Well, it's finally happened... And it came with a slap in the face from my friendly sales associate at The Planet basically saying that they don't care enough about their current customers.  Really, had he looked at my support requests, and tickets, and discovered that not only have i been on the receiving end of shitty tech service for 4 months, but that i actually wanted to give them my business because I wanted to support my local businesses.  Yes, i've gotten into the whole 'Texas' thing.. keep local jobs by supporting local businesses.. be true to your school.. go aggies.. blah blah blah. 

There are people out there that don't believe you should be rewarded for this.  So get this.. .here is my chat transcript.  I'm going to try to find some of my closed tickets from support to back this shit up.  I want everyone to know, that this is really the kind of service you get from them.  Mind you.. Before when i signed up they were called Server Matrix, and they were great.  After the Planet bought them out, service has gone to shit.   For the record, I linked to him who i'm going to.. http://www.1and1.com looks like it has an awesome setup and a great price.  Expect the servers to move sometime in the next 2 weeks..lol.

Thank you for choosing The Planet, please stand by while we connect you to the next available agent…
You are now speaking with Steve Dorsey!
Steve Dorsey: Thank you for contacting The Planet, my name is Steve Dorsey. How may I assist you today? (If you currently have an account with us, please provide your Orbit/ServerCommand login and the answer of your verification question.)
you : Hi Steve, let me get my info for you
Steve Dorsey: Thanks!
you : lol,, found it
Steve Dorsey: Ok great

Steve Dorsey: Thanks! How can I help out today?
you : I was working with a sales guy, and he was supposed to send me a quote. The server i'm on is garbage. literally, it's breaking down.. basically, I've had nothing but trouble with it the last few months
Steve Dorsey: Ah, Ok. One moment, let me take a look
you : So, I've been waiting on this quote now for a while, sent an email to request it again, and i've not gotten anything back
Steve Dorsey: I'm actually not seeing any activity on the account. Do you remember who you spoke with?
you : off the top of my head, no. I think his name started wtih a D tho. He sent me his email address and contact information, but it's on my home system
you : so, you don't have any record of me in the last few days calling up customer service, or talking to sales
Steve Dorsey: We do, but it would have a separate system for sales related activity. It would be the sales person's responsibility to input the specifics of the data into this system
Steve Dorsey: I could get you with another sales person if you would like
you : Okay, in the last customer service entry then, it should say that she transferred me to sales guy 'his name' then
Steve Dorsey: It would be dropped into a sales "queue", a line of sales people rather than a specific person. I don't think we can pull it up that way.
you : ahhh, gotcha.
you : yeah, if you want to send me over to a sales guy, that would be great
you : i guess i can start this process over again
Steve Dorsey: Ok, no problem. Do you have your orbit username available?
you : Steve Dorsey: Ok great you : c22931data you : wagner
Steve Dorsey: I'll speed you through to a sales specialist since I know you've already been through this once
you : yep, there ya go
Steve Dorsey: Ah, sorry about that
you : oh kewl, smileys work in here.. it's hard to annunciate voice inflection when typing in here :d
you : but big toothy grins don't work
Steve Dorsey: Yeah, usually they tell us not to because it doesn't give off a professional feel, but sometimes I interject them because it's more of a personal touch :D
Steve Dorsey: Ok great, I've put in your info and will transfer you to a sales specialist now.
you : kewl, thanks Steve
Please hold while your chat is transferred to another agent.
Steve Dorsey left the chat.
You are now speaking with Adron!
Adron: Thank you for contacting The Planet, my name is Adron. How may I assist you today? (If you currently have an account with us, please provide your Orbit/ServerCommand login and the answer of your verification question.)

Adron: Hello, I have the previous chat.
you : oh, good deal.
you : Hey Adron, let me give you a quick synopsis
you : I've been a customer there for a few years now, and have always had good service
you : the last few months, have been crappy. The server i've been on, is just failing whenever i transfer files to it, I can't update it.. the tests come back nothing wrong, but i can replicate my problems everytime
you : basically, i'm not happy with the service i've been paying for on that server.
you : So, instead of dealing with the techs i'm looking at getting a different server.
Adron: Ok.
Adron: So you want a windows server with 2GB of RAM?
Adron: This is the best offer for you.
you : Yeah, but i'm also seeing that you have a 10TB bandwidth thing
Adron: ..
Xeon 3060 Dual Core 2.4GHz
+ Single Processor Dual Core
+ 2GB RAM
+ 1x 250GB SATA Drive
+ Windows 2003 Server, Standard Edition

+ 5 IP Addresses
+ 10000GB Monthly Transfer
+ 100mbps Uplink
$25 Setup / $139 Per Month
Adron: The setup is free.
Adron: I can add that to your account now.
you : I would assume so
Adron: Why.
you : So, whats the total price going to be
Adron: The setup is only free because of the promotion.
you : Phew.. i was thinking that because i've been a customer for so long and the server i'm currently on is starting to fail, that i'd be getting some sort of consideration from 'the planet'
you : So, the best you guys will do to keep me as a customer is an out of the box configuration with no considerations for the fact that i've been paying and using a gimp'd server for the last 4 months?
Adron: This is a perfect opportunity for you to upgrade to a better processor with more bandwidth and free setup.
Adron: Every month we provide you with great opportunities to upgrade your configuration.
Adron: Do you receive the emails that when send you?
you : Yes, of course, but i dont' like to have to mess with changing up my servers every month. I look at your emails when i need them, otherwise, i'm pretty low maintenance.
Adron: Understandable.
Adron: You don't have to change the server every month.
Adron: I am just pointing out that we could have added this server to your accounts months ago.
you : Yes, you could have added it.. but instead, read thru my tickets with tech support
you : I don't want to have to reconfigure it if they can test it
you : To do that, it's gonna cost me a weekend and downtime, based on what they wanted to do. The only reason i'm shopping a new server is because if i'm going to spend a weekend setting up all my stuff and migrating domains to new ip addresses i'm going to shop for the best price and the best plan
Adron: This is definitely the best price and the best plan for you.
you : I've giving the planet first opportunity to keep me as a customer.
Adron: This is also the best we can do unless you sign a one year commitment.
Adron: If you sign up for 1 year I can then take off another 6 percent.
you : and save 7 dollars a month on the server
Adron: You are saving a lot more than 7 dollars per month.
Adron: This server is normally 169.00 you are getting it for 139.00
Adron: Bandwidth is 175.00 per month for 1TB and you are getting 8TB for free.
you : and that $8.34 dollars savings (basically sales tax here in texas) commits me to 139 bucks a month for each month if i have to break the contract.
Adron: If you are not planning on leaving then it's money saved no matter how much it is.
you : i'm also looking at the 1and1 servers, who are moving all their servers to unmetered bandwidth check their Dual-Core L - High Performance Server http://order.1and1.com
Adron: How much bandwidth do you use per month?
you : I'm planning on getting the best service for my dollar
you : If i grow to as big as i want to grow in the next year, i'll hit 6TB in 4 months
Adron: The best service does not mean the cheapest price.
Adron: Ok, perfect and you will be on a server that has 10TB.
you : I have peers that are on their servers. I have never noticed any problems with the services they provide
you : their stations never go down, and they recommended this company to me. So, it's gotta be more than adequate
Adron: Maybe.
Adron: I have not said they are not.
Adron: That still would not mean you are getting the most for your dollar.
you : Plain and simple, i'm looking to spend my dollars where i think i'm going to get the best bang for my buck. If you've reviewed my tickets with Tech Support on this server, you'd see why i'm a bit critical.
Adron has sent you a web page.
Please click on the following link to view it: Dedicated Windows and Linux Server Hosting | The Planet
Adron: That's our best offer.
you : okay.. .I'm not Greg Agri, He had setup a server for me, and for some reason, even tho i've talked to everyone there for years... and tried changing it, it's never been changed.
Adron: Ok.
Adron: That information was automatically generated because that is name on the account.
Adron: To get it removed you will need to speak with our billing department.
you : k, so thats the same promo everyone else gets?
Adron: Yes, it's a great offer.
Adron: If you were upgrading any of the hardware I could do more.
you : i'll consider it, but i'm not feeling any love here
Adron:
Adron: Is there anything else I may assist you with?
you : nope, i'm good. This is all i needed to know
Adron: Thank you for contacting The Planet. Have a great day! Good bye!

You know, I feel i should blog this, since my reaction to the story was longer than the story..  But really people, is this where we're heading as a country.. think about this. 

Btw, I conveniently aquired this story from the Government ZDNet website.  I'll link both here.  Richard Koman is restater of this story by Ina Freid.
>> http://bit.ly/jxJJt << 

Microsoft has settled with the state of Mississippi over the price of Office and Windows. Microsoft will pay the state $40 million and provide $60 million in vouchers to consumers and local governments.

Consumers and businesses that bought Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME will get $12 vouchers. You get $5 back if you bought Office (or components such as Word and Excel), MS-DOS, Windows 1.xx-3.xx Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

“Microsoft is pleased to reach this resolution with the State of Mississippi and with our customers in Mississippi,” said Steve Aeschbacher, Microsoft associate general counsel. “We look forward to working with the state on issues of mutual concern going forward.”

Here's my response: 

You know.. All this does is damage the brand of one of last great industries in the free world.

You have the state that is taking all the money, when it's the citizens that they used to back it up.. here's 12 bucks for your pain? Oh.. don't look at the 60 million.. here's a Fin for your trouble. We fixed it for you. And thats only if they claim it. Who keeps the rest?

This is the same kinda class action BS that plagues our nation as a whole. We've seen the effects of the car industries collapsing on our society. Imagine if MS fell.. Think about it. I'm a programmer that writes in MS software, and i rely on their ability to put out software for me to feed my family, pay for my daughters special needs, etc. So do 100,000 other programmers here in the states and around the world. It's totally irresponsible for a state to pull this off.

More so, the citizens of the states that put money into 401k plans that have $$ sunk into microsoft stock for their retirement, i'm sure, plenty of them living in 'ol Miss. The state just robbed them of 60 million too.

This is the same thing that came out of the States vs. PhillipMorris when the states started sueing PM not realizing that half of their pensions were based on PMs solid performance of 15% growth, and then they lost money when PM Stock dipped down.

Instead of Money Grabbing from corporations that have money, start backing the remaining industries in your state/country. If you want to rob The United States of our industries, maybe you should move to Mexico or Canada. I dont' want you as a neighbor. I served for my country. For those of you who think this is the right thing to do, go to hell. You're helping to bankrupt the country.

And don't give me the crap that Bill Gates has billions.. blah blah blah. MS laid off a couple thousand people. He is worth billions based on the stock that he has invested in the company. It's not in his pocket. And last I checked.. he's giving it away.