| Posted by wasabi_pea, 07-29-2009, 05:44 AM | | Having followed WHT without posting for awhile, I was looking for reseller hosting and was eager to try Geek Storage because of their litespeed servers and sign-up promotion. I read reviews stating that Geekstorage was slow with support tickets (like the post above) and non-responsive for users in critical situations. Geekstorage forum reps always brushed these concerns aside mentioning special circumstances and resolved issues.
The geekstorage number (1-888-865-6515) has not been operated a single time that I have called (about a dozen times over the weekend/weekdays). I sent an email to sales sixteen hours ago and another email to support ten hours ago, neither of which were responded to. I am just a little surprised that a hosting company advertising 24/7 support would completely ignore a potential customer. Could anyone imagine opening a reseller account with a company this non-responsive? Is my experience out of the ordinary?
Below is the content of my emails.
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| Posted by IGXHost, 07-29-2009, 05:55 AM | | There has been cases posted here on WHT in the past about GeekStorage's slow response times. I'm surprised they don't even put sales inquiries as top priority. I think many people in the market nowadays look for quick response times to questions, especially when it comes to pre-sales inquiries.
Anyway, hopefully you'll get a response from them soon, if not then maybe they're not the best choice for you. Another possibility is that perhaps your e-mails aren't getting to them for whatever reason so you may want to look into that as well.
Good luck
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| Posted by ldcdc, 07-29-2009, 08:31 AM | | It is unfortunate to read that your pre-sales experience with Geekstorage wasn't up to your (and arguably lots of others') expectation. I wouldn't be so upset over a 16 hours wait for a sales inquiry though.
That would be a non concern if support would be handled fast. There's nothing wrong with sales not being given a very high priority.
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| Posted by bikster, 07-29-2009, 08:59 AM | | Having been hosted with GS before, I will tell you: YES. And it is frustrating filing a high priority ticket and only to get a response 15 hours later. This has always happened and the response time averages twelve to sixteen hours. Not very good indeed.
Their number is clearly marked as voicemail, so I wouldn't expect it to be operated live. However they really could work on response times as even after leaving an emegency message (number is supposedly monitored 24/7) they took 45 minutes to respond. Not bad for geekstorage standard, but I believe they could improve on that.
But we should give them a break - they are only human. They should look into hiring more staff though.
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| Posted by XeHSean, 07-29-2009, 10:05 AM | | Perhaps you should consider searching for another host. Second to uptime, I think response time is the most important factor in a host
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| Posted by RSkeens, 07-29-2009, 11:54 AM | | This is the first time I am hearing a case as severe as this about them, thank you for telling us your experiences with them.
I can understand how sales and billing can sometimes take a slightly lower priority, but this should not be the case for support.
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| Posted by hD-Scott, 07-29-2009, 01:31 PM | | I guess I have extremely high standards. I wouldn't accept any ticket response time of 16 hours. Just another example of customer service being rare in the hosting industry.
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| Posted by KMyers, 07-29-2009, 01:48 PM | | Hello
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| Posted by hD-Scott, 07-29-2009, 02:43 PM | | I agree that support should get priority over sales, but no one should have to wait so long for a response. I have no experience with these guys, so I can't comment, but it seems that various people are having issues with response times no matter whether it is support or sales or urgent or not.
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| Posted by iHubNet-Matt, 07-29-2009, 03:15 PM | | This is my opinion only since it is a personal preference. For sales queries I don't consider this as a bad response time. But in case of a technical support response this is not preferred. Also one more point is that sales response time is not a measure of technical support responses. Any way it is up to you to decide. Best thing is to find some reviews and see how their service is.
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| Posted by hD-Scott, 07-29-2009, 03:51 PM | | For me, I believe a prompt and accurate reply to be a show of respect. I certainly understand that not every reply, sales or tech, can be answered in seconds or even a few minutes, but maximum effort should be to answer them as promptly as possible and certainly within 2-4 hours. I can understand that sales may not be open on off business hours, but during business hours, a sales response should be timely and on the weekends of after hours, it should be handled promptly when business hours resume. Waiting 16 or more hours during business hours seem unacceptable to me, but I understand that may just be me.
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| Posted by iHubNet-Matt, 07-29-2009, 04:19 PM | | I do agree with this Scott .
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| Posted by FureoHosting, 07-29-2009, 08:39 PM | | I've been with GeekStorage and have had slow service, this is the reason I moved.
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| Posted by Jay H, 07-30-2009, 01:49 AM | | Greetings,
I am unable to locate this ticket with the information you have provided in this thread, so it's hard for me to respond. If you have a ticket number, please either post it or PM me and I can look into it.
I would find it rather odd that you didn't receive an answer if a ticket had been created for you and something I would definitely like to look into. If you didn't receive a ticket number, that may very well be the cause of our lack of response.
I can understand your frustration and this experience may have very well turned you away from our service, but I can say that it is not the "norm" for us. We value and appreciate the opportunity to address sales-related questions from current and potential customers. We do, however, place a priority on support for our existing customers and that will sometimes lead to delays in response for sales-related inquiries.
Regards,
Jay
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| Posted by wasabi_pea, 07-30-2009, 04:04 AM | | Hello,
Thank you for the responses. I received a google mailer-daemon delivery delay message approx. 28 hours after having sent my first query. I apologize if this thread showed Geekstorage in an unfair light (as it appears that gmail was unable to send the message to GS).
Nevertheless, I now have a deep appreciation for hosts that offer responsive live chat and/or a staffed telephone number. I am looking for hosts with litespeed (or similarly optimized servers), and video streaming enabled (an added bonus would be WHCMS). Aquarius's great live chat and month-to-month costs have caught my eye.
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| Posted by Jay H, 07-30-2009, 04:18 AM | | I would like to thank you for following up. I would only ask that in the future you give your next potential host the benefit of the doubt before resorting to blanket statements regarding their level of service.
Please note that most happy users don't take the time to create WHT threads, it's usually the unhappy ones that find the time. Given the sheer number of inquiries we receive in a day, there will be cause for delay at times and it is the nature of the beast to have a few unhappy users. Even though we try, we can't please everyone all of the time.
Are unhappy users the exception? Of course. Are there usually special circumstances surrounding an unhappy user? Of course.
As for the providers who decided to post and make assumptions about our level of service, while pimping their own signatures, I would ask that you consider all of the possible circumstances before you decide to insert your "opinion" into a matter not concerning you or your business.
Last edited by Jay H; 07-30-2009 at 04:25 AM.
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| Posted by ChrisTech, 07-30-2009, 08:01 AM | | Now comes the big question, why is gmail having delivery delay issues to geekstorage? Or did the OP send the email to the incorrect email address?
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| Posted by tru1, 07-30-2009, 07:30 PM | | Aq storage hosting company has had some fairly good reviews on these boards. I believe it's Ryan that runs the show from that company. He's a good guy and you can find some good reviews about the company by doing a simple search.
From the looks of their website, they do indeed have litespeed on their machines and from their reviews, their support is outstanding.
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| Posted by fishforcarp, 07-30-2009, 07:53 PM | | I sent a sales question to Geekstorage 3 days ago about ffmpeg, via my Gmail account. The message was returned undelivered.
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| Posted by netgetup, 09-10-2009, 02:56 AM | | I realize this thread is somewhat 'aged', however, I did want to add my own experiences with Geek Storage.
I switched to them last October after having issues with my previous host (StackHost), and both my pre-sales and technical inquiries were handled very quickly- and I use Gmail too, I would say in under an hour each time. Then when I transferred over, I put a lot of requests on their plate and each time they responded quickly and exceeded my needs and expectations, Jay is particularly tuned in to his customers needs. I've been with them since, and on every occasion I have needed support, they have come through in flying colors.
Now I will say this: I have noticed the turn around time on my emails have gotten longer since last year, however, in each case it was simply my own mis-understanding of the situation, and never once a server or network issue on their end. In fact, since moving to them not one of my clients websites have ever been hacked or gone down for even an hour and I host between 20-50 sites at any given time that I fully manage and create content for.
The rock solid reliability of my GS VPS has allowed me to focus on my business and grow it. For what I am paying, I would say that I have received outstanding service AND support- plus they offer forums and the support ticketing system has always worked flawlessly for me! If you don't receive an immediate auto-response, it means your email didn't go through (this has happened to me when I was sending via a defunct pop account and I ascertained it since I didn't get an immediate response).
Now, the 800 # is in fact a Voicemail line, however if you are the kind of person who can manage things on a technical level say on a fair to good level (google and forum searches solve 75% of your tech problems), then this is the host for you. If you require constant hand-holding over the phone (nothing wrong with this at all), then you may find greener pastures out there, albeit by paying much more or by getting much less in the way of the server itself.
Geek Storage has been a wonderful middle ground for me and I'm betting for many WHT members as well. It's month to month no contract deal, so it's easy to change your mind, and with many hosts, transferring is handled for you. There are quite a few terrible hosts out there (I had a knack for picking them in the past!), Geek Storage is definitely not one of them. They provide a top notch, secure environment, excellent speed and reliability at an amazing price.
I'm a customer only and in no other way affiliated with them. Can you tell that Jay has made a happy customer out of me? Has anyone had a terrible experience with them? If so, please post as I'm always happy to hear both sides. Doing a quick search it doesn't appear they take the time to post- so perhaps Geek Storage does in fact stand behind it's services, even when they occasionally slip up. Jay's on this thread isn't he? We all have our bad days and certainly our down time, It's the level of service you get on both good and bad days that counts- and I'm particular Jay gets out of bed for both. I for one vouch for Geek Storage. I sleep much better at night knowing my sites are running on their servers. Thanks Jay, Matt E. and the rest of the team at GS for your excellent service. I hope I've helped other WHT members as well.
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| Posted by ChrisTech, 09-10-2009, 03:57 AM | | Do you want to maybe post your own review on your host and submit the domain hosted there via the report link when done? So far, I only see two posts from you, both praising geekstorage, but no review from yourself on it.
And if their 800 # only goes to voicemail, I'd say that's a major turn off. Why post a number if no one actually answers it? If I see a host has their number posted, I want someone to answer when I call it.
From your post, you almost seem to be affiliated with them in some way. Espicially with the "Has anyone had a terrible experience with them? If so, please post as I'm always happy to hear both sides." comment.
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| Posted by netgetup, 09-10-2009, 04:12 AM | | I created my WHT account last year, around the same time that I found Geek Storage here on WHT... Mostly I've lurked (and it's been a busy year for me), however Jay's comment that satisfied customers don't post prompted me to. I assure you, I *am* just a customer, and my experince *has* been that good. When you say "report a link" what do you mean, I don't see an icon, also, is there a forum just for reviews? This post was appropriate, however, given that I was responding to someones apprehension about using GS, they have been nothing short of great as a host for me.
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| Posted by ChrisTech, 09-11-2009, 12:56 AM | | Your WHT account shows June 2009. Not quite last year. Something still smells fishy.
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| Posted by anon-e-mouse, 09-11-2009, 03:12 AM | | I see the domain in your profile is hosted there
Can you contact us at http://helpdesk.webhostingtalk.com/ to discuss the account you created last year please?
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| Posted by netgetup, 09-11-2009, 04:22 AM | | well I am a pisces. :-)
wow, didn't realize posting a good experience would garner such suspicion...must be a rare thing indeed. Yes, checking my Gmail, I see my [netcetra] WHT account was indeed created in June, I'm digging some more to find out the forums i joined last year where i first discovered Geek Storage- I could have sworn it was here. At the time, however, I may not have used my company name 'netcetra', can you search for a user 'cklords' to see if maybe I created a personal account at the time? I use that username for many online forums too, perhaps it was Digital Point. Either way, I stand by my post and I stand by Geek Storage. I'm a small businessman too, and today especially I can't understand how people can expect instant responses to anything. Perhaps we are spoiled by SMS, Twitter and instant status updates on our facebook pages. I also understand the urgency that is felt when a technical issue must be addressed asap when it effects your business- I'm guilty of many times contacting a company as if they personally were burning my business down- emails, calls, you name it- only to discover it was a simple error on my part and the poor soul at the other end is trying frantically to discover what they did wrong, when in fact it was nothing they did at all. Just trying to shed some light on human nature here.
If I had a bad experience with Geek Storage, this is the 1st place I would be ranting about it. That just isn't the case. Have you ever hosted with them? How can you assume the worst? If you have, please share *your* experience as well, like I said, I'm very interested in hearing about that too- it wouldn't take too much for me to jump ship and host my sites elsewhere if I thought there may be an issue with the company. At the very least, I'd mirror the VPS elsewhere in the event something went horribly wrong. I discovered this thread searching for "Geek Storage", you think I was looking for good stories about them?
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| Posted by FureoHosting, 09-11-2009, 02:17 PM | | I recommend switching hosts. I prefer support more than the actual host. If there is good communication then you will be fine.
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| Posted by pinefreshscent, 01-01-2010, 12:48 PM | | I switched over to GeekStorage awhile ago on a whim. I got lucky for making such an uneducated decision. My last host ixwebhosting offers the h-sphere panel which is archaic compared to c-panel so it was frustrating to use so i decided to go with GS.
The support with IX was 2nd to none but I would find myself using the support chat more than using the hosting itself. This was not productive and frustrating even though I could talk to a live person within minutes.
With GS I hardly ever need any support because it just works out and is intuitive to use there hosting.
So the question is: If a host has great support is it because they need it to patch their low quality service or equipment?
I came here looking for any problems that were encountered with geekstorage because the server is down. Maybe it's a new year problem but I have confidence because of their past reliability.
If you're looking to use GS I would guess it's a good decision but in the end it's up to you.
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