UP2VPS

Do not, under any circumstances, do business with this company.  They advertise on their site a 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee, but (a) they can't live up to this promise; and (b) they do not do anything to compensate their customers for their inconvenience when they don't.  I experienced no less than 10 hours of system downtime from Oct 4 - Oct 19.  (99.9% uptime would only allow 20 minutes of downtime in this period).

An SLA, for the uninitiated, is a "Service Level Agreement."  They promise, as part of the contractual obligation with their customers, to provide a defined level of service; in this case, 99.9% uptime.

Read on for the full details.

I subscribed to their service on Sep 27, 2011.  Things were going well until Oct 4, when the service went down.  Not only was my VPS down, but I couldn't even access their website to submit a support ticket.  I could access the control panel, but the service wouldn't reboot from the control panel.  I sent an email to their support department, and here's the exchange that followed:

d'Armond
Client
04/10/2011 02:58

I need some help, and I'm not sure how else to ask for it. My VPS is down; I can see that it's offline using the control panel.

I tried to reboot it (using the blue Reboot button), but it's still offline.

I tried to visit my.up2vps.com to either log into my account, check for some status info, or get help, but I cannot even connect to that site.

Help?

What else can I do?

Tomer A
Staff
04/10/2011 03:02

Hi, there
We have get high load so we reboot our nodes . should be ok now.

d'Armond
Client
04/10/2011 03:14

Hi Tomer, thanks. Yes, I am back up.

So, I have some questions. Does this happen often? Did my server actually go down and get rebooted, or was I just unable to access it? If it went down, is there any way that I can be notified when this happens, so that I can make sure things are running properly when it comes back up?

On your website you mention a 99.9% Uptime SLA, but I cannot find any other information about the SLA on the site. Can you provide me any more information on this, so I can know what to expect?
Thanks! 

They just rebooted their nodes?!

This question was never answered.  Note, they took my server down intentionally, without notifying me, and without regard for what was running or what the interruption in service would do to me.

Event #2 happened on Oct 12, 2011.   Same problem, I could not access their website, and this time I couldn't even access the control panel.

d'Armond
Client
12/10/2011 21:28

Greetings,

I need assistance, and as the up2vps.com website appears to be down, I'm not sure how else to request it. My VPS appears to be down; I cannot access it, and I cannot access the website or control panel to see what could be going on.

What should I do when this happens? I noticed this morning that the server rebooted overnight, but I received no notice, and the application I had set to run on startup was not running (not until I logged in). If the site is going to go down, I am going to need some kind of notification so I can make sure things are working correctly when it comes back up.

Also, can I get a copy of the SLA referenced on up2vps.com? I'm concerned about the frequent outages and reboots; I was hoping for a more stable environment.

Thanks!


Tomer A
Staff
12/10/2011 23:11

Hi, We get ddos attack 2 times this day. i wanne ask what you run into your vps?


d'Armond
Client
13/10/2011 00:09

Hi Tomer,

I'm running an MT4 client (MetaTrader 4), connected to a server from FinFx.fi.

Sorry to hear about the DoS attacks, that sucks.

How can I get further information on the SLA? Both times the servers have gone down I've asked about the SLA, but so far I haven't gotten any more info.

Also, is there a way for me to be notified when the servers go down, or at least when they come back up? Thanks much! 

There was no reply to this question either, or any acknowledgement that I had answered his question about what I was running (he asks again later).

I was beginning to suspect that the SLA was a scam.

The third event occurred on Oct 14.  This time they didn't just suffer an outage, they suspended my service, without notice or cause!

d'Armond
Client
14/10/2011 17:24

At 8:30 am GMT today my server went down. When I looked at the Control Panel to see what the problem could be, I got this message:

"This virtual server has been suspended by the administrator. Please contact support"

Why has my server been suspended? If there's a problem, why was I not notified?

Please help!

Tomer A
Staff
14/10/2011 17:27

Hi,

We was get over loads cased crash our node . question here is . what you are run into vps?

d'Armond
Client
14/10/2011 17:38

Hi Tomer,

I run one instance of an MT4 client (MetaTrader 4) from FinFx.fi. That's all.

I signed up with UP2VPS in part because you advertise a 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee. Now please, what are the terms of this guarantee? The site has clearly not been up 99.9% of the time. I've asked numerous times and so far my question has been ignored.
Thanks,

Tomer A
Staff
14/10/2011 17:46

Hi,

We already more than 99.9% uptime but when some bad guys abuser on our node it get crash. whatever MT4 client overload on cpu?

d'Armond Speers
Client
14/10/2011 17:59

99.9% uptime would allow for 1.44 minutes of downtime per day. My server has gone down 3 times this week, and in this current instance it's been down over 5 hours and counting.

But my question is not the uptime of the server; my question is, what are the terms of the SLA advertised on your site? I'm just asking what the terms of the SLA are.

I do not understand your question about the MT4 client. It is a stable forex trading platform used by thousands of traders all over the world. I ran it locally (inside a virtual machine no less) for over a month before moving it to a VPS, and it never once crashed or caused problems in my VM. You can download a copy for yourself here:

http://www.fxcm.com/metatrader.jsp

(You'll have to set up a demo account, but it's free and easy.)
Do you have evidence that my VPS account is causing your server load and crash problems?

d'Armond
Client
17/10/2011 19:03

Not sure why this ticket was closed. I received an email that said:

"This is a notification to let you know that we are changing the status of your ticket #184423 to Closed as we have not received a response from you in over 48 hours."

I responded and was awaiting a response from you. I asked some questions that have not been answered:

1. What are the terms of the SLA advertised on your site? Specifically, how do you compensate customers when you are not able to maintain 99.9% uptime?

2. Do you have any evidence that my VPS account is the cause of your server load and crash problems?

3. You have twice now asked me about the MT4 client that I'm using in my VPS. Do you have the information you need to conclude that this is a stable and benign application?

This is not just a matter of interest; I notice that my VPS has been rebooted at least twice in the last 24 hours, and since (a) I depend on my VPS running and (b) you don't notify me when it goes down or comes back up, this continues to be a real problem.

Tomer A
Staff
17/10/2011 19:35

Hi,

node rebooted due high load . we don't know Yet why this high loads . we check logs etc nothing found . we Monitored this node . we never get issue with this node before

Tomer A
Staff
18/10/2011 02:09

Hi, We have Monitored issue from bug with Xen kernel . This is a Kernel Bug as you can see:

Oct 18 00:41:11 x4 kernel: Kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:31 Kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:31 invalid opcode: 0000 [1] SMP last sysfs file: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/irq
CPU 5

It was absolutely infuriating how he never answered my questions about the SLA, but I kept my cool.  Meanwhile, I had to stop running MT4 on the VPS, because I couldn't depend upon it being stable.  I set up an account with mon.itor.us to notify me both when my VPS went down and when it came back up.  Over the next week, it went down 3 times; finally, on the last time I sent in another support request, which would prove to be my last:

d'Armond
Client
19/10/2011 13:29

VPS is offline, and while I can access the Control Panel, I cannot boot the server or access my.up2vps.com.

Please help!

At this point I must insist that I get an answer to the question of the SLA. Your system seems to crash almost daily and the resulting downtime is highly disruptive. If you can't answer the question, can you tell me who can? Please do not continue to ignore the question!


Tomer A
Staff
19/10/2011 14:14

issue from bug with Xen kernel . and this not fixed by us only Xen who can fixed . but we can't wait to they fixed it so we made some changes hope it help

This is a Kernel Bug as you can see:

Oct 18 00:41:11 x4 kernel: Kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:31
Kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:31
invalid opcode: 0000 [1] SMP
last sysfs file: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/irq
CPU 5


d'Armond
Client
19/10/2011 17:37

Thank you for the information on the bug. This explains *why* UP2VPS is unable to provide the 99.9% uptime that you guarantee, but it doesn't answer the question that you are stubbornly ignoring: what are you going to do to satisfy me, your customer, considering your inability to provide the uptime that you guarantee?

Who should I talk to in order to get an answer to this question, since you obviously will not answer it?


Tomer A
Staff
19/10/2011 17:42

Customers understood the current situation . These things are outside our control and we are doing an effort to resolve it as quickly as possible. I hope you have understood the problems that always occur with others, whether or

Thanks You,


d'Armond
Client
19/10/2011 17:57

I do understand. But you must understand that your instability makes it difficult at best for me to continue to be your customer. I spent several hours in the middle of the night last night sitting up with a temporary VM running my software, waiting for the VPS to come back up. Your site was down for about 3.5 hours last night, as far as I can tell.

The UP2VPS website says there's a 99.9% uptime guarantee. It doesn't say "unless there's a kernel bug that's out of our control." This is part of the reason why I've been asking and asking for the terms of the SLA, so I can better judge what constitutes a breach. From my point of view, you have breached the SLA, at great inconvenience to me, on a regular and continuing basis. I hope you have understood the problems you've caused me, and my mounting frustration that you continue to deflect the question.

Is there someone else at UP2VPS that I can discuss this with? One of my earlier questions was answered by Adam, so I know you're not the only one there.


Daniel B
Staff
19/10/2011 18:08

Hi,

what question you are asked? all our antoher node have 99.99% to 100% uptime Guarantee i guess you was in Seattle or so before and get 100% uptime . it's kernel bug can't be fixed by us . we take node down to made some changes which maybe help.

whatever we have mande changes and we go to Monitored this node and see what will happend


d'Armond
Client
19/10/2011 18:23

I subscribed to be in your Germany node; assuming this is where you have placed me, this is the only location I have been with you.

My question is:

(a) What are the terms of your 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee?

and

(b) What do you do when the SLA is breached? Specifically, since you have not provided the promised 99.9% uptime that you advertise, how do you compensate your customers for their inconvenience?

I understand it's a kernel bug, and I understand that you can't fix it. You're explaining to me why you cannot live up to your SLA. I'm asking a different question: what do you do when you can't live up to your SLA?  Just repeating "kernel bug" at me does not help, because it doesn't answer the question, and it doesn't do anything to give me any confidence that you will be able to live up to your SLA in the future.

So far I have not asked for a specific recompense, preferring for you to tell me what is your policy. But nobody will tell me what the policy is, either for determining whether there's a breach of the SLA, or what UP2VPS will do for their customers when there is a breach.

So, to state it simply: you have repeatedly and continuously violated your 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee, at great personal inconvenience to me, your customer. I expect UP2VPS to respond in a fair and professional way to compensate me for the inconveniences caused by this, in accordance with your guarantee. I would *think* a fair response would be to refund me, at a minimum, for the days on which these downtimes occurred; or preferably, for the current billing period.


d'Armond
Client
21/10/2011 18:10

Two days with no response. Why is it when I ask this question, you guys ignore me?

Let me put it this way. You advertise the 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee on your site. This is one of the reasons I became your customer, because high system stability is critical for my application. Advertising this guarantee implies two things: (1) your system is very stable; and (2) if it's not stable, you'll make it up to your customers who are effected.

So, we've seen that (1) is not true; your system has been very unstable (though I understand you've taken steps to try to improve this). So, (2) how will you make it up to your customers who are effected? So far you've just ignored me whenever I've asked the question, or continued to explain why your system is so unstable, which doesn't help me at all, and further reduces my confidence.

All I've really asked so far is (a) what are the terms of the guarantee you advertise on your homepage; and (b) what do you do when you cannot live up to the promise of the guarantee? Whether or not you agree that you've been unable to live up to the 99.9% uptime that you advertise, you should be able to answer these simple questions.


Tomer A
Staff
21/10/2011 18:29

Hi, To not waste time what you need exactly? the node is up and work as well now.


d'Armond
Client
21/10/2011 19:03

If you wanted to not waste time, you could have answered the questions I've been asking over and over:

(a) What are the terms of your 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee? and

(b) What do you do when the SLA is breached? Specifically, since you have not provided the promised 99.9% uptime that you advertise, how do you compensate your customers for their inconvenience?


Tomer A
Staff
21/10/2011 19:11

(A) What are the terms of your 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee? and can get more if we get kernel bug or ddos attack

(b) What do you do when the SLA is breached? Specifically, since you have not provided the promised 99.9% uptime that you advertise, how do you compensate your customers for their inconvenience? we have answered before if you look to credit we not offer credit . network not paid us if they have issue or kernel paid if it have bug


d'Armond
Client
21/10/2011 19:30

So here's what I'm hearing:

(a) we guarantee 99.9% uptime, when we can.
(b) when we can't, too bad.

That's no guarantee.

You have not answered before that you do not offer credit or refunds; this is the first time you've communicated that to me. I can only assume you have many irritated customers and you're losing track of who you're talking to.

Okay, you obviously cannot provide a stable environment, and you will not stand behind your service. I will terminate my account. Since you will not offer me a refund for the significant inconvenience you've caused me, I will do everything I can to make sure that other unsuspecting potential customers know that you're a disreputable business who can't provide what they promise, won't stand by their service, and won't satisfy their customers.

That's the end of the exchanges. I did not edit or alter their responses in any way (I have PDF printouts of all exchanges for anyone who wants verification). Places where their sentences seemed incomplete or incoherent were exactly as I received them.

Stay away from these guys; they're crooks and their service is crap.