I had all of the above happen with Zeneva/Tim, and the only reason I could get my equipment back, was because I knew the staff at the dc from other data centers in the Vegas area(small world, don't burn all your bridges).
My story: Zeneva had an offer on WebHostingTalk at the start of 2013 that was for $200/month for a 1/4 cabinet at Cobalt Data Center in Las Vegas. I made contact with Tim, and he seemed like a "cool" guy, but was kinda scaring me with his terms for some stuff(pretty sure he said "Jupiter router" a few times, later said Juniper), and gave me a test IP to try out. The routing to this IP address was pretty good, as it took better paths to Vegas from my location and a few others I tested. At this point, I am thinking, "I either found the right person to work with early in my venture, or I am about to get scammed out of all my money/equipment and ruin my biz plan"...I wanted to give him a chance, as he does seem like an honest guy, and has that cool thing going on that I mentioned earlier. I get coordinated and travel out to Vegas to install my equipment, but decided to just take a few items, cause my intuition was telling me that I need to make sure this person is "real". The DC staff was very reluctant to let me in to get installed - by now, I am happy I didn't bring more equipment. I was patched into the "Zeneva" switch for connectivity, but the IP range I was assigned didn't work as it wasn't assigned to him..so Zeneva gives me another IP range to use to make sure it works and starts my "billing day or move-in start" date. This process took the entire weekend, as I was waiting to get IP's, but the data center wasn't open for regular business on the weekend and I wasn't a "customer", Zeneva or Tim is, and I need permission to get in...annoying.
Now that the minimal equipment I have is connected with a single IP and not the /27 I was suppose to be given, I am almost thinking things maybe starting to work out..growing pains maybe? Zeneva/Tim told me we were going to be on multi-homed network though, but we were still on Time Warner, but he kept saying how Zayo/Above would be connected soon. I could live with a single connection for awhile, and was going to give it a quarter, and if I saw no changes, I would pull out. Next week after this, I try and ssh to my systems with Zeneva, and got no reply/connections from my assigned IP. I contact Zeneva/Tim, and asked -- he said that my network was "causing problems with their network and I was disconnected" - I have one switch, one machine, and nothing but idle/default installs with absolutely no traffic destined to these interfaces. I let him know that it would be nice if I could be on a vlan on their switch also, as I was seeing lots of broadcast traffic. He said he will contact his network person to find out and get me connected -- I asked for proof of what was happening, but was never given a real reason to just disconnect me. I am reconnected a few hours later and start wondering if I can stay with Zeneva...being disconnected without warning or contact felt very unprofessional.
About a week or two later, I am disconnected again -- contact Zeneva and he tells me that there are issues with the data center and is working on getting his upstream lines switched to ViaWest's new data center in Vegas, and talked up the facility. He tells me I should go down there and see if I can get my equipment out to move it to the ViaWest dc, as he is not on good terms at the data center and isn't sure he can get it, but will try to. This is where I went ahead and dropped off the Zeneva wagon and pulled my equipment out of Cobalt Data Center, and decided to let Tim know that I am not going forward with this venture, as ViaWest is not going to just let me "get my servers, if Tim or Zeneva stop paying their bills", and that fact was made evident with Cobalt, who allowed me to get my equipment, when they really didn't have to. Somewhere in here, he tells me to work with his "partners" company, as they have a presence in side Cobalt also - partner = network admin I am thinking.
Now that I had my equipment back, I decided to let Tim know that I am not going forward with this deal, as I signed up for multi-homed providers and only have a single upstream, wasn't given my proper IP block, only given one, and was not happy about being disconnected without contact. He addressed the upstream and said that Zayo/above was about to be plugged in, and then gave me a /26 IP block to use. I again let Tim know that I do not want to keep going, as I am not sure that I would be able to get my equipment back from Viawest, in the case that something happens, and would rather deal with a provider directly from now on, and will not be going forward with Zeneva for colocation. I let him know that with the pro-rated cost of $250, and only have 2-3 weeks of service, I should be entitled to some refund? He again asks me to call him, which I don't bother with, as he is just trying to rope me back in, and I just want out at this point.
I consider my loss minimal, but I am not happy I paid for a month and a week of colo service and only received 2-3 weeks of service that was nothing as advertised. Zeneva or Tim is a classic bait-n-switch operation, but I am happy I saw through the smoke and mirrors. I gave this provider 2 months to get me squared up, and was never provided with what they advertised -- I was pretty shocked when Tim asked me to pay my next bill...after I removed my servers and was not planning to move to Viawest(before they had to move to Switch Supernap). I let him know that I never even got my $250 of colo service from him and was owed about 15 days of service. There was never a response to my refund request.
Plain and simple: Stay away from this dishonest provider
