Godaddy 4Gh Down one week — and counting

And then there is this real life experience with Godaddy hosting:

Websites down ONE WEEK

Yes that is correct a whole week. Here is the background story: I learned about a feature that Godaddy has called APC. This is a caching scheme intended to help speed website performance. After trying in vein to implement APC (or turn it on) I gave Goaddy customer support a call. What I learned was amazing! I didn’t have that feature (although Godaddy says it’s available to everyone) because I am on a LEGACY server. What I have been a customer for 6 years and I am on a legacy server?

Yes! But we can migrate you at no cost and will be happy to assist. Great I will be on a newer faster server and have APC available. Perfect. I didn’t like learning I was on a legacy system but I guess I was just low on the priority of customers to be migrated. I don’t get much traffic and I was on only one shared Deluxe plan. At any rate the migration process started last Friday and here is the timeline.

Friday – Spoke with customer service and learned I would be migrated to a FASTER server with APC available.
Friday – Received an email saying the process had begin
Friday – Received an email asking me to review and note my NEW connection strings written into my wp-config (WordPress self hosted sites) by Godaddy. Noting all connection strings were changed less one. I made the fix and called Godaddy back (as asked) when the verification was complete.
Friday – I was then asked to wait ans watch my account settings and when available I was to select an operating change converting from Deluxe Hosting to Deluxe Web hosting which I did.
Saturday – No apparent changes
Sunday – No apparent changes
Monday – I could FTP into the new server
Monday – Noticed some websites were live but others were not able to connect to the database.
Monday – Verified wp-configs were as stated by Godaddy – everything looked good.
Monday – called customer support – Ticket opened (72 hour clock started) and was told that I must have changed the passwords (which I did not) and then I was told that the tech folks could not connect to the database either. But with the ticket open it could be up to 72 hours to affect the repair.
Thursday – 72 hours came and went and websites still down
Thursday Called Customer support and techs were involved. Mind you this is being explained to each customer rep I speak with.
Thursday – Customer support informs me that tech submitted a ticket to hier level tech (top of the line stuff) and it would be another 72 hours before a resolution was had.
Friday – have websites down
Friday – Begun receiving 503 internal server error message (server down for maintenance) from new server
Friday tested one working site on webpagetest.org and found Time to First Byte was 2X – 4X on the 4GH server at 6 to 10 seconds. This was 2X to 4X SLOWER then on the legacy system! Oh No…not only do I have websites down but the time I have no control over (Time to First Byte) is so much worse then before. – Here is a link to a test run just moments ago: https://www.webpagetest.org/result/130405_RN_RT8/

This is a crazy story that is still unfolding…but the end result is not looking good. Websites down without a sense of urgency from Godaddy and a worse performing outcome is the result. YIKES. I mostly ignored the bad press about Godaddy and have been a happy (maybe dumb but happy) customer for 6 years. I now join the ranks of the experienced…all the worse off.

Current Status:

ONE WEEK WITHOUT SOME WEBSITE …
AND WORSE PERFORMANCE FROM THE ONES THAT ARE WORKING!

AFTER MIGRATING FROM A LEGACY SYSTEM TO THE NEW AND SUPPOSEDLY FASTER 4GH SERVERS.