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Molly Mockford
Jul 25, 2018, 4:25:01 AM7/25/18
to
I have to say that I am reasonably impressed with Pickaweb. I myself
moved to TsoHost quite some time ago now, but my friend Dick Gaughan was
still with Gradwell. He isn't too well, but I am Administrator of his
web forum, and when it suddenly stopped working yesterday morning (the
main web site was fine, it was the SQL database which was the problem) I
knew I couldn't expect him to get involved in sorting it out. So I
raised a ticket with Gradwell, who said it had been migrated to
Pickaweb, that Dick would have had a set of e-mails full of information,
and that it was all in Pickaweb's hands now. And washed their hands of
the whole thing.
So I got onto Pickaweb, who responded pretty quickly. Once they got
their heads around the fact that I had no access to the migration
e-mails, or their cPanel, or anything else on their servers, they
speedily adjusted the database settings so that the forum worked. But -
but - but... It was a month old! A full month's data was missing, not
just posts but new member records (leading to an agonised e-mail from
one newish member asking if he had done something dreadfully wrong!).
It took them a couple of hours, but eventually they managed to get the
up-to-date version from Gradwell (who had presumably just passed them an
old backup) and got it set up. So everything now works, and no data was
lost. I don't think Gradwell would, even in their better days, have
sorted something out so swiftly for somebody who isn't even a client!
Anyhow, I thought I'd let those still in the process of migration know
that Pickaweb's customer service bods seem to be helpful, knowledgeable
and courteous, and have given me a pretty good impression of the
company, of whom I had never heard before all of this.
--
Molly Mockford
Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it. (Milton Diamond
Ph.D.)
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
moved to TsoHost quite some time ago now, but my friend Dick Gaughan was
still with Gradwell. He isn't too well, but I am Administrator of his
web forum, and when it suddenly stopped working yesterday morning (the
main web site was fine, it was the SQL database which was the problem) I
knew I couldn't expect him to get involved in sorting it out. So I
raised a ticket with Gradwell, who said it had been migrated to
Pickaweb, that Dick would have had a set of e-mails full of information,
and that it was all in Pickaweb's hands now. And washed their hands of
the whole thing.
So I got onto Pickaweb, who responded pretty quickly. Once they got
their heads around the fact that I had no access to the migration
e-mails, or their cPanel, or anything else on their servers, they
speedily adjusted the database settings so that the forum worked. But -
but - but... It was a month old! A full month's data was missing, not
just posts but new member records (leading to an agonised e-mail from
one newish member asking if he had done something dreadfully wrong!).
It took them a couple of hours, but eventually they managed to get the
up-to-date version from Gradwell (who had presumably just passed them an
old backup) and got it set up. So everything now works, and no data was
lost. I don't think Gradwell would, even in their better days, have
sorted something out so swiftly for somebody who isn't even a client!
Anyhow, I thought I'd let those still in the process of migration know
that Pickaweb's customer service bods seem to be helpful, knowledgeable
and courteous, and have given me a pretty good impression of the
company, of whom I had never heard before all of this.
--
Molly Mockford
Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it. (Milton Diamond
Ph.D.)
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
John Hall
Jul 25, 2018, 5:37:16 AM7/25/18
to
In message <frqqes...@mid.individual.net>, Molly Mockford
<nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> writes
newcomers to Usenet, his guide was the one that I would always direct
them to, being admirably comprehensive and sensible (none of that "read
a group for six months before you have the temerity post to it"
nonsense).
<snip>
also been favourable impressed.
--
John Hall
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
<nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> writes
>I have to say that I am reasonably impressed with Pickaweb. I myself
>moved to TsoHost quite some time ago now, but my friend Dick Gaughan was
>still with Gradwell. He isn't too well,
I'm sorry to hear that. In the old days, back when there were still
>moved to TsoHost quite some time ago now, but my friend Dick Gaughan was
>still with Gradwell. He isn't too well,
newcomers to Usenet, his guide was the one that I would always direct
them to, being admirably comprehensive and sensible (none of that "read
a group for six months before you have the temerity post to it"
nonsense).
<snip>
>
>Anyhow, I thought I'd let those still in the process of migration know
>that Pickaweb's customer service bods seem to be helpful, knowledgeable
>and courteous, and have given me a pretty good impression of the
>company, of whom I had never heard before all of this.
That's good to hear, I was migrated a couple of months ago, and have
>Anyhow, I thought I'd let those still in the process of migration know
>that Pickaweb's customer service bods seem to be helpful, knowledgeable
>and courteous, and have given me a pretty good impression of the
>company, of whom I had never heard before all of this.
also been favourable impressed.
--
John Hall
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Chris S
Jul 25, 2018, 7:25:23 AM7/25/18
to
On Wed, 25 Jul 2018 09:24:53 +0100, Molly Mockford
<nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> wrote:
[snip]
>So I got onto Pickaweb, who responded pretty quickly. Once they got
>their heads around the fact that I had no access to the migration
>e-mails, or their cPanel, or anything else on their servers, they
>speedily adjusted the database settings so that the forum worked. But -
>but - but... It was a month old! A full month's data was missing, not
>just posts but new member records (leading to an agonised e-mail from
>one newish member asking if he had done something dreadfully wrong!).
>It took them a couple of hours, but eventually they managed to get the
>up-to-date version from Gradwell (who had presumably just passed them an
>old backup) and got it set up. So everything now works, and no data was
>lost. I don't think Gradwell would, even in their better days, have
>sorted something out so swiftly for somebody who isn't even a client!
[snip]
Reminiscent of Demon's (at the time and still part of the Vodafone
empire) transfer of their web and email hosting business to Namesco.
In both cases, no apparent attempt was made to ensure transferred
customer data was reasonably current (entirely feasible with adequate
coordination). It would seem to be a case of 'couldn't care less' on
the part of 'would you buy a used care from them' Gradwell. Of
course, this is not the first time Gradwell have shown a lack of any
consideration for their 'non-VOIP' customers. Remember the time when
'Gradwell Cloud' was outsourced to Ingram Micro a few years ago?
Chris S
<nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> wrote:
[snip]
>So I got onto Pickaweb, who responded pretty quickly. Once they got
>their heads around the fact that I had no access to the migration
>e-mails, or their cPanel, or anything else on their servers, they
>speedily adjusted the database settings so that the forum worked. But -
>but - but... It was a month old! A full month's data was missing, not
>just posts but new member records (leading to an agonised e-mail from
>one newish member asking if he had done something dreadfully wrong!).
>It took them a couple of hours, but eventually they managed to get the
>up-to-date version from Gradwell (who had presumably just passed them an
>old backup) and got it set up. So everything now works, and no data was
>lost. I don't think Gradwell would, even in their better days, have
>sorted something out so swiftly for somebody who isn't even a client!
Reminiscent of Demon's (at the time and still part of the Vodafone
empire) transfer of their web and email hosting business to Namesco.
In both cases, no apparent attempt was made to ensure transferred
customer data was reasonably current (entirely feasible with adequate
coordination). It would seem to be a case of 'couldn't care less' on
the part of 'would you buy a used care from them' Gradwell. Of
course, this is not the first time Gradwell have shown a lack of any
consideration for their 'non-VOIP' customers. Remember the time when
'Gradwell Cloud' was outsourced to Ingram Micro a few years ago?
Chris S
Charles Lindsey
Jul 27, 2018, 3:42:28 PM7/27/18
to
On 25/07/18 09:24, Molly Mockford wrote:
> I have to say that I am reasonably impressed with Pickaweb. I myself
> moved to TsoHost quite some time ago now, but my friend Dick Gaughan was
> still with Gradwell. He isn't too well, but I am Administrator of his
> web forum, and when it suddenly stopped working yesterday morning (the
> main web site was fine, it was the SQL database which was the problem) I
> knew I couldn't expect him to get involved in sorting it out. So I
> raised a ticket with Gradwell, who said it had been migrated to
> Pickaweb, that Dick would have had a set of e-mails full of information,
> and that it was all in Pickaweb's hands now. And washed their hands of
> the whole thing.
I must say I have had a similar experience. For some reason, I never got
> I have to say that I am reasonably impressed with Pickaweb. I myself
> moved to TsoHost quite some time ago now, but my friend Dick Gaughan was
> still with Gradwell. He isn't too well, but I am Administrator of his
> web forum, and when it suddenly stopped working yesterday morning (the
> main web site was fine, it was the SQL database which was the problem) I
> knew I couldn't expect him to get involved in sorting it out. So I
> raised a ticket with Gradwell, who said it had been migrated to
> Pickaweb, that Dick would have had a set of e-mails full of information,
> and that it was all in Pickaweb's hands now. And washed their hands of
> the whole thing.
to see the messages informing me of the imminent migration, so I woke up
one morning to find that my email just did not exist (due to my somewhat
unusual domain arrangements).
By tea-time it was all working again, thanks to some excellent work by
Pickaweb Support, and some very helpful people running the DNS at
Manchester University.
Apart from the appearance of some ancient mailboxes, which seem to have
come from my discontinued Legacy Gradwell setup and were easily deleted,
everything was fine. The facilities on offer were more like what
Gradwell used to be, with Spamassassin and the ability to create
customized filters.
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At my New Home, still doing my own
thing-----------
Tel: +44 161 488 1845 Web:
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: c...@clerew.man.ac.uk Snail: 40 SK8 5BF, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14
A4 AB A5
David James
Jul 31, 2018, 6:07:18 PM7/31/18
to
Pickaweb did my migration last Friday (a week ago).
The time interval between the email saying they had started the migration
and the one saying they had finished was only 3 minutes.
Fortunately my DNS is hosted elsewhere, so all my services are still
running at Gradwell ...
I think Pickaweb have probably migrated the email setup and email
forwarding correctly (though I've not yet dared to switch my MX record to
point at them).
They had not migrated any of my mySQL databases. They did migrate them
after I raised that question in a reply to the migration ticket. But they
said they were unable to find out what other mySQL users I had in the
databases at Gradwell, so I've had to reconstruct those myself.
They had attempted to migrate some (but not all) of my various web-sites
files, but some of those had been migrated to the wrong level in the
directory hierarchy.
They had made no attempt to migrate any of the other files in my Gradwell
developer account (I think that was the term Gradwell used when I opened
the account many years ago), and in response to my asking about this they
asked if I wanted them to migrate the contents of my home directory at
Gradwell to the public_html directory at Pickaweb - no thank you!
I've spent most of today copying files to Pickaweb and getting the
structure correct for the files they had copied.
My experience of the Technical Support has been very different to yours -
I've engaged with them through their ticketing system (replies take
several hours, and they don't seem to be reading what I write) and via
live chat - this evening a 25 minute pause in their advisor replying part-
way through the conversation and then saying "Sorry we are facing a large
qeue of chats, we will check and let you know through the ticket"
At the moment, I'd rate their Technical Support as marginally better than
Gradwell's - a few hours to reply is better than days or weeks, but I
don't find them knowledgeable.
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