As I am providing hosting account to my friends and well knowns I answer them at phone too.
Whenever there is a problem, within a hour my friends call me and I would explain them, then and there.
I dont have any clients overseas. So I have never been into trouble in calling them.
But many of you may have clients overseas. Do you manage them by phones ?
If yes How do you manage ?

We don't really provide technical support over the phones - We usually only provide sales assistance unless its an emergency . We can be skyped but most people prefer opening a ticket as they find it easier.

We do not provide support over the phone, except in an emergency. If it is an emergency we open a support ticket for the client. That way everything can be tracked.

I have heard a lot of opinions and agree with posts above.
A lot of web hosting companies provide telephon support in additional to ticket system or online support.
Becauise if company quite big - faster process tickets and online reuests that calls, because at the same time support operator can solve few requests

Our company offers 24/7 phone support and it may be related to anything regarding our services to our clients. As the techs at any level are well updated with the knowledge they need so all the queries are solved with ease.

Phones can be good, but I think they should be used if it's a MAJOR emergency. Then again, some places like phone support. I think having phone support, as well as a online helpdesk is great. The greater the number of ways a customer can reach you, the better it is for the customer and company.

I think there is nothing called as Major Emergency. Emergency itself is a major thing. All my clients are my friends and they call me everytime. But I doubt if I could solve the problem for other clients who are not my friends. Providing 24/7 online service is impossible for my business as I am just a beginner. I hope I would give that service to my clients in future.

Yup, we even provide call-back service so that Intl' customers dont spend more money than on phone calls than on hosting

we don't provide phone support since we usually solve all the problems fast. The customer just have to open a ticket at our helpdesk system or get live support.

we had in the past a toll free number for emergency calls but we never got any call...

I find that communicating over the phone may be faster but online there is a paper trail of the events that occured. I find it much more reliableto communicate solely online.
I would think that if you want to try over the phone have them send you their number online and then you call them.

Personally i always look at service provided by hosting companies before i buy from them. Having phone support is usually a sign that the hosting company is large, and stable. Phone support is also a nice, fast way to resolve problems. If your company is big enough, phone support is a must!

While phone support is indeed handy, I much prefer a ticket support system or even better, the live support online chat option.

The reason is that you can have a record of the events. With a phone call, someone can tell you anything and you have no proof of that if you need it to take your complaint further for example. Phones are excellent for immediacy of response but not for record keeping. You need to safeguard yourself whether you're a customer or a provider unless you want to risk getting into a "You said this...No I didn't!" war of words.

I think the online chat system is the best of both worlds. You have the immediate response of a live operator and some will offer to send you a transcript of the conversation. If you ask at the beginning if that's an option and they say no, there's nothing to stop you taking screenshots as it progresses for your own records.

The other benefit is it costs the same for international customers as domestic. That's what I'd look for first and foremost.

We provide telephone support, along with other chat services.

We do not offer support over the telephone unless it is an emergency. I like the ability of the ticket system to track the history of an issue.

We use our telephone system for sales and customer contact to confirm orders.

I think this person hit the nail on the head in regards to perception. The vast majority of customers do not use phone support, but in case of emergency or frustration, they like to have it available.