It is hard to get past Memset's poor customer service. Our experience is that on more than one occasion we've had to waste a lot of time proving that problems are on their end before they will work to resolve it. Their immediate reaction is always to ask you to pay for extra support.

Most recently I wanted to upgrade our server to get more memory. This is normally a 5 minute job and the server goes offline. However I was told by Memset that we were on an older platform and they would need to move us to a new platform for this to happen. Therefore instead of 5 minutes of downtime it would be 30. However, Memset refused to do this out of business hours without me paying a premium for out-of-hours support.

Rather than working out a solution, I got a patronizing email from their sales manager about how we all must pay to upgrade at some point. If you go with Memset, be prepared for a difficult relationship.

When things are going well, Memset are absolutely fantastic! But I have (had) a dedicated server with their 'Basic' SLA. Their Support Matrix shows 'Out of Hours' Emergency support as a chargable service at this level. I was happy to accept this as I'm more than capable of managing a server and don't need all of the bells and whistles offered by the 'Fully Managed' SLA.

But one evening, the server did disappear from the internet. I searched everywhere for a means of contacting them. It was impossible. I sent them an email via the website - the only option available.

Fortunately, the server came back after about 30 minutes.

The next day, the first message that came in from them was from sales who'd noticed my attempts to raise support. Rather than offer any appology, they simply recommend I upgrade to the 'Fully Managed' SLA.

The next message to come in was from support saying there had been 'another problem' with their network!

So I need to upgrade to get information on their faults? What about paid support? Sales informed me this is only available if booked in advance!

So, Memset are great, but only if you know when they will have an outage so you can book an emergency engineer in advance. Or you're prepared to pay for the 'Fully Managed' option. But before you do that, speak to DediPower. You can get a server from them for about the same price, with 24hr support. Afterall, that's where Memset host!

And as for the mis-leading information on their support matrix? Or the lack of any status information or accurate uptime monitoring? Kate, Memset's Managing Director tells me "The minor issues you have highlighted will be resolved in due course, but I am not willing to commit to a time frame.". She doesn't consider any of this important and any question asked is treated and an attempt to gain a freebie.

I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!