The long, painfully slow demise of Webs Inc.

[Seiko7A38]

With the imminent predicted demise of our previous Webs host on 31st March 2021, a week from today, and having left it as late as I thought prudent, I finally initiated the domain name transfer process last week - on Tuesday 15th March.

Quite incredibly, overnight I received another notification from Webs, which at first glance, before I read it properly, looked remarkably similar to the one they sent on 31st August last year. Here's a quick reminder from the old forum.

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Here's the new updated announcement:

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All they appear to have done is to slip the migration deadline by three months from 31st March 2021 to 30th June 2021 - allegedly in the interests of giving customers more time to prepare.

Purely out of curiosity I checked their FAQs link, which had indeed been edited last week, but ....

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The 'gotcher' concerning no support for forums on the Vistaprint platform remains exactly the same.

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[Seiko7A38]

With the imminent predicted demise of our previous Webs host on 31st March 2021, a week from today, and having left it as late as I thought prudent, I finally initiated the domain name transfer process last week - on Tuesday 15th March.

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I just checked the Webs article on transferring away a domain, which coincidentally had been updated a fortnight ago.

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Transferring a .com domain can take 6-9 days, so we may yet still make it before Webs original deadline of 31st March.

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[Seiko7A38]

Last Friday, 26th March, our host Johnny_E advised me that his chosen hosting provider had informed him that the domain name transfer has not been initiated, because the EPP (authorization) code for the transfer was incorrect.

I then wasted half an hour in an online chat with a Cimpress Zendesk operator in Jamaica, named Keron. First he tried to generate a replacement EPP code using the Webs Control Panel link. One duly arrived in my email inbox a matter of moments later, but I instantly recognised it as being exactly the same code as the previous (invalid) one ! He told me that he'd need to ask their hosting company to generate a new one and I should receive it within 24 hours. Keron gave me a ticket number (which I suspect may have been incorrect or bogus) 1929136 - because it's no longer found.

I suspect he may have closed it as 'complete', because on Saturday evening, I received a feedback request from Webs.

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Having clicked on the appropriate button, you can imagine how I justifiably completed their performance critique.
Needless to say, given Webs customary incompetence, I've still not received a new EPP code, well over 24 hours later !
I've also sent 3 emails and not received the courtesy of a single reply, or even an acknowledgement to any of them.

Rather than waste more time in another online chat, I've just created my own Webs (total lack of) support ticket:

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Note to self: the ticket # 1948841 - some 19700 higher than the previous (bogus) number 1929136 I was given on Friday.

[Seiko7A38]

That also appears to have been a complete waste of time.
Yesterday evening, I received an acknowledgement of sorts (to one of my earlier emails) from Webs.

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Note the ticket number assigned: 1948838 (three digits earlier than the one I had created myself).

I just checked ticket # 1948841 and found it had been closed - as allegedly 'SOLVED' by Decia !!

Webs-Support-Ticket-1948841-30thMarch2021-Solved(Not).png (53.3 KiB) Viewed 39456 times

[Seiko7A38]

Needless to say, I was livid - especially when I received another Webs performance critique request the following day. Naturally, I responded to it in the manner befitting ! However it seems to have achieved something. Later on Friday evening I received another EPP code notification from Webs domain hosts. As soon as I opened it, I once again instantly recognised it as being exactly the same code I'd been given twice before. On the off chance that it might have been reactivated, I forwarded it to Johnny_E. He said he'd get in touch with his hosting provider straight away. It appears to have worked this time, because about an hour later, this appeared in my email inbox:

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Assuming Webs get their act together, the actual transfer should proceed on 8th April. We're not out of the woods yet.

[Seiko7A38]

It took them a week longer than anticipated, but Webs have finally relinquished their grasp on the domain name. This new website / forum went live (became visible in the public domain) overnight. Almost all traces of the original Webs hosted website have disappeared into the ether. Clicking on any link you might have saved will re-direct you to this site. I was kind of sad to see it go, but we needed to move on.

You may have noticed from a screenshot in a previous post, that the old website had another default domain name:

https://seiko7a38-com.webs.com/

I was wondering if Webs might have converted the old site to that, before pulling the plug. Well, there is something there now under that default URL, but it's sort of a half-arsed landing page and none of the links actually work.

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[Seiko7A38]

Another two months on and the imminent demise of Webs Inc. looms closer. This afternoon, what's obviously a generic notification of their transfer of (what's left of the old Seiko 7A38 website) to Vistaprint wafted into my eMail inbox.

Webs-Vistaprint-Transfer-Notification-24-06-2021.png (56.27 KiB) Viewed 39076 times

You know what - I don't even think I'll bother.