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07-19-2013, 10:08 AM
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kpmedia kpmedia is offline
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Preface

Most folks consider me to be a respected member of WHT (webhostingtalk.com) -- "kpmedia" there, too -- and I'm there each day, helping people with various tech issues or hosting advice. My advice isn't swayed by affiliate $$$ and I try to direct people to the best hosts for their needs. I also review dozens of hosts each year, such as BalticServers.com

Every day people leave both good and bad feedback. Most of them are spot-on, be it a positive review or a negative review.
But sometimes WHT newbies use it for blackmail: "If you don't do ___, I'll leave bad feedback!"
Or they entirely misrepresent a situation: "They shut down my server without warning!" ... but fail to mention it was being used (by them!) for spam.


BalticServers.com (BalticServer) is actually a good host!


For whatever reason, shi**y customers seem to be attracted to some hosts. Some of it has to do with location (so-called "offshore" hosts) and sometimes it's because of having low prices. That's not to say that all "off-shore" or budget hosts are bad, of course. But simply that some good hosts are getting unfair reviews. Baltic Servers is sadly one of the mistreated hosts.

If you only read the thread title, or even the first page, you may not get the whole story.

For example:

Thread: Review Balticservers ((BAD))
What the customer claimed: Uptime was only 93% and the site was not loading.
What really happened: The site was getting DDoSed, and that's not Baltic Servers fault. In fact, most hosting companies will not offer DDoS protection, and "null route" an IP. And that's exactly what happened here. BS is getting a negative review for doing exactly as they should -- null route an IP, so that others on their network are not harmed as well.

Thread: Baltic Servers is big scam - Asking 50Euro for backups ..Please help
What the customer claimed: There was downtime and the server was shutdown without reason. (This person even threatened to contact the UN to complain, which was ridiculous.)
What really happened: The customer's server was responsible for DDoSing others. Whether it was on purpose, or whether the customer was hacked makes no difference. Any host would have done the same. The server was partially shut down as per their terms of service, and the customer was given a chance to make his own backup. He did not do it. When that backup window lapsed, and the server was turned off completely, the customer was still able to request a manual backup for 50 Euros. He chose to complain instead. In fact, the customer trolled numerous sites online, leaving negative comments.

Thread:
BalticServers review: Beware of this fraudulent company!
What the customer claimed: Baltic Servers has chronic downtime and refuses to issue refunds (aka steal money).
What really happened: This is a case of somebody trying to make an issue where none exist. The three linked threads go to the WHT outage forum, where the outages were (1) a network migration in 2011, and (2) one-off DDoS issues. There were a few casualties from the migration, yes, but it was fixed within 2 days. All in all, that's a success. The refund issue was simply a case of a rude and impatient customer. Baltic was actually trying to be nice by refunding him for a dedicated server, even though most hosts (including Baltic) do not issue refunds for dedicated servers (too much setup time is involved). The customer was an ingrate.

Thread: A bad experience:balticservers.com
What the customer claimed: Baltic refused to give him 32 IP addresses as promised in pre-sales.
What really happened: BalticServers allowed 4 IP addresses per server, but would offer 8 to the customer, and he agreed. Baltic had the chat logs. Then, after he has ordered the dedicated server, he asked for IPs that were "not together" which is odd. Then he requested 32 IPs -- more than had been discussed in the past. Baltic Servers refused -- and it should, given how IPs are in short supply -- and the customer complained online. Apparently the customer wanted the IP addresses because he believed in the nonsense "SEO" myth regarding IPs. Baltic was right in refusing. Most hosts will do the same.


Conclusion

Make no mistake ... I'm not being an apologist here.

If you know anything about my posts on WHT, you'll know that I can't stand BS -- bullpuckey, not Baltic Server -- or shenanigans of any kind. I don't like hosts that lie, scam others, or are simply run by amateurs (most of them kids in their teens or 20s) that have no idea what they're doing.

Baltic Server is an excellent company run by professionals.

Crappy hosts like Semoweb and AltusHost deserve negative reviews -- the former cheap, the latter "off-shore" -- and both have terrible uptime/support. So bad hosts exist, have no doubts about that.

But BalticServers is getting a raw deal. It reminds me a lot of BurstNET, which also get lots of undeserved negative feedback on WHT.

It goes with the territory -- BalticsServer.com is "off-shore" (Lithuania), while Burst.net of "cheap" (budget hosting).

As always read reviews ... and READ the review! Don't just skim or look at page titles. Otherwise you might be misled by morons.

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