PSA: HFB Servers - took (y)our money and ran

[jaynic 15]

Hi survivors,

 

I just wanted to post some info regarding HFB servers in hopes that it helps out some people here.

 

We procured a Dedicated server through HFB servers a year and half (or so) ago. Things were running ok, and we ran numerous DayZ/Arma/ other game servers off of it.

 

This last Sunday (June 15, 2014) our server went offline and never came back up.

 

Like good little clients: we submitted a ticket to their automated support system. To be fair, they've always had quick support - but this ticket went unanswered - and still is.

 

I searched for an alternate method of communication on their site. There is no support line, or email - just the ticketing system. When I googled them, I managed to find their Facebook page here:https://www.facebook.com/pages/HFBServers/411971978848535

 

Looking at all their recent wall posts: it seems that many others are experiencing the same issue. Their boxes have gone offline and they are getting no support from HFB with unanswered tickets.

 

Someone had posted a link to their Better Business Bureau page which had a phone number. When I called it, I went to voicemail and got a robot answering machine. I didn't bother leaving a message.

 

HFB is a reseller, and since I had a dedicated box, I knew there was a good chance that my ip could be directly reverse-look-up'd. I know our box is in Seattle, so if I could get close - I would be able to find local hosting companies. So I dumped it in google and found a page that told me the ip was owned by www.wowrack.com. Turns out, they're hosting providers. They have a live-chat support system that I decided to try out. I managed to get on with someone and explained what I was trying to do, and that I hoped our ip was hosted with this company. Turns out it is. Apparently, despite me paying regularily to HFB servers, our box has been disconnected due to non-payment. He also told me that ServerStadium is actually the client who owns my box, and gave me their contact information.

 

Meaning, HFB servers is double reselling. HFB buys from ServerStadium, ServerStadium buys from Wowrack. I pay the difference. <sarcasm>I love salesmen</sarcasm>

 

I've had a conversation with their billing department who says they're policy is not to interfere with their re-sellers' clients. They have stated the only thing they can do is attempt to contact HFB servers. Obviously - this is not going to happen. Anthony Henson (CEO of HFB Servers) has no interest in giving them money - but policy is policy, and some feel that the spirit of the policy is outweighed by the letter.

 

 

If you have an HFB server in Seattle, it is most likely hosted by wowrack, and the client is managed by Server Stadium. I suggest you send them a plea for help in the same vein as my own in hopes that the volume of potential lost clients will inspire them to action.

Please contact their client/sales department via the following:

to: sales@serverstadium.com

cc: billing@serverstadium.com

Subject: HFB Servers scammed us

 

TLDR:

Friends: please stop your payments to HFB servers immediately!

HFB has shut down, taken your money and is not coming back - Cancel your automatic payments and get your data IMMEDIATELY.

Good luck

[jaynic 15]

I have also found the contact information for HFB Servers.

 

HFB Servers

5254 Jasmine lane 

Hilliard, OH

43026 

UNITED STATES 

(+1) 614-219-2141

 

Owner and operator is Anthony Henson.

 

I have not been able to get through.

[kichilron 8550]

I am saddened to hear it going down this route, I have had multiple servers with HFB for a while now and still have some, but I didn't know about it.

 

I have been helping others, including TG ! Jimmy to get their servers sorted out and migrating to dedicated servers, so the DayZ-servers can keep running, but this was just down to their customerservice not responding anymore.

 

In hindsight maybe we should have known, as none of the tickets were responded to for about a month now - but this is just sad, their DayZ servers were top hardware and almost had no downtime.

 

I will make sure to tell anyone I know that still owns an HFB server to spread this, as they shouldn't be paying for their servers anymore if the company is going to shut down any day now.

Edited June 18, 2014 by kichilron

[gannon46 788]

man that's grimey hope you get it sorted OP. I've noticed a lot of shady business practices around dayz lately with servers and such.

[TG ! Jimmy 216]

This has actually been going on for a couple of months.  Sorry to see you had the same issues.  We had a our server hosted via HFB servers since 2012, and have always had great support (not unlike you).  We began running into issues every billing period, as in: the server would go down on the 15th-17th (depending which day of the week it landed on) and then remain down for a few days.  Presumably until HFB actually paid their bill to the direct hosts.

 

The last ticket I had replied to was in March, the outage was blamed on a DDoS (even after being migrated to their "DDoS proof network") and I was told:

 

Hello Jimmy,

Your service is up and running normal now. Let us know if this is not the case or if you are still having problems.

 

 

These regular outages (once a month) had begun in August of 2013, and each time I was simply told "It's working now!" or some other reply that left a bad taste in my mouth.  To be quite honest, when I ran the traceroutes it was clear that HFB wasn't hosting anything--simply reselling--and I was fine with that.  I did the same thing when ran a small GSP, not a big deal, it's expensive to Co-Lo.  ++Link is to the true host, HFB is reselling my server from

 

Moving on, my expected outage in May didn't earn me a reply after server questions and borderline threats.  I decided if it happened again, I'd pull the plug.  We have long since been a loyal customer, I've even gone as far as to defend HFB on what could be accurately called too many occasions.  We stood with a $45 credit in our account (entirely community funded server) and of course the bills automatically generate and pay from our credit.  I'm sure the money is long since gone.

 

To be fair, HFB grandfathered our DayZ Server Package, and always was very good to us on crediting downtime--and never upping our price even after constant upgrades.  There is little sense in their information they provided us with, but it was only $25 a month--so I figured we'd stick with it until it was too taxing.  See screenshot below:

 

 

Our slot count $20, our initial charge $30, and recurring charges of $25...all basically lead me to believe they had no organization going on with billing.  Didn't matter, the bills were always paid ahead of time--and any issues were credited.  

 

Until now.

 

The server has gone down regularly, with zero replies to tickets, and zero replies to my recent questions.  I've now canceled our service entirely, and opted for a dedicated server that I can actually manage--as it's just entirely too much of a pain trying to beg for help once a month (or more).  I canceled, requested a refund for our poor service since May 18th (the time of my last ticket that went unanswered after a 5-day downtime) and also a refund of the $45 that was in our credit.  I don't have high hopes.

 

Guess we're both just examples of customers who tried their best to stay about, but there's no use staying aboard a sinking ship.

 

Cheers,

Jimmy

[pilgrim* 3514]

Couple of months ago these guys started selling server space at half price - which I thought should be less than they were paying for it themselves

It's the kind of offer that looks good, then you think it's too good and you'll pass.

 

(this is my disclaimer)

There is maybe a completely above-board explanation, I don't know anything about their situation other than this, second-hand info.

Someone made a statement on their facebook site yesterday, didn't they?

(edit: uh, no - 'statement' seems to be not there)

 

xx

Edited June 18, 2014 by pilgrim

[jaynic 15]

I hear you, Jimmy. We had one of their original dedicated server packages. The hardware was great, the price was pretty good:

This is a payment receipt for Invoice sent on 05/31/2014

E3-1230 (06/10/2014 - 07/09/2014)
OS: CentOS 5.8 64-bit
Ip's: 4 Usable IPs
Bandwidth: 10000GB 100mbps Port
Hard Drive 1: 500 GB 7200rpm SATA
Hard Drive 2: No 2nd Hard Drive
Hard Drive 3: No 3rd Hard Drive
Hard Drive 4: No 4th Hard Drive
Raid: NO RAID
RAM: 16 GB DDR3
Promotional Code: buldozerdedi - $10.00 USD Recurring Discount $-10.00 USD
------------------------------------------------------
Sub Total: $90.00 USD
Credit: $50.00 USD
Total: $40.00 USD

Amount: $90.00 USD
 

 

I'm crossing my fingers that ServerStadium does the right thing, and adopts us as a client. I would hate to have to fork out another $100 for a copy of windows server 2008 and rebuild all our data.

[jaynic 15]

...

Someone made a statement on their facebook site yesterday, didn't they?

 

Someone I'm clearly not affiliated with ::shifty-eyes::

[pilgrim* 3514]

damn sad thing

would be good to have at least a "what happened" message

 

it's not good to vamp on the vibes of the people

[TG ! Jimmy 216]

damn sad thing

would be good to have at least a "what happened" message

 

it's not good to vamp on the vibes of the people

Would have been nice to get a 'what is going on' message over a month ago when my server tanked from 19th in the world to "offline" and never recovered...

[Goove 70]

Class action lawsuit??  Maybe, these dudes are scumbags right out!!

[jaynic 15]

... opted for a dedicated server that I can actually manage...

 

I'm looking around for comparable dedicated boxes. Can I ask what you got and how much?

[kichilron 8550]

I'm looking around for comparable dedicated boxes. Can I ask what you got and how much?

 

There are a few fairly cheap around, take a look at these:

 

https://www.nfoservers.com/order-virtual-dedicated-server.php

 

http://www.server4you.com/dedicated-server/bizserver/

[TG ! Jimmy 216]

Yes, What Kich said up there^

 

I went with just a cheap ($33/mo) VDS from NFO, little three core virtual private machine.  Just wanted something that would be able to run our server, but give me root access.

 

Cheers,

Jimmy

[jaynic 15]

Cool thanks guys.

 

I'm gonna stay away from virtual anything, so NFO's a no-go. But server4you has good deals. I'll have a look, and at some others too.

[TG ! Jimmy 216]

Cool thanks guys.

 

I'm gonna stay away from virtual anything, so NFO's a no-go. But server4you has good deals. I'll have a look, and at some others too.

They have the best prices I've seen anywhere for dedicated equipment.  Certainly worth your while, if a dedi is what you want.  

 

Cheers,

Jimmy

[DaveAzoicer (DayZ) 135]

I hear you, Jimmy. We had one of their original dedicated server packages. The hardware was great, the price was pretty good:

This is a payment receipt for Invoice sent on 05/31/2014

E3-1230 (06/10/2014 - 07/09/2014)

OS: CentOS 5.8 64-bit

Ip's: 4 Usable IPs

Bandwidth: 10000GB 100mbps Port

Hard Drive 1: 500 GB 7200rpm SATA

Hard Drive 2: No 2nd Hard Drive

Hard Drive 3: No 3rd Hard Drive

Hard Drive 4: No 4th Hard Drive

Raid: NO RAID

RAM: 16 GB DDR3

Promotional Code: buldozerdedi - $10.00 USD Recurring Discount $-10.00 USD

------------------------------------------------------

Sub Total: $90.00 USD

Credit: $50.00 USD

Total: $40.00 USD

Amount: $90.00 USD

 

 

I'm crossing my fingers that ServerStadium does the right thing, and adopts us as a client. I would hate to have to fork out another $100 for a copy of windows server 2008 and rebuild all our data.

 

If you hear anything from them about access to the servers we had, that would be splendid if you share it.

[jaynic 15]

If you hear anything from them about access to the servers we had, that would be splendid if you share it.

 

Just an update for you and anyone interested:

Their Billing department has stated that their official policy is not to interfere with the clients of their resellers. He is attempting to get in touch with Anthony Henson - the CEO, in order to get it resolved from his end.

I basically said: "hey good idea. But in case that doesn't work, because it won't what wheels need to start rolling in order to get temporary access to our server to get our data?"

 

At this point, I'm pressing the issue lightly and trying to lead them to understanding that their policy of staying away from resellers clients shouldn't really apply to resellers who have broken contractual agreements. If this doesn't go through, my plan is to use more heavy handed wording with terms like "escalation" and "legal data ownership rights" as well as start calling their offices.

 

If they're too ignorant to realize how many HFB customers they stand to lose, then they don't deserve my business anyways - but I do want my data.

[kichilron 8550]

Their Billing department has stated that their official policy is not to interfere with the clients of their resellers. He is attempting to get in touch with Anthony Henson - the CEO, in order to get it resolved from his end.

 

 

He's going to have a hard time getting in touch with them:

 

http://hfbservers.com/

[jaynic 15]

I saw their site went down - now it's mysteriously back up...

 

regardless - I posted here: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forum/130-hosting-requests/ because I stumbled on the area in a google search and found enough resellers within mere minutes that I was beating them back with a stick.

 

In the end I've settled on a new Dedicated box from https://www.nodesmart.com 

They were super helpful, and the special they had on was for almost the exact same box I had but $25 cheaper with better ddos protection AND another ip.

 

If I hear anything back from server stadium about getting my data - I will try - but I'm considering it gone at this point.

[lloydparrish 1]

Is there anything I can do because I literally bought a server yesterday and I got double charged?

[kichilron 8550]

Try to reclaim it back, which you can do in most cases - through both PayPal and Creditcard.

[Nathan1 (DayZ) 0]

I had a dedicated server in Los Angeles from them (they were reselling from Limestone at LA) and $1600 in clanpay http://gyazo.com/49d22070ae655c462259e5a4438d51e4. A couple of weeks ago they stopped replying to my support tickets and we were receiving no information

 

Looks like their website just went offline too, their control panel seems to be still online. http://gyazo.com/2900a49af9238a5de382dd6ca3af4854

 

 

They also maliciously damaged one of my Teamspeak servers on my dedicated server. I complained nothing happened. http://prntscr.com/3v0hbo

 

 

 

 

Their dev website: http://dev.hfbservers.com/

 

http://gyazo.com/6c748e2c91a23c6451d9a3294a060b29

http://gyazo.com/444a88b45ac8218b6c32a200ab85e96d

 

My Clanpay log:

 

 

 

 

If anyone needs new hosting I found http://www.reliablesite.net/ which is very cheap on the "clearance" range. I was talking to some other minecraft owners that the largest networks use reliablesite.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Nathan1

[sof.unit.arma3 1]

Email from the HFB CEO Anthony Henson "I am no longer affiliated with HFBServers LLC I handed ownership over to another group well over two months ago (I was permitted to keep my email tho as I use it for a lot of personal things) How they are handling the company is none of my business nor my responsibility. If they have emailed all clients with their contact info please use that, if not please submit a ticket with them (if they are still using a ticket system). I can tell you I last spoke with the new owners about a week or two ago and they stated they are dealing with major overhaul of all servers (transitioning to their own cancelling rented/resold) and that there would be a pretty rough patch" . Now funny enough notice the over two months ago who the hell have we been paying anyone else wanna know where our moneys been going to and who has control or ownership I sure would love to know!

anthony@hfbservers.com is his contact info please people do something about this

[lloydparrish 1]

Transition = money on fire