[UPDATED] Spry Servers closing down

yoshiki · July 2023

Just received this email ("Urgent: Immediate Closure of Spry Servers - All operations ceasing"):

Dear [name name],

With a heavy heart, I must announce Spry Servers will be discontinuing operations, effective immediately.

Due to unforseen circumstances, we have accumulated profound debt which we cannot resolve. We’ve made numerous attempts to work on a solution with our data center provider, Evocative, to no avail. They have ignored our offers and suggestions for to a way toward a resolution. On Friday, 07/14/23, they discontinued all network services and locked us out of the facility.

We have no way to recover our hardware or any data within the facility. We’ve been attempting alternative solutions, such as the sale of Spry Servers. We have not been successful. It is now my sad duty to inform you the only choice left is to cease operations completely.

As of now, any services which were hosted within the Phoenix datacenter are unavailable, and are not recoverable. This includes spryCloud, dedicated servers, VPS, shared hosting, etc.

If you have a domain registered with us, we ask you to please initiate transfer to a new registrar. If you are a shared hosting client in Dallas, we request you find a new web host to transfer your data to prior to services shutting down in Dallas. All Spry Servers servers and other operations will completely cease on or before 07/25/23.

For those of you who purchased a Microsoft 365 subscription from us, please contact Microsoft to arrange the transfer out of the CSP agreement to either their business direct agreement or find another CSP to service your account.

To those making use of our colocation service in Phoenix, we ask you or your attorney please contact Evocative directly to arrange for the return of your equipment. Spry Servers is unable to assist you in recovering your equipment. Evocative refuses to release any equipment to us. Please direct your correspondence to the following addresses:

[redacted]

I profoundly regret the upheaval this has caused and understand this will cost you and/or your company considerable time and money. For all of this, I am truly sorry.

I personally appreciate all the business our customers have given us over the last decade. I have come to look at Spry Servers’ customers as family. This is a heartbreaking moment for me. I cannot express the sadness I feel at having to do this, however my hands are tied.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being a loyal and valuable customer of Spry Servers. I wish you peace and prosperity in the years to come. You will all always hold a place in my heart for being part of the Spry Servers family.

Sincerely,

Tab Fitts
Founder/CEO
Spry Servers, LLC

jmaxwell · July 2023

Sad. Anyway, can we get the Evocative version of the story ?

Mumbly · July 2023

@jmaxwell said: Anyway, can we get the Evocative version of the story ?

Unpaid bills? What else...

@yoshiki said: To those making use of our colocation service in Phoenix, we ask you or your attorney please contact Evocative directly to arrange for the return of your equipment. Spry Servers is unable to assist you in recovering your equipment.

Now that's a real crap.

Calypso · July 2023

@jmaxwell said:
Sad. Anyway, can we get the Evocative version of the story ?

I think this line says it all: "Due to unforseen circumstances, we have accumulated profound debt which we cannot resolve."

In the end it's just unpaid bills and unability to pay the bills in such a way that the datacenter is happy enough to continue service.

angstrom · July 2023

It sounds like any service provided at the Phoenix datacenter is unrecoverable, which is basically zero-time notice to customers, which is tough

Presumably, Spry Servers was able to see things going downhill a bit more in advance

stefeman · July 2023

TL:DR

Colocator kicked out due to non-payment.
Customer hardware is held ransom by DC.
Provider washes their hands from this problem since the company is effectively bankrupt and gone now.
Customers must now negotiate for their own hardware according to the provider.
DC prohibits reselling, so provider marked the servers as their own property in order appear larger to the DC and get better deals and in order to resell his rack space with a margin. According to another discussion, this is also how they got so big loans which they had no chances to pay in the first place. So the equipment is also guarantee of existing loan.
DC apparently refuses to release any hardware individually due to outstanding bills, and because its marked as provider's property in their documents, hence in legal standpoint the bankrupt company assumes responsibility in redeeming the equipment.
Provider knows all of the above, and pretends like their end customers could apply for release of equipment, hoping to apply pressure into the DC itself via end user messages.

@SpryServers_Tab Mind answering the allegations above? Are these things bullshit or actually true? Rumors are going off the chart in discord, reddit, various forums. Mainly in discord.

angstrom · July 2023

@stefeman said:
TL:DR

Colocator kicked out due to non-payment.

Customer hardware is held ransom by DC.

Provider washes their hands from this problem since the company is effectively bankrupt and gone now.

Customers must now negotiate for their own hardware according to the provider.

DC prohibits reselling, so provider marked the servers as their own property in order appear larger to the DC and get better deals and in order to resell his rack space with a margin. According to another discussion, this is also how they got so big loans which they had no chances to pay in the first place. So the equipment is also guarantee of existing loan.

DC apparently refuses to release any hardware individually due to outstanding bills, and because its marked as provider's property in their documents, hence in legal standpoint the bankrupt company assumes responsibility in redeeming the equipment.

Provider knows all of the above, and pretends like their end customers could apply for release of equipment, hoping to apply pressure into the DC itself via end user messages.

@SpryServers_Tab Mind answering the allegations above?

Last Active April 2022

(Your assessment seems pretty accurate -- I'd just be very surprised if he returned here to answer questions)

stefeman · July 2023

Just asked for comment from Evocative as kindly as I ever could from neutral perspective, and they just closed the live chat with "no comment".

cybertech · July 2023

what
the
fuck

FrankZ · July 2023

jarland · July 2023

Spam network goes bye bye (to be fair radwebhosting were the spammers, but also to be fair, spry knew).

AlwaysSkint · July 2023

One week's notice to their customers; that's horrendous, especially in you happen to be on your holidays at the time. Yup, Spry really kicked their customers where it hurts.

linveo · July 2023

I hate to see these kind of situations, but it is a good reminder to always backup things yourself. Your provider may provide backups, but that does not mean anything if the servers are all offline. You cannot rely on anyone but yourself when it comes to your data. Not even AWS, GCP, or Azure.

Advin · July 2023

Just got this email

Dear XXXXXX,

I am happy to announce and grateful to our upstream data center provider, Evocative, as they have agreed to turn network services back on effective immediately.

They are allowing us to continue to try and find a permanent solution that would minimize the effect on our clients.

Our last announcement garnered significant public attention. While much of this was negative, it caught the attention of several parties interested in acquiring Spry Servers. We are now in talks regarding the sale of Spry Servers.

To be clear, in our previous announcement regarding our colocation clients contacting Evocative for the return of their equipment: Evocative asked us to direct our clients to the contacts provided, in response to us asking how to manage the release of our clients' equipment back to them.

I understand if you are not comfortable continuing services with us, and absolutely encourage you to take backups immediately whether you stay with us or not. However, I would like to implore you to hang on a bit longer with us. Automated payments have been suspended and all credit cards have been removed from our system. We will not be terminating anyone who does not request it at this time. We will slowly re-enable payment methods once we are confident we have found a solution.

I hope to have further information soon to share with you. For now, your services will remain online while we make further attempts at an arrangement that will benefit all parties involved.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding, and I apologize for the immense confusion.

Sincerely,

Tab Fitts
Founder/CEO
Spry Servers

FrankZ · August 2023

From the OGF.

Ympker · August 2023

@FrankZ said:
From the OGF.

Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

tetech · August 2023

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Ympker · August 2023

@tetech said:

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Thanks for explaining I was always confused on how you would dial those. Is the usage of alphabetical letters just just "marketing" then? Or asked differently: Do people usually send friends/family their numeric number to dial only, or do you always in clude ABCDEFG..?

AuroraZero · August 2023

@Ympker said:

@tetech said:

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Thanks for explaining I was always confused on how you would dial those. Is the usage of alphabetical letters just just "marketing" then? Or asked differently: Do people usually send friends/family their numeric number to dial only, or do you always in clude ABCDEFG..?

Used to be a big thing in the states made it easier to remember the number. It has fallen out of fashion you could say, since cell phones and emails have become mainstream. They would even write the numbers into jingles and make them rhyme.

tetech · August 2023

@Ympker said:

@tetech said:

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Thanks for explaining I was always confused on how you would dial those. Is the usage of alphabetical letters just just "marketing" then? Or asked differently: Do people usually send friends/family their numeric number to dial only, or do you always in clude ABCDEFG..?

It is marketing, and companies pick words so they are easy to remember. I can tell you that you can order flowers at 1-800-FLOWERS, but remembering 1-800-3569377 (what you would actually dial) is not as easy. Mostly (but not always) it applies to toll-free numbers (1-8xx). For personal numbers, it is numeric like everywhere else.

somik · August 2023

Do we need to have a deadpool list?

Ympker · August 2023

@AuroraZero said:

@Ympker said:

@tetech said:

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Thanks for explaining I was always confused on how you would dial those. Is the usage of alphabetical letters just just "marketing" then? Or asked differently: Do people usually send friends/family their numeric number to dial only, or do you always in clude ABCDEFG..?

Used to be a big thing in the states made it easier to remember the number. It has fallen out of fashion you could say, since cell phones and emails have become mainstream. They would even write the numbers into jingles and make them rhyme.

Lol, sounds like it was quite funny

@tetech said:

@Ympker said:

@tetech said:

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Thanks for explaining I was always confused on how you would dial those. Is the usage of alphabetical letters just just "marketing" then? Or asked differently: Do people usually send friends/family their numeric number to dial only, or do you always in clude ABCDEFG..?

It is marketing, and companies pick words so they are easy to remember. I can tell you that you can order flowers at 1-800-FLOWERS, but remembering 1-800-3569377 (what you would actually dial) is not as easy. Mostly (but not always) it applies to toll-free numbers (1-8xx). For personal numbers, it is numeric like everywhere else.

I do understand the marketing concept, but then again, I don't try to "remember" a phone number. I look up the shop on google maps and dial directly via their, or simply copy&paste it, or save contacts to my address book.

yoursunny · August 2023

@tetech said:
For personal numbers, it is numeric like everywhere else.

My personal number is +1 80445 SUNNY.
It was selected in Google Voice in 2009.

In 2016, I read the number like this at 10 different business transactions.
Only 1 was able to figure out how the vanity number works.
The other 9 demanded numeric phone numbers.

Nowadays I don't advertise my vanity number anymore.

somik · August 2023

Doesn't that mean that vanity numbers can not have any zeros? Cause only "+" (and pause) are on the number "0"?

In the old days, phone memory was a premium. Land line phones had like 10 speed dials and mobile phones could hold a max of 100 numbers (on top brand models). So I understand the reason to have vanity numbers (and phone books by that extension). In the modern age, that's useless as phones can save all the numbers you ever need (and sync to cloud), and if you forget to save, just look it up on google (or whatever the apple people uses).

yoursunny · August 2023

@somik said:
Doesn't that mean that vanity numbers can not have any zeros? Cause only "+" (and pause) are on the number "0"?

Vanity numbers commonly start with 800.
The letters portion of a vanity number cannot have 0 or 1.

In the old days, phone memory was a premium. Land line phones had like 10 speed dials and mobile phones could hold a max of 100 numbers (on top brand models). So I understand the reason to have vanity numbers (and phone books by that extension). In the modern age, that's useless as phones can save all the numbers you ever need (and sync to cloud), and if you forget to save, just look it up on google (or whatever the apple people uses).

Advertisement can show vanity numbers so that customers can easily recall them.
I've seen an injury lawyer advertising HURT phone number on the side of city buses.

somik · August 2023

@yoursunny said:

@somik said:
Doesn't that mean that vanity numbers can not have any zeros? Cause only "+" (and pause) are on the number "0"?

Vanity numbers commonly start with 800.
The letters portion of a vanity number cannot have 0 or 1.

Ah, that makes sense. Those do not contain any letters.

@yoursunny said:

In the old days, phone memory was a premium. Land line phones had like 10 speed dials and mobile phones could hold a max of 100 numbers (on top brand models). So I understand the reason to have vanity numbers (and phone books by that extension). In the modern age, that's useless as phones can save all the numbers you ever need (and sync to cloud), and if you forget to save, just look it up on google (or whatever the apple people uses).

Advertisement can show vanity numbers so that customers can easily recall them.
I've seen an injury lawyer advertising HURT phone number on the side of city buses.

Must be a American thing. Here in Singapore, I do not see any phone numbers, only websites, QR codes and apps.

linveo · August 2023

Two days is not a huge amount of time to move things, but you probably should have prepared a few weeks ago when they announced they were selling.

terrorgen · August 2023

@somik said:

@yoursunny said:

@somik said:
Doesn't that mean that vanity numbers can not have any zeros? Cause only "+" (and pause) are on the number "0"?

Vanity numbers commonly start with 800.
The letters portion of a vanity number cannot have 0 or 1.

Ah, that makes sense. Those do not contain any letters.

@yoursunny said:

In the old days, phone memory was a premium. Land line phones had like 10 speed dials and mobile phones could hold a max of 100 numbers (on top brand models). So I understand the reason to have vanity numbers (and phone books by that extension). In the modern age, that's useless as phones can save all the numbers you ever need (and sync to cloud), and if you forget to save, just look it up on google (or whatever the apple people uses).

Advertisement can show vanity numbers so that customers can easily recall them.
I've seen an injury lawyer advertising HURT phone number on the side of city buses.

Must be a American thing. Here in Singapore, I do not see any phone numbers, only websites, QR codes and apps.

Still businesses would try to find a easily remembered telephone number? (well, before smartphones are ubiquitous anyways)

As a Malaysian this toll-free phone number is forever burned into my memory: 1-300-88-2525 ("Pizza Hut Special Delivery!")

AuroraZero · August 2023

@terrorgen said:

@somik said:

@yoursunny said:

@somik said:
Doesn't that mean that vanity numbers can not have any zeros? Cause only "+" (and pause) are on the number "0"?

Vanity numbers commonly start with 800.
The letters portion of a vanity number cannot have 0 or 1.

Ah, that makes sense. Those do not contain any letters.

@yoursunny said:

In the old days, phone memory was a premium. Land line phones had like 10 speed dials and mobile phones could hold a max of 100 numbers (on top brand models). So I understand the reason to have vanity numbers (and phone books by that extension). In the modern age, that's useless as phones can save all the numbers you ever need (and sync to cloud), and if you forget to save, just look it up on google (or whatever the apple people uses).

Advertisement can show vanity numbers so that customers can easily recall them.
I've seen an injury lawyer advertising HURT phone number on the side of city buses.

Must be a American thing. Here in Singapore, I do not see any phone numbers, only websites, QR codes and apps.

Still businesses would try to find a easily remembered telephone number? (well, before smartphones are ubiquitous anyways)

As a Malaysian this toll-free phone number is forever burned into my memory: 1-300-88-2525 ("Pizza Hut Special Delivery!")

8675309

Wolv · August 2023

@AuroraZero said:

@Ympker said:

@tetech said:

@Ympker said: Sort of unrelated question but I never understood those US Phone numbers, can someone explain?
What is doing HOST in a phone number? Do you type in alphabetical letters when dialing a number? What happens to the numbers in brackets ( )? What is the actual number you would type in your phone?

You just press the button with the letter on it. See below picture. So for G, H or I you press 4. The number in parentheses is just the conversion to the actual dial string to save people figuring it out. So actual number in the above is 18447994678.

Thanks for explaining I was always confused on how you would dial those. Is the usage of alphabetical letters just just "marketing" then? Or asked differently: Do people usually send friends/family their numeric number to dial only, or do you always in clude ABCDEFG..?

Used to be a big thing in the states made it easier to remember the number. It has fallen out of fashion you could say, since cell phones and emails have become mainstream. They would even write the numbers into jingles and make them rhyme.

Some places still use this marketing tactic. Here's one from my town...they use their vanity phone number on radio ads a lot too:

somik · August 2023

@terrorgen said:

@somik said:

@yoursunny said:

@somik said:
Doesn't that mean that vanity numbers can not have any zeros? Cause only "+" (and pause) are on the number "0"?

Vanity numbers commonly start with 800.
The letters portion of a vanity number cannot have 0 or 1.

Ah, that makes sense. Those do not contain any letters.

@yoursunny said:

In the old days, phone memory was a premium. Land line phones had like 10 speed dials and mobile phones could hold a max of 100 numbers (on top brand models). So I understand the reason to have vanity numbers (and phone books by that extension). In the modern age, that's useless as phones can save all the numbers you ever need (and sync to cloud), and if you forget to save, just look it up on google (or whatever the apple people uses).

Advertisement can show vanity numbers so that customers can easily recall them.
I've seen an injury lawyer advertising HURT phone number on the side of city buses.

Must be a American thing. Here in Singapore, I do not see any phone numbers, only websites, QR codes and apps.

Still businesses would try to find a easily remembered telephone number? (well, before smartphones are ubiquitous anyways)

As a Malaysian this toll-free phone number is forever burned into my memory: 1-300-88-2525 ("Pizza Hut Special Delivery!")

Yes. This is what they do in SG too, but they do not replace the number with letters.

For example, DBS bank (one of the most popular bank in SG) uses the number 1800 111 1111, which is damn easy to dial.

[UPDATED] Spry Servers closing down

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