I will not say this place is a scam, but here is what happened to me when I tried to do business with them:

I contacted their sales people via email on a Thursday asking how soon a server would be brought online. I was told 24-48 hours, so I ordered a P4 2.8Ghz machine with 2G of RAM that came stock with a 160G drive and I ordered an additional 250G drive to be added in - I ordered this Friday night, 7pm. I told the client that I was setting up a email server for that it would be ready on Wednesday.

On Sunday night, I still had not heard anything, so I sent the sales email another messaging asking for a status or to at least confirm my order was in processing (they took my money via Paypal immediately on Friday night and sent me a receipt).

On Monday morning, I still did not have any response. I attempted to call their phone number, but only got voicemail box. I left a message. I also sent their sales email another message.

On Monday afternoon, I still had no reply. I called again, left another voicemail, and sent another email.

Monday night, I called and received voicemail again. I sent another email to the sales email address.

I attempted to call them again around midnight Monday night. I also called around 4am Tuesday morning, as well as 6am, 8am, etc.

By the end of Tuesday, I had made 27 phone calls (all going to voicemail) and sent several emails with no responses. I opened a ticket on their helpdesk system which also went unanswered for 8+ hours.

I finally received an email from them that my server was ready, and about 20 minutes after that received an email from the support ticket that I had opened that my server was ready.

This puts me under the gun for my client, but it's not the worst I've worked through. I logged into the machine and started to check the system out. It was a 2.4Ghz machine, 2G of RAM, and a 180G drive. **NOT** what I ordered! I logged out and called them again (no big surprise that I got voicemail, eh?), sent their sales address an email that my server was incorrect, and opened a help desk ticket that my server was incorrect. This was all around 9am. At 8pm that evening (phone calls the whole time, as well as emails - bear in mind that I had only received responses to 2-3 emails out of 20 or so I sent over the last 4 days) I received an email from the sales guy that he had someone looking at my server.

At 11:30pm I received another email that the drive was there, but not mounted. I was told by their sales guy that I had a 250G and a 300G drive installed in the system. Funny, the mount table only showed 168G mounted, with a 100M /boot and 2G of swap. That doesn't add up to me....

I sent them a reply as well as a phone call that this still was not the server that I had ordered, I had taken my business elsewhere, and wanted my money refunded.

I received a reply the next day at 2:42pm that no refunds were given since servers were month to month. I responded via email (phone calls were obviously wasting my long-distance) that I was never given the server that I ordered (remember, I ordered a 2.4G with 2G of RAM, a 160G drive and a 250G drive) and that I wanted my money back. I further explained that I had made 27+ phone calls throughout all hours of the day/night/morning and sent dozens of emails and have never spoken with a live person no received the "24x7" tech support the touted. I cannot stay in business if I am supplied services such as this.

I actually received a phone call the next day from the sales guy who informed me that the other sales guy had messed up on the order time - the 48 hours was only during the week and did not include weekends.

Let me insert a small break here - I'm an admin. I've been running email servers for 7+ years. Its not that difficult to look at the email headers and see they're all coming from the same residential DSL service, not the same copy of Outlook Express. ALL of the emails I had received were from the same person using different names. Come on.

Okay, back from the break -

I was also told that for their 24x7 support I needed to fill out a helpdesk ticket which he boasted (I recorded the call - he was boasting!) had 20 minute response times. I told him that was funny, since I waited 8+ hours for a response from my first ticket, and I currently had a ticket that had been open for 36+ hours with no response. He changed the subject, stating that I was given the server that I ordered. NO, I told him, I was not. I got a similar system, but not what I ordered. He tried to tell me that they had give me better than I had ordered. I told him that was irrelevant - it was not what I had ordered. I quoted MY client the specs on the system that I ordered from "Redhotservers", who bills as "Hostingtraderus" and even though they had given me a larger drive, it STILL WAS NOT WHAT I ORDERED. It was also crap about the 250G main drive - it only formatted out to 172G or so, so even that was a lie. I can't go back to my client and change the system specs now - it looks unprofessional on my part.

I informed him that I had taken my business elsewhere and wanted my money back. He once again tried to tell me that refunds were not given, where I reminded him that I was never given what I ordered. He told me he would talk to his boss and see what they could do for me.

3 days later ( I sent them 2-3 emails a day asking where my refund was) I received an email where I was told that since they had a no refund policy they would have to charge me a $60 restocking fee for the server. I asked why they would charge me $60 for a restocking fee for a server that I was never given. A couple hours later (10pm or so) I was told via email once again that the server was supplied and that my refund would be minus the $60 "restocking" fee. I replied back "Don't have much of a choice do I? I agree to the $60 fee to restock a server that did not meet the quoted specifications.".

I then started to send them emails daily asking where my refund was. A week later, I finally received my refund, minus the $60 restocking fee.

Now, does this sound like a business you want to do business with?

I went with CalPop. I'm not affiliated with them in any way other than being a customer, but when they said 48 hours, I received it 42 hours later. It was *exactly* what I ordered.

Hopefully this portrayed the experience I had with "Redhotservers". I'll check back every week or two and see if they post a new "special" so that I can post my experience again. Needless to say I am unhappy with their service and for them stealing $60 from me for a product that I was never given.

Have a nice day!