# URPad Needs Help Improving - take Root Level Technology's Money



## drmike (Sep 23, 2013)

Saw this floating around and thought it should show up here for customers and former customers of URPad.  Unsure why Chris or Randall didn't post it here, so I shall.

TL;DR = URPad is giving away cash for input on how they can improve their service.   (Never mind the grammar and spell check --- I already submitted those).



> Greetings from URPad.net!Now Powered by Root Level Technology!
> 
> Can we pay you for your advice?
> 
> ...


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## Jade (Sep 23, 2013)

That looks pretty good  I'm sure they'll get a lot of great ideas sent into them because theirs a cash offer reward


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## MannDude (Sep 24, 2013)

Where has the recent "$250,000 in hardware and upgrades" been spent? How was it spent? Was it for stuff in Houston at Quasar only or was the upgrade to *all* of URPad's locations? Or was this a 'RLT upgrade' for brands unrelated to URPad?

I ask because I know you guys rent the majority of your stuff for URPad minus the stuff in Houston and a few boxes here and there. Was curious how $250K could be used in that regard.


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## Damian (Sep 24, 2013)

Anyone a current customer of theirs? Has their support improved?


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## blergh (Sep 24, 2013)

I found their support-staff to be complete dickheads, network was spotty at best and nodes too crowded.


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## MannDude (Sep 24, 2013)

blergh said:


> I found their support-staff to be complete dickheads, network was spotty at best and nodes too crowded.


Any examples? No offense, but judging by your posts you've made here in response to other people, you're not exactly overly kind yourself. If you talk to them (or any provider) like you do to members here, I'd not be surprised if you get back some short and dickish responses 

EDIT: I'm not defending URPad. I've heard a lot of the same stories about their support. I'm just asking for proof. My relationship with the company took a pretty straight down nosedive not that long ago.


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## drmike (Sep 24, 2013)

*"$250,000 in hardware and upgrades"*

That's a lot of pesos.   

Miller, you care to comment on what you folks have invested in?

Support keeps getting brought up with URPad.   I'll mention it, because it has been aired before,  is URPad still utilizing the Indian ticketing support?


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## Damian (Sep 24, 2013)

MannDude said:


> I've heard a lot of the same stories about their support. I'm just asking for proof.


I was going to take a look at my ticket so that I could make reference, but it appears that I can't look at it or it's broken or something:







The gist was that after being a customer for about a year, I asked to be moved to a different node due to poor disk i/o on that node, only to be told that 30 mb/sec disk i/o was good.

I liked the service and would be willing to return to using them if the support has improved.


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## drmike (Sep 24, 2013)

@Damian, how long ago was your ticket experience with the 30MB/s being told sufficient?   Was this pre-Root Level or post?


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## ChrisM (Sep 24, 2013)

blergh said:


> I found their support-staff to be complete dickheads, network was spotty at best and nodes too crowded.


Could you send me some ticket ID's for I can investigate this for you?



MannDude said:


> EDIT: I'm not defending URPad. I've heard a lot of the same stories about their support. I'm just asking for proof. My relationship with the company took a pretty straight down nosedive not that long ago.


And you used to work for me until I sold it. 



Damian said:


> I was going to take a look at my ticket so that I could make reference, but it appears that I can't look at it or it's broken or something:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


We moved everything over to Kayako here about a month ago most of the older tickets can still be accessed but only by us at the current time.


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## ChrisM (Sep 24, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> *"$250,000 in hardware and upgrades"*
> 
> That's a lot of pesos.
> 
> Miller, you care to comment on what you folks have invested in?


This is just some of what it's been invested into: http://www.urpad.net/blog/248/

You may also view my imgur album from Saturday when we were investigating network complaints in the middle of the night here: http://imgur.com/a/dw5bD#0

We have some more pictures coming soon on our blog (Tomorrow I think) of our equipment being installed in Blacklotus' facility I already have a couple just haven't had a chance to put it up and have been waiting on more. If you are a current urpad client you would have gotten an email today about migrations starting here soon. Some LA Customers will start being moved to our servers at Blacklotus here on the 30th.


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## drmike (Sep 24, 2013)

^ ---- Thank you Chris..  A nice server pile there.

What's this LA move about with Black Lotus?   I heard something in the back bowels of the internet.  Others might be interested in hearing details.   

Are you folks pulling out of CC?


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## wlanboy (Sep 25, 2013)

MannDude said:


> Any examples? No offense, but judging by your posts you've made here in response to other people, you're not exactly overly kind yourself. If you talk to them (or any provider) like you do to members here, I'd not be surprised if you get back some short and dickish responses
> 
> EDIT: I'm not defending URPad. I've heard a lot of the same stories about their support. I'm just asking for proof.


Second that. Same with blergh on irc.



Chris Miller said:


> This is just some of what it's been invested into: http://www.urpad.net/blog/248/
> 
> You may also view my imgur album from Saturday when we were investigating network complaints in the middle of the night here: http://imgur.com/a/dw5bD#0


What about your UK location?


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## TheLinuxBug (Sep 25, 2013)

#1. Don't decide after spending money building other infrastructure that you are then going to be cheap and "pull out" of your Iceland location and only give your customers the choice of moving to a US location. I imagine you will lose a large amount of customers that were in that location from that decision.  You know, because I am sure those who purchased a VPS in Iceland REALLY wanted a VPS in the US.

Just saying.  If your trying to figure out where your customers are going...

Cheers!


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## blergh (Sep 25, 2013)

MannDude said:


> Any examples? No offense, but judging by your posts you've made here in response to other people, you're not exactly overly kind yourself. If you talk to them (or any provider) like you do to members here, I'd not be surprised if you get back some short and dickish responses
> 
> EDIT: I'm not defending URPad. I've heard a lot of the same stories about their support. I'm just asking for proof. My relationship with the company took a pretty straight down nosedive not that long ago.


Seeing as I work with customer-support myself, i try to to be as up-front and straight to the point as possible without being agressive, nagging or just a plain idiot. More or less in the ways of the golden rule.

I appreciate you telling me (with some softer words) that you think I'm a dick, which is fine by me. Be honest and open! It's what I am, and it certainly doesn't get you that many friends.


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## MartinD (Sep 25, 2013)

You're a dick, blergh.


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## blergh (Sep 25, 2013)

MartinD said:


> You're a dick, blergh.


You too! But this is OT.

OT; I don't even have my old URpad-account left, so i doubt i can submit any proof of service/shitty support.


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## texteditor (Sep 25, 2013)

I'm kinda pissed about being forced to Houston, URPad and VPSSlim are the two most expensive "yearlies" I have and they are also the most disappointing


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 25, 2013)

Damian said:


> I was going to take a look at my ticket so that I could make reference, but it appears that I can't look at it or it's broken or something:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Holy crap did this really piss me off.  I reported low I/O (similar to you Damian I think) was bad to a support tech and was told "You're wrong" (may have summarized it and changed a few words here) and the DD test from the host node. 

I asked to be moved from that node to another node, but they didn't have capacity in other servers at the time (New York City) and agreed to move to Texas (because they just upgraded it, or so as Kevdam told me).  I don't recall specifically what happened after but I think I just moved providers because it was too restrictive.  Had a yearly, it just sat there.  Gave up, forgot about it.  By the time renewal came I dropped it.  

I will admit it was back when I was less experienced with VPSes, but I still knew my benchmarks.

I like Chris Miller as a person (I consider him a good friend) but I dislike URPad.  I do hope the best for URPad and hopefully some decent reviews will come out that'll change my mind!


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## wlanboy (Sep 25, 2013)

At least you are not in Iceland:



> Dear customer
> 
> In an effort to upgrade our current infrastructure and provide you with updated equipment; we are planning some VPS data migrations beginning this week.
> 
> ...


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## Lee (Sep 25, 2013)

EDIS may pick up a few of the Iceland customers, but then with the shit disk allocation maybe not.


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## ZekeServers (Sep 25, 2013)

MannDude said:


> My relationship with the company took a pretty straight down nosedive not that long ago.


Care to PM me some more info? I'm very curious as I heard a lot about Urpad and I saw the name "Randall" i'm getting worried here, is this a man named Randall Burns? The guy that owned CheetahHost


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## drmike (Sep 25, 2013)

Randall Burns is indeed the former owner of CheetahHost.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/randalburns


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## MannDude (Sep 25, 2013)

ZekeServers said:


> Care to PM me some more info? I'm very curious as I heard a lot about Urpad and I saw the name "Randall" i'm getting worried here, is this a man named Randall Burns? The guy that owned CheetahHost


Ah, nothing bad. Nothing that can't be made public. URPad sold in May. I was able to keep my job if I moved to Houston, but didn't want to move. (I'm quite happy in my quaint little town) I collected one check from RLT as a remote working during the transition period of URPad --> RLT. Fast forward a couple months, they wanted to buy vpsBoard. I said no. I made it known publicly on here that they made a couple offers and that I turned them down, and that seemed to have upset them (Was an offer made via Skype, wasn't asked to _not_ say anything, and I didn't think it was that big of a deal to mention it). I still talk to Miller semi-regularly on Skype, no personal hate or anything. 

RLT is on a spending spree so they're trying to buy up this and that. I think Randal used to own CheetahHost but Eric is the guy with the money. I think Randal and the rest of the team was assembled earlier this year. They've got a website: http://rootleveltech.com which may explain more.

I've not got anything personal against any of them, they all seem like okay people.


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## ZekeServers (Sep 26, 2013)

I just don't like Randall, nothing against URpad or RLT, It's just randall himself... about 1.5 years ago or so an old friend of mine sold his small shared hosting provider to Randall (CheetahHost) fast forward about a week, payment gets disputed, about another week or so later he gets an email from another host that shows Randall sold all of my friends clients himself.

I don't know if there is any truth behind it or not, but thats what I have been told.


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## RandalBurns (Sep 26, 2013)

Hello ZekeServers (Johnathan Snyder), If you are not sure about the truth behind it why would you even post it? 1.5 Years ago, I was in Afghanistan on the border of Pakistan with the Army; I highly doubt that I bought your friends small hosting company. On top of that CheetahHost hasn't been used in several years. If you are saying that I bought CheetahHost from your friend, you are wrong again. The Domain was purchase by me on Sedo and I built the company myself. 

 

I am not going to get into a battle here Johnathan, I would just like the facts to be set straight. Judging by your age that is posted it would have made you about 14 years old when CheetahHost was started, If your friend was running a company at that age, that is scary.


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## ChrisM (Sep 26, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> ^ ---- Thank you Chris..  A nice server pile there.
> 
> What's this LA move about with Black Lotus?   I heard something in the back bowels of the internet.  Others might be interested in hearing details.


I got some more for ya and everyone else of our Blacklotus installtion progress.  You may view them here http://imgur.com/a/kVitj


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## drmike (Sep 26, 2013)

@RandallBurns,  welcome to vpsBoard soldier.

@Chris Miller, another fine server pile there.  The dedicated servers in Los Angeles, this is a change right for URPad.  Previously you guys were mainly dedicated rentals, correct?


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## MannDude (Sep 26, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> @RandallBurns,  welcome to vpsBoard soldier.
> 
> @Chris Miller, another fine server pile there.  The dedicated servers in Los Angeles, this is a change right for URPad.  Previously you guys were mainly dedicated rentals, correct?


Combo of colo / rented from what I recall. Some with Quadranet direct, some rented from CC (at Quadranet)


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## RandalBurns (Sep 26, 2013)

MannDude said:


> Combo of colo / rented from what I recall. Some with Quadranet direct, some rented from CC (at Quadranet)


 It was all rented until Root Level Technology acquired it. We are slowly upgrading.


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## MannDude (Sep 26, 2013)

RandalBurns said:


> It was all rented until Root Level Technology acquired it. We are slowly upgrading.


According to URPad's Twitter though they had coloed _some_ at Quadranet: https://twitter.com/URPad/media/grid Well, according to 'Ethan Coleman'


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## drmike (Sep 26, 2013)

Ethan Coleman?  You mean Kevin Hillbrand, arggh, you mean Adam Ng...

How many aliases does that kid have?


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## RandalBurns (Sep 26, 2013)

MannDude said:


> According to URPad's Twitter though they had coloed _some_ at Quadranet: https://twitter.com/URPad/media/grid Well, according to 'Ethan Coleman'


Ahh, you are correct. We had 1 I believe.


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## ChrisM (Oct 10, 2013)

Updated our Album with some updated Pic's from our LA location inside Blacklotus.

I hope you enjoy the cabling! 

http://imgur.com/a/kVitj


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## drmike (Oct 11, 2013)

You could have saved a bundle if you used CC's cabling professional(s)  Where are you hiding that top of rack circa 2003 switch/router?  

Kidding aside,  looks very good.   Properly racked and cabled.  No big airflow obstructions.   Good work whoever did this.


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## RandalBurns (Oct 11, 2013)

Here is our networking closet,



Modifying our config is manual labor... literally. 

Just kidding of course....



drmike said:


> You could have saved a bundle if you used CC's cabling professional(s)  Where are you hiding that top of rack circa 2003 switch/router?
> 
> Kidding aside,  looks very good.   Properly racked and cabled.  No big airflow obstructions.   Good work whoever did this.


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## drmike (Oct 14, 2013)

^--- that would be a kind of cool rack


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## Magiobiwan (Oct 14, 2013)

OOH. Does it support IPv6? On a more serious note, if something isn't cabled properly at the beginning (like if it's a rush job), it can be INSANELY difficult to re-cable it properly, ESPECIALLY if somehow you have to do it *without causing downtime*. I've seen messy racks before at my school, but there's no money in the budget to have it redone. It would have to be done over a break, BUT there's no budget to pay for someone to go in and re-do it during the break. SO, it gets left somewhat messy, though it still FUNCTIONS. I understand the desire to have things nice and neat, but sometimes that just isn't practical.


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## drmike (Oct 14, 2013)

I agree @Magiobiwan.   Clean cabling is much easier done up front in an optimal environment with all new pieces.

I tend to work with fluidity and mismash of stuff, so cabling ends up being sub par.  It all works, just isn't as organized or prettied up.

In a datacenter where you depend on other folks for hands support, yeah, good cabling should be mandatory.  I'd hate to work on a rack like we saw from that CC group with a server down.


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