bohnsack.com

26 Responses to “Losing Me as a Customer (Hosting Matters / Stacy Tabb Sucks)”

1. beef Says:
   February 10th, 02005 at 3:42 pm

   Further responses will be ignored.

   that's hot.....

2. owen Says:
   February 10th, 02005 at 3:50 pm

   Matt, You treat your vendors with such great respect. Me thinks it is genetic. wink. Your brother gives me a bad time when I try to pin them down to a time frame. Love to see it done so professionaly. Keep up the good work & the blood pressure down.

3. Matthew Bohnsack Says:
   February 11th, 02005 at 7:58 am

   The serverbeach box is already online!

4. Phill Kenoyer Says:
   February 15th, 02005 at 3:37 pm

   I've had an awful time at Rackspace also. What push me over the edge is when they wanted to charge me $40 a month for a 125GB hard drive upgrade. A HDD that costs $70 would ultimately cost me $480. That's just stupid. Not only that, but I wasn't even getting "managed hosting". I am on my own for anything that's wrong with my server.

   I'm going to HE.com. Half the price, double the bandwidth cap.

5. Misty Fyed Says:
   April 1st, 02005 at 12:29 pm

   I don't know how I found your site, but I was glad to come across this bit on Hosting Matters. I had a lot of trouble with them, and with Stacy Tabb, the one who left you the message above. Stacy Tabb who is also SEKIMORI designs, is seriously mentally ill. There are many people now who have made the mistake of hiring her only to discover halfway through the project she's in a mental meltdown. The woman is also a theif, a slanderer, and extremely rabid and unpredictable. Appoach her with the caution you would approach a stray dog.

   You can read more about scrapes with her at

   http://suzyrice.com/BIRD/archives/2005/01/gumming.php
   (do a page serach for SEKIMORI becaue the entry is close to the bottom of the page.)

   and here:

   http://suzyrice.com/BIRD/archives/2005/01/bunching_up_and.php#trackbacks

   and here:

   http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/001425.php

   Where Bill says:

   "No matter what number of A-list sites use Hosting Matters and/or Sekimori Design, I cannot advise everyone strongly enough to avoid doing business with Ms. Tabb. "

6. beef Says:
   April 1st, 02005 at 2:19 pm

   Sack, you are entry number one on google when inquiring about "hosting matters sucks."

   Editorial comment - I can't tell for sure but in the title is it loosing or losing.

7. Matthew Bohnsack Says:
   April 1st, 02005 at 2:21 pm

   loosing vs losing: Fixed. Thank you. Spelling isn't one of my greatest strengths.

   re #1 hit on google: Like I said: "Bad reviews travel fast on the Internets."

8. -S- Says:
   April 2nd, 02005 at 4:49 pm

   I feel your pain.

   But, it's needlessly inflicted. HostingMatters is "peopled" by humans with glaring emotional and intellectual problems. What I think it is as to why they're even in business is that they cater to very.carefully a few higher-traffic sites they host and that they host them because they enable them to become higher-traffic sites by one means or another (examine the community of shared links for some suggstions if you're interested).

   It's a classic example of vendor as so presumptuous that they shoot themselves in the foot. Or will, eventually, after these cookie-cutter obnoxious mismanagements of customer questions, needs and issues continues. They MAY be able to rely on their highly catered to higher-traffic sites for a while but over time, these sort of ongoing nasties from any vendor to or about any customer's questions/inquiries (I can summarize: [1.] customer makes an inquiry; [2.] vendor avoids/refuses to respond to inquiry but writes about their (vendor's other) problems; [3.] customer makes same inquiry a second time; and, [4.] vendor tells customer they're undesirable, to be kind here to vendor's bombastic presumptions because in my experience with HM and this same individual here you've quoted and a few others with the same group, they get very, very crude to and about any customer very quickly who asks exacting questions and doesn't tolerate their "we have so many other problems" line of avoidance in responding to customer's exacting questions).

   I found a host called Web Intellects after an even far more abusive (it was abusive) series of nasties to me from HM and related indivduals with that organization, such as it is. I looked through a number of "customer rating" results on tech and tech-related sites and then branched out from there. I fond Web Intellects not by personal referral and, because I'd first found HM by personal referral, I took that to be a bad thing after such a bad experience followed so then went about searching out hosts by ratings, articles about them, features offered and most after that, by their responses over the telephone to my inquiries about all of those things.

   Web Intellects has among the nicest, smartest, non-attitudinal and generally well balanced human beings manning their technical and customer service support telephone lines, and they also have those same individuals allowed access to their servers so they can discuss whatever a customer's problems are with you in real server time, make changes, modifications, etc. and then discuss those changes with you while they occur.

   Those same persons who you can access (24/7) on the phone via customer service are also matched in competency and care (and most of all, lack of nastiness, which really matters when technical support people can discuss technical issues and not go off into emotional territory, something that, by contrast, HM has a real big problem with -- just read that interaction here of yours for example of that), those same persons respond in only minutes when you/a customer opens a Technical Support Request and respond not by arguing that a problem exists (again, refer to HM for example of that last undesirable response), but by dialoguing about the problem if not just remedying the problem forthright and responding minutes later that the problem's resolved (and then indicating a resolution online).

   I cannot speak highly enough of Web Intellects for these reasons. I purchase a good amount of features from them that I still am not even using and at perhaps a higher rate than I'd have spent otherwise (much higher than what I'd have paid to HM but at this point, I now perceive the probability that had I spent, say, fifteen dollars a month with HM it would have quickly blossomed into much higher costs in stress, harassment and insult -- meaning, HM really, really has a problem with denigration of and about other human beings and it makes me wonder just what you sign up for when you sign up for "hosting services" with that group because you do get far more than you anticipate receiving and most of that is not desirable).

   There are many hosting horror stories, I realize. To anyone, their experience is "the worst" and the like, but in my experience with HM, I'd have still been loitering around trying to figure out how **I** could improve as customer had they not been so caustic and needlessly nasty to and about me when I posed one billing question about one measely fifteen/sixteen dollar discepancy. Then their denigrations, public and private, about me began.

   I mean, what large festering thing did my little question prick? HM's caustic and damaging responses make no sense in proportion to the often meager issues posed. People just want sense from a host and their sites to publish and remain live. Or, when those conditions are impacted with problems, then why what happens and when it will be resolved.

   If ANY company responds with intolerance about harmless, rudimentary questions such as that (and HM does and has and probably will continue to do so, based upon my best guess), just move on. Find another hosting company. I can say here and now that Web Intellects is wonderful (google them) but that's the company I found after doing my own research, independent of the unrealiable popularity-link-fest that a certain group of bloggers engage in (ask yourself why and what that does to traffic or the appearance of traffic and advertisers and all that and more).

   You can do better than HM and I can suggest in very good history Web Intellects. Because they're nice and technically capable with me and they're available and indicate a desire to care for my account and to extend common courtesy to me as a customer. Just the basics but the basics really matter. They bill my cc every month, never had a problem with them, they answer my questions (they've never put me on hold beyond a minute or two at midday and usually there's no hold time), they respond to Tickets in the most two/three hours later (that's the outside time), and they respond by fixing issues instead of attempting to argue about them, or arguing about them. Which equals a great web hosting company to me.

   Do some research and then make your own decision and follow your instincts. Good companies do exist.

9. -S- Says:
   April 2nd, 02005 at 5:03 pm

   Another thing (sorry these comments are lengthy, but the issues require a certain detail in comments):

   HM has these ongoing down times and "overages" in traffic for sites they host (so they allege) and then there's the randy and awful "we experienced a DoS attack" excuse.

   Any hosting company that facilitates a "DoS attack" more than once has more than customer problems. Once, alright, understandable. Twice, many times ongoing, then there's something else there that a customer ought to take notice of or consider, at least.

   Web Intellects, as counter to the bad performance by HM -- another issue here -- about bandwidth and potential site down times, they've only had my site offline on a few occasions and that has been early A.M. on a weekend day and only for a short period of minutes (once for about a half an hour but they later explained to me when I inquired that they lost a server and had to relocate affected sites and mine was one of those), and, that they've performed various server maintenance at five-minute times on some early weekend hour that's placed my site offline for maybe five, ten minutes -- but these have only occured A FEW TIMES in all the months I've been hosted by Web Intellectsd. I can understand five minutes offline once every few weeks, is what I mean, compared to HM and others and the ill-defined, if defined at all, ongoing problems they display.

   Problems occur. I mind them but like most people, can understand them when there's a reasonable explanation about what they are, why they occured, when they'll be resolved. HM fails in all those categories and instead begins a very cruel process of denigrating the customer when these basic customer needs are posed (what, why, when questions).

   Web Intellects, also, never charges me for those also ill-defined "overages" in bandwidth but just allows overages and then invoices them later. You get a chance to see what the charges are and for what and then to discuss them but they don't engage in those "automatic" billing and/or downtimes. Again, the behavior (by Web Intellects) of consideration, intelligence and customer (the real kind) care.

   I feel confident that I have a host I can grow with. Or, not grow, just that I have a host that is reasonable, intelligent, seamless as much as can be expected, affordable and generous, not to mention considerate. It does pay to follow your instincts.

10. Gordon Says:
    April 4th, 02005 at 10:17 am

    Server Beach has been nothing but a pleasure to do business with. Good choice.

11. Mermaid Says:
    April 4th, 02005 at 10:43 am

    I'm another dissatisfied ex-customer of Sekimori's (or Suckimori, as we refer to her around my house).

    My experience: crap design, a talentless hack for a designer (apparently to be a Seki employee, talent is not a requirement . . . just a sycophant adoration of Stacey Tabb), and any complaint, no matter how mild, is met with hostility.

    ITA with Bill . . . do yourself a favor, and stay far, far, FAR away.

12. Mermaid Says:
    April 4th, 02005 at 11:25 am

    There are many people now who have made the mistake of hiring her only to discover halfway through the project she’s in a mental meltdown. The woman is also a theif, a slanderer, and extremely rabid and unpredictable. Appoach her with the caution you would approach a stray dog.

    Heh. Well put.

13. Misty Fyed Says:
    April 5th, 02005 at 6:46 am

    People think Hosting Matters and Sekimori are two separate businesses; they're not. It seems she and her husband or partner [or partner-in-crime] run the operation out of their house (or garage). The business has no phone number or address associated with it--presumabley so they can't be "served" for small court claims. You're lucky the psycho refunded your money; you got off easy.

    There's an old saying that goes: When you lose, don't lose the lesson. I lost money from Sekimori and a lot of time, but I was a fool to give someone money up front who had no phone number or address, and without getting a contract. I was so impatient to get my website up that I accepted irregular terms and conditions. For example, if I were to walk into any graphic design shop or call one in the yellow pages--they would give me a quote and at the most require a 50% deposit--and deliver a prototype/mock-up for approval.

    No one should be required to pay everything up front, not w/o contact information, and not without a clear written agreement of what that money is buying. But Stacy Tabb is a crook and like all crooks she is manipulative, deceptive, and very clever. She could talk the shirt right off your back.

    If anyone comes across this post, I hope you are sufficiently discouraged from doing business with HM-- Or if you are reading this and considering hiring HM or Stacy Tabb, do yourself a favor, ask for a phone number to call--see what response you get and then ask yourself if you should really be giving money to someone who won't give you a phone number or business address. Think about it.

    I hope the IRS nails them sooner than later.

14. willow Says:
    April 5th, 02005 at 7:22 am

    Has anyone thought of reporting her to the Better Business Bureau? I'm not sure if they can do anything, but it's best if there's a record of her business practices registered with an 'official' sort of place like that. That might 1.) act as a warning bell for future potential clients and 2.) establish a sort of paper trail that might make legal action easier for people she has yet to screw over. Probably someone's thought of it, but I thought I'd at least mention it! .

15. Matthew Bohnsack Says:
    April 5th, 02005 at 7:27 am

    Thanks for the input.

    I found what might be addresses and phone/fax numbers, but I don't know if they're real and they're certainly not published on their website(s):

    1) Use whois to look for contact information:

    Both hostmatters.com and Sekimori.com have close to the same whois contact info listed:

    DNS Services
    Technical Services (domains@hmdns.net)
    +1.8776431083
    Fax: +1.8776431083
    PO Box 37663
    Jacksonville, FL 32236-7663
    US

    2) Use ARIN to see who owns their IP addresses:

    hostmatters.com = 63.247.140.12
    Sekimori.com = 63.247.135.3
    ns.hmdnsgroup.com = 63.247.128.10
    ns2.hmdnsgroup.com = 63.247.143.253
    etc.

    It looks like all of these hosts are in the same largish IP block. A quick query to ARIN confirms this and gives us more contact information:

    OrgName: DNS Services
    OrgID: DNSSE
    Address: 1643 Mallory Street
    City: Jacksonville
    StateProv: FL
    PostalCode: 32205
    Country: US

    A query for the tech contact turns up yet another address:

    Name: Technical Services
    Handle: TECHN173-ARIN
    Company: DNS Services
    Address: 4720 Salisbury Rd
    Address: Suite 203
    City: Jacksonville
    StateProv: FL
    PostalCode: 32256
    Country: US
    Comment:
    RegDate: 2004-07-15
    Updated: 2004-07-15
    Phone: +1-877-643-1083 (Office)
    Email: tech@hmdnsgroup.com

    3) Have fun.

16. Misty Fyed Says:
    April 5th, 02005 at 7:22 pm

    Wow. That's fine detective work, Matthew. Thanks very much; this is something I can work with.
    --M

17. -S- Says:
    April 7th, 02005 at 4:37 am

    I reserved mention of that last part (the whois results and my results by trying to contact those), because it got incredibly awful after that and I thought that by me mentioning that here, that it'd be a far more depressing series of issues to an already recognized depressing problem.

    However, since Bohnsack has provided the whois information, perhaps this following information, based upon the culmination of a bad experience that I had, can (also) assist others before they attempt to seek remedies as I did earlier only to result in far worsening (and quite abusive) emails afterward.

    I submitted a complaint to the ISP for Sekimor (hmdnsgroup.net) and requested that Sekimori's dreadfully awful and awfully incorrect and libelous content she posted on her blog about me be removed (Sekimori has since made that site content unavailable for public access, although the beginning of the trail on my blog ("BIRD"), via a Trackback through the MT program I use for my blog, remains visible (the trackback link to Sekimori's full comments have been since blocked by Sekimori).

    What I received was -- to my surprise -- a series of very dreadful emails from someone signing the name of "Charles Johnson" and who responded to emails I sent to "hmdnsgroup.net" for assistance. I describe the emails as being dreadful because they are, completely awful. What ensued was that that ISP/that person responding started demanding that I provide him with "a legal definition of" "libel" "abuse" and similar and that unless I could do that, he...well, simply proceeded to denigrate me for wasting his time, writing that I was "not technically knowledgeable."

    Which isn't the issue. That is, it's not an issue what some lone individual's talents and skills, abilities and knowledge level are, but about the behavior being fascilitated by his organization, hmdnsgroup.net, via Sekimori's quite irrational and dishonest statements about me (why, I still have no idea -- not like I know her, ever interacted with her, would ever again) -- and "Charles Johnson" continued to use full-on attack language about me for even contacting him/hmdnsgroup.net.

    Part of that was a small tangential bit of information I'd communicated to hmdsngroup.net, and that was that I'd already sent emails of complaint to abuse@hostingmatters.com and sekimori but those had not received any acknowledgment or response. "Charles Johnson" wrote back that I was compelled to "prove" to him that I'd sent those emails (I could and still can but that's not the point nor was it then) and that he/hmdnsgroup.net had never heard, received or had knowledge of me complaining, etc. (and because of that, the person suggested I was 'lying' and the like)...

    It was just a terrible interaction of him responding like some schoolyard nincompoop: tangents, criticisms of huge proportions and lengthy emails to me about very minor aspects, not even significant points, but insistence that Sekimori's content was not going to be changed, altered, or removed because I had not "proven" to HIM that I even understood what "libel" was.

    THEN, it went even crazier: "Charles Johnson" THEN began writing to me that he had to be provided with MY "legal representative" and that unless I provided that to him, the (here it comes) ultimatum, that he would "not read any more of (my) emails."

    He never addressed the bad behavior by his group, his associate, the issue at all, just that because I "(was) not technically knowledgeable" that he "(would) not read any more of (my) emails" unless I "provid(ed) the name and address of (my) legal represenative to (him)." As if that was even his business. Or his privilege.

    I saved the full stream of irrational emails. Was a very, very bad experience. Had I ever known that individuals as crude and irrational as that were involved with HM, I'd have never, as in, n.e.v.e.r, considered them as a host. I am shocked to the core that they even maintain clients.

    But, what I think it is is that they have a sorta self-propping circle of sites going, in that they all promote and link to one another (existing HM clients) and also have been proven on several occasions to be presenting false site traffic stats (long but other story, but some very reliable people have proven that to be so) and then engage in this form of attack upon anyone or other site that doesn't submit to the, well, game. They have a group of high-traffic blog sites hosted but appear to protect and defend and well service those, while then denigrating others about their own misbehaviors.

    They have only themselves to blame for the negative feedback. Go ahead and try to make any sense of interacting with "hmdnsgroup.net" but you'll find yourself quickly dealing with an attack level stream that will ruin your week, if not month. Completely awful organization, despite a few of their clients who I still read and enjoy. It speaks more of the clients themselves than about HM and hmdnsgroup.net.

18. -S- Says:
    April 7th, 02005 at 4:45 am

    And, to be clear here, HM and Sekimori made aggressive mention and contact to and about me, not vice-versa. They instigated and authored false and then ridiculing content about me, even sent to me "third party" interoffice emails they wrote to one another ridiculing me (among HM employees/operatives) and did so several times even after I wrote to them and asked them to stop contacting me. They seem to think that by forwarding their interoffice nasty gossip about me bypassed that request for no further contact.

    So, by me contacting hmdnsgroup.net and requeting that the later ensuing false and damaging informaton Sekimori wrote about me, that otherwise I would submit a letter of complaint to them about that, hmdnsgroup.net started demanding "the name and address of (my) legal representative" I assume because I made no technical sense to "Charles Johnson" and they considered becoming aggressive about my complaint a means to dodge responsibility for their offensive behavior.

    It is not the business of "Charles Johnson" nor of hmdnsgroup.net to know who my "legal representative" is nor what address that person/entity uses/may use. The entire challenge was among the most stupid I have yet to read by anyone involved with any area of the internet, to put it mildly, and certainly among the most offensive.

19. Misty Fyed Says:
    April 8th, 02005 at 7:36 am

    I'll bet Charles Johnson is an alias; these guys are always hiding something. If they had asked me for my legal rep's name I'd have said, sure I'll give it to you, just as soon as you provide me with your address and phone number and the contact info for YOUR LEGAL REP because you're gunna need one. That might have shut him up, giving him a taste of his own medicine. But what a jack-ass he is, whoever he is. I'm sorry they railroaded you like that and I'm glad you found a good hosting company. I've been to your website--it's really cool, and your paintings are exquisite--it would be an honor for any hosting company to have you as a client.

20. -S- Says:
    May 10th, 02005 at 6:14 pm

    I returned here out of good conscience to avoid leading anyone (further) astray. I'm a prudent consumer and have experienced more than my share of dishonest merchants.

    I have no hesitation again confirming that Hosting Matters was terrible in their foolish personal deririsions of me earlier but I've now learned -- more time to examine the services -- that earlier/second host (Web Intellects) is worse of similar petulent, foolish personality. Their servers went dark (and my site along with that) on a recurring multiple hourly schedule in each and every day over many days, months throughout my account history (Midnight, four A.M., six A.M., noon, etc. 'round any/every 24-hour cycle) and although I wrote very "submissive," Technical/'Support' Tickets -- but ask what the problem was, when they might anticipate it being repaired, thanks, all that -- I'd just receive "your site is up now so if there's anything we can help you with..." (I'd again ask what the problem was), and following, "our server has had upgrades/is fine now..." but the problem continued. I started opening a Ticket every time I'd notice the five minute dark experience (site just wasn't available, would start right before an hourly mark, conclude right at the four or five minute after the hour mark, ongoing at intervals throughout each day), same thing: "your site is up now, if you have any more problems..."

    I tried a simple password change and it resulted in an area of a database not being available such that I was then closed out from accessing (new password countered existing) an earlier one...regardless of what order changes were made. Sent a Ticket, got a nasty "Josh" guy criticising my typing (!) and generally a highly immature, emotionally embittered "Mr. Unhappy here" ticket response posing as technical. I responded that I'd like someone else to assist, "Josh" responds, "you just don't know how to use your program" (oh, great customer/technical service there). I mean, it was like trying to get a resentful thirteen year old out of his room and to turn Metallica off long enough to open his door.

    I found another host. Had me imported and functional in only a few hours, along with my (expensive but very responsive) domain registrar, who effected the server changes immediately. Meaning, in only one day, I had and now have a fully functional, beatifully installed and arranged site with features much richer than Web Intellects offered, and sensible, to the point and non attitudinal email information.

    I closed my account with Web Intellects, writing again one of their notorious Tickets. I just received yet another smarmy, resentful email from them, advising, "You SHOULD have closed htis two days ago...(and that I was not due any refund this month, or prorated, "per the contract"). I didn't ask them for any pro-rata terms. I didn't queston their billing. I just asked them to close the account and not to place any more charges on my credit card after this month. So, they're keeping the full month's charges for May that they just dinged me two days ago (for thiirty days in the future, meaning they get nearly a full month's charges without providing services). I hope that they keep the meager money and buy something that will improve their emotional wellbeing because anyone who'd make such a grubby deal about why they were entitled to keep the full month they just charged me and then reprimand me afterward is a loser. I mean, it's the language and resentment of a loser.

    Please disregard my hopeful, bright enthusiasm from earlier here about Web Intellects, and avoid them. How they ever got a recommendation via CNet is now even suspect, and/or all recommendations from CNet (however they are determined) are based on non specifics.

    As to my specifics, all I can share are my experiences. I have a low-end usage of any site and make no demands of any kind on any host or service, other than a request that my site be available within all possible means with exceptions allowed for extreme circumstances. A website hosting service has an inherent responsibility by the product they sell to be reliable and when they aren't with recurring regularity (as with Web Intellects, my experience, and Hosting Matters also, my experience), there's a problem. When a custome inquires about the problem, it's completely uncalled for when the customer is then denigrated about asking. I don't know what and why certain hosts generate such animosity about customers but all I can say is it's animosity I won't be supporting with my monthly fees. Web hosts provide services, they aren't privileged to insult people because of bad moods or resentments or whatever. Web Intellects is not a good host and you can find many more features elsewhere. On the other hand, if you want a bad experience, seek them out.

    My new host, for the record here, is AQHost and so far, so good. Site loads far faster than it did while with Web Intellects. AQHost also offers a far nicer customer site with CPanel and other features and a very nice guy at the Sales desk, who also offers an install with ongoing updates of the Movable Type publishing program (licensed copy) on your account if desired.

21. -S- Says:
    May 10th, 02005 at 6:25 pm

    Misty Fayed...I DID write to that effect, simply asked them to provide me with a mailing address for purposes of sending them a written complaint.

    That's when they became highly aggressive (or, "Charles Johnson" did) and started demanding -- truly, demanding -- that I "provide (him) with the name and address of my legal representative". As IF. A more laughable non sequitre (sp?) I have yet to ever read/hear. Hosting Matters didn't up to that point (don't know about now) publish a mailing address, just an email address that even from that address they claimed they didn't receive earlier emails sent to them. Because of the seriousness of the offense, which I'd already communicated many times to them (Hosting Matters), I asked for their mailing address...which caused "Charles Johnson" to become aggessive and (still never provided me with a mailing address, by the way) start in with the demands me providing a name/address...legal representative.

    I responded to him/them that it wasn't any of their business who my "legal representative" was (and it isn't). The guy was just doing one of those beatings of his chest to attempt to not provide me with a mailing address for his business as an avoidance tact. Then he launched into the insults as to me "not being technically knowledgeable" (so he wrote he didn't have to therefore read any of my emails about my issue).

    I responded that it didn't matter if I was "technically knowledgeable or not" -- the issue was a client of his' behavior, not my technical intelligence quotient. He then 'demanded' that I "explain" to him "what libel means" and I wrote to him that if he needed a defintions, etc. to please seek his own counsel and/or a legal library helps. That's about when he started demanding that I provide him with "the name and address of (my) legal representative...."

    He never provided me with a mailing address and his extensive emails continued on like that beyond the point of reason.

    Thankfully, not everyone with technical knowledge is an immature (and deceptive) lout. But "Charles Johnson" with Hosting Matters (and peers) and Web Intellects (which turns out to be only a few people, not a large organization, as same with HM) are. Their loss. My gain is learning who to avoid.

22. -S- Says:
    May 10th, 02005 at 6:25 pm

    Misty...thank you for such kind and wonderful compliments.

23. Katherine Says:
    June 2nd, 02005 at 12:54 pm

    Hey, I stumbled on this page because i was doing a little sniffing on these HM guys. I do not host with hosting matters... Seems many of their assigned IP addresses are trying to brute force my server. Most of these were from io.hmdnsgroup.com. They do not respond to any email and just blew me off in their first response claiming it wasn't them. When I contacted my host they said that there had been quite a few root ssh attempts on several boxes from these HM guys. my host suggested I install an anti-brute force progam and block their entire cidr range if we don't deal with anyone using their network...so we did! Anyway, if you are root, look at your logs people.

    Anyway, sorry to hear that many of you have been burnt by HM... My host is ustinet, and although they are a smaller outfit, the guys there have been great. I had a few minor outages from time to time, but otherwise am pretty happy, and that after my three years with them thusfar.

24. deno Says:
    June 3rd, 02005 at 9:29 am

    Yet they still do business?? It's truly distressing to see people like this thrive while they concurrently desecrate any faith clients may have in our field. As a graphic designer and small business owner I am ultimately obligated to teach and inform my clients so they may choose the best possible product for their position. I am ultimately their servant and work for them as though it is my company. I want them to prosper as much as I want prosperity. I'd like to think this is why they hire me instead of purchasing off the shelf templates. The egregious acts listed above are from a truly demented mind that seems to believe just the opposite-"You're paying me, you need me, you will do my bidding." A very spoiled and indignant way of treating the people that support you.

    "Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty. "
    -Louisa May Alcott

    It's nice that they're exposed but the caustic cut of their jib may be extremely detrimental to the faith clients put in us. It's an uphill battle as is. Hopefully they've flipped their own switch.

    "The media's power is frail. Without the people's support, it can be shut off with the ease of turning a light switch."
    -Corazon C. Aquino

25. E. Says:
    September 8th, 02005 at 6:43 am

    Hosting Matters looses another one: PoliBlog

26. Tim Says:
    December 3rd, 02005 at 8:35 pm

    SUNBIZ.ORG says:

    HOSTING MATTERS, INC.
    ANNETTE HOWARD, DIRECTOR

    1643 MALLORY ST
    JACKSONVILLE FL 32205 US

    1861 RIVIERA PARKWAY, L6
    JACKSONVILLE FL 32205 US

    PO BOX 37663
    JACKSONVILLE FL 32236 US

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