| ID: |
355038 |
Domain: |
think-different.com |
| Issue Date: |
2008-11-19 05:04am |
Owner: |
thinkdif |
| Subject: | Important: E-mail account disabled due to TOS violation |
|
Description:
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Dear James,
Our Server Performance Monitoring System has signaled that the following POP3/IMAP mailbox(es) hosted on your account is/are exceeding the allowed size of up to 200 MB per email account.
jrietz@think-different.com 1472 MB
According to the SiteGround terms of service the allowed mailbox size is 200 MB and currently your email account/s utilize more than this limit. As you know, your account is hosted on a shared hosting server and thus sharing the resources of the server with other customers. As a result of the exceeded email quota, your account endangers the performance of the whole server on which your account resides.
To preserve the normal server performance we had to take corrective actions and thus have temporary restricted the above mentioned email account(s). Please note that while the restriction is in effect you will be not be able to check the mailbox, but new mail will be delivered without any problems. Once the restriction has been lifted you will be able to check all new mail in the mailbox.
To reduce the email quota size, please reply to this ticket and our technical support team will guide you with further instructions how to decrease the mailbox size. Please mind that if you do not take any actions regarding this notification within the next 7 days, your account will be suspended.
If you need email accounts bigger than 200 MB, we strongly recommend upgrading your hosting account to a VPS or a Dedicated Server. Unlike shared hosting servers, on a VPS or Dedicated server, your account will be the only hosted account and can use all server resources at any time. Thus, the VPS or Dedicated Server solution will meet your growing business needs over a long period of time. You can order an upgrade directly from your customer area -> Order section -> Upgrade to dedicated solutions (VPS and Dedicated servers).
Our team would like to thank you for your cooperation and timely response on this matter!
Best regards,
Ivan K.
www.SiteGround.com
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| Replies: | 2008-11-19 05:55am by thinkdif - |
Ok. Did SiteGround change their policy or did my account go over the 200 MB limit over night to 1472 MB? How could this go so long without any notification... like at 201 MB? Now, I need to get access to my account to transfer the server stored data to... well, you are forcing me to switch hosting companies.
This limitation of 200 MB per account needs to included with the "Unlimited Email Accounts" listed with the hosting package. This is truly misleading as far as I'm concerned.
I have been a user and advocate of SiteGround, but that will not happen any more.
Please enable my account so I can remove my mail from your servers.
Respectfully,
Jim Rietz
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| 2008-11-19 06:07am by thinkdif - |
This is my main e-mail account. A warning would have been much more appropriate than disabling it.
This is really not a good policy.
Jim
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| 2008-11-19 06:16am by GeorgeY - |
Hello,
Thank you for contacting our Support Help Desk.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
We have just enable the access to these email accounts:
jrietz@think-different.com 1472 MB
Please login your email accounts as soon as possible and reduce their size to up to 200MB. This can be done by removing the messages from your email accounts or simply downloading them via POP3 on your local computer.
For detail instructions how to configure your email client to work with POP3 please refer to:
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/email/email_clients.htm
I would like kindly to ask you to update this ticket as soon as the email accounts size is reduced. You can modify your email account quota via your cPanel -> email accounts -> quota icon.
Be advised that unlimited mail accounts does not mean unlimited mail account disk quota usage. It means that you can create as many as you want email accounts -- still considering our terms of use the maximum email account usage can be no more than 200MB.
Thank you in advance. We are looking forward to your reply.
Kind Regards,
George Y.
Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 06:27am by thinkdif - |
"Be advised that unlimited mail accounts does not mean unlimited mail account disk quota usage. It means that you can create as many as you want email accounts -- still considering our terms of use the maximum email account usage can be no more than 200MB. "
I am advised. I obviously missed the fine print some where.
Siteground's policy of disabling the account without warning is not good.
Siteground's pollicy of not warning at 201 MB is not good.
Siteground's advertising Unlimited Email Accounts without mentioning the 200 MB limit (up front) is not good.
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| 2008-11-19 06:34am by GeorgeY - |
Hello,
Thank you for the update.
Please note that these limitations are clearly stated in our terms of use with which you have agreed during the sign up process:
Customer's use of email service
The Customer should use the email and other related services in full compliance with the terms below:
1. Each Customer's account is allowed to send a maximum of 400 emails per hour. Any account that exceeds this limitation is endangering the overall server performance.
2. Each email sent by the Customer should have NO more than 20 recipients. Sending a single email to more than 20 recipients simultaneously is endangering the overall server performance.
3. The use of email clients with IMAP protocol is allowed for mailboxes with a maximum size up to 200MB. Any use of IMAP with a bigger mailbox is endangering the overall server performance.
4. The use of email clients with POP3 protocol is allowed for mailboxes with a maximum size up to 100MB. Any use of POP3 with a bigger mailbox is endangering the overall server performance.
5. The Company allows up to 100 checks per hour for a POP3 mailbox. Any use of POP3 service to check a mailbox more often than 100 times per hour is endangering the overall server performance.
http://www.siteground.com/terms.htm
Furthermore, please note that the mail account quota is applied during the email account creation and if you have your quota set to 200 MB you will receive a notice to the email account which you can set via your cPanel -> Update contact info.
Additionally, be advised that the account is restricted only to access. All messages sent to the email account are received under the account without any issues, thus, you have not lost any emails during the period your account has been restricted from access.
Considering the information above, please inform us if we can be of any further assistance. Please update this ticket as soon as the email account is reduced.
Kind Regards,
George Y.
Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 06:46am by thinkdif - |
"Furthermore, please note that the mail account quota is applied during the email account creation and if you have your quota set to 200 MB you will receive a notice to the email account which you can set via your cPanel -> Update contact info. "
Thank you for all the additional information.
If you actually went to the cPanel to set up an account, it actually DEFAULTS to 250 MB!!!!!
That's kind of funny... isn't it.
No recent policy change?
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| 2008-11-19 06:57am by GeorgeY - |
Hello,
Thank you for the update.
The quota is indeed set by default to 250MB. Still this is caused by the fact that the cPanel is a third party software and we are not involved in the development process in any way. Thus, we can not modify its source code or any other part of it.
Still, exceeding the mail quota with 50MB will not result in an abuse case -- it will not be a real problem neither. Thus, even having your account set by the default quota is acceptable.
Unfortunately, your account size is:
1472 MB
The issue with such email account is caused by the fact that the IMAP is consuming a very large amount of resources when such email account is accessed due to the fact that it reads almost all files under the mail account folder. I hope you understand how many files are accessed on every check. Furthermore, when a new email is received under such email account the exim mail service require a lot of execution time to deliver the message to the mail box.
This require dedicated resources and cause server difficulties, thus, we recommend VPS or Dedicated server for customers who really need such email accounts.
No recent policy change?
No recent policy changes have been performed regarding the mail and allowed mail account size.
Considering the information above, please inform us if we can be of any further assistance. Please update this ticket as soon as the email account is reduced.
Kind Regards,
George Y.
Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 07:04am by thinkdif - |
"The quota is indeed set by default to 250MB. Still this is caused by the fact that the cPanel is a third party software and we are not involved in the development process in any way. Thus, we can not modify its source code or any other part of it. "
I don't believe that at all.
"Still, exceeding the mail quota with 50MB will not result in an abuse case -- it will not be a real problem neither. Thus, even having your account set by the default quota is acceptable. "
So, while I could have 250 MB, 50 MB over your policy, it will not be a "real" problem. It appears to be a "real" problem when it exceeds 1471 MB...
You can't have it both ways!
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| 2008-11-19 07:11am by Yanislav.I - |
Hello,
Thank you for your update.
Please note that it is an act of good will that we do not disable e-mails, which are only 50-100 MB more than the maximum size in our Terms of Use. Your account, however, is way bigger than the normal size, thus it endangers the server performance, which we cannot allow. We do our best to provide equal service for all customers on the same server, thus such large accounts are being disabled. Please reduce the size of your e-mail account and let us know so we can close this case.
We will be looking forward to your reply.
Best Regards,
Yanislav I.
Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 07:26am by thinkdif - |
"Please note that it is an act of good will that we do not disable e-mails, which are only 50-100 MB more than the maximum size in our Terms of Use. Your account, however, is way bigger than the normal size, thus it endangers the server performance, which we cannot allow."
I'm just trying to get this straight.
From 250 to 300 MB, the account is not disabled and no warning or notice is sent stating that the account is... well, not WAY OVER the maximum size, as an act of good will by Siteground. But when it is WAY OVER, Sitegound just disables the account and sends a notice.
I think I'm getting it, although I'm not quite clear about the 300 MB - 1471 MB range that my account has been at through the past year or so.
Your best answer should be: "Thank you, Have a great day." Otherwise, I would like to ask your supervisor to get involved.
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| 2008-11-19 07:49am by Yanislav.I - |
Hello,
Thank you for your update.
The reason we discovered that your mail account is very large in size is our recent audit. We have run a script to check all e-mail accounts to make sure that they are within the allowed range. Additionally, your e-mail account was noticed by our System Administrators to require large amount of system resources, due to its size. I believe this discussion is pointless, as you have read and agreed with our Terms of Use upon sign-up and you should be aware of the e-mail account size limitations. If you wish to have this ticket forwarded to my supervisors, please let me know.
I am looking forward to your reply.
Best Regards,
Yanislav I.
Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 08:17am by thinkdif - |
It was pointless for you to reply. I was done.
From Siteground's home page:
"Today, SiteGround is the preferred choice for hosting personal and small business websites. Our high quality service includes fast and reliable servers, professional and friendly staff, multiple free tools, and a feature-rich hosting package. And all this provided at an unbeatable price!"
If it takes over 8 months for your System Administrator to notice my account is over the limit by well over 1 GB (that's WAY OVER), then I have a real concern about SiteGround in general. I am a small business and I do have some personal websites, since 2004 actually, and something changed on SiteGround today and I have been affected - no warning. I will not let this happen to me again.
I would like this ticket forwarded to your supervisor.
Respectfully,
Jim Rietz
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| 2008-11-19 08:17am by thinkdif - |
It was pointless for you to reply. I was done.
From Siteground's home page:
"Today, SiteGround is the preferred choice for hosting personal and small business websites. Our high quality service includes fast and reliable servers, professional and friendly staff, multiple free tools, and a feature-rich hosting package. And all this provided at an unbeatable price!"
If it takes over 8 months for your System Administrator to notice my account is over the limit by well over 1 GB (that's WAY OVER), then I have a real concern about SiteGround in general. I am a small business and I do have some personal websites, since 2004 actually, and something changed on SiteGround today and I have been affected - no warning. I will not let this happen to me again.
I would like this ticket forwarded to your supervisor.
Respectfully,
Jim Rietz
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| 2008-11-19 08:23am by Yanislav.I - |
Hello,
I will escalate this ticket to my supervisors as per your request. Please allow them some time to review the case and reply to you.
Thank you in advance for your patience.
Best Regards,
Yanislav I.
Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 10:11am by Dimo - |
Hello Jim,
This ticket was escalated to me by Yanislav.
I have investigated your case in details and I would like to explain the situation and why this case was opened.
Please note that our System Administrators constantly monitor our servers. This includes:
- constant monitoring of the load of the server
- constant monitoring for potential spam emails coming from and to our servers
- constant monitoring for phishing attempts
- constant monitoring for hacking attempts
This is just a small part of the things we do for customers in order to provide them with the best possible service.
Kindly note that since you are on a shared account, your website is placed along with others on the same server.
Recently we have implemented a script that checks the size of all mail accounts on our servers. Large mail accounts can cause significant load on the server and this in turn can endanger the overall performance of the whole shared server. Therefore, the current case was opened.
I have reviewed the previous correspondence in this ticket and I can confirm that my colleagues have answered your questions correctly. Therefore, I would advise you to reduce the size of your e-mail account within the acceptable limits.
Please update this ticket once your mailbox' size is decreased. We will then check your case again and close it if everything is fine.
Looking forward to your reply.
Best Regards,
Dimo
Senior Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-19 11:22am by thinkdif - |
You need to let your sales people know:
You are now chatting with Pencho
Paula:
New customer
pjf17171@mac.com
Website: no
Question: I'm thinking about starting a website and have a couple of questions.
---------------------
Pencho: Hello Paula
Paula: Hi
Pencho: Welcome to Siteground
Paula: I looked through your information and it seems like a pretty good deal.
Paula: I do a lot of emailing and wanted to know if there are any limits?
Paula: Other companies seem to charge for everything extra.
Pencho: Well madam you have certainly came to the right place! Allow me a moment to transfer you to one of our experienced sales representatives who will explain to you the benefits of hosting services and will help you get started ! :)
This chat session has been transfered to Vesi [sales]
Vesi: Hello Paula:-)
Vesi: i will be glad to provide you with suitable hosting solution
Paula: It was recommended that I get an iMap email account?
Paula: Do you have that?
Paula: Hi Vesi
Vesi: Sure we do have Imap,I am glad to say that with our plan you will be able to create unlimited e-mails and
Vesi: you can send up to 400 emails per hour. These e-mails can be sent to 20 recipients at a time.
Vesi: You can send 20 emails 20 times to reach the 400 mails limit
Paula: Wow. Is there any limit to storing all that data?
Vesi: You will have 750GB avilable and 7500GB traffic for your e-mails as well, there are no other limitations
Vesi: May I ask you if the limitations for sending e-mails is suitable for you?
Paula: And iMap there is no extra charge for iMap like some other services?
Vesi: there are no other extra charges
Vesi: you get all inclusive e-mail package
Paula: So, the email account is included with the 750 GB?
Vesi: there is a fee only for the hosting services
Paula: Sounds good. I think I will sign up!
Vesi: The webspace
you can use is for the whole hosting account including the email
accounts,we do not have a limitation on how much space you can use for
all the email accounts
Vesi: Let me guide you with the purchase please
Vesi: you need to use the link here www.siteground.com/signup.php
Vesi: please click on it and fill in the form, I will be here for you
Vesi: just let me know if any questions occurred
Paula: So there is no limit on any one account? It all gets taken from the 750GB?
Vesi: Sure you will have 750GB for all of your e-mails, you can create unlimited e-mails and use those resources fully
Paula: Great. I can't sign up right this minute, but I will be back in an hour or so.
Paula: Thanks!
Vesi: Would you like me to send you an email with additional data on the hosting plan, please?
Paula: Sure
Vesi: I will send you an e-mail to pjf17171@mac.com shortly :-)
Paula: Great! Thanks
Vesi: You are most welcome
Vesi:
Please, feel free to contact us if you have any further questions!
Paula: OK!
Vesi: Have a great one!:-)
Paula: You too
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| 2008-11-19 11:32am by thinkdif - |
Also, I have been looking all over SiteGround.com and have not been able to find the limitation which caused my account to be disabled. Could you send me a link?
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| 2008-11-19 12:44pm by Dimo - |
Hello Jim,
There must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Our Sales Representatives are trained to answer customers' questions and give relevant information.
According to our Terms of Use, to which we refer as a basic set of rules and which you have agreed to when you signed up for your account, having IMAP accounts over 200Mb is not allowed.
I can see that George has already quoted the exact section from our Terms of Use which explains the reasons for this limitation.
I would like to give a little more details why this limitation is needed.
As you know, on a shared server there are many users who consume the resources of the same machine. The resources of the shared server are very carefully distributed so that every account can function normally and maintain top overall performance.
Unfortunately, it is possible that one user consumes all server resources and overloads the machine, thus all other accounts stop responding and become inaccessible. This is why we don't allow IMAP accounts over 200Mb to be kept on our servers.
This limitation is a standard security procedure used by almost all hosting companies on the market.
We ask for your understanding and cooperation so that the issue can be resolved in the best interest for both parties as soon as possible.
All you have to do is reduce the size of your mail account jrietz@think-different.com and update this ticket. Then we'll check the account again and, if everything is fine, reactivate the mail service for jrietz@think-different.com :)
Best Regards,
Dimo
Senior Support Team
SiteGround.com
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| 2008-11-26 09:12am by thinkdif - |
"There must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Our Sales Representatives are trained to answer customers' questions and give relevant information. "
Obviously, they need some additional training. I did post the transcript unedited, but it looks like you didn't read it completely.
Anyway, you have set me straight. I have removed all the excess mail from my account. Actually, I have moved all of my domains to another host who doesn't hide limitations - they are up front if they exist.
So, you win. I'm happy.
I have also removed all the SiteGround banners I had posted (for free) on my websites and removed my recommendations to exclusively use SiteGround.
I am done.
Respectfully,
Jim Rietz
PS. If you find it necessary to add a reply to this ticket, it should be from your supervisor and then it should only be "Have a nice Thanksgiving." - nothing else. If it is anything else, I may find a need to post this transcript to one of my sites, create a summary review, and make sure it is available for other to see.
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| 2008-11-26 09:30am by Anatoli - |
Dear Jim Rietz,
I am really sorry that it has come to this end. I am personally sorry to see losing a customer like you and I wish we could have assisted you better.
I am sure Siteground is not the perfect company but I do believe we are much better than the others. The imap limit is something very simple which should not have raised such a huge problem at all.
I can't stop you from making this post publicly and I hope you make the right choice for you.
I wish you good luck with your future activities. Also "Have a nice Thanksgiving".
Best Regards,
Anatoli D.
Senior Supervisor,
Technical Support Team
Siteground.com
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