Monday, July 23, 2012

Arsys


NOTE - WE HAVE TEMPORARILY DISABLED SOME IMAGES FROM THESE SITES - THEY WILL BE BACK SOON


HELLO FRANCISCO - YES WE WILL BE ADDING ALL OF OUR CLAIMS TO THIS AND MANY MORE SITES WHILE WE FILE AGAINST YOUR COMPANY - SO BYE FOR NOW.



Arsys - is an Internet hosting company in Spain. We offer this site to warn you why we believe that you should not use any of their services - and clearly illustrate our reasons with concise - factual - documented material - including emails - images and more.

Arsys
Arsys
ARSYS WRITES -
Arsys is the leader in Europe in hosting, registration of domain names, servers, cloud hosting and managed services to make you succeed.
We sincerely doubt that this claim is true - just another false advertising gimmick - very typical of arsys in Spain. There are laws against false advertising you know !!
  There are literally millions of hosting options in the world. You may host your site in any country you decide. We chose arsys.es - in 2001 - highly recommended at that time.

In Spanish - they advertise the following:
Arsys - registro de dominios, correo, web hosting, servidores, cloud
Registro de dominios, Web Hosting y Correo. Crea tu web con webmaker. Servidor Dedicado, VPS, Cloud y Managed Hosting. Soporte 24x7 y Alojamiento Web en España.
dominios, dominio, comprar dominio, dominios libres, registrar dominio, email, correo, hosting, alojamiento web, web hosting, crear web, hacer web, tiendas online, e-commerce, vps, servidor dedicado, servidor web, cloud computing, cloud hosting, servidor cloud, managed hosting
___________________________________

Fairly web hosting illiterate - we allowed arsys - to advise us on the best solutions for our goals:
  • the best hosting options for an e-commerce website,
  • email marketing,
  • visibilty on the search engines
  • etc. - etc. ...
MORE ABOUT E-COMMERCE

Well - arsys sold us their archaic program they call "ecom" - for worldwide gateway payments with the bank Banesto - who had also recommended arsys.es - among others. This merchant account very rarely functioned properly - when we made sales.

We lost many many sales. In 2003 we signed with PayPal and have had no problems - yet did not have the time to invest in changing all the work done to date.

We were also obligated to set up an account with Banesto - who charges fees. Another disaster story to be told later - within this site.

Payment gateway - payment gateway is an e-commerce service that authorizes payments for e-businesses and online retailers. It is the equivalent of a physical POS (point-of-sale) terminal located in most retail outlets. A merchant account provider is typically a separate company from the payment gateway. Some merchant account providers have their own payment gateways but the majority of companies use 3rd party payment gateways. The gateway usually has 2 components: a) the virtual terminal that can allow for a merchant to securely login and key in credit card numbers or b) have the website's shopping-cart connect to the gateway via an API to allow for real time processing from the merchant's website.

Screen shots of Arsys "ecom" product pages at the time we entered into their service contracts -

May 2001.









We created 98 landing pages -- meaning - people who wanted to purchase would select a link and go to the famous arsys "ecom" / Banesto pages.



Of course we are at fault for not investigating about these two companies - yet there was little information as far as reviews - on the internet in 2000 - 2001 - so we just trusted them - and this bank who recommended them as - "the best - without doubt - in all of Spain".

We had endless problems - as the code would would break up on the pages when sent to their servers.

When we asked why - and asked for help - they always answered : "we will send you an estimate of the cost to help you". They were trying to milk us for more money - and take more time to publish quickly (arsys - you will see - is excruciatingly slow in responding to anything).

It was tremendously frustrating - and an enormous waste of time - actually four months and twelve years more of dedicated work (10 hours a day) - not to mention detrimental for Search Engine Optimization - which showed the search engines - and still show today -  constant 403 errors - error code for missing pages.


An estimate of costs - hours invested - could be ( ball-park guesses ):

98 pages x 10 hours a day = 980 hours spent creating pages.


980 hours minimum - x 20 euros / hour = 19,200 euros. This is ideal - however unlikely.

In 2001 people were charging 100 - 135 USD an hour. $400/hour for SEO - $1,000 a page SEO.


980 hours x 135 USD / hour = 132,300 USD - 100,000 EUROS ( aproximate exchange rate ).
98 pages x $1,000 a page SEO = 98,000 USD - 75,500 euros.


Text, photos, payment codes for each product - links - problems with the code - pages not working - well it can go up to 200 hours a page x 98 pages = 19,600 hours and much more spent is more of a reality.


Of course SEO adds to the hours so - let´s figure a true cost = 200 hours spent per page x 20 euros (an unrealistic hourly price for web work)

19,600 hours spent x 20 euros / hour = 392,000 euros.
Now - prices at the time $400 / hour (for SEO - an hour and up >>

19,600 hours x $100 = $1,960.000




One honest arsys tech - finally told us how to write the code to keep the pages from breaking up - and that the problems were actually caused by their "ecom" Banesto software program that was - primitive - coarse - difficult - and extremely user unfriendly.

Below you see our "ecom" Control Panel today August 9, 2012 - which has not changes since May 2001. Definitely not worth paying 50 euros a month for the arsys package !  Even though we have complained for twelve years - arsys has completely ignore us - insulted us - told us we should change to a different solution ( more months of complete dedicated work on our part ). They refused to offer a viable solution - and we did and do not have the luxury of spending this dedicated time AGAIN.



Our biggest problem was that - with another huge investment of time ( years ) we achieved great rankings on the search engines - both for image and targeted keyword searches.

This is an ongoing investment - search engines change their algorithms constantly - monitoring links pointing to these pages - which gradually referred customers to our products.


Other websites link to these 98 pages - and the antiquity of the pages have acquired considerable worldwide search importance which is the most essential part of internet sales - GREAT RANKINGS and visibility to potential clients. EXTREMELY VALUABLE and difficult to value - but not impossible.

For one example (we have 357 different products ) - today August 9, 2012 - if you write beach backrests into Google - we are listed in four different spots on the first page:


The first spot #5 - links to our beach backrests page (seen below) - on the "ecom" page. The next - # 7 - our page - followed by two images - ranked #1 and #2.

These rankings fluctuate daily - by the minute. They depend on many factors - including watching competing sites / products and outdoing their SEO. These are huge companies - amazon.com - alibaba - etc. who have hundreds of people working their websites and SEO.

This is one of 357 original products we sell. It has a US patent and the stock is made in China and imported into the United States - then transported to and stored in our logistics center in New Mexico.


We are presently trying to link to our domain page to slowly ease away from the "ecom" rotten apple - sold at the price of a Rolls Royce - when we needed a scooter - and arsys tech support competent - at the most to advise how to fix a broken roller skate key - to be polite and not derogatory.



Another example for you - not to boast - but we have achieved thousands of targeted rankings similar to these two examples (which we will publish later) - costing years of constant study and delicate adjustments - to reach these goals and maintain them - - just to have the eternal problem ARSYS - who not only overcharges us by 1,000 % - but also show that their servers are not maintained - nor give any guarantees to be trusted.




July 23rd, 2012 - all site down for three plus hours - another on-going problem with arsys

403 codes mean that the page shows no connection to the server - or other problems. When the Search Engines capture these errors - the websites drop like rocks from the first page (for example - on Google) - - to nowhere to be seen.







Below you see today´s (August 9, 2012) proof of this in Google - for a page that does not even exist. A true mystery !!

ecom on Google August 9, 2012 - broken link to mysterious page
"ecom" on Google August 9, 2012 - broken link to mysterious page

Google cache of erroneous "ecom" page - July 17, 2012

Even more mysterious - is the same control and images - taken Saturday, July 21, 2012, 7:12:56 PM (below) - of Google´s index which shows 7 pages are broken.






WE HAVE NOT TOUCHED THESE PAGES SINCE MAY 10, 2011 - as seen below when we just connected to the arsys server now Aug. 9, 2012 - to show you - and properly document our complaints.






We did have sales. 

EXCITING.

Our pages are targeted successfully to the English speaking worldwide markets.
The sales did not show money transferred to our account in Banesto (through arsys "ecom").

We phoned Banesto -- answers - "well your client must not have any money" - etc. from Banesto. 

After years - we found that the whole problem was that the charge card companies were detecting out of the country sales - and stopped payments !! The system was not truly a worldwide payment option - more for local sales.


So much for this system. We changed to PayPal in 2003 - 5 and have had zero problems since. PayPal charges a small percent of the sale - no fixed charged.


So 98 "ecom" Banesto pages were sitting with no reason to be. We could not put PayPal codes on these pages and finally 11 years later - just took off the links to these pages - to eventually re-work them - which is quite impossible - as they are landing pages and repetitious to the pages linking to them.

A BIG ONGOING PROBLEM THAT WE CANNOT RESOLVE AND ARSYS IGNORES OUR REQUESTS FOR HELP.




ARSYS TELEPHONE SUPPORT
We stopped phoning for support early in our contract - as it was no help - costly (902 number - no toll free like the majority of competing businesses today) - and a waste of time as well as aggravating when the answers were vague - un-professional - complete hog-wash - including personal insults !

Besides paying 7 euros/hour to call tech support - they never answer. A machine connects ALWAYS for at least 10 - 15 minutes - repeating that they are all busy - even midnights (they advertsie 24/7 support).

When finally someone answered - they use to ask your domain name. So we would say -- j - like jaen, v - like in valencia, o - of oviedo ..... until the end.

At this point - they tell you there is something YOU said wrong - because they cannot find your domain name. So again - even slowerrrrrrrrrrrrrr - we begin with the J - of Jaen, O - of Oviedo .... story. I have never once not had this repetition story happen.

I finally suggested that a number for each customer may be a better solution. They now ask your domain name or tax ID. But again - they bungle up on the numbers.

By now 30 plus minutes have gone by.

So now we can explain why we called in the first place. The person who has tortured you to this point is not a highly trained tech - so they take your story and say - one moment please.

Again - a longgggggggggggg wait.

When that person returns to your call - it turns out that he/she did not understand your problem/question and answers with something completely obtuse.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx more to come soon.

We will be adding a multitude of emails - to illustrate above. It was an absolute emotional tidal wave with every attempt for good technical support.

___________________________________

Back to the beginning - - We had invested four months of dedicated time/work into a total of 220 pages - 122 were on our domain (virtual server) and linked to 98 landing pages pages with their famous "ecom" gateway payment program in a separate machine (server).


Arsys then sold us their famous "search engine submission" - in Spanish - "alta en buscadores" service

arsys 2001 - search engine submission
arsys 2001 - search engine submission


arsys 2001 - alta en buscadores - image Feb 2002
arsys 2001 - alta en buscadores - image Feb 2002


... convincing us that we need their service to be seen on the internet.

So we signed up and paid.

We quickly received a crazy flood of emails from link farms (a hugely penalized practice in the search engines) - phoned arsys to ask what was happening and spoke with xxxx who explained that this a all part of the process.

( INSERT EMAILS )

Well - the service was a complete fraud - and we claimed a return on the funds - which took weeks of emails back and forth - including to the owner of arsys to achieve. We were enraged.

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

Multiple arsys deficient tech support examples with emails - coming soon.

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We have wanted to change hosts for years - yet need the dedicated continuous time to do this migration ever so carefully - so as not to hurt our Search Engine visibility.

Well - we put aside July - August 2012 to begin this delicate chore.


Since then - we have lost six years of e-mails they somehow erased from arsys server - paid over 7,000 Euros for a plan that quickly became obsolete.


We pay for a super plan they sold us - that we did not need.

What we needed - was a 4-5 euro a month plan - with PayPal or similar. What arsys sold us was a 50 euro a month option - with email marketing unlimited.

Costing us 7000 euros instead of 660 over the past 11 years (to round out numbers).

This is not to mention the 25 euros a year + VAT - that we were overcharged for renewing our domain name. Most companies charge around $10 (7 euros) and often do not charge at all - as an advantage to choosing their hosting.

So - add 25 euros/year x 11 years = 275 euros + vat. 110 euros over the norm - if not the total 275 +.



We signed up for unlimited email mailing campaign addresses - and then they limited this to 500 shortly after - saying - "there have been abuses".

We complained that this change was not quite legal - yet they refused to re-adjust the limit to that as previously contracted saying we could pay extra for these services (that we had already contracted inclusively) .

More to come ...
  • requesting access to our logfiles - tech answered "you need a judicial order for us to give you this access"
  • tech support quoting legal interpretations of their liquid contracts (they change when they want with no notice to customers - thus expecting us to "hag-out" on their legal pages to "catch" changes !!
  • 902 phone calls - xx euros/hour x waiting forever - go arounds when finally connected - not resolving problem from the initial call - or after - then being insulted (recordings).
  • no response to emails
  • "chulerias" - answers are eternal round-abouts if answered at all - unprofessional
  • waiting years - months to recover emails to leave arsys and migrate to new host - still charging - that they do well !
  • configurations erroneous
  • down times - no compensation
  • response times - sometimes never - others weeks - rarely in the same day.
  • shared host with other web sites (image) - constant rejection of our emails due to another site on the same server - tags as a spam site.
  • Read the reviews > http://www.ciao.es/Opiniones/arsys_es__141633
  • etc - more soon ...


Below we show you images and text from the arsys site when we signed up May 2001.












Well. Summarizing - you can change a pair of socks quickly. YOU CANNOT change hosts without a huge investment of time and money - especially when your host keeps milking us and offering delayed answers - actually NONE to resolve this issue ...

YES - this is a GRIPE SITE - RUN from arsys !!   Please.