<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Reviving an old thread I thought I'd throw my $0.02 about the current impression of Cloudatcost.<br><br></div>I went for one of their Developer 2 packages. When I clicked on the package a chatbot popped up with something to the effect "Today only use the code ******** for 50% off." (checking today it's still up). The code didn't work so I clicked through to the payment screen hoping I would find another place the code might apply. Normally most vendors I've dealt with have a couple of screens before final payment, cloudatcost doesn't, so be careful before placing an order.<br>
<br></div>After clicking through I got an email "bill" for the order. I logged in to the cloudatcost site and found the only payment option is through paypal. I'm not a fan of paypal/ebay so I sent them a ticket about other payment methods. I let the ticket sit overnight with no response. The next day I saw that cloudatcost has a Twitter account so I sent them a DM about the ticket/payment. No response a day later. It's now been a couple of days with no reply either method.<br>
<br></div>Now I know it's apples and oranges, but when I compare Teksavvy's response to issues I've had there is a huge difference. First, I have numbers to call. Second, usually I get a response on my billing within half and hour. When I've used Twitter to contact Teksavvy I've received almost instant response (even as late as 8:30pm). I once asked on Twitter if people were having issues with Teksavvy DSL (not DM or quoting them) and got a response from a CSR about 30 seconds later. (Turned out Bell was fiddling outside our building). Even Godaddy, who I'm moving away from, tends to respond within 1 day (and they tend to do better when it comes to billing).<br>
<br></div>At this point it looks like I might have to suck it up and create a paypal account (I don't really want to) to pay the bill. There is an <a href="mailto:info@cloudatcost.com">info@cloudatcost.com</a> I haven't tried yet, but no other contact info.<br>
<div><div><div><div><div><div><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 4:10 PM, Chamunks Arkturus <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chamunks@gmail.com" target="_blank">chamunks@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">It appears as though things have stabilized a fair bit since my last email so maybe its all just simply growing pains but it was a bit of a rough start which kind of stinks.<br>
</div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Andrew Sullivan Cant <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:acant@alumni.uwaterloo.ca" target="_blank">acant@alumni.uwaterloo.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Where did you hear about the VMWare infrastructure?<br>
I know that VMWare itself it built on RedHat, but if cloudatcost is not<br>
actually doing much work with FLOSS directly then maybe there is less<br>
presentation possibility.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<div><br>
<br>
On 16/12/13 15:56, Chamunks Arkturus wrote:<br>
> I've a few services with cloud at cost and as long as you don't mind<br>
> that you're probably not going to reach anything near 100% network<br>
> uptime or hardware availability these are great. They tend to ship some<br>
> flaky ubuntu server images that require IO timeout tweaks taht help<br>
> avoiding kernel panics etc. I'm optimistic that these issues may end up<br>
> leveling out but its definitely a rocky shore right now.<br>
><br>
> I tried installing a ZNC instance on a 35$ one and its definitely flaked<br>
> out at least once each week for the last couple of months. They're<br>
> apparently backed by vmware infrastructure in some way or another.<br>
> Their support doesn't respond much at all either so as long as you don't<br>
> mind basically having to re-image the server to solve problems thats<br>
> also a small hitch. Granted I'm not an elite sysadmin but I'm doing<br>
> what I can to learn and these VPS's are great for the learning curve and<br>
> if you want to have a few little services that arent going to need 100%<br>
> uptime but would be nice to have when it feels like the weather's warm<br>
> enough to be online then they're great!<br>
><br>
> Either way because they're technically not a bad idea just like running<br>
> a server on your home internet connection is also technically not a bad<br>
> idea I will likely keep checking out a few of them for some services I<br>
> would use them for but yeah thats my experience this far. Its really a<br>
> disheartening start but they seem to be working through it all.<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 4:56 PM, Bob Jonkman <<a href="mailto:bjonkman@sobac.com" target="_blank">bjonkman@sobac.com</a><br>
</div><div><div>> <mailto:<a href="mailto:bjonkman@sobac.com" target="_blank">bjonkman@sobac.com</a>>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> I was at a seminar recently where the invited speaker was a vendor. The<br>
> presentation was at a suitably technical level. The problem was not<br>
> *enough* self-promotion by the vendor: After a good explanation of<br>
> problems and solutions we had to ask "But what products and services is<br>
> your company offering to combat these problems, and at what prices?"<br>
><br>
> No point in having a vendor come in if they're not vending. But I agree<br>
> that product shilling shouldn't overwhelm the presentation.<br>
><br>
> --Bob.<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On 13-12-15 10:42 AM, unsolicited wrote:<br>
> > Ach. I dunno, there's been some decent ones too. At wwitpro too.<br>
> e.g. An<br>
> > MS Sharepoint presentation there worked out quite well - they rose to<br>
> > the level of the audience. Rose above newbieness to 'what is this<br>
> > beastie' and not much more, because the audience at the time wasn't<br>
> > ready for much more.<br>
> ><br>
> > VMware at kwlug was almost as good. Started out VERY sales pitchy<br>
> but by<br>
> > the end, given the nature of the audience, were getting right into the<br>
> > technical stuff for us. Also an, in the end, good experience. To me,<br>
> > anyways. But it sure didn't start out well.<br>
> ><br>
> > Perhaps it depends upon what department they come from, and whether or<br>
> > not it's a pre-packaged sales pitch presentation, vs something<br>
> from the<br>
> > tech. department?<br>
> ><br>
> > Part of the problem with both groups is finding the right balance<br>
> > between professional development looking to leverage work<br>
> environments,<br>
> > and non-professional home users looking to expand their knowledge.<br>
> > Particularly that those in the profession live the ecosystem for many<br>
> > hours each day and so bring a lot of background knowledge and<br>
> comfort to<br>
> > any seminar. While the home user often struggles to comprehend the<br>
> > nature of the rather big ecosystem out there. Easy example is<br>
> SANS, and<br>
> > fibre, let alone non-default file systems, which the home user<br>
> wouldn't<br>
> > normally experience. To know it's even out there, let alone its nature<br>
> > or ramifications.<br>
> ><br>
> > Cloud is an easy example where the latter probably applies for the<br>
> vast<br>
> > majority - few in either camp will be directly involved in cloud<br>
> > configuration, and I doubt the majority of home users have played with<br>
> > vm's - it taking a certain amount of horsepower to do so, if they even<br>
> > see the point for them in their home environment.<br>
> ><br>
> > A less than deeply technical, these are the finer points of apache ini<br>
> > cache configurations in your multi-homed active swap configuration, vs<br>
> > 'what is this beastie' and 'what buying criteria points should I care<br>
> > about and how do I implement them' will likely suit the majority.<br>
> ><br>
> > It probably depends upon which department the presenter comes from?<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > On 13-12-15 06:40 AM, Richard Weait wrote:<br>
> >> On Dec 15, 2013 1:04 AM, Andrew Sullivan Cant<br>
</div></div><div>> >> <<a href="mailto:acant@alumni.uwaterloo.ca" target="_blank">acant@alumni.uwaterloo.ca</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:acant@alumni.uwaterloo.ca" target="_blank">acant@alumni.uwaterloo.ca</a>>> wrote:<br>
> >>><br>
> >>> Me too....I'll try to connect with someone at Fibernetics and see<br>
> >>> where things go.<br>
> >>><br>
> >>> My original thought was an engineering focused presentation, if<br>
> >>> that was possible, and not just a sales focused one. It would seem<br>
> >>> more appropriate given the audience.<br>
> >><br>
> >> I remember organizing a commercial presentation for kwlug a few years<br>
> >> back. I won't name names because I found the experience wholly<br>
> >> unsatisfactory. The company agreed to put on a technical<br>
> >> presentation, not a sales pitch. They agreed to take specific<br>
> >> technical questions. What they delivered was merely a mind numbing<br>
> >> tech-free sales pitch. and so I do not trust that company at all for<br>
> >> anything. And I do not look forward to having any other company<br>
> >> desecrate a kwlug meeting. The experience was horrible last time.<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > _______________________________________________<br>
> > kwlug-disc mailing list<br>
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><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Charles McColm, Author: Instant XBMC,<br>Columnist: Full Circle Magazine,<br>Project Manager: The Working Centre Computer Recycling Project<br>Web: <a href="http://www.theworkingcentre.org/cr/" target="_blank">http://www.theworkingcentre.org/cr/</a><br>
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