing an error.

Each time I contact them via their so-called support, they generate a new "support ticket" and email me an automated response saying they aim to look into it. If I'm lucky sometimes I'll get a reply several days later asking me to provide them more information e.g. "what is the page url thats causing the error" or "what's the mailbox you're sending from". All information that was contained in the original email - they'd know it already if they bothered to read it.

When I update the support ticket with the info again, I just get another automated response 2-3 days later saying that they've updated the status to "solved" - when they haven't done a thing and the problem is still there.

Phone up their support hotline and you just get some monkeys with no support knowledge who say they'll "log the call" and get a techy to contact me the same day. They never bother though.

Web Fusion has the worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with.

My experience at the hands of a Neil Ashcroft and other Webfusion people over the last week has now got so serious that I have had to involve my local police to look in to the intimidation and stress they have put me and my family though. Lets just forget for a moment the clse to 300 (THREE HUNDRED) times i have been cut off. They had lied to Tim Danton, the editor of PC Pro, and forced him to apologise since he was under the impression that I was a "disgrunteled ex- employee with an axe to grind" This was a lie.
They have also told me on 2 ocaasions that my attempt to complain about my (now ex thnks to them) clients Server being offline for 2 hours consitutes a nuisence call and that tapes had been sent to Ruislip Police. The police say that this is also false.
It was later admitted, despite what Neil Aschroft - head of Techincal Support said- that they don't actually record most calls
I have never encountered such cloak and dagger and offensive and what may proove to be illegal action by a publically listed company

I have been with webfusion for about a year and I have to say that my experiences have been very bad. I have a server and hosting space with them and everyday I am frightened to turn on my computer for the 2 hours of talking with an idiot from pipex that i may have to go through.
I now have another server with host-it, they are actually very good and no problems yet. I was going to choose rackspace but they are expensive and their sales team is very aggressive (which bothers me)

I have just found this. A year into 123-reg and things started going wrong. For no reason the dedicated server keeps stopping. The only way I find out is by sutomers complaining. I have taken to checking hourly now, it's madness.
I have started sending 30 emails a day to try to get a response, but nothing works. I have been told thta the dedicated team are 'across the road', but that they cannot transfer a call to them. Could this be teh German connection again?
If there is a sound reco for basic sites with light MS SQl db it would be appreciated.

thanks

DO NOT USE WEBFUSION OR 123-REG

They are useless. I have just upgraded to a dedicated server - the so-called 'top of the tree'.
The support is APPALLING. You won't get an answer from a support ticket within a week!
Complete and utter rubbish and I think something has got to be done about them.

As for 123 Reg!!! Ha ha!! I have NEVER received a reply from them and I have been with them for 4 years!

With me its gone to extreeme lengths : Whilst out on a job I got a call from the met police because Webfusion had classed my calls a harassment. When I spoke to the PC concerned, he tried to get through to Webfusion and he got through - you guessed it - Neil Ashcroft, the very person I was complaining about. Tonight I have got cut off 23 times - simply for mentioning my name

Very glad I found this site. I used to be a Pipex customer until they went down the pan, now it appears Webfusion is equally awful.

Why are 90% of hosting companies complete crap? I must be on my 7th or 8th in as many years...

Can anyone recommend a GOOD VPS hosting in the UK???

Wish I'd come accross this page two weeks ago!

I set up an account with Webfusion and instantly there was a problem with billing. I have about 20 emils to several departments and not recieved a single reply!

I'm in the proccess of claiming a refund under the 30 day guarantee and domain transfer, I'll let you know how I get on.
All I can say is anyone looking for web hosting, DO NOT GO TO WEBFUSION!! You will regret it!

I am so glad that I was pointed in this direction. I was going to invest in one of the VPS windows servers for one of my projects (needs .net full trust). Back to the drawing board with VPS providers then.

At the risk of being shouted down, I have had a Webfusion Linux VPS for about eight months, and apart from the 1-2-3 Reg DNS problems last November, have found the VPS pretty reliable (I am touching wood frantically here). This was just after they had launched their VPS2 platform. I did have problems in the first instance getting everything working but this was down to my own ignorance, mostly in setting up DNS, and once up the learning curve things are not too bad. I would agree though that when I have had to contact Webfusion Support they have been next to useless, but I think this reflects the general approach to support at this end of the market which is to try and pass the problem back to you - the customer. On balance I would say these VPS packages represent reasonable value for money and are good for getting started. If you have anything critical then presumably it's generating sufficient cash to go upmarket, which is probably what I will be doing in the near future.

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your comments, and don't worry, there's no risk of being shouted down here :-)

Since posting about WebFusion, I've received quite a lot of feedback and the general feeling seems to be, exactly as you say, their Linux VPS are fine and the support reflects the cost. Their Windows VPS have some serious configuration problems, though, problems that are out of the hands of the customer (I assume they're using poor virtualisation software or are simple adding too many VPS onto each machine). They also have some questionable business practices, such as 30 day notice periods they don't mention until you leave (although I doubt these have any legal merit).

Interestingly, they contacted me a little while ago to discuss this blog post, I was on holiday at the time but I've since replied saying I'd be willing to update the post with a statement from them, or a dedicate contact number my readers could use. Unfortunately my reply must've got lost in their support system, as I've never heard back from them.

At Litmus, we have a large number of dedicated servers with Fasthosts, another budget hosting provider. Although Fasthosts leave a lot to be desired (*cough* plain text passwords) they've never tried to blame us for issues that are their responsibility, such as hardware failure or network reliability.

And I agree with you that if you're doing anything profitable enough, you probably wouldn't be on a VPS, and certainly not a budget one at that.

Using a dedicated server for the company website at work - suddenly the web-to-email forms stop coming through. The traffic is being throttled to 0 by Webfusion because our dedicated server is churning out spam!

So here it is churning out spam day after day and will they answer the support tickets? EVENTUALLY yes, but you're talking at least a week, and if they have to ask you for more information then you give it to them and wait another week. If it were possible to speak to them, we could get most issues (including this probably) resolved in 2 minutes. Instead they insist you send tickets and so it takes 2 months. Avoid.

I meant to say "The traffic is being throttled to 0" by Messagelabs (which our email comes through). Because of the Webfusion dedicated server spamming everyone.

VPS all sounds so good on paper! Having found this thread, I wouldn't risk putting our customers at risk of the poor service described here. Does anyone have any cast iron positive recommendation for another VPS provider?

One thing I have learnt over the years - don't use a large service provider of any sort, be it hosting, domain names, web design, anything. It might be a little more expensive with the little guys, but, if you pick the right company, do some research, you'll do well.

I have had communication issues with 1 and 1 and, although there hosting is relaiable, seems to be anyway, there system is so clunky and is hard to get a quick answer, or anything done quickly.

This brings me to my latest and most frustrating rant: Web fusion.

I have to say, it has been a hwile since we have had problems, but the problems are back with avengence - the site has been down for over 36 hours now, the hard drive has gone and all our mysql databases are lost. It still isn't sorted.

What's worse is there ability to communicate with us, they don't let US know what's going on, or to ask questions, we always have to ask them.

And, obviously, the person you speak to doesn't really give a hoot, they are way down the line of command.

Anyway, i'm digusted, have lost loads of custom and 2 mysql databases, needless to say i want to do something nasty to webfusion right now!

I had a dedicated server with Webfusion and closed my account within 2 months.

The service I received was disgusting. It would take over a week to get my support ticket answered. When I phoned, the people on the other end did not have a clue.

The final straw for me was when I got locked out of root access for the third time. I gladly cancelled my account.

I even asked for an address to make a complaint to the managing director and was cut off from the live chat, saying I need to send an email. But sending an email, is the same as a support ticket, it won't get answered.

Can I let you know DonHost dont appear to be much better either.

Because they are owned by GXNetworks, they seem to be slowly suffering from the customer service problem.

99.9% uptime with 30 minute reboot. If you find that we fail to meet this promise, we will refund 1 day's service for every hour that connectivity has been unavailable over and above 0.1% of the month, extending in value up to a maximum of your monthly subscription charge.

From webhosts website.. Obviously statutory rights still apply and all that.

Suggest you take a look at Vidahost they are an excellent small host, who punch well above the normal level of support and care.

I used webfusion when they first started and I was happy with the service, and at the time is cost. I used to have a reseller account, now its all cheaper it would seem corners have been cut. before i came here i tried to purchase a hsoting package but the domain tool to select you domain said every single domain i choose was taken, a quick check elsewhere proved that webfusion was screwed.

i wont be using their services.

http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/about.shtml

heres where it all went wrong

Having problems with the MyServerWorld login page, https://myserverworld.com/login.pl

because their SSL certificate has expired. In Firefox 3 I get the following error:

Secure Connection Failed

myserverworld.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate expired on 28/08/2008 00:59.

(Error code: sec_error_expired_certificate)

Support says it'll be fixed shortly, but 24 hours later it isn't.

I think I might win an award for being the biggest loyal mug on this blog.

I signed up with webfusion 3 years ago. Support was fairly good and the level of service was acceptable.

About 2 years ago I had almost 20 of my clients signup with them through my reseller hosting.

On clients sight crashed daily and we took out a saver server 1 (Dedicated server), we wernt exactly helped getting it going. Hours spent on the phone to be told everything was wrong and it was out fault. Emails went unaswered. The client eventually gave up and parted company with myself and webfusion, he just closed the doors.

Over the past 6 months the service and uptime have been terrible. Website crawl at a dismal speed to the point they are not usuable.

In the past weeks ftp problems have made the situation worse.

I have been called a Liar and my accounts have been suspended because I dared to stand up to them and tell exactly what I think of their service.

Today has been the final straw. I have signed up with UK2.net and the relief is instant. My accounts/domain names are frozen in webfusion and they want over £400 in fees for various services for future bills. I have paid all my bills up to date but they want to bill me in advance because one of their csr changed my billing to Quaterly.

My feeling is this: I am going to walk away and cut my losses. I have restarted with my new host as a reseller and I can quite easily re-establish my business in a week or two.
At least I have a business left. I earn daily around £200 every day of the week though my business and webfusion suspend your account, your not earning, you just get lied to.

If anyone on here is considering using webfusion, then please dont throw your money away. There are far better web hosting companies around who will provide you with a much better service.

SHAME ON YOU - WEBFUSION