# AIT "Cloud" suspends hourly billing



## D. Strout (Mar 17, 2014)

Just now got a call from AIT in regards to my account, and was surprised to find out that they are suspending hourly billing for their new "cloud" service. I was told that I had until Friday to switch over my service with them to monthly billing. No explanation was given, but I have a feeling it has to do with the issues I mentioned  At any rate, it's interesting to see them switching this so soon after launch - I wonder how many customers they'll have to switch over?


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## Nett (Mar 17, 2014)

Did't get the email from AIT.


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## D. Strout (Mar 17, 2014)

Nett said:


> Didn't get the email from AIT.


Interesting that you haven't gotten it yet, but you probably will eventually - I _just_ got this info. If you don't get it in the next few hours though, post back. Are you on hourly billing or did you go monthly? I would imagine this info is only being sent out to customers with hourly billing.


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## Nett (Mar 17, 2014)

Hourly. I stopped the server though.


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## D. Strout (Mar 17, 2014)

Nett said:


> Hourly. I stopped the server though.


Ahh, well then that most likely explains it.

I just got the invoice for $5, due April 1st.


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## Nett (Mar 17, 2014)

Is there a particular reason? I find the AIT server not performing as promised.


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## concerto49 (Mar 17, 2014)

Nett said:


> Is there a particular reason? I find the AIT server not performing as promised.


Probably to reduce abuse. Everyone spinning lots of servers for hours and abusing it.


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## drmike (Mar 17, 2014)

Hahaha!  That didn't last long.

Next wannabe to step up and get dropped?


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## DomainBop (Mar 17, 2014)

> Is there a particular reason?


When was the last time you heard someone say "I'm looking for a cloud server in Fayetteville..." ?


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## Nett (Mar 17, 2014)

I know what's wrong. I signed up for a AIT cloud server without paying anything, ran it for about 12 hours and destroyed it. I have never received any invoices .


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## D. Strout (Mar 18, 2014)

Nett said:


> I know what's wrong. I signed up for a AIT cloud server without paying anything, ran it for about 12 hours and destroyed it. I have never received any invoices .


That explains it alright. They must be losing lots of money to people doing this sort of thing. If you're going to run a VPS service with hourly billing, you gotta get billing right. They should make it credit based for the first bit, like you have to start with $5 credit on the account or something. I paid an invoice for 4 cents with them using PayPal, with fees that would mean they lost 26 cents. Ridiculous. No wonder they're disabling hourly billing.


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## aitcoo (Mar 18, 2014)

All,

I'm the COO for AIT and I can probably elaborate on a little of the confusion in this (and other) threads on this topic.

First, you'd be surprised at how many servers our Cloud environment deployed in only 2 months of operation.  Alot more than you've mentioned on this board.

Second, yes, we had a major issue with hourly billing.  We were aware of this about 2 weeks ago and because we were not able to rectify it quickly, we stopped all hourly billing plans from being ordered, and contacted all hourly cusotmers.  We're working with those customers to address the immediate issues, and most likely move them to monthly billing in the interim whlie we get the issues worked out that were not seen during the beta period.  To give you an idea of the issues, we're integrating a web hosting billing system, a cloud billing system and a domain registration billing system all into one interface called My Account.  Our in-house developers have come across the issue and are working through it.  Because the ETA to resolve this wasn't a few hours or days of work, we decided to step back and resolve the problem first.  So, when you say "Ridiculous", I completely agree.  At the end of the day, I'm probably even more dissapointed than you.  Don't assume that we're all morons.   

Third, yes, people do ask for cloud services in Fayetteville.  We are located right next to Fort Bragg, the largest military installation in the US, and also right next to I95, which is the major thoroughfair from the northeastern US to the south.  If you look up data centers in NC, you'll find TONS.  Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte and Fayetteville.  There are plenty in these areas from every carrier and large tech company.  EMC, NetApp, Cisco, Google, etc.

Fourth, I highly encourage you to add me to your contact list.  I'm putting my information out there so I can make you a believer in what we're doing.  AIT has been in business since 1995, and I've been with the company since 1998 in various roles.  I welcome feedback.  If you work with me, I'll gladly work with you.  This is how we can make a product better.

Fifth, I know that there was some concern about SSD and read/write times.  I'm having now.  Ironically, on the environment look at this now.  Ironically, this is not the report data that we have.  I can assure you, we are using SSD's for that environment, and no SAS or SATA disks are involved at all.

Sixth, I'm not sure about the "only 1 OS" comment.  We have multiple OS's available.  Maybe it was just at the moment when you ordered?  Also, we will add a Debian OS in the coming days.  We're also trying to work out a better option for a Windows OS as well (I know, I know, some of you won't even care, but it's an option).

--
Sincerely,
Michael J. Roberts
Chief Operating Officer
AIT, Inc.
[email protected]
http://www.ait.com
877 209-5186 (Toll Free)
910 222-4473 (Direct)
910 321-1392 (Fax)


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## DomainBop (Mar 18, 2014)

> Don't assume that we're all morons.


I never assumed that .  I've only used AIT as a domain registrar but my interactions with AIT's (domain) customer service have left a favorable impression (unlike, let's say godaddy's customer service who seem to be copying and pasting responses)


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## aitcoo (Mar 18, 2014)

Copying and pasting is awesome.  Just not in customer service.


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## D. Strout (Mar 18, 2014)

aitcoo said:


> To give you an idea of the issues, we're integrating a web hosting billing system, a cloud billing system and a domain registration billing system all into one interface called My Account.


It seems you're using HostBill, at least partially. I think the reason, for instance, DO has been so successful is that they wrote everything from the ground up. Trying to integrate everything in this way _and_ throw in hourly billing is not going to be easy.


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## aitcoo (Mar 18, 2014)

Actually, with regards to "throwing in" hourly billing, we're not that far off.  It's complicated, but just not working how we originally planned it.  Thus, our development team and our CIO are redoing the process and I hope to have that online in April so we're hourly from that point on.  I apologize for the problem.


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## aitcoo (Mar 18, 2014)

And side note, if I didn't say it, thanks again for giving me this feedback.  It's invaluable guys.  If I can ever do anything for you, please don't hesistate to ask.

Thanks,

Michael


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