blog.david.bailey.net - David J Bailey on Media and Technology Musings from the fringes of consumer entertainment software, with some biological analogies and comments on the life of start up companies :: NetIdentity Sucks (but they promise to fix it now ...)

I'm a nice, tolerant guy. Most of the time. But today, for the 3rd time this year, Tucows and NetIdentity are screwing with my email account. It has been down for (by my count) 10 days this year already. So I went into major flame mode to them:

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE

If anyone has a site that will fight for my domain, even if they want more money, I will migrate. All they have to do is be 99.999% available.

Also, since I hate Tucows and NetIdentity right now, here are my complaints about their sucky blog software:

I cant make blogware show 3 columns - it says it will and it does not. Why not?

also the sucky blogware links provided by them are mostly broken, the "support" for blogware bounces (a day later) and forces me to come back to a "logged in" support site

what I mean by "links are broken" is that the template says as follows, but none of the links work properly or reliably:

Dear NetIdentity Blogware Customer,

We have developed a User Guide and Support Center Blog packed with tips and tutorials to help maximize Blogware.

Also, you can email us with questions and feedback. Your opinions will help drive future enhancements.

Thanks For Your Continued Business,
The NetIdentity Team

also the blogware template contains broken links to FAQs and support you no longer provide

also there is NO SUPPORT for about many many VITAL features:
- social media buttons (digg, Stumble upon, etc etc etc)
- templates
- video
- no stats placed on blog pages (i.e no tickers or graphs)
- no sidebar widgets for Flickr, del.icio.us, Meebo
- no way to monetise the blog with ads EVEN THOUGH I PAY them FOR HOSTING IT

also the spell checker cannot even spell BLOG!!!

also the templates force you OUT of the post page to view the page before you can allow comments (they should be ON by default)

also there is NO SUPPORT for themes from 3rd parties (like blogger / wordpress do for free)

also there is no WYSIWIG page designer (I have to learn some sort of code to change layouts?)

have you realised I don't like this now?

I paid because NetIdentity HIJACKED my surname years ago, and they won't give it back. I am sick to death of the broken email, broken deliver, broken blog software, clunky interfaces and general lack of investment in this service

Here is the news: they have to FIX IT - or I am out of here, and will find some provider who can help me properly. If I lose my old domain name, so what? it never works anyway, so it is hardly a loss.

And here is what they replied:

Thanks for your feedback.

We will be launching a blogware support refresh early next year, and also introduce a feature that will allow you to use your domain name with any blog software that you wish. I expect these features to be made available in January or February.

So, I'll wait until Feb 28th. Anyone want to place a side bet on the odds of this being launched as promised?

Keywords: blog

Posted to:

Main Page

Media and Technology Musings

Comments

Post a comment

Re: NetIdentity Sucks REAL BAD

by gtoon on Wed 08 Oct 2008 07:29 BST | Profile | Permanent Link

So sorry to read about your frustrating problems. No, indeed, this kind of service is unnaceptable. Frankly, your patience with them has long exceeded the amount of time that most folks would have canceled and moved to another service provider.

I use lunarpages.com and have been very pleased with their hosting and customer service. No downtime this year at all. In the past three years they've been down maybe twice. Always got help quickly with no hassles.

There are lots of other good service providers out there, just do some research. And, if I understand correctly, you can transfer your old domain to the new service. Might have a fee to do it, but you should be able to keep it.

My 2 cents.

Good luck, David!

Post comment:

Format Type:
	Convert newlines
	Receive comment notifications for this article
Subject:

Comment:

Comment verification:

Please enter the text you see inside the graphic to post your comment:

You are not currently logged in. If you would like your user information to be displayed with your comment, please enter your login information below.

Username:
Password:

If you would like to post contact information on your comment, please enter your information into the optional fields below:

Contact information:

Name:
URL:		example: http://yourdomain.com
Email:

Please note: email will not be displayed on the site, only for the blog owner. If logged in, URL will only be used.