Thread: Streamline.net - the home of appalling web hosting

Absolutely dire! I really don't know where to begin trying to warn anyone and everyone away from this lot.

I only discovered this forum having found various posts around the internet from "ZipDee", and as I happen to be experiencing the latest in a string of problems with these muppets tonight, thought I'd post here to warn everyone else - as well of course as to let off steam...

I apologise in advance for the length of this post - I appreciate most of you will not read it all. However, everything I post below is the truth, nothing but the truth, as it has happened.


How It All Began ...

I have been a website designer for many years, not professionally, but as a hobby. Initially they started off as projects for friends, basic html sites updated manually. More recently, I have tied with someone who has an interest in ASP and database driven coding (which I don't) and he has started taking my basic html sites and coding them up to work as database driven sites, thus allowing my 'customers' to log in and maintain their own sites.

I needed to find a reliable host who offered MySQL databases and ASP abilities, but to be fair I was looking at the cheaper end of the market - quite simply because the vast majority of my sites used to be done as 'free' projects and I didn't want to spend a fortune of my own money on other people's websites.

I found streamline.net and viewed their packages, viewed the spec, and viewed the prices. I read all of the blurb about their uptime guarantees, and all of the other drivel that they speel out to encourage you to trust them.

I duly signed up for their Unlimited package, paid the money, and got going.

A few weeks in, everything working fine, website looking good, ASP and coding side of things working great. Customers delighted they can now update their own sites.

Gradually, over the course of the next year, I started moving all of my html sites onto Streamline - signing up for a new Unlimited Package each time - and off we went.


But then ...

Gradually started getting emails from people saying "my website isn't working, can you have a look at it please?". Websites started going down apparently quite randomly. Sometimes it's just for a few minutes, maybe an hour, other times up to a day at a time.


Service Status

I'd log in to the control panel and check their service status page. Whenever there is a problem, it always says "There are no service issues to report" and everything has a lovely green tick. Occasionally, they do update the page with details of a problem, but it's always made to look as if it's a small hitch that's been fixed almost immediately.


Support

Support may as well be non existant. During the days, particularly in the early morning, you can usually expect a response to any service support tickets quite quickly. I say quickly in the loosest possible sense, meaning around 1 or 2 hours. (Incidentally, the issues you raise are never fixed, you just get some kind of automated reply asking you totally irrelevant information, and telling you that they hope you're having a lovely day.)


Current Situation

I currently have about 8 of their "top" packages registered and paid for, two of them for high profile sports teams in the particular sport with which I'm involved.

For the last 6 months, the websites have been going offline intermittently, sometimes for days at a time. They particularly go down on Friday evening or over a weekend, when Streamline don't offer support. By the time they respond to the ticket on Monday, the problem has usually fixed itself and they reply with "We cannot find any errors."

I am gradually moving my websites elsewhere, unfortunately in the meantime I am still suffering downtime.


It is currently 9.30pm on Wednesday 13th August 2008 - and I have been unable to access the FTP server for my website with Streamline.net since around 6pm.

My FTP programme shows (as I type) :
"Attempts To Connect to Streamline FTP : 374 so far..."


I will follow up this initial post with a direct copy of my "closed" support tickets with this company. It makes frightening reading...

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STREAMLINE.NET SUPPORT TICKETS

The following is a direct copy/paste of the support tickets I have raised with Streamline.net over a period of time, and shows the frightening level of incompetency they display.

It is worth bearing in mind that I have raised 11 support problems (yes, 11 - in less than 12 months) all relating to THE SAME ACCOUNT - and this is only one of them. The other accounts I have are all full of the same problems, but I won't bore you to death by copying those too...


MY COMMENTS IN BLUE
THEIR RESPONSES IN RED


DOWNTIME
Reported : 30/10/07
Ticket Closed : 11/02/08

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am informed that our website (URL) has been offline for most of the morning. It now appears to be back online again but can you please confirm that this has been a technical fault that is now repaired ? Thank You.

Thanks for your query. We are not currently aware of any problems with your server. We have alerted our engineers, who will monitor the situation and if a problem is identified will look to rectify this.

WEBSITE OFFLINE AGAIN
Reported : 30/10/07
Ticket Closed : 12/02/08

Hi, Our website (URL) was working fine last night, but this morning it all appears to be throwing up problems when trying to connect to the databases. Going direct to the home page (URL/home.asp) brings up database errors. Going direct to the news index (URL/news) brings up the start of the page design but then again stops when it tries to connect to the database. We cannot even log in to the updates area of our site as it brings up database connection errors. Can you confirm there are no issues with the servers or connections, as our website is down and we need it to be resolved asap !! Thank You

After no useful help in response, and the same problems a few weeks later, we sent this update :

We are experiencing problems again regarding this issue. Previously this issue 'corrected itself' without any action from ourselves. Could you PLEASE look into this issue without delay. Any further information you require is included in previous tickets. I also respectfully ask that you do not respond to this ticket with a generic answer, rather only respond when there is a genuine request for additional information or advice on a solution.

No reply from Streamline. My next update to the ticket :

Surprise Surprise !! Yet again, no reply to a support ticket when the problem is actually happening, and as if by magic, it's repaired itself by the next day and all is working again. So where do we go from here ??
1. Someone to update this ticket saying "We're happy the problem is resolved. If we can be of any further assistance please contact us again." - YES YOU CAN be of further assistance - find out what is causing this problem with YOUR servers. This is YOUR problem, NOT ours.
2. Someone to update this ticket saying "We've been unable to recreate the problem." - NOT SURPRISING when this was yesterday !!
3. Soneone to update this ticket saying "We've passed it onto a senior engineer." - WHY BOTHER? they never actually take the time to look into the problem properly or review the previous issues. on the rare occasion someone even bothers to try and help, all they do is pull in generic responses and try to blame the customer. Appalling customer service - yet again.

Days later, we get this :

Thank you for your query. We have investigated your enquiry thoroughly and we've not been able to replicate the problem that you experienced. There could be a number of reasons for this: The problem may have been caused by an Internet wide network issue outside of our control. There may have been a temporary problem on your PC or local connection. It may have happened during a maintenance period on a server and so be very unlikely to occur again. It was a one off glitch that's just proved impossible to retrace. If the problem reoccurs please reply to this with as many details as possible. Please try to include error messages and any settings you were using (including username/passwords if necessecary).




I'm actually getting more worked up re-reading these again, suffice to say I'll leave it there apart from the current ticket - that's worth a mention !

The current ticket was opened by me on 04/08/08 to report more downtime and website offline problems caused by their database servers going offline.

2 hours later it had fixed itself.

By the next morning, it was offline again.

The next day, they replied saying "Can you please supply us with your FTP details?"

A bit concerned that MY hosting company were asking for the FTP details to log into THEIR OWN server, but nevertheless I supplied them...

They replied a day later saying "Can you please supply the mysql details you are using?"

I replied.

A day later, they replied with "We have passed this to a senior engineer to look into further. We hope to resolve the issue within 24 to 48 hours."

FIVE DAYS LATER - yes, five days! - I add a response to the ticket to ask for an update and to express my annoyance (politely) and again being left to rot away with no further help.

They reply - the next day - saying they apologise and will chase this up within 24 hours.

THREE DAYS LATER here we are - today - and now the FTP access has died !!!



PLEASE, FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY AND SANITY, DO NOT SPEND A PENNY WITH THIS COMPANY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!

Update!!

Yes, nearly 13 hours after the FTP died, they reply to say :

"The reason you might not be able to access your FTP is because our engineers might have reset your password to investigate your issues" !!!

So it MIGHT not be working because their engineers (well, fasthosts's engineers!) MIGHT have changed my passwords and not informed me !!

Amazing !

well - it's now 15 DAYS since they promised a reply in 24-48 hours. i've reopened the support ticket every few days asking for an update and keep getting a reply saying "we are sorry for the inconvenience and will chase this up for you. we hope to have a reply within 24 hours."

on another note, ANOTHER of my accounts with streamline.net has gone wrong now, and it's been intermittent for TWO DAYS!! when i arrived at work this morning i was greeted by emails sent overnight saying the site was offline and giving me copies of error messages. when i checked it this morning (and throughout today) it appeared to be working ok.

tonight, it's gone dead again. i'm getting everything from :

ADODB.Recordseterror '800a0007'

Out of memory E:\DOMAINS\N\[my url here]\USER\HTDOCS\NEWS\../ticker.asp, line 6

to

THE HOST CANNOT BE FOUND

to

HTTP 400 ERROR THE PAGE CANNOT BE FOUND


Streamline Support?

"There are no service issues" !!

Out of memory E:\DOMAINS\N\[my url here]\USER\HTDOCS\NEWS\../ticker.asp, line 6

That error is in their configuration. Or your applications are using too much ram. If this carries on they will request that you move to another host. Have you looked at dedicated servers? You will have more control over them then

I just found this post randomly by searching google trying to get some answers about streamline web hosting! I find your experience spot on with what I'm having now, infact you are very lucky that they even responded to any of your support tickets. I have been using them for the last couple of years (for no other reason that they were the first I found and pretty cheap). I've had various problems and I've submitted about 7 support tickets, to date I have had not a single response to any, even when I threatened to just leave them and go with someone else. Halfway through my time with them they have just randomly added a site map link onto my website that is not in my own html, it just appears on the site once published and reveals all my hidden pages to anyone. I cannot get any control over it whatsoever and you guessed it, they just ignore all contact and don't respond to anything. I will back you up totally along the lines of they seem to promise the earth in support and professional service, but in actual fact it's like dealing with crooks that just take your payment and offer nothing but a bit of uncontrolled server space and no help.

If i were you guys i would just cut your losses and move on they do not sound like a very good host and if you are getting problems connecting to the mysql db then they probably have a separate mysql server which in my experience is a bad idea.

I have just had an email from consumer direct telling me that the company have an enforceable contract with me because I failed to cancel before the end of the trial period? WTF??!!!
Have they actually READ the terms and conditions, it's like they make them up as they go along!!!
No wonder they moved to flippin gloucester, the trading standards department are obviously a bit thick there!
They advise me to 'plead' my case with the Streamline management!!!!
Help anyone please?

You have, I have, everybody has 30 days to cancel ANY contract. That is a statutory right that it is illegal to attempt to undermine, and it is A CRIMINAL ACT with a imprisonment tarriff to publish anything that attempts to undermine a Statutory Right.

Ask them how they like them apples!

PS

google 'streamline.net , legal' 'Andrew Dollamore , legal' or 'Dollamore Ltd. , legal' and just count the forums dedicated to exposing streamline.net/fasthosts.co.uk/United Internet AG (the owner of fasthosts , and fasthosts bought streamline.......

Before dealing with any company do the 'comma legal' after their name and you might be able to avoid the theives of this world

Les, a complainant on vinylonthenet ( a streamline.net protest site to be found by googling 'streamline.net , legal') about a streamline.net account cancelled somre three years ago, has been 'trawled' by the fasthosts.co.uk heavies using the streamline.net name to have money taken from his bank account in a serious overstepping of the mark regarding The Theft Act.

" Les,
two addresses that will sort your problems once and for all
Fasthosts.co.uk own streamline.net now, and this ‘trawling’ for money is being pursued by them

Fasthosts.co uk -Owners streamline.net
Discovery House,
154 Southgate Street,
Cloucester GL1 2EX

Chief Constable of Gloucestershire
Dr Timothy Brain OBE QPM BA PhD FRSA
Gloucester Constabulary
County Police Headquarters
No 1 Waterswell
Waterswell Drive
Quedgeley,
Gloucester GL2 2AN

They must be within shouting distance of each other.

Write to the chief constable…

” I am having money taken wrongfully from my bank account – and I am not the only one apparently – by a company which last year bought out a company I had cancelled my dealings with some three years ago. My bank said the company is exploiting the ‘direct debit’ agreements and can do nothing to stop them.

Out of the blue, this company is contravening The Theft Act (Amended 1996) by debiting money wrongfully from my account and for no valid reason. May I request your assistance in indicting them for such contravention ”

I believe you will get your money back and, if you have a little better luck than I did, you will see your particular thief/thieves get their collars felt"
-----------
The owner of streamline.netprotest site tells me he gets emails continually, threatening defamation charges. I have asked him to tell the offenders "There can be no defamation where there is truth!" an absolute and immutable truth. And that all ex-customers are willing to have a whip-round to raise the £20,000 required for them to file a libel suit, Because the evidence of their malpractices exist, they will have to commit perjury (a la Jonathon Aitken, to swera out the suit.
I doubt if it will cost any of us a penny!

Zip

Hi Zipdee + all, I realise its been a while since anyone posted here, but this forum came up when I was seeking help with you guessed it... Streamline.net!

I've had a hosting package with them since 2005, and despite the odd bit of technical issue, its been ok service. However, its all come crashing down on me recently with regards renewal, and I wondered if you might be able to advise.

"automatic" renewal was 25/05/11 - they sent an email to remind me of this in April, but it was flagged as spam and I didnt see it, otherwise I would have cancelled, as was my intention. I received another email on 21/5/11 - this one got through advising me that my card details were out of date and I would need to update them before renewal or my account would be suspended. I unfortunately took this to be a case of if I just leave it, then it will expire and that will be that.

But no, ofcourse they continue to email telling me I need to update card details to pay the £90 2 year renewal, which I dont want. So I raised a support ticket saying I didnt want or need the service. they replied say that I should have cancelled before the renewal time and the the fee was due. I told them but I dont want it? Fee is due. I'll pay for a months worth of hosting? (it had only been 11 days since the renewal at this point) - no, full fee due.

am I up the creek? After trawling the web it seems the last thing I want to do is update my card details on their site!

Hope you can advise,

Kate

I had a similar experience with streamline. My payment card expired and I didn't bother to update the details. Streamline expected me to pay £118 for 2 years of webhosting I didn't want. I intended to transfer the domain to another, more affordable host, but streamline were having none of it. In the end I cancelled the registrar with nominet and registered with the new host shortly afterwards.
Streamline still don't get the fact I want to close my account, despite the fact they no longer host the domain...!

below are the 'support' tickets....
-------
Subject: Outstanding Payment Status: Reply Date: 06/12/2011 Ticket Number: nnnnn From: Streamline.Net ( Technical Support )

Hi #######,

Thank you for your query

Our apologies about this matter. Even though the domain is no longer hosted, or registered with Streamline.net, the hosting package itself that helped run the domain's website and email accounts of the domain before is still active. A hosting package will still be active, if there will be no cancellation request from the customer.

Kind regards
The Streamline.net team - Web hosting made easy

Find answers to frequently asked questions and search our range of how-to articles at the Streamline.net Support Centre


Date: 06/12/2011 Ticket Number: nnnnn

Flexibility, understanding and customer service are a mark of a good company, none of which apply to Streamline / fasthosts / dollarmore.
I did not ask for a fee waiver, merely a pro-rata invoice.
You are no longer the registrar of my domain since I've moved it to another host. Upon researching yourselves on the 'net I was staggered to find multiple complaints / blogs / posts about yourselves, all of which could be resolved with working together with customers and treating them with respect. So I consider my move away from yourselves to be a good move, offering a better service (10mins customer response time) for less money.
I would like to think your company will review it's customer service from this episode, but I doubt it from what I have read on the 'net. I join the ranks of dissatisfied streamline customers and will pass on my experiences when asked for a recommendation.
Please don't bother replying to this message, simply close the account - I shall not be returning.


Date: 06/12/2011 Ticket Number: nnnnn From: Streamline.Net ( Technical Support )

Dear Mr #####,

Further to your email to James McGarry on 30.11.2011.

I have investigated the circumstances surrounding your renewal.

Our packages automatically renew on a monthly, annual, or biennial basis, dependent on the option chosen. To ensure continuous service this renewal is processed automatically and charged to the primary payment method held on the account.

In the case of annual or biennial payments customers may contact us at any time within this period to cancel immediately, or indicate their intent not to continue beyond the prepaid period. We must receive notice of your cancellation intent prior to the date of renewal which is available to view at all times via the customer control panel. Once this renewal has processed we do not offer a waiver on these fees unless the billing is a result of a system error or the failure to notify us is due to circumstances beyond your control.

Based on the information available to me, I must decline to waive the renewal fee on this occasion.

Kind regards,
Emma Butterworth
Customer Relations Manager
Streamline.Net
---------------------
surprised? no, I wasn't, but streamline have lost another customer. I rarely post on public forums like this, but I thought it would add to the growing concern with their operations.
sparks2