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http://www.apollohosting.com
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Here to Read Past Customer Experiences
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Performance |
6 | | Reliability |
4 | |
Customer Relations |
7 | | Features |
6 | |
Control Panel | 5 |
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FULL
User Reviews of Apollo Hosting -
( 218 Votes )
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Email servics are NOT reliable!!!
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Review by bergdev.com submitted on
April 16, 2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
4
out of 10 |
I have the following problems
with email services which are
reluctantly forcing me to seek out
another hosting provider for the two
domains currently hosted by Apollo.
1. Virus filtering is not 100%. While
some infected messages have been
caught, long after the service was
activated, I continued to receive
infected emails. Luckily, I have
client-based detection/filtering,
software as a backup. At best, my
numerous attempts to work with Apollo
Hosting support to resolve this
problem have resulted in interaction
with support representatives who
appear technically unqualified. At
worst, I receive no response
whatsoever for many days or, in one
case, an obviously canned response
(personally signed by "Stuart") which
had nothing to do with my problem.
I have asked for a way to disable the
sending of notifications of infected
messages via email (I just don't want
to hear about it!). There appears to
be no way for me to disable that
feature. This is another example of
non-responsiveness to a customer
problem.
2. Email forwarding, especially
recently has resulted in an
embarrasing loss of communication with
numerous colleagues. For example, I
have accounts set up specifically to
forward messages to a number of
outside addresses (works like a
server-based distribution list). It's
only after many days that I eventually
figure out that some or all of the
dozens of messages I send out every
day aren't making it to their
destination. Even forwarding within
the domain was broken for a while.
This was eventually traced to a file
attribute on the server, specific to
the account.
Had I not asked the support
representative with whom I interacted
to check the other accounts on both
domains, I'm convinced the problem
would still be with me.
BOTTOM LINE: Having spent over 7 years
manning front line support, I am a
patient person when it comes to
resolving problems. However, over the
last 30 days, I have devoted way too
many hours of what would otherwise be
billable time, interacting with Apollo
Hosting, trying to resolve these
issues. I need a service provider to
whom I can just pay my fees and
receive a service. The time I've spent
with these guys would easily pay for a
service provider costing many times
what I am charged.
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Apollo Gets a Go For Launch!. -
Review by garthsweet submitted on
April 12, 2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
10
out of 10 |
I signed up for Apollo Hosting and
have been really impressed with them.
Another epinion patron really hammered
their tech support but so far I've
made 7 support calls and all were
resolved promptly (under 4 hrs to
respond and full resolution in less
the 24hrs). Apollo also has a 'chat
with a support tech' feature that I've
used several times (in addition to the
7 real support calls) and for simple
things or emergencies it worked really
well for me. My only complaint about
the chat was that usually after I
typed a message the support person
would not type a message back until
~60 seconds later which always made me
wonder if they received my message.
I love the control panel, for a newbie
to hosting like me it's great. I can
quickly and easily see what I'm doing
and manage my site.
I did try to setup some FTP accounts
and found a couple of problems.
1) You cannot put any upload size
restrictions on anonymous FTP which
leaves me exposed to someone exceeding
my disk allowance anonymously.
2) I can only setup 5 users for
restricted FTP access (this is
currently not a problem but is a
severe limit).
We plan to host 2 more web sites there
for our other businesses!
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Not true to sales pitch (sold
features).
-
Review by Daniel Creagin submitted on
April 11, 2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
2
out of 10 |
Apollo Hosting (http://www.apollohosting.com)
Reseller Plan has the following
issues:
· Reseller anonymity issues:
o The icons on the Resold Account’s
Control Panel reference Apollo's IP
address (graphic properties and on
browser status bar while site
loading).
o Email Auto-Responder “headers”
contain multiple references to Apollo
(name server and IP).
o When using FTP (cuteFTP or WSftpPro)
to connect to Resold accounts, Apollo
name server and IP show in connect
log.
· Apollo’s website states that the
Control Panel can be customized to
contain your business logo. However,
their tech-support negates this fact.
· Control Panel has 3 "vote" icons
with no explanation of each. Upon
clicking, they immediately register a
vote with various host-rating services
in favor of Apollo Hosting. But (1)
why are these on a "site control
panel" and (2) why not offer an HONEST
way of voting where you get to choose
the level of satisfaction. Here are
the vote sites:
o http://www.hostindex.com (ID =
Tamara)
o http://www.webhostdir.com (hostid =
5508)
o http://www.webhosters.com (company_id
= 1019)
· Parked Domain names cannot be
seen/listed! Neither on their Control
Panel nor on an invoice.
· Even though you have Virtual Domain
Name Servers enabled when you register
a resold account, Apollo doesn't give
you the opportunity to put the new
domain under your Virtual DNS.
Instead, they put it under their DNS
and ask you to contact support. Then,
support initiates a change, but that
change request has to infiltrate the
internet -- another 24-48 hrs on top
of the initial time to register the
Resold account. By setting up Resold
Accounts under their DNS, Apollo
Hosting negates the entire purpose of
having a Virtual DNS enabled!!! As you
know, Resellers enable a Virtual DNS
for the sole purpose of putting their
Resold Accounts on it. So, why put us
through the hassle of a two-step,
timely process? Apollo Hosting truly
needs to provide the ability, even if
optionally, to place a new Resold
Account under a VDNS during the
initial set up process.
· Apollo’s Control Panel offers MySql
but (a) at older version 2.0.1, and
(b) they won't upgrade or support it
(c) it does not work at all. You are
*completely* on your own.
· Apollo’s website claims they will
optionally transfer a domain for you
for free, but tech-support states they
can't. Even if they did, their website
states it will send an email to the
current domain owner as "from Apollo
Hosting” to request transfer approval,
but this compromises a reseller’s
anonymity.
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review. |
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Don't count on good tech support .
-
Review by Jeff submitted on April 9,
2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
3 out of 10 |
What Apollo Hosting won't tell you
is that they farm out their tech
support to a boiler room in India.
I wouldn't have a problem with that
if they were up front about it
instead of denying it. As for
technical know-how -- Ugh! Forget
it. I've been around and around
with them on various technical
problems they inadvertantly created
and I finally gave up contacting
them for any reason. They also
refuse to provide a direct email
address for Support (because they
don't want you to know their Tech
Support is in India).
I'm looking for a new Host.
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review. |
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Apollo Hosting: The Way to Go!.
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Review by Horizons832 submitted on
April 7, 2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
8
out of 10 |
I currently run two
seperate websites with two seperate
web hosting providers (see my other
review of EZ Publishing). This was my
first look at web hosting companies,
and I really didn't know what to
expect when I first started looking
for someone to host my site. I wanted
something cheap, but something with
features that I wanted as well. I
found that the cheap hosts usually
didn't include anything "good" with
their plans, everything was extra.
Apollo had a good mix of features for
a fair price: 200MB of space,
unlimited email accounts, 2GB of
transfer, Perl, mySQL, FTP, FrontPage
2000, and all kinds of other features
that I would never use. While the
price was not the cheapest I found, I
wanted to go with someone that I could
trust, and Apollo looked to be the
one.
Their site boasts 24 hour technical
support, with multiple ways of
contacting them (phone, email, chat,
etc.). I've had some minor FrontPage
and Perl problems in the past and,
even though they were my fault, the
Apollo technical support people helped
by quickly giving me an answer, their
support team is definitely effective
in my book.
The site that I run is extremely fast,
although their FTP can be slow at
times. I've never once had a problem
connecting to my site, either through
a browser, through an FTP client, or
through SSH. If you use the "ping"
command in MS-DOS to see the ping
times of a server, you'll find that
Apollo's servers have consistently
lower ping times than other budget
hosts. In fact, their servers had a
ping time of about 1/2 my other host!
I was also impressed with their
5-minute account setup. As soon as I
closed my browser after signing-up, I
received a welcome email listing my IP
address, username, password, etc. The
account was set up correctly and I was
able to access my site (through it's
unique IP address which is included in
the plan) right away. I was surprised
to say the least. In comparison, I had
to wait about 2 days for my other
site's account to be set up at EZ
Publishing.
Something that everybody wants is a
Control Panel now. With Apollo
Hosting, you can administer your site
with just the push of a button with
their extensive control panel, which
offers more features than any other
hosting company I've seen. You can
change email settings, account and
billing information, SQL database
information, FTP settings, and (if you
have a more advanced account)
automatically add "sub-name" like
horizons832.epinions.com and access
merchant information (credit card
info, shopping cart software). The
control panel has too much to list,
but it is very easy to use, and is
definitely a nice place where all my
account settings are consolidated onto
one set of pages.
The only problem I've found is that
most things need to be set up through
technical support. While this is not a
problem given the speed of the support
I've received so far, it would be
easier if I could do these things
myself. Examples are setting up
Telnet/SSH access for the first time
and creating a mySQL database (you can
create one yourself, but after that
you must contact support). I usually
only waited a few hours when I
contacted them about these things.
While Apollo is certainly not the
cheapest, I'm glad I went with them if
only because of their reliability and
fast technical support. I would
recommend Apollo Hosting to anyone who
wants to get their site seen by the
world, either a small personal site,
or a larger corporate site (they do
offer dedicated servers as well).
Whatever you choose, Apollo will
certainly be there for you and for
your site, they have been for me!
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Representative of Apollo Hosting?
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review. |
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Excellent!.
-
Review by Dan submitted on April 5,
2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
10
out of 10 |
I had previously had three
sites with another company whose
primary effort these days seems to be
buying every other hosting company
that looks their way. Slow response
times, down sites and almost constant
"router problems."
I have switched these three sites to
ApolloHosting and they have been
GREAT. Quick access, easy setup and
quite a value for their price.
I would recommend ApolloHosting to
those looking for a good HSP. |
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Representative of Apollo Hosting?
Click here to respond to this
review. |
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Access and ASP services
-
Review by richard williams submitted
on April 4, 2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
8
out of 10 |
I have tried to get these
features activated since the beginning
of 2003 without success. Their Help
Desk even suggests remedies (e.g.,
moving my site to ASP-ennabled
servers) that they have already done
in the past without success. So they
not only cannot help me but they don't
even remember what they themselves
have done.
Apparently, Apollo either cannot
really accept Access-fed ASP pages or
it has an arcane folder structure that
FrontPage does not recognize.
It would really be nice if their
technicians understood enough it to be
of any help, btu their Help Desk
system and folks seem designed to hold
you at bay and give minimal or evasive
answers. |
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Representative of Apollo Hosting?
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review. |
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Scrub this Apollo mission before
launching.
-
Review by ArcherSLO submitted on April
3, 2003 |
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Overall
Ratings:
1
out of 10 |
I'm so disappointed. I thought that
Apollo Hosting was going to be "the
one". As with any web hosting
business, when everything is running
along smoothly, you apparently have a
"good" company providing reliable
service. But God help you when
something goes wrong - because their
tech support won't. Why can't these
companies hire dedicated, competent
staff? This company touts 24/7 support
- three shifts of support personnel
monitoring the Help Desk. What a joke!
They take several hours to respond
during non-peak hours! And then, the
boneheaded support I've received
screams incompetence to boot.
On Thursday, I was accessing my web
site from a client's computer when I
realized that some of my graphics
weren't loading properly (we're
talking tiny 2K JPG's). On Friday, I
submitted a support request to help
fix this issue, plus, I suddenly
couldn't log in using FrontPage. My
login problem was addressed (after
several hours), but my images problem
was entirely ignored.
I finally realized that the images in
question (plus a few others) had
somehow been corrupted - their
permissions were corrupted, their file
sizes were over 400MB each, they
couldn't be deleted, and since my
quota was now 0MB, all of my incoming
e-mail was going into a black hole!
That's right, four days now of no
incoming e-mail. It doesn't even get
returned to sender. Not good for
business.
It is now Monday morning. I spent much
of my weekend e-mailing and chatting
with their "tech support" to get this
resolved. I was assured that the
"senior techs" were working on it. I
finally issued them a deadline of
midnight to get the problem fixed.
"Prince" assured me repeatedly that it
would be resolved by then. Midnight
has passed and still no progress, and
no word at all from those senior techs
who are working so diligently to
resolve the problem. I've just
finished transferring my domain to yet
another host. This routine is getting
old. Can you relate?
The control panel lists a toll-free
number for technical support. After
calling the number and listening to a
lengthy series of recorded messages, I
was finally instructed to hang up and
dial a toll number for support.
I finally reached Paul. Paul caught an
earful to say the least, as I spared
few expletives. But he sounded
reasonably competent and sincere. He
told me he'd have the problem fixed
and he'd call me back in 15-20 minutes
and I'd be a happy customer again (how
patronizing and conceptually absurd!)
I even explained to him how many times
I heard a similar statement over the
weekend. Alas, 70 minutes later I was
back on the phone calling Paul to
explain to him that when you promise
to call a customer back within 20
minutes, you do so - regardless of
whether or not the issue's been
resolved by that time. Paul asked me
if I could give him another hour - as
if I had an choice in the matter.
There is absolutely nothing these
people could do at this point to undo
the damage to their reputation. They
obviously have a lot of customers. But
they're just another cookie cutter web
host provider who leases their
services from Alabanza just like so
many other web hosts out there. Their
control panel is pretty much identical
to the myriad of others' who lease
their services from Alabanza. I've
seriously considered starting my own
web hosting business simply because
I'm so sick to death of customer
service nightmares. "At Apollo
Hosting, customer service is a top
priority." If only there were a web
host company who would walk the talk.
Follow up/closure: As of Tuesday
morning, nothing changed. However, I
did receive a phone call from the
company president. She apologized and
offered to refund my last month's
charge. Fortunately, she made no
excuses for the failure of her support
staff to escalate the call, and she
listened attentively as I explained
the situation of the last five days
with her company. I suspect her phone
call may have been encouraged by the
complaint I filed with the BBB on
Monday.
Meanwhile, my site has been
transferred smoothly to Hostway,
though DNS servers are still being
updated. |
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