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web space removed without notification, without compensation

mastunga
Neighbour

That really sucks. I have had this personal webspace for years; it is referred to at hundred sites; now what do i do? Migrate somewhere else, make it work, re-link, do again the hundreds of things that took to get visibility over years? Again? Because some heartless and customer hating high position honcho decided to screw the paying customers, just like that? Here is my response to the customer rep that notified me about the fact that they bundled my webspace, basically saying take your files and go away, no consequence.

 

Hello Paul,
That is not what I asked for. I had a site that you decided to close without warning, without offering any compensation. You simply closed a service which I found attractive enough to switch completely to Telus few years ago, and which was included as a part of the package of services I was getting.  Having a site on my hobby/entertainment, with a couple of books on the subject, and links placed in the books and exchanged all over the world was important, and essential in my decision. We have had this site for close to 20 years. Now how do I fix all that? I wonder how other people who are in the same boat react. I am sure many of your customers have build personal sites of varying complexity, and most will be quite unhappy about this decision. I have to start everything from scratch. Does anyone at Telus understand the effect of discontinuing this service on your clients, the people who keep your business going? This is very heartless and rude way to stop a service, total disregard to your clients's concerns. And the Telus excuse/explanation is pretty lame -"our software is aging". How about updating it and keep the service going? I mean if you hope to get some of your clients who lost this service to buy paid commercial site hosting, well, I would be too frustrated about the way you dealt with me as a client to buy anything else from you, or to continue with Telus altogether...How about the service I lost? Would I recieve any compensation for it? I guess nothing will really compensate for the work and hardship that you put me through, but at least there should have been something offered. That is not a good business at all... I would rather see a solution that keeps the current site with its address as  it is. If you feel you are not paid enough for these services, increase the fees, do something; I mean what you chose to do is the worse solution I have encountered as a customer of anything so far...

Please feel free to escalate. I do not need my files back, I need my site back, I do have the files, the files are not a solution.
Sincerely,



Paul Puth wrote:


Hello,

You can retrieve your TELUS Subscriber Web’s data by clicking on this link:
38 REPLIES 38

Hi Stephen.

 

In my case I retained copies of all the files on my website. So retrieving them was not an issue.

@Stephen108 

I was able to get my files using an FTP client. You can do it using Chrome, but it is painful as you can only download one file at a time. 

 

Go to ftp[colon][slash][slash]ww3.telus.net and enter your username and password.

You can download individual files by right-clicking and using "Save as..."

 

The FTP client I use is Filezilla: https[colon][slash][slash]filezilla-project.org/download.php?show_all=1

If you haven't used a standalone FTP client before, you'll have to do some learning. Sorry.

 

PS: sorry for messy URLs, Telus won't let me post proper ones

Success  MAC OS has a built ftp component in it's "finder" so I was able to use it to get to my website files. I opened Safari and typed ftp://telus  3.telus.net  into the URL bar. I pressed return and a pop up window popped up asking if I wanted to let "finder' connect to the server. I replied yes and and another pop up window popped up with spaces for the user name and password. I entered both which were the same as my login from the site when it was up and running. A server appeared on the desktop with a folder in it named public_html which contained all my website files. I dragged and dropped that folder onto my desktop where it copied everything to my computer. I was fortunate that I still had my log in info on hand. I hope this info helps somebody else. It avoids having to get an FTP app and learning it. Thanks to everyone for their comments and help.

 

 

Typo  no space in ftp address in my previous post   

 

I forgot to mention that Windows also has an ftp component built in it's OS . It is in File Explorer and allows you to add a network address on the computer. I am not on a Windows machine but I found this info online trying solve my problem howtogeek.   com

fn0
Friendly Neighbour

@Stephen108 

 

Thank you for the details - just one point: 

ftp-colon-slash-slash-telus 3.telus.net did not work. I think it should be ftp-colon-slash-slash-www3.telus.net

 

I tried to post this using the normal way to spell a URL but the forum rejected the post so for my second try I spelt out the colon slash slash. Then when posting it says "an unexpected error occurred' This is a third go at it.

fn0
Friendly Neighbour

I used to have URLs on my domains that redirected to my TELUS webspace URL. I can't help wondering if TELUS could have let us do the opposite , i.e. keep the TELUS webspace URL and have TELUS redirect any traffic to whichever webserver you moved the files to. If possible that way would have allowed TELUS to remove all the customers files from their servers, and merely maintain the redirect links. A nuisance for the customer to have to find a new webserver and move files to it, but at least you wouldn't have to change all the links that point to your stuff, which seems to be the most aggravating part of the whole thing.

Stephen108
Friendly Neighbour

Thanks for correcting my mistake. I hope you are able to retrieve your files.

I can’t believe anyone having a mission critical website would not pay $10 per year to have a registered domain name, allowing them to move their hosting to anywhere that makes sense. Small web hosting providers have come and gone over the past 20 years.

 

I used to have a domain name, but then my registrar vanished and it was going to be a huge hassle to get control of the name again so I dropped it. My site primarily existed as a way for someone to search for a way to contact me. As such, any web presence that Google would index was perfect and it was included in my subscription.

 

Telus stopped advertising and offering website hosting as part of their ISP offerings about 10 years ago, so no surprise they have finally dropped it.

 

I'm expected to keep track of what they're currently advertising? I've been a customer for over 25 years and they have an obligation to notify me if they are making a change to my service. I never say the FTP warning and they never said anything on my bill. The only method I ever used to access the web space was a web interface that Telus provided. They did not say that there was another alternative, so I kept using it.

rc
Rockstar

There are posts on this forum, in 2018, talking about the discontinuation of personal web spaces associated with consumer internet plans. So people were aware of the changes and had plenty of time to plan for the changes.

 

I expect TELUS would have announced the changes, as they usually do as a notice added to the subscriber's monthly bill. 

 

 

@rc Then I really don't see what the point of the discussion is.  Venting maybe - but ISP's are refining their business model - getting rid of things that have very low demand and cost a lot in comparison..  One of many things they used to have but now don't.

According to this post from Telus employee @MTL_Dave it was discontinuted at the beginning of 2016.

https://forum.telus.com/t5/Internet-Home-Phone/Telus-Webspace/m-p/95357/highlight/true#M20797

 

I'm surprised it took so long to actually decommission it.

rc
Rockstar

 

Here is a link to the forum posts that indicates that TELUS was discontinuing web spaces in 2016.

 

https://forum.telus.com/t5/Internet-Home-Phone/Telus-Webspace/td-p/95350

 

 

Rick81
Coach

INTERESTING???

 

Yesterday (Oct14/20) I received a followup question about an article on my website. This was unusual BECAUSE the site was removed by Telus over a month ago!

 

I answered the question and on a whim I decided to try the website address www3.telus.net/xxxxx.com   Much to my surprise the site is alive and well!

 

Have others had their sites reincarnated? Has Telus had a change of heart?

 

Rick

WestCoasterBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

I would dump your data while you can if you have access to it. To my understanding it will not be coming back. Not sure why people would run a site off it anyways when plenty of options out there, especially if a business or critical site. Ample hosting companies for cheap are available.

..

TELUS has extended the period that files can be retrieved until November 9, 2020. 
Website files and FTP contents are still available for download by any FTP client with your username
and password. Please remove any data or files you would like to retain. If you require your password reset or need
help retrieving your files please contact the TELUS help desk at 1-888-811-2323. We apologize for any
inconvenience and we thank you for using TELUS services.

The files aren't an issue - I have all originals. Also, the site was non-critical and hosted some hobby information (it was perfect for that).

I'm exploring a Wordpress free site. If I can set it up that should meet my needs. At 75 yrs I'm not a big fan of change 😞

Thanks for getting back.

Rick

alexmorco
Just Moved In

Your hosting provider must have the answer to it because without notifying to the customer they cannot disable or deactivate the account, You may choose managed hosting like Cloudways to stay away from these types of issues.

Well the provider (TELUS) closed the website without notice, moved the email service to Google (ugh) and raised my monthly bill! It must be nice to be a an operator in such a non-competitive market.