IPowerweb / IPower clients enduring massive problems
It seems that IPowerweb / IPower clientele are experiencing massive problems since Friday of last week. According to several Hostjury readers users of the IPowerweb / IPower service have been unable to check their e-mail since late Friday evening.
According to our sources it appears that Endurance International Group went ahead with their planned server migration without notifying any of their clients! The result is continuous problems and issues, clients unable to check their e-mail & unable to login to their web hosting accounts.
One IPowerweb / IPower user stated that technical support seems oblivious to the migration stating that the issues were a result of "Corrupt passwords" and would be handled within a few hours. Over five days later and the problems are still occurring.
We suppose the Endurance International Group name has another possible meaning. Just how long can their clientele endure problems!
Get in touch with iPowerWeb
One of our readers found the corporate phone number for Endurance International, the company that owns iPowerWeb. If you want quick, prompt service in getting your cancellation, domain name details or anything else give them a quick call: 1-866-897-5421
This is the only iPowerWeb phone number that will result in prompt service.
iPowerWeb Complaints
We welcome anyone having issues to put in a complaint at the Arizona Attorney Generals Office, contact details below:
consumerinfo@azag.gov
You can also use their online contact form here:
http://www.azag.gov/consumer/complaintformintro.html
Free Migration Services
We've decided to step up to the plate & offer free migration services for all iPowerWeb clients as well as a decent howto on escaping iPowerWeb.
Free migration for iPowerWeb / iPower clients by HostJury staff
Howto: Leaving iPowerWeb
You'll have more luck with us moving you than some ipowerweb transition kiosk.
There's a number of web hosting providers that offer free transfer services as well including:
Tell others about iPowerWeb / iPower
If you know of other people who might be having problems, you can tell others by 'digging' this article or by linking them directly to:
http://hostjury.com/blog/view/27/ipowerweb-ipower-clients-enduring-massive-problems
UPDATE:
I have been up most of the night.
I put in 2 live chat calls and 2 actual phone calls to IPower.
I told all of them that my email account and web site hosted by them was down. I pointed out that the error code was that it could not connect to the server.
I pointed out to them that it was your (ipower's) server my account (hosted by ipower) that I could not connect too.
I pointed out to them that my internet service and email accounts were up on my non-ipower accounts.
Anyway, 3 out of 4 was very nice and polite and one was rather ill informed.
Finally, the fourth person said other phone calls were coming in on this "issue" and they should have it back up in 3 hours or so -- if it's still a problem call back.
Fyi.
Streaky,
Sure, software-wise it all should have been updated. With zero communication? Not quite!
I'm going to do something strange and defend iPower here, because MySQL 4.1 is and has been out of active support for quite a long time- http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/lifecycle/.
I'd also say that if osCommerce has a newer version that supports MySQL 5.0 properly (which they should have released years ago and probably have) - then you should upgrade to it, not least because you're probably using a version that's had a bunch of public exploits released for it.
Same applies to PHP5 really (which I know many have had issues with), it's been around for years now, and a few months ago now PHP declared it EOL (which if you ask me they should have done not too long after PHP5 got it's first release, but that's a whole different conversation) - http://www.php.net/archive/2007.php#2007-07-13-1 .
iPower changed to MySQL5 without telling us. Our osCommerce site now has to have code modified to work with MySQL5. Some hosting gives you a choice. After 40 minutes I get this ...
Winston Kiplin: Bob, unfortunately it is not possible to change the MySQL version from 5 to 4.
Winston Kiplin: You need to upgrade the ocCommerce to higher version.
Winston Kiplin: Bob, frankly speaking it is not possible to downgrade MySQL version since your account is hosted in shared hosting.
Hugh and others,
If you do cancel your account, you should get a refund. Some credit card companies will take 7-10 days to process this on top of the 3 business days ipowerweb takes to process it. So, it may take around 3-13 days in all to see your refund.
Secondly, I want to warn all of you to keep an eye on your credit card you have registered. I have heard many reports of previous customers being charged for account renewals, even though their account was cancelled. Not to mention the fact that everytime you called ipower's horrible tech support over in the Phillipines or Mangalor, some guy pulled up all of your credit card information and who knows what he has decided to do with it. So, at the least, monitor the card for future charges. Escpecially around the time your account was supposed to be renewed.
Shocking, still haven't received my partial refund. I was told it would take three business days. It has been more than that for sure...
Well I called "Endurance International" and they do seem to have a clue! Thanks for the issue, Level 2 called me back and we seem to have the issue fixed. They had to backup part of my site so I could stay on the old system until the new MySql servers are install.
Ian, thank you for posting the corporate number. I tried it yesterday and my account cancellation has finally been processed. They said it will take a couple days for my refund to show up. They also noted that my refund will be 55 dollars. I'll keep you guys updated if/when it happens.
IPower's server problems have meant that they are incapable of hosting my website. So I asked for a refund.
After being told by IPower that I would NOT receive a refund, I filed a complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau). Within 24hrs I received an email from Ipower saying that they had refunded my credit card.
Several hours after that, I received another email from IPower, saying "Is there a specific reason why you are canceling your account?"
Apparently, the billing department are completely unaware that there is any problem!
Failed to modify domain whois_privacy state
you gotta love it.
IPower tell me that they ARE NOT GIVING REFUNDS AT ALL. All they will do is to add a further couple of months to your hosting plan. This is of course useless when you have been forced to move your website elsewhere.
Daniel,
I actually had the same problem, right before I migrated my website away from them. If you call: 1-866-897-5421, which is the corporate number, the tech's are very nice and intelligent. They even have access to every change and time the changes were made (a log file of what there technicians are up to). You could definatly pin-point the tech who did this to you, just as I have done. But in all honesty, what will it do to fix the REAL problem? Ipower doesnt care about you or any of their customers. Pointing out the criminal actions of some guy over in the Phillipines or Managalore won't fix the horrible services you receive, nor will it fix the whole crooked company (Endurance International). The best way you can stick it to this company, is to take your business elsewhere. No one deserves that kind of treatment, escpecially not a paying customer!
P.S.
Dont waste your time on hold when you cancel your account, call the corporate number and have things handled quickly! (1-866-897-5421)
Just got off the phone with a nasty ipower support person.
When I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor, he mentioned that there is no manager or supervisor available and he said that he will transfer me and put me on hold for about 20 mins. At that point I decided to hang up the phone.
When I went to my site, I received 500 Internal Server Error. I was able to access my site about 10 minutes prior even though it was slow.
I was still able to access the vDeck and everything looks normal except I wasn't able to access my site.
I grabbed the log from the ftp site and will check to see if anybody from ipower support mess with mySQL database.
I will be contacting Tucow tomorrow to move my domain.
I am looking forward to call iPower and tell them to stuff it.
I asked for my refund yesterday. In my email to billing I said "Please confirm that you can provide me with a full refund, without fees" and they replied "I have submitted a request to have your account canceled."
This is typical of their crap attitude to business.
A day later, nothing in my inbox confirming my cancellation and my account is still active. Oh, but I did get an email from them asking me if I was thinking about starting another web site!
Ian,
You're free to describe their service by leaving them a review :) Reviews shouldn't be left in comments, that's all!
I just finished cancelling and migrating another of my websites hosted through ipower. I now have only one more domain hosted through this company, and I will finally be free of the horrible support and service ipowerweb offers.
To anyone curious, I migrated to hostmonster, a daughter company of bluehost. David, the admin here will not allow me to describe their service. But, lets be honest here, what company would not be better than ipower at this point? I think a can and string internet would be more efficient than the network ipower runs!
At any rate, I feel horrible for everyone who is still a member with ipower and who thinks it is worth "riding out the storm". Let me just say from expierence now, there are so many hosts out there that will double the features offered by ipower, and will answer the phone immediatly. Not to mention the fact that most hosting companies staff intelligent minded support tech's that address issues immediatly, rather than passing it to a lvl 2 tech who never, ever fixes the problem.
Ipower is easily the worst company I have ever dealt with in my entire life.
Hugh,
IMHO the billing department rep knew how much you were getting back, but they probablly figured if they told you, you would just get upset or irrate with them. I have heard from many people now that they will (if you hassle them relentlessly) give you a refund. I have also heard that they keep a $50 cancellation fee. Which, I think is totally unfair and wrong, because no where in the TOS does it mention this. Even if it does now mention it, it wasn't there when all of us long time customers first signed up with them.
On the flip side of things, your site still has a good google page rank, so I am sure your site will bounce back fast.
If you could, will you post a message and let everyone know if they do charge you a service charge, or if they give you a full refund?
Also, make sure to keep watch on the card you gave them. I have heard many, many people complain about ipower recharging them for service long after cancelling membership with them. Particullary watch your card around the time your account was supposed to be renewed through them.
Good luck!
P.S.
Your site was running at max speed when I tried it. :-)
Finally made the move yesterday from iPower to Fused. What a difference. I forgot what it felt like to have my site load instantly. The challenge now is cancelling my account. I got through rather quick last night to iPower billing dept and was told that a high ranking employer would call me back. Yeah right! I looked online at the help ticket and it was one of those typical "We are sorry you have had this trouble, is there anything we can do?" I had to call them back today and wait forever to get through. This person told me that I will receive an email once my cancellation has been processed. They couldn't even tell me how much my refund would be and they are the damn billing department! Unreal!
"we'll only be keeping seven days' worth of logs at any given time in your /stats folder--we'll be deleting all logs older than seven days on an ongoing basis."
Before you know it they'll be saying, "We'll only be keeping ten minutes of logs, and deleting all logs older than ten minutes on an ongoing basis."