# The fall of Commercial Media?



## KuJoe (Jan 19, 2014)

I went to go pay my invoice with them tonight and their Paypal account cannot accept payments anymore and the only other option for payment is mail-in payments which I'll do if I really have to but not accepting Paypal is a red flag for me. I'm pretty upset because they've been amazing for the past 299 days (only 2 hours and 11 minutes of downtime total with the past 3 months at 100%) and their support has been very responsive (less than 1 hour response times). It looks like their billing team doesn't work on the weekends so I'll need to wait until Monday for a response to my ticket. I'll see what happens but I'll be sad to see this server go.


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## mikho (Jan 19, 2014)

Is this the one I'm on ?


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## KuJoe (Jan 19, 2014)

Yes.  I'm making backups of the VMs on there now and I'm going to see if there is anything better (for under $40/m) out there.


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## mikho (Jan 19, 2014)

I haven't used last few weeks compared to before. It has been good so far, will do a backup just in case.


Could you pm or email me the ip for the vmware console and also please set a new password?


Can't remember it and The computer with the irc logs with them is stored away for the moment.


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## DearLeaderJohn (Jan 19, 2014)

It appears CM's other brand is down:

http://www.megacolo.com/


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## KuJoe (Jan 19, 2014)

What a shame, I hope this is just an off week for them because I doubt I'll ever find another deal like this.


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## DearLeaderJohn (Jan 19, 2014)

I remember when I was with CM back in 2012, things were great. I could phone up for emergency support and there was always someone there to answer etc.

These were the original deals I got from Mike in September 2012

CPU: Dual 2 x 5420’s; 16 GB RAM; 1 x TB HDD or 128 SSD Samsung; 100 Mbps Unmetered; /29 for $50.00 per month (minimum 2 server commitment).

 

CPU: Intel E3-1230 ; 16 GB RAM; 1 x TB HDD or 128 SSD Samsung; 100 Mbps Unmetered; /29 for $60.00 per month (minimum 2 server commitment).

 

Those deals were hard to and are still hard to beat. Shame if anything has happened to CM, good little company.


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## lbft (Jan 19, 2014)

What did they expect - they took money and never delivered servers. I was far from the only person they did it to.

I'm just surprised it took this long for PayPal to shut down known scammers.


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## Jack (Jan 19, 2014)

What hardware do you have in there?


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## HalfEatenPie (Jan 19, 2014)

DearLeaderJohn said:


> I remember when I was with CM back in 2012, things were great. I could phone up for emergency support and there was always someone there to answer etc.
> 
> These were the original deals I got from Mike in September 2012
> 
> ...


I got the Dual L5420s for 30/month there once (cheaper than the one that was available on LEB, which was 35/month).  Then realized their network was horrible for me (I was apparently at a location that was single-homed with Qwest) that SSH barely worked.  It was completely useless and I was informed they'd move my server to another DC within two week or so.  

Never heard back from them again.  Multiple attempts at contacting them resulted in nothing.  

I really did not enjoy it.  And even worse I paid for two months before I pulled the plug on it (I tried toughening it out, didn't work out as planned).  In my books, CM is a horrible company.


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## KuJoe (Jan 19, 2014)

I received a response to my support ticket and they now only accept online payments for colocation and managed services. For unmanaged services I'll need to pay by check. I guess this is how they'll weed out those of us with insanely good deals. 



Jack said:


> What hardware do you have in there?


I have their $35/month special they offered on LEB but they gave me a 256GB SSD upgrade for free since it took them almost a month to deliver the server.



HalfEatenPie said:


> I got the Dual L5420s for 30/month there once (cheaper than the one that was available on LEB, which was 35/month).  Then realized their network was horrible for me (I was apparently at a location that was single-homed with Qwest) that SSH barely worked.  It was completely useless and I was informed they'd move my server to another DC within two week or so.
> 
> Never heard back from them again.  Multiple attempts at contacting them resulted in nothing.
> 
> I really did not enjoy it.  And even worse I paid for two months before I pulled the plug on it (I tried toughening it out, didn't work out as planned).  In my books, CM is a horrible company.


I've heard mixed reviews about their network but in my experience it's always been excellent. I regularly run speed tests from the box and download is always better than some of my >$100/month boxes I've bought elsewhere (and cancelled because they couldn't compete with CM). The upload speed is hit or miss but it's always faster than my home connection can download so that's all I care about.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jan 19, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I've heard mixed reviews about their network but in my experience it's always been excellent. I regularly run speed tests from the box and download is always better than some of my >$100/month boxes I've bought elsewhere (and cancelled because they couldn't compete with CM). The upload speed is hit or miss but it's always faster than my home connection can download so that's all I care about.


Yeah.  It seems they had two locations in Virginia (as I recall).  I just was unlucky and was stuck in one of their single-homed locations.


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## VPSCorey (Jan 19, 2014)

I hate paying by check for anything.  It's like giving someone keys to your bank account.


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## ChrisM (Jan 19, 2014)

FRCorey said:


> I hate paying by check for anything.  It's like giving someone keys to your bank account.


An easy way to get around that is get a Cashiers Check or a Money Order. It may cost a little bit more but if your someone who likes the service it could be worth it.


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## MannDude (Jan 19, 2014)

FRCorey said:


> I hate paying by check for anything.  It's like giving someone keys to your bank account.


I live in a small town. I don't have online bill pay for my utilities.

I work a normal 8AM - 5PM type job, Monday - Friday. The exact same hours these places are open to deposit payment via cash or check, in person. :| You can also go in both places and pay with a card, too, but still a PITA since I have to take up half my lunch going there.


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## MartinD (Jan 20, 2014)

I waited over a month for kit from CM. I then waited 2 for the refund.


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## DomainBop (Jan 20, 2014)

MartinD said:


> I waited over a month for kit from CM. I then waited 2 for the refund.



I canceled after 6 days because I'd seen enough based on some of the early complaints on the LEB offer (servers being delivered with 1/2 the promised RAM, etc) and received a pending refund notification 5 minutes later but I had to wait 5 days for the money to be in their PayPal account



> An easy way to get around that is get a Cashiers Check or a Money Order.


Accepting cashiers checks or money orders through the mail is probably riskier than accepting credit cards because a large percentage of them are counterfeit (old FDIC warning).   My business stopped accepting them around 2005.


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## drmike (Jan 20, 2014)

It's amazing a company like Commercial Media was allowed to accept PayPal this darn long.   Long list of folks who never received their servers and tickets that went on forever.

Another example of why the bottom of the barrel pricing cannot and will not work / isn't viable.


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