Switching between resellers...

[BCS]

Might be missing something here, but by Vortech not intervening here, one reseller has effectively limited/impacted another reseller's business.

There should be no need for communication between resellers over a customer. Any question as to which reseller controls the account, should be determined by the nameserver entries for the domain name.

[Craig_Smith]

This is a good point. So what your saying is, while we should not interfere with the 2 resellers in question we should respect the wishes of the end user site owner,, meaning the guy on the end who can't move his site to the host he wants.

Craig, that sounds fair to me. I'll PM you the domain and the link to check the root DNS for it so you can see he has changed to me. Let's hope we can do this so as to not penalize the end user.

Thanks BCS for the suggestion...

[Garreg]

BCS – Has a good point and a fair one.

Before any intervention, perhaps it’s best to air on the side of ‘fairness’ – is the only reason that reseller ‘A’ won’t let reseller ‘B’ move to another host that stipulated here? Out of curiosity … is any monies owed, ie. Domain / hosting? Could that be the reason reseller ‘A’ won’t release the client’s domain?

If this isn’t the case, then I think that Reseller ‘A’ has no grounds to withhold anything……. Though I’m still of the opinion that this should have been settled privately and not as it has been for all to view…. Especially if (and NOT taking sides here) we don’t know the full details.

I'm not sure really what the problem is. A host can not hold a domain hostage when the host does not own the domain. In this case the domain is owned by the customer who has already changed his nameservers to my DNS.

If I was reselling for a different company other than Matrix, there would be no problem. The customer would have his domain pointed to my DNS, and his site would be on my server.

Because my DNS servers happen to be the same as the host he fired, we are running into this problem. This situation makes me look bad to the customer because I can't activate his domain, and makes Matrix look bad to me because I can't add this customers UserID and domain to my reseller account.

There really isn't anything that Reseller A should be able to withhold unless the reseller is the registrant of the domain, which he is not. Even if money is owed to Reseller A, that should not cause a problem as the owner of the domain can change his nameservers at any time to have his domain pointed to another host. Again, the only difference is that we are both with Matrix which is causing all the trouble.

[Craig_Smith]

gadget,

I've been thinking alot about this and following this closely. I am not suppose to take sides, but for this I am going to have to agree with you here. I need to do some checking on a few things then I will let you know what can be done.

[xweb]

I suggest that your 'client' faxes their request on company letterhead stating that they want to move to the 'new' hosting provider. Then, Matrix/Vortech, should step in and verify this, and, if needed, call the client for verfication.

I understand Matrix/Vortech has nothing to do with the client, but they do control the nameservers. They would be contacting the client directly as the 'host administrator', making sure it is the correct move to make. 5 minutes max time spent.
This is an odd occurance and it will not be something that Matrix/Vortech will have to do again (I hope not!), so, it will not set a bad precedence.

Just my opinion!

[somereseller]

I can't believe people in this forum lie so much about them owning their hardware...Isn't this legally punishable?
EDIT: And it's so easy to discover that it's not true...

I think Vortech should listen to the new reseller. He wants to add a new user? The system does not accept it? Fix it, you shouldn't have to know where it comes from, as long as the customer can prove that they have pointed their domain to the new DNS.

This brings to mind the shared DNS system...There will soon be no difference in DNS between all of us. It will be tough to resolve such conflicts. Looks like loads of faxes to Vortech will soon be the only way

The name portion of the DNS is still different, I don't see the point about no difference, it was still "Shared"(i.e. BIND still would have thought "hey I already have that") and this would have been an issue with the old style just the same.

So as it is now, I've got a customer who signed up Saturday morning and there's nothing I can do except make excuses as to why I haven't set up his account yet

[admin]

somereseller,

What if it was your customer and you did some design work for him and he owed you $500 but no one tells us that and we go in and delete the account under your reseller account for the only reason of he wants to move to anther reseller.. I am sure you would be the first one here to post: "OMFG vortech deleted my customer and moved them to anther reseller OMFG I am going to post this every where I can."

Not saying you would do that just how I see things like this ending up if we just go around messing with our resellers customers deleteing there users and such.

I have the customer's UserID and Password that he used at the old reseller. But, because his account is suspended, I can't even log in to copy the data over. I have sent in the help desk ticket all of the information including the chat exchange between the old reseller and the customer. Here is a portion of it:

Customer (10:31:11 PM): Hello there, this is customer with -----.com. Can you please make the change needed to move my domain address from hostdime to ptww?

DimeLive (10:31:54 PM): now there is a please? after that rude email?

Customer (10:32:19 PM): please

DimeLive (10:32:38 PM): Ironicly

DimeLive (10:32:40 PM): peach tree

DimeLive (10:32:51 PM): is associated

DimeLive (10:32:53 PM): on the same server

DimeLive (10:32:57 PM): so good luck with him

Customer (10:33:08 PM): thank you sir is this mr smith

DimeLive (10:33:09 PM): same server same data center

DimeLive (10:33:43 PM): so those issues with site studio

DimeLive (10:34:15 PM): you will still have them

DimeLive (10:34:24 PM): there is nothing wrong with the hosting

Customer (10:34:30 PM): Is this mr craig smith with host dime

DimeLive (10:34:36 PM): no

Customer (10:34:51 PM): ok thank you for your assitance

DimeLive (10:36:00 PM): there is nothing wrong with the hosting

Customer (10:37:02 PM): i think it would work better for me to work with a web hosting company that is local to me. please take care of the move.

[end chat]

admin, you could, if you wanted to be helpful, delete the zone records and rename the directory so that the data is still there if there is any problem.

Again, if I was with any other host, this would be a non-issue. This is not fair to my business to not be able to add a customer who has signed up for my service and has already changed his nameservers to mine.

[Garreg]

Admin: My sentiment entirely – hence my previous comments, ‘we’ the other readers of this post don’t know the ‘full’ picture. And from reading that chat script there’s obviously ‘more’ to this.
I’m truly sorry that Gadget is experiencing this problem – but naming and shaming other hosts, posting chat scripts etc… is not (in my opinion) the way to go. This matter should be dealt with between the three parties concerned with the intervention of Vortech ‘only’ if an amicable solution can’t be reached – and not for public consumption / debate via this forum. It’s getting more like WHT around here day by day…….

[Craig_Smith]

Ok guys heres the deal.

Our policy has always been from the beginning to never get involved with your clients. Even in this case noone can be 100% sure what was REALLY going on. The ONLY exception to this rule is if the end user contacts us directly. Under no circumstances should your clients ever need to directly contact us. If they do, all bets are off.
If you guys want to advertise your huge datacenters and NOCs thats up to you, we will never say a word. If you also want to falsely advertise your services thats up to you. BUT.. when your clients cross the line and figure out who we are and contact us directly we are NOT going to lie for you. It is up to the end user client to decide with whom he wants to host.

[Vixen]

Personally, I don't want anyone being big brother to me and telling me how to run MY business. And if you are a reseller, then your hosting company is YOUR business.

I can totally understand the frustration but I don't think anyone would want Vortech coming in on behalf of their customer and saying "Ok, your customer said they want to move elsewhere so we are going to delete them as your customer & there is nothing you can do about it."

I would be pissed if it were my customer they were moving because who's to say they even knew the whole story?? And I am not saying that anyone is lying or embellishing, I am just saying the story you are told might possibly not be the entire story and that has to be taken into consideration.