For those of you who frequent my blog, you would have noticed that it was down for the whole day of yesterday. My webhost is currently in the process of migrating all their servers to the new Equinix IBX datacenter, and the server than I’m on are scheduled to be migrated on the 23rd this month.

They stated that during the process of migrating, it should be smooth and we’ll not experience downtime. But sometimes, shit happens you know. My databases were all gone, missing. That’s all my work in a year, man. My last db backup was months before.

So, I submitted a ticket to their support system hoping to recover them. I got a reply with “I’ll forward this to the admins who will assist you further with this issue”. And then, it was all silent. Until this morning, I’ve got a reply from the admin saying that the matter will be resolved within an hour or so. The mail was sent out to me a few hours before and I expect the problems to be solved, and yet, I’m not seeing my databases. I’m so pissed off at their support that I went to their website and click on that ‘Live Sales Chat’ link. Who cares if they’re the salespeople? I want my blog to be back on.

This is how the conversation goes.

* This conversation is original. However, some details are masked for security reasons.
* Statements in brackets ( ) are my comments on the conversation.

Please wait for one of our sales representatives to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Sally’

Sally: Greetings, how can we help you today?
alexallied: im actually looking for a technician to help me out with my sites at www.alexallied.com
alexallied: the databases are missing and they’re not responding to my tickets quick enough, it’s been 24 hours + and I’m getting frustrated
Sally: Well if you can give me your ticket ID, I will have someone to look into it (eventhough we are not supposed to help with technical issues on the chat)
alexallied: Axx-xxxxx. thank you. but you’re suppose to have a live chat for technical problems as well.
(Beginning to show my frustrations)
Sally: Not yet, the migration process has delayed it
Sally: Hopefully starting December 1st
alexallied: alright, that’s good to hear. but please, have someone to look at my account and see what’s wrong, cause the database were all gone, all 6 of them. that’s ALL my sites.
Sally: What server where you hosted previously?
alexallied: server xyz
Sally: One moment.
alexallied: it was migrating I know, but the DB aren’t supposed to be gone missing.
Sally: Whats your username?
alexallied: xxxxxxx
Sally: This happened only with server xyz
Sally: Cause the server you were being migrated to didnt have mysql permission set correctly
Sally: So it wasnt moved
Sally: Which we apologize
Sally: A technician is on top of your issue.
alexallied: i sure hope it’s still there.
Sally: He going to fix it in 2-3 minutes. (It’s been 24 hours+ and you tell me now it can be fixed within 2-3 minutes? How lame is that?)

Sally: Ofcourse its there.
alexallied: thank you for the help. I had my fingers crossed at your answer
alexallied: it’s been a lot of work updating the contents, and it’s gonna be a nightmare for me if they’re all lost, my last backup copy was about 1-2 months old.
Sally: Dotn worry (All the typos are coming out now, not focusing on the conversation, perhaps busy with other potential customers)
alexallied: but it would be nice if someone would attend and reply my problems quicker. the tickets are just too slow. Having a live chat like this is much better (stresses the need of a live technical support once again)
alexallied: please notify me once the problem is solved.
Sally: Sure, please stand bye. (stand bye? obviously she’s trying to shrug me off. Not until my problems are solved!)
Sally: His working on it (broken England)
alexallied: im still waiting.
Sally: It was not expected to be like this
Sally: We migrated over 110 servers without a problem (hell yeah, I hit a jackpot today)
Sally: One server has slowed down literally everything. (yada yada yada)
alexallied: yeah i know, that’s why im so frustrated.
alexallied: and am I the only one who’s having that problem?
Sally: No there are another 10-15 customers. (my jackpot prize are shared! how nice!)
alexallied: my god.
alexallied: are we getting compensation for this? because, that had just crippled our business. (I’ve been wanting this compensation for a long time. Experienced downtimes for too many times and this is the last straw)
Sally: One issue at a time
Sally: We are getting your issue fixed
Sally: Then once, yes we can do something else.
alexallied: sure. i’ll go one by one
Sally: Transferring your mysql from old server to the new server.
alexallied: thank you. been waiting age for that
Sally: Restoring.
alexallied: k
Sally: Done
alexallied: thanks…let me see it now
Sally: Ok
alexallied: alright, seems to be working fine now. but one day of downtime really cost a lot of mental stress on me, i’ve lost a day of business, im looking for a compensation. (I’m good)
Sally: I have already added a month free of hosting to your account.
alexallied: is that the best you could do? (I’m expecting a 6 month free hosting)
Sally: Yes thats all.
Sally: Now is there anything else I can do for you? (Indicating that she needs a break of me)
Sally: I have 10 other sales chats that have to assist (KNNCCB, do you really have to state that? That is like forcing me off the line and showing that my existence is disturbing your job or something like that. I would have let you go if you stop by the previous line. Shitty operator.)
alexallied: alright. thanks for the help. (Reluctantly thanked her and get off. Got my db back now + 1 month free hosting. Don’t wanna get into more shits.)
Sally: You welcome (Can’t even say that properly)
Sally: G’day

Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.

I checked through all my sites and found out that data entered after 23rd of November were all lost, that includes my recent post, Modded Cars: Perodua Kancil and Kelisa, which I’ve re-published just now.

There is about 5% of the accounts having problems with their databases missing. Nabeh, I buy jackpot also won’t kena that 5% winning pot, this one si-beh-soi I kena.