Bad experience

[Guest]

I've heard over and over how good their support is, which is one of the main reasons I decided to go with tcadmin, but I'd like to show how their support treated me today.

 

 

 

A little background on the ticket, I ordered a demo license and I wanted them to do the hosting on their servers. I agreed to a $10 monthly charge for the 'demo' time.

 

 

 

After several emails of emailing them how to pay for the balance, they showed me to pay for it here (http://www.tcadmin.com/cart/). Cool ok. I click on the link and got a bit confused, there was a few links I just figured the 'remote install' was what I wanted but that was more expensive so I opened up a support ticket asking why it's more expensive.

 

 

 

Their next reply was:

 

 

 

"Please read section 4.7 and 4.8 in the administrator\'s guide. It explains how to configure mods and updates.

 

 

 

The mod zip files go in a folder named TCA.Mods inside the game\'s installation folder.

 

 

 

The update zip files go in a folder named TCA.Patches inside the game\'s installation folder.

 

 

 

You create the update files by using the Update Generator included in TCAdmin."

 

 

 

What? That has nothing to do with it, so their next reply was "sorry, wrong ticket" No biggie, we all make mistakes.. Right?

 

 

 

Their next ticket was:

 

 

 

"If you are running Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 we can install IIS for you. You don\'t need the web hosting. Just create a ticket like the trial email says."

 

 

 

What?? I've been talking to you all day about paying you guys to host my stuff, where did installing IIS come into play? At that point, I got frustrated. I've been trying to pay for this service for the last 8 hours, and so I emailed them and told them 'look, im getting frustrated, your live support isnt open and going back and forth in emails arent working, you guys are giving me a different answer on every reply... You're about to lose a customer" and their last reply to me was.

 

 

 

"May I suggest you try another product? Anyone who can\'t click a big blue arrow button in a shopping cart and choose webhosting from the list most likely will not be able to operate our product."

 

 

 

I finally found the link in the order page, it wasn't a 'remote install' its called something else. I mixed the two up, big deal. People make mistakes... They made several in that ticket (responding to another ticket, and asking me about installing IIS) why is it okay for me to forgive them for their mistakes but when I can't find a link to pay them they get rude? I'm only trying to give the company money -- there's no need for them to be rude.

 

 

 

I just got another ticket from support:

 

 

 

"Hi, would you like me to do the master install on your server or would you just like instructions on how to set it up yourself?

 

 

 

If you would like me to do it just create a new ticket at http://support.tcadmin.com with the login and ip of your server."

 

 

 

I don't understand what's going on, this is all the same ticket number -- I'm not getting anywhere.

 

 

 

I'm hoping to still go with tcadmin if we can figure this out, their software looks great... But I wanted to let you all know about my experiences with them regarding support.

[Guest]

It looks like they just refunded my money for the monthly trial:

 

 

 

"For my inability to respond in a more suitable way to your support ticket."

 

 

 

Very nice of them.

[ECF]

It shows you that we are all human... and sometimes no matter what communication can break down. I will simply say that TCAdmin as a company and myself personally apologize to this person for our shortcomings. And hopefully we can salvage this relationship. If not we wish you good fortune regardless of what panel you go with.

[Stealth]

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">Quote:</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

"May I suggest you try another product? Anyone who can\'t click a big blue arrow button in a shopping cart and choose webhosting from the list most likely will not be able to operate our product."

</td></tr></table>

 

Funny, Harsh, yet very true

 

 

 

Off to a bad start but in the end im confident you will love the product and support. First bad testimonial ive heard but as usual things are quickly put right.

 

 

 

Welcome!

[ECF]

It takes a lot to piss me off, as most of you know. But in this instance I wish to clarify my actions. We recieved this in our support system tonight from the above poster.

 

 

 

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">Quote:</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

Oh... I didn't know I had to go to each games websites, and download

 

the actual server files and keep up to date with their stuff. I thought

 

that's what the monthly charge was for.

 

 

 

I really don't have time to keep up with that information, hence why I

 

wanted to pay a company to do it

 

 

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

Now you can all see why I made my initial response regarding the order form. And that this individual is obviously 100% clueless about what they are attempting to do. While I still regret the silly remark, I find comfort in knowing that this person will never do business with TCAdmin.

 

 

 

Take this as you will. I will leave the negative post here for others to read, and maybe learn from. TCAdmin is not a toy to play with, and you cannot start a GSP with a magical panel that does everything for you.

 

 

 

Back to your regularly scheduled program...

[Guest]

And you deleted my username so I couldn't even defend myself. That's very professional.

 

 

 

So, let's see what happened today, you guys went ahead and installed IIS on my computer when I said "I don't want IIS, I want to be hosted on your servers" yet you still did.

 

 

 

Then after you installed IIS and told me it was done, I emailed you that.

 

 

 

I thought demo's were to find out what the software does before buying it, was that not the case? Some game control panels automatically download the software for you, this one doesn't, and that's what I found out by using the demo.

 

 

 

I was still going to use it, just trying to manage my way around doing so and you just emailed me saying you terminated my trial key.

 

 

 

Take what you want clients of TCAdmin -- These guys are jerks. I'm not a "idiot" I got a demo to see what it's like, not to be harassed by the owners.

[ECF]

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">Quote:</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

Take what you want clients of TCAdmin -- These guys are jerks. I'm not a "idiot" I got a demo to see what it's like, not to be harassed by the owners.

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

Then why are you still here? And why would you bother to register another account just to post this?

 

 

 

Obviously, you feel in some way you are making us look bad? Your posts speak for themselves. We have nothing to hide as far as what we did. We installed IIS because you were trying to host the monitor your home machine with vmware.

 

 

 

Now please go over to the point and click panel we provided you the link for and play with people in your own age group.

[LFA]

1- the trial we gave you included control panel hosting. Which is something we never do. Kevin refunded your payment.

 

 

 

2- You were trying to install TCAdmin on a virtual machine at your home. The ping from the web server to your home was over 120ms, plus the master being on a virtual machine would have made even slower.

 

I still went ahead and installed it for you, but since you were behind a router with port forwarding, vmware virtual network, residential internet, etc, something between the monitor and web server was failing. I spent a about 2 hours troubleshooting trying to see what was wrong. I couldn't get it to work.

 

 

 

3- I told you what the problem was so you gave me access to another server (a real one this time) telling me this:

 

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">Quote:</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

Please go ahead and install what needs to be installed, it's abrand new

 

box -- nothing on it.

 

 

 

If you need the xp cd, let me know.

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

4- So I went ahead and installed it as a master using our web server. The connection was still slow, but since you said install what needs to be installed, I decided to intall IIS so you panel would be faster.

 

 

 

5- A few hours later you reply with this

 

<div class="pre"><pre>Oh... I didn't know I had to go to each games websites, and download

the actual server files and keep up to date with their stuff. I thought

that's what the monthly charge was for.

 

I really don't have time to keep up with that information, hence why I

wanted to pay a company to do it </pre></div>

 

 

 

Which proves:

 

1- you don't know what it takes to be a GSP

 

2- you didn't read the features of TCAdmin on this web site, or understood the online demo

 

3- You wasted about 4 hours of my time, which I could of spent working on TCAdmin and helping out people that really needed help

[Guest]

I'm new to the business, and are currently doing demos of all the game control panels. I'm sorry for not being an "expert" I wanted to run the demo on a vmware session so I didn't have to install demo applications on a real server, no sense in re-installing everytime in case of conflicts.

 

 

 

You told me you installed IIS because you couldn't get it to work the normal way, you didn't ask for permission to install IIS. I didn't want IIS installed on the box and now the box has to be re-imaged.

 

 

 

I didn't ask for the money to be refunded, the only reason you did is because I brought this to the forums and you wanted to look good for your members. I appreciate the whole $10 you refunded me, you could have kept if it, if you were going to use it against me.

 

 

 

I'm sorry for wasting your 4 hours, there's nothing wrong with my servers. If it takes you 4 hours to troubleshoot your own product, i'm sorry. I thought that's another reason we paid you.

 

 

 

Once again, this was a demo to see if I liked the product. I did like the product except a few things such as manually installing all the game server files. There's serveral other control panels out there that do the same thing as you plus install the game servers for you so you don't have to worry about it. I don't want to waste time keeping up with all the games and if there's new daemons out for them. I'd rather pay someone to do that research for me while I work more on my business.

 

 

 

There's no need to reply to this thread. You can close the thread so nobody else can respond but I'd like it to stay here so everyone can see. I want other people to make their own decision regarding this whole ordeal.

 

 

 

You have a great product but you need to work on your support, imo.

[Guest]

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">ECF</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">Quote:</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

Take what you want clients of TCAdmin -- These guys are jerks. I'm not a "idiot" I got a demo to see what it's like, not to be harassed by the owners.

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

Then why are you still here? And why would you bother to register another account just to post this?

 

 

 

Obviously, you feel in some way you are making us look bad? Your posts speak for themselves. We have nothing to hide as far as what we did. We installed IIS because you were trying to host the monitor your home machine with vmware.

 

 

 

Now please go over to the point and click panel we provided you the link for and play with people in your own age group.

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

You installed IIS because I was running it on my home box? Not what your support email said:

 

 

 

"I did have it configured that way at first, but for some reason the connections were slow, so I figured you wouldn\'t like the slow speeds. I don\'t think it\'s a problem with your server. The ping from our web server to your server was around 20ms which isn\'t bad."

 

 

 

You even said there wasn't a problem with my server, it was 20ms. Why are you telling your clients otherwise? Are you lying to them? I can forward you this email you sent me if you'd like.

 

 

 

I'm here because this is testimonials. I want people to know my experience with tcadmin.

[LFA]

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">xenoten2</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

You told me you installed IIS because you couldn't get it to work the normal way, you didn't ask for permission to install IIS. I didn't want IIS installed on the box and now the box has to be re-imaged.

 

 

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

Why else would I need the cd.

 

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">xenoten2</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

If you need the xp cd, let me know.

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

 

 

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">xenoten2</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">

I didn't ask for the money to be refunded, the only reason you did is because I brought this to the forums and you wanted to look good for your members. I appreciate the whole $10 you refunded me, you could have kept if it, if you were going to use it against me.

</td></tr></table>

 

 

 

It's funny the way you were crying in the ticket system for the $3 setup on the web hosting but now you say you wouldn't miss $10

[Guest]

No, I wasn't "crying". What kind of company are you? Why would you say your client was crying over money.

 

 

 

I said 'I don't see a area where it says the $10 fee, instead of the $15/month fee, I'm getting frustrated'

[ECF]

Okie, I have had enough flaming fun for one night. Your posts are very humorous, and our other clients are getting a good laugh out of them. But all good things must come to and end before I end up posting what I really think of this situation.

 

 

 

So I will politely ask you to leave our forums now and not return.

 

Your trial license has been revoked, and there is no longer a need for your presence here. Please remove any and all software in regard to our product from your computer systems.

 

 

 

Thank you

[PJueckstock]

This was certainly one of the most ridicolous threads that I have ever read.

 

The client in this case is obviously totally clouless and doesn't even seem to be interested on how Gamehosting really works. I'm glad this person is gone, it would have been a shame to have him as a member of the TCAdmin community.

 

 

 

TCAdmin is probably the single best company that I know of, who has fast and friendly support. They are willing to dedicate a great amount of time to each and everyone of their customers and then this person comes and is not only ignorant, but rude in the way he wastes the time of others. I can say for sure that the TCAdmin support is absolutely great! And I asked them many questions... and still they are very patient with me.

 

 

 

I think TCAdmin is the best for many reasons!

[Stealth]

sticky_this_thread

 

 

 

Actually in the next update can we have the panel download game files

 

 

 

*chuckles*

[Dr. Kitteny Berk]

oooh.

 

 

 

can we make it so the panel installs mysql, IIS, configures both to work right, then automatically install that games i want to host without me having to do anything but smile at an orderform? :D

[DougK94]

And do not forget the auto billing. this should work with every payment gateway and support Paypal, 2CO and all the other 3rd party processors. Also where is the AI for the support system that will give my customers the answers to their questions?? And you can not forget the setup automation of all the different stats programs for the different games that can be run with TCAdmin.

 

 

 

:smile:

[ECF]

While I appreciate the humor, we actually are working on some of the features that you guys have mentioned

 

 

 

While we could include MySql in the setup wizard, we would then have to charge you all for an enetrprise license for it

 

 

 

As far as the game downloads... I can't give out too much info since some others are trying to copy everything we have done, but don't be too surprised when something new pops up in regards to this

 

 

 

But one thing at a time. LFA is finishing up the update and has found a way to greatly improve the panel response time to remote servers. I tested it last night and it is super fast, even with our server in NewYork and the database down in Texas.

 

 

 

I also know a lot of people have been asking for a billing system. But we will not do one half fast. If we create one it will be solid and include server balancing, order system, billing system, and yes it will integrate into every popular third party payment gateway out there. But it takes a lot of work and testing to create something like we invision. When you are talking about peoples hard earned money, there is no room for mistakes

[GHideout]

I'd like to put in my two cents about what was described earlier on in this thread. But first I'd like to point out I've never been happier with a business, product, and support group. That said... From a service standpoint, and that is what support is, there is never justification for making the statement mentioned by the person who started this thread. I don't think the guy belonged here, or as a customer of TCA, but I just thought I'd point out that in a service environment that kind of statement is not acceptable.

[DougK94]

I should not have done my prior post in jest, but I too have been very happy with TCA and their support. They are top notch and constantly making improvements and adding new features.

 

 

 

But then again, you can not please everyone all of the time either. TCA is a great product and I have every reason to believe it will continue to be But TCA is not designed to make someone an instant GSP by just installing it. It is designed to help a GSP. You still need to know how to run your business and to run the gameservers. I know I have had some requests for gameservers and I have turned them down as I am unfamiliar with a particular game. Right now I am getting requests for BF2, but I have only played around with it a bit, but may offer it when I feel I can support my customers at a level on par with the ones I presently offer.

[Stealth]

Im in 2 minds about TCA making a billing system ... although it would be a fantastic addition a complete billing system is a massive project in itself.

 

 

 

The time needed to create such a thing (personally i think) is better spent on more game and panel specific features.

 

Although for a potential new customer the prospect of buying a billing system add-on fully integrated is a massive selling point.

 

 

 

Having said that, we dont want the GSP market flooded with people who want a quick-setup company.

 

 

 

 

 

-Paul

[ChrisOlver]

Billing wise, I think personally a form of intergration into ModernBill is the best bet. Why not get a reseller profile from modernbill and get a lower discount price for it?

 

 

 

End of the day I agree with Paul, your time should be done creating a gaming controlpanel with more features and not everything else possible. For example CPanel doesnt have intergrated billing does it? I think the best bet would get a reseller system going and maybe get a deal with modernbill so everyone gets a lower price as well as killing 2 birds with one stone.

[ECF]

I know you guys would like MB integration because you run it. But we also have to think about everyone else that doesn't use MB as well. I wouldn't be fair to only do one and not include all the billing packages.

 

 

 

I thik the best option is to use the scripting to let everyone integrate whatever they would like, and/or eventually we will add a fully functional billing/ordering system right into TCAdmin.

[ChrisOlver]

Ok thats fair enough but if you do lets say you do a full billing package.. what do the people who bought MB do? our company who uses Tcadmin doesnt use ModernBill yet but will because TBH it is the well known and used software for this around. It has so many options for payment, user management etc compaired too many other billing software. MB includes stuff which you mentioned like autosetup options, load balancing etc.. If people arnt using MB what are they using? Pen and paper? Cant please majority but its better than sitting on the wall

 

 

 

Im just thinking many people dont use MB maybe cause they havent tried it or its out of there range. Thats why I am saying try and speaking to the creators of MB and try and get some specail offers going..

[ECF]

Use the scripting API to integrate TCA with MB is most likely the best bet for MB integration. Most people use some form of web ordering page with Paypal IPN integration from what I can see. And some do use MB or other programs like ClientExec. I am on the fence about a fully imbedded billing/ordering system, since I can allready see problems with automated game setups arising from people simply overloading their boxes. And as you guys said before it brings a whole new group of new hosts into the game which most will most likely not know what they are doing.

 

 

 

So for now I have to say the scripting API is the way to go. It allows you to call any TCAdmin function you like. And for those that don't know asp.net maybe we can have LFA code up a low cost integration with certain billing panels