How do you handle disputes with your data center providers

[metanet]

Many data center providers are REIT type businesses that have invested little in billing staff and still take "check payments" instead of credit card payments, ACH, wire or other forms of digital payments. They often overbill for services and have a poor dispute process, take forever to resolve issues related to billing disputes, or improper and failed installations, they lack a trained staff or good accounting software to easily manage these problems. Often they leave the disputed portion on the balance though it is disputed and not resolved, which if large enough can lead to warnings from the receivables about your account status or worse get a host bannered. In some cases the billing team is outright hostile to tenants. Sometimes the disputes are ignored for months and nothing is done about them, or the management is difficult and does not want to resolve the issue promptly. Does anyone have experience dealing with the vendors accounting departments and how do you get your issues resolved?

 

[Greenhost.cloud]

I've seen how some places can drop the ball on customer service. Having a responsive team that listens can make all the difference in sorting things out quickly.

 

[metanet]

There are some data center providers who simply rip off the customers and threaten with disconnect even when the customer does not owe the bill. I have seen this too many times to count. They know they have got you once your infrastructure is in there. It is a terrible business model because they do not seem to understand web hosts talk amongst the industry and they are losing a lot more business from negative word of mouth. We have a data center provider that is still not finished with our cross connect disputes (clear contract violations) and it is going on 3 years now unresolved.

 

[Mivocloud]

What a nightmare really. From personal experience, I have encountered many different problems with companies and finances, and once I even worked in one, but I quickly left because I realized that the company treats its customers unfairly. This is a really big problem and I can only recommend that you read the reviews before you start working with the company. YES, REVIEWS CAN BE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE, but you should find really written reviews by ordinary people and not by competitors, I can't give an explanation of how to understand that the review is real, it's more likely to be felt by the writing style. I hope that your dispute, which has been going on for 3 years, will be resolved!

 

[easyhostmedia]

They know they have got you once your infrastructure is in there.

Not Really as just like a web host you can set up with another DC and just move everything over. No company has a hold over you, they may think they have but let your feet do the talking.

 

[OffshoreRacks]

Trully believe the only way to solve this its to have own ASN/IP resource and deal with abuse yourself and not datacenter administrator, that can lead in delays and downtimes. Renting ips from datacenter and then you rent those ips to your clients then maybe they rent to another client of them. Have seen datacenter remove entire /24 because a few abuse reports.

 

[Daria Pro]

REIT data centers and their billing teams are the worst. Docs docs docs — emails, quotes, screenshots. Escalate hard — go straight to managers or higher-ups. Works every time.

CC legal or accounts receivable if they ghost you. Suddenly they care. For disputed charges, withhold payment on just that part, but be ready to back it up.

Bottom line: stay loud, stay organized, and don’t let ‘em walk all over you.

 

[metanet]

Daria Pro nails it, but the best practice is this: When you are first negotiating a contract, make sure there is a clause which says if the data center provider fails to resolve the dispute within 30 days, then the invoice is cancelled. This is the reverse of what they try to do to customers saying that if the customer does not dispute the invoice within 30 days then it is valid. Well if that is the case, then the reverse is true. Their failure to resolve a dispute should cancel the invoice. Hence, they cannot drag it out for months or years and must address it. Gain this clause at the start when there is substantial leverage.

REIT is the worst, but we have had our fair share of problems with a few non-REIT data centers as well. Be careful out there.

I recommend also looking at Glassdoor as suggested by MivoCloud. Sometimes the employees can give quite a bit of insight during a review of their own company.

A perfect example is this: https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Telehouse-America/reviews

Talk about a red flag.

"Terrible Sales and Accounting
Engineer
Staten Island, NY
Harrass customers, behind on the technology curve. Billing team are bullies and dont value their customers, and are even hostile to them. "

Yikes.

 

[metanet]

Not Really as just like a web host you can set up with another DC and just move everything over. No company has a hold over you, they may think they have but let your feet do the talking.

True - but for some businesses it is not easy to move an entire cage with hundreds of servers, and they will just absorb the abuse to avoid the 'more' expensive and time consuming cost of moving.

 

[OnTheCloud.co]

True - but for some businesses it is not easy to move an entire cage with hundreds of servers, and they will just absorb the abuse to avoid the 'more' expensive and time consuming cost of moving.

And not to mention contracts with carriers that might be difficult to re-locate into a new facility that may or may not have that specific carrier.