Sprocket Networks Appserve Technologies Opus-3 Justin Clutter John Clutter Scam, Refusal to provide address to pick up moved equipment, Refusal to adhere to own Service Level Agreements Dallas Texas

Sprocket Networks, Appserve Technologies, Opus-3, Justin Clutter, and John Clutter and their employees are incredibly shady individuals.

Their Network Engineers and Support Staff are probably the most unskilled in the business and fail to perform even the most remedial of tasks.

I can deal with incompetence to a certain degree, but I can not accept that this company refused to inform me when my hardware was moved to a new facility (which caused unexpected downtime) and then after -ARGUING- that my server was the cause (magically after they moved my server apparently it decided to rewrite its configuration files and stop IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity at random intervals... yeah... sure guys THAT makes sense.) of -THEIR-network problems for -HOURS- it was finally admitted that they were having "major network issues", but refused to credit me for the downtime as per their Service Level Agreement.  

They then refused to provide me with the address to pick up my hardware from the new facility (which was not available from any of their materials) and despite the fact they had stated my hardware had been unracked and was ready for pick up they claimed they had NO IDEA that I was coming to pick up the hardware and it was still racked, powered on, and connected via ethernet albeit the network was NOT WORKING (still... again... pick one).  

They essentially tried to keep my hardware hostage in what I can only guess was an attempt to roll me over into another billing cycle. They later claimed to have made calls to my cell phone (I left my number to settle the dispute), but they did not and I have phone records to show that.  They then refused to provide me with an appropriate contact number to resolve the issue.

All this said,  I should have known better as it was immediately apparent that their support staff and "Network Engineers" are entirely dumbfounded by the simplest of tasks.  They were entirely unable to boot my server, said they were able to boot the server, then claimed it "wasn't making it to POST".  Then it magically started working, but they couldn't figure out how to use their KVM devices. Go figure.

The server had absolutely no problems prior to colocation with Sprocket Networks/Appserver Technologies/Opus-3, no problems after this incident, no problems after I picked it up and confirmed the server setup had absolutely no issues (I changed the IPv4 and IPv6 gateways with no other modifications and it was right as rain), it is currently in another DC and has had... You guessed it.  Absolutely, no issues.

The issues continued after them being unable to boot the server.  The next issue was the absolute inability to sub-delegate an IPv6 range to my nameservers.  This was never their fault, either.  It was BIND's fault.  BIND kept throwing errors they couldn't find, or notice until after the fact.  BIND is causing the problem.  BIND must be updated to solve this problem, etc, etc.  It was all non-sense. BIND did not make you give it incorrect syntax.  BIND did not make you incorrectly sub-delegate.  

This, however, became the theme. Nothing was ever their fault.  In fact, they never had any problems.  It was the software, it was my server, it's that darn linux kernel we're running, it was LOOK WHAT GOD DID TO US, MAN! But, no, it was certainly never them and it had nothing to do with inability to perform the tasks.

How long do you suppose it should take to add some entries in a BIND configuration file?  An hour? Twelve hours?  A day? Three days?  How about an entire week from the first request?  I'll give the benefit of the doubt in that the first request was entirely ignored, but more about this fantastic attention to detail later.  After it was brought to their attention again, that I would like to have the range sub-delegated it took a full SIX days for them to get it working.  It wasn't from lack of trying either.  They just couldn't do it and this being after I explained precisely HOW to do it.  That's pretty bad, however, I didn't complain and patiently worked with them until it was complete.

This all leads to my next point.  They would never answer questions about network problems which would pop up now and again.  I suppose this was merely an attempt to mitigate against potential pay-outs from their SLA.  I can't think of any other reason they would intentionally ignore questions as to what happened.  I wasn't even interested in having them pay-out for any network downtime until they made a point to BLAME ME.  Yet, again.  It was never them.  It was MY server, it was MY configuration, it was MY mistake. Simple fact is, the extreme problems started -after- THEY moved my server, to THEIR new DC, and onto THEIR new router.  I finally got a response from a so-called "Network Engineer" Patrick Roberts (the same guy that couldn't figure out how to sub-delegate IPv6 in BIND... go figure) after he spent the last few hours blaming my hardware for the problem that stated they were having "after investigating we are having MAJOR network issues".  

Now really... You are having "major network issues" and you decided to spend a few hours arguing with me and blaming my setup when it was only yours that changed only to concede that it is on your end and you haven't been doing a d**n thing about it?  Are these the "Network Engineers" that you want watching over your hardware?  One's that cannot grasp how to use BIND, and have absolutely no clue that there has been major network issues for several days?

-BEWARE-

These guys don't seem to have a CLUE as to what they are doing and will unabashedly blame everything but themselves for any issue that arises, will outright ignore inquiry into issues, will lie to you at any point they percieve benefit in it, will refuse to live up to their SLA, will quite possibly move your hardware without warning and will then hold your hardware hostage, and if they move it they will in all likelihood refuse to tell you where they moved it to.  

What stand up guys.  What great people to do business with. This all comes from a company whose mission statement is "To provide wonderful customer service for all our customers no matter the size!".  Sounds like a load to me...