Netcetera Managed Hosting Reviews 77

Can I start by saying that Netcetera are not the best and I have issues with their email system, but they are good value and when things go wrong, their support is excellent. They are very responsive (certainly up to midnight – I haven’t tried them early morning) and have solved every problem I have had in a friendly and efficient manner. You always feel that there is a human on the other end who is willing to help. I have used Netcetera for over five years now and I would recommend them to anybody.

I first used Netcetera a few years ago and left simply because I discontinued my website. I created another site two months ago and returned to Netcetera to host it because of my past association with them. Reasonably priced backed up with good customer service. I had no complaints before and I have none now, would recommend them to anyone.

I've been with Netcetera for years now and although there are occasional hiccups, I've not found the support to be anything like the vitriolic negative feedback there is on this site.
I've personally found the support helpful and the service very good - even better, it's cheaper now than it was years ago!

I have used Netcetera since 2005 and in the main they have provided good service for my one-man Remote IT Support business. I have used server hosting, various email and web hosting and domain management packages and have mostly been satisfied with their performance and service.
In the early years there was the odd occasion when I felt their communication was not as helpful as it could have been, with instances of feeling I had been left to my own devices, but that seems pretty much history now - I've found in recent years they have improved not just response time but quality of answer. I am happy to continue using them for my modest domain, web and email hosting needs.
Pete Mackay, Coll Remote Support

Always had great service. Reasonable prices, great performance, good range of services, friendly and helpful email support. Had a very occasional hosting glitch over the years due to server issues or hacking but all resolved quickly through support. Easy to use control panel. Hope they keep the focus on providing the basics at a good price and great speed.

Bad customer service, website and domains randomly go down with no explanation.

Why do they not have back up systems in place???

Always speak to the same 'customer service' representative who I swear is just a guy sat in his bedroom.

My website is down on a regular basis with no warning. It was down for some hours last week and I received an alert yesterday that it was down and still down a day later. Can't reach the netcetera.co.uk website either.

We have been with them for 5 years (having used several of their services). We just finally migrated our last site away from them THANK GOD!!!

By far the worst hosting provider we have ever used.

Their support is HORRIBLE. It doesn't matter if you have a managed account or not... you can always count on their support to be pretty, well... un-supporting.

We discovered a problem that was within their network (not on our server) that grinded our business to a halt. They were incapable of resolving the matter (in fact, they would barely even bother to lift a finger until we threatened to leave).

We also paid extra to have automated backups with them. Just about every single time we checked on them they would not be running. They will never be proactive in figuring it out for you. When we would catch it, they would never credit any of the money. They would take days to get it fixed each time (only to fail again a couple weeks later unbeknownst to us).

Even though our website didn't work at all during the last billing period, they still wouldn't issue a refund.

This place is a JOKE!

I recently signed up for a web hosting package with Netcetera on the recommendation of a developer who had used their services before. After initially paying via Paypal, I switched to direct debit. Unfortunately neither Netcetera or my company had realised that my Paypal account was still being debited, and consequently I was being double billed for my subscription. I raised an support ticket to highlight the issue and was blown away when the issue was resolved and my account credited for the double billed amount, all within half an hour of the ticket being raised! Based on my experience with other service providers, I would have expected at best to have the ticket acknowledged within a few hours. Brilliant service!

Tom was so helpful in fixing my problem - I'm not a technical person but he guided me so well. I am so pleased I moved to Netcetera from my last host! I would give 10 stars if I could

Have been with these guys for about 5 years now - no complaints at all about them - have a range of dedicated and cloud servers with them - wouldn't consider moving elsewhere.
Keep up the good work guys.

We were with Netcetera for a number of years and found their service to be okay, though often not as helpful as they could have been. I meant to move for years but it was low-level irritation. Then...
Last Monday, I received an email from N saying my card had been declined for my annual fee payment. I immediately emailed our accounts lady and asked her to deal with it when next in, in four days' time. BUT next day, I received a 'Suspension of Account' message from Necetera - at first I thought it was spam!
I wasn't having that so spent a day researching alternatives and based on 'Chat' responses, chose 123-Reg. Then it got interesting!
After 5 days, N have still failed to release my four domain names, despite 123 asking for them straight away. First, N claimed they had released them and the fault was 123's. (123 provided me with evidence that they had done what they were supposed to.) Then two days later, Netcetera claimed they would not release the domain names because I had unpaid invoices. (I hadn't) They later apologised profusely over the phone. But Netcetera STILL haven't released my darner domain names!
Oh, and to cap it all, it turned out that, after kindly suspending my account for non-payment 24 hours after they failed to debit my credit card correctly, they sent me several emails. To the account THEY had suspended! And which, of course, I didn't see. (In fact, that email account is still not working because N won't release my damned domain name. Aaaagh!
Technically, they may be fine. On the phone, they are polite and pleasant. But inefficient? Oh yes, in my experience, and with knobs on, too... They have cost me quite literally days of time.
Oh, and since, Netecetra, you do appear to check and reply to these reviews: thanks for the phone apologies - but can I PLEASE have my domain names back?
Lindsay Porter, Member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, MD, Porter Publishing Ltd

Top Notch hosting company - fast and friendly support when needed.

I just wanted to say that for somebody who was quite intrepid about setting up a website, I found the online support really helpful. Despite some of my questions probably being stupid, I was not made to look a fool and I got all the help I needed to get things set up relatively quickly. I didn't go for the cheapest hosting I could find but I feel that Netcetera has delivered on the levels of support they promise to provide. I'd have no problems recommending them.

I have a website hosted with netcetera, I raised a fault with them and after 2 days they have failed to address the fault and have now started to make make a fool of me.

php $_SESSION variables are not working, that is they continue to change for each session instead of holding a constant value during the session.

I have raised 10 tickets of concern. Each response show a complete lack of understanding by the company. The only response has been 'is it working now'. To ask me if a problem on their server is working would show a complete lack of understanding about a basic problem. I also had a previous problem, php scripts were not working, and I had the same problem trying to resolve that.

As the title says,I have no complaints with Netcetera - they offer a good range of hosting packages and I am pleased with their support and general uptime.

Been with Netcetera for many years but within the last 6 months the services degraded to a joke, they have the most unreliable uptime and when you contact them there is no explanation of what is happening and to make it worse when they are working on maintenance there is NO warning and we find all the hosting services down where we will have to contact them. It is good business practice to inform the client of changes before they happen and not when you are carrying out the work!!

Finally for the last week there have been no services and the uptime has been shocking, each time you check the status page it blames other hardware or software but for a hosting company they should have a fail-safe in place where they can switch over if there is a problem with a server or service being offered. We have also lost many emails to the problem with their Shared Hosting SANS

All in all stay well away unless you want problems and lots of downtime

if i could give this company a minus score i would

I just can't believe how bad you are! You have been down now for nearly a week! People are just getting more & more irate! It's bad enough that it's a week before Christmas & this is peoples lively hoods that are going down here! You have given no explanation whatsoever as to what the problem is! And it wouldn't be so bad if this just happened occasionally! BUT it doesn't it happens ALL THE TIME! Do you even own a server! I don't think you do!

If you're considering using Netcetera to host your next dedicated server, please allow me to suggest a via-able alternative:

1. Purchase a low-end, low-cost desktop PC from your favourite retailer.
2. Make sure the low-end, low-cost PC is WiFi enabled.
3. Rent a little space in the Lion's enclosure at London's Zoo.
4. In the very likely event your server encounters a critical state, cover yourself with Pork Chops and enter the enclosure.

Now I know the above example sounds ridiculous but let me assure you that after being a Netcetera customer for 10 years, the above solution is probably more stable (our server has had four outages this year for two to three days at a time). That's a total of 10 days (240 hours) without service. That's significantly less than their advertised up time.

The Lions are definitely MORE likely to answer the phone, give regular updates, give plausible explanations and estimated down times. I can say this with 100% accuracy as Netcetera usually switch off their phones during a major outage, tweet generic messages every 5 hours that tell you nothing. I would even argue the Lions are more technically savvy!

Our server has currently been down for three days. I have asked their support staff for an explanation and ETA numerous times. Each and every time they have ignored the requests. We are still waiting for the servers to come online and have no idea why they have been down and how much longer its likely to take? Could be another week, who knows?

In short, our dedicated servers with Netcetera down go about every three months for a number of days at a time. During this very stressful time, Netcetera turn off their phones and offer very little communication. I wouldn't recommend Netcetera to anyone. After being a loyal customer for ten years we are also seeking a new hosting partner. We are even considering the Lion's enclosure as I'm sure it's a more pleasurable experience when something goes wrong.