UGVPS = Thomas Dale = Crystal Dale = ChicagoVPS = Dig the Mine

[drmike]

Oh, you thought I was done did you?

Bet you didn't know that not only does Thomas Dale own/run UGVPS, but he works for ChicagoVPS as an administrator.

But that's not news, this is the news:

THOMAS DALE IS AN EMPLOYEE OF COLOCROSSING​

$10 USD for any ColoCrossing customer that sends/posts a screencap of Thomas Dale on their panel interacting with you.

Thomas Dale, yes the very same Thomas Dale will be labeling his title as "Operations, ColoCrossing.com"

EDIT:  Emails will work fine as well

 

[drmike]

Okay, so I get one taker.  But I only can use the info in small extract.... Grr!!

$20 to any CC customer with Thomas Dale in ticketing or portal.  Or are all CC hosts in cahoots with the mother uddership in Buffalo?   Free crap and discounts sure makes people lose their integrity.  Take my $20.

 

[drmike]

 

 

[DeanClinton]

I've just searched my e-Mail as I knew Thomas sounded familiar...

I found two tickets answered by:


---------------
Thomas Leonard
ChicagoVPS Support Tech
[email protected]
... if that helps.

One in June and one in August.

 

[BlueVM]

Even if all of it is true, how does it impact the VPS the end user receives?

If the quality of the product is good people flock to a host, if its bad they leave. While it is deceitful to say you run one company and have a bunch of shell companies, it doesn't impact the quality of the product. What it probably does impact is the quality of the support (EG: not great) because they're running all over the place trying to manage 2 - 10 different networks in essence.

I won't say I support it, but Colo Crossing does provide us with decent pricing for what we receive. We have other networks besides just CC because that's market demand. The problem is there aren't many locations you can get on a budget, especially not quality ones.

Perhaps instead of trying to find shell companies you could support companies that are doing a good job in the industry. Poorly ran companies are a dime a dozen (hell we aren't perfect), but its easy to tell who we work for: ourselves.

Edit: BTW: Your new avatar is slightly creepy. No ill will intended.

 

[MartinD]

Even if all of it is true, how does it impact the VPS the end user receives?

You can't really be serious with that question? Look at the number of people who are specifically looking for locations that have nothing to do with CC. The customers now looking to move away from CC is growing daily. Even Fran has mentioned he loses out on business because he is with CC and people don't want that.

The problem is there aren't many locations you can get on a budget, especially not quality ones.

BINGO! Herein lies the problem; you've put yourself in a position whereby you have to use crap like that in order to 'run' a business. There is someone else on here who has done exactly the same thing. One could say that it's not your fault though as CC is well known to reel customers in with silly offers which then makes it extremely difficult to leave. Why? Well, you're paying a few dollars for a dedicated server and making a lot more money off it in comparison. Where else can you do that?

Running a business is all about juggling the costs to ensure you can maximise profit while maintaining sustainability. Anyone can get a cheap dedicated server and sell services from it. Not everyone can pick up the pieces when they find that cheap revenue source being removed or, in fact, unable to move anywhere else.

In a way, it's a thumbs up to CC for essentially luring people in and in effect, holding them prisoner because they can't move out. Why? Well, they'd have to charge their customers more... and customers wont pay more = yer fucked.

A more savvy head on your shoulders at the beginning would have thrown up all kinds of warning signs when you started down that path.

 

[SkylarM]

Perhaps instead of trying to find shell companies you could support companies that are doing a good job in the industry. Poorly ran companies are a dime a dozen (hell we aren't perfect), but its easy to tell who we work for: ourselves.

I think the information buff posts is entirely valuable information. The issue here is that honesty is apparently just too hard to come by in the industry.  There are plenty of companies that just lie through their teeth because they feel they have to. At this point I could care less about what company owns what company or what company owns their hardware versus renting their hardware, I just care about the company being honest and not attempting to cover stuff up. That goes right back to companies that say "New York" instead of Buffalo. Some providers feel they have to hide their provider, because it's an obvious CC location to try and get customers, what else is said company willing to lie about to get you in the door?

Even if all of it is true, how does it impact the VPS the end user receives?.

If a company is willing to cover up their affiliations with other companies, then what ELSE are they willing to outright lie about? The amount of people they cram per node when they say they don't do that? The way their backups and data-recovery systems work? The amount of STAFFING they have? How "big" and "successful" their company is doing when in reality they aren't? At what point is the line drawn?

 

[drmike]

SOMEONE better call the Coast Guard.

 

[BlueVM]

You can't really be serious with that question? Look at the number of people who are specifically looking for locations that have nothing to do with CC. The customers now looking to move away from CC is growing daily. Even Fran has mentioned he loses out on business because he is with CC and people don't want that.

BINGO! Herein lies the problem; you've put yourself in a position whereby you have to use crap like that in order to 'run' a business. There is someone else on here who has done exactly the same thing. One could say that it's not your fault though as CC is well known to reel customers in with silly offers which then makes it extremely difficult to leave. Why? Well, you're paying a few dollars for a dedicated server and making a lot more money off it in comparison. Where else can you do that?

Running a business is all about juggling the costs to ensure you can maximise profit while maintaining sustainability. Anyone can get a cheap dedicated server and sell services from it. Not everyone can pick up the pieces when they find that cheap revenue source being removed or, in fact, unable to move anywhere else.

In a way, it's a thumbs up to CC for essentially luring people in and in effect, holding them prisoner because they can't move out. Why? Well, they'd have to charge their customers more... and customers wont pay more = yer fucked.

A more savvy head on your shoulders at the beginning would have thrown up all kinds of warning signs when you started down that path.

We could move out of CC, we would still be profitable. I couldn't get better quality in any of the locations we have for less cost. If/when I can find another location with another provider (within 25% pricing difference) that offers the kind of performance we expect I jump on it. Fact is we're juggling the costs vs quality and that's why we're with them. I'm not a huge fan of the way CC operates politically/ethically, but they do provide a decent service.

 

[MartinD]

That's exactly what I said.

You've based your business around the prices you're getting from CC with only a 25% tolerance for you to move.

"find another location with another provider that offers the kind of performance we expect"

1) CC's network really isn't great in comparison to many others.

2) CC can't provide you with IPv6.

3) CC is run by people with known dubious backgrounds and poor ethics at best.

Tell me again about this performance of which you speak?

"I couldn't get better quality in any of the locations we have for less cost"

Yes, again, that's what I said. You're getting relatively newish hardware for silly cheap prices - not many places will be able to compete with that. Why? Well, other places run proper, legitimate businesses with morals and ethics. You can't have it both ways.

 

[drmike]

I'm trying to be nice before I open up a can of whipped ass and dish it out for lunch.

BlueVM's post makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out and throw them.  All I can/will say is I've long suspected BlueVM to be on the inside track at CC/CVPS.  Certainly getting sweetheart-I-love-you pricing and probably near giveaway price on IPs.

Tell me or PM me what you have for space rental in which location and I'll see about getting that 25% range pricing in a superior datacenter--- especially in Buffalo where they are round-robin'ing the upstreams or did you miss that? 

CC gets one thing right, price point.  Rest of it is just a sales blowjob.  They'll tell you anything to close a deal.  Crissic saw that happen, so have others.

My take, CC finds mainly small wannabe companies who shouldn't be pretending to wear big boy pants.  They rope them in, make them dependent (most of these folks have ZERO real experience), milk the monthly and when/if they get behind but are likeable or viable, they eat them from the inside out and put the puppet back out with Jon's hand up their ass.

Puppets.

 

[BlueVM]

@MartinD - 25% is a large margin on collocation. That's $300 - $500 a rack monthly at most of our locations. Private Layer is in the 35% range, I still went with them. Our pricing isn't an issue, that's a large margin.

 

[drmike]

I've just searched my e-Mail as I knew Thomas sounded familiar...

I found two tickets answered by:


---------------
Thomas Leonard
ChicagoVPS Support Tech
[email protected]
... if that helps.

One in June and one in August.

Damn Thomas Dale not only has name issues in real life with ROUND ROBIN name selection, but he has the same problem at "work".

He's in Operations at CC one moment then the next he's a Support Technician at ChicagoVPS.

Does the hired help perform diaper changes and do janitorial detail at daycare also?

And.... He's lying about his name at CVPS.   Thomas Dale = Thomas Leonard Dale.

Nothing wrong with that   Unless you are trying to hide the fact that Colocrossing and ChicagoVPS are the same company, again.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Just popping in here to say let's keep it friendly  

 

[mikho]

Just throwing this out:


Do you really think that this thing about working for two companys as support tech is something unique?


If you look around I'll bet you will find someone else doing it.


Disclaimer: i'm not taking any side in this discussion at all.

 

[drmike]

Do you really think that this thing about working for two companys as support tech is something unique?

Absolutely true.  Tons of ticket handlers multitasking for multiple companies.   From the luxury of their own home/apartment as a consultant/freelancer/etc.

These folks tend not to be playing in billing though and operations.  That's going on in this instance at CC.

It's nearly ditto to the Jere Shinkle relationship that made ZERO sense.

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

The problem is there aren't many locations you can get on a budget, especially not quality ones.

That's not quite the problem.  Quality comes with a cost, always has.  That's why you don't see us competing in the ridiculous RAM races.  If your only choice is having to 'go budget' (NOT something a host should do), then you should either be working very hard to resolve that situation, or step out of the market if you can't afford to do things properly.  Honestly... if you want to run a business, and you have to resort to mob deals to make it happen?  Pretty clear where you're going to end up.

 

[jarland]

I'm amazed that bluevm actually said that the content of one's character does not impact the work of one's hands. It absolutely does. It would be absurd to think that morality cannot be applied as context to anything but preferences and opinions. It is how we judge the value of a man's word. What value does one hold when their words hold no weight? Of what use can one be in any collaboration when their word is never to be trusted? Why then would someone trust them as their foundation?

 

[BlueVM]

@jarland - I did not say that. I said:

If the quality of the product is good people flock to a host, if its bad they leave. While it is deceitful to say you run one company and have a bunch of shell companies, it doesn't impact the quality of the product.

Lieing through your teeth always has a cost. I mentioned bad support as one of the examples of that.

 

[jarland]

I stated it back as I read it, which can be a mistake. Either way I'm a customer of yours but you've known where I stand with CC