nocturnalhostin
New member
Short Version:
Ok...sorry....short version is support is important, and something you definatly need to check into when choosing a hosting provider.
Ok, so I'm sure I have my website in my signature or people can guess it from my username and it lists right there that we don't provide any type of support...
But thats stated up front and this is something my parent company is doing as a test...
What I'm finding pathetic is the fact that people have to ask questions in forums when it should be their hosting provider that should be providing support for them.
I know I used to live in my happy own private world and havent really started looking at forums seriously until about two weeks ago - but is this problem with hosting providers and even dedicated service providers caring so little about their clients/customers that they can't even provide basic support?
I personally have almost a decade and a half of senior level tech support experience ranging from ISP support to network engineering and these things seem common knowledge to me - but for people that don't have that experience...isn't it the hosts job to, well, support their products?
I guess the best example I can come up with is that if you buy a new car and smoke comes out of the engine or it dosent really turn corners properly...you don't take it into a dealership and get told to go search google.
I can almost understand this lack of support with reseller accounts - thats one thing...and I can almost understand that with a dedicated server the individual is "supposed" to have this knowledge (esp if the server isn't managed) - but yet these companies will advertise right on their website how they have these wonderful ticket systems and everythign else - for what?
I mean, I don't know a single data center on the face of this planet that dosen't monitor their network --- so if the only purpose of their "advanced" helpdesk systems are to report server outages....didn't they know about them already from their monitoring programs like Nagios? I mean, nagios will even page me at 2am with a complete description of whats going on --- and i've even written shell scripts that are capable of fixing most common hickups with servers....to be honest, I could probably write a shell script to replace half of these useless companies so-called support groups.
If hosts really don't want to support anything they should either expliciatly state so in big bold letters in size 72 font (and use that blink html tag that Netscape likes so much) to get the point across...or they should define what they do and don't support explicatly (i've seen several data centers list a "support matrix" for just this purpose)...or they should either interview potential customers or make them take a test to confirm they can actually use the product they are being provided.
I don't mind sharing the knowledge that I have...I don't even mind going out of my way to help individuals - but it just angers me to no extent that the hosting providers of the people I'm assisting aren't doing their job. To top everything else off, I doubt that those hosting providers have the cheapest prices for what they are offering either.
********* AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH **********
To get to the point and end my venting - for anyone that is contemplating going with any hosting company - TEST THEIR SUPPORT FIRST. It's all well and good to test network traffic, to do uptime tests, traces and pings, whatever else - but if a company is serious about wanting you as a customer they should be able to give you an explicit list of what they will and will not support.
I used to think this was more of a problem with individuals that were signing up for packages...but now I'm actually finding myself regretting that I ever had that oppinion....its the hosts job to provide support. Users that try to find answers on their own through forums like this should be complimented and encouraged - but why is it that they are FORCED to look elsewhere because their host simply says "well, it looks fine to us" and shoves them out the door?
Even worse still, there are plenty of hosting companies, like many of the ones either owned by members of this forum or who members of this forum work for that do go above and beyond in terms of helping there customers - and yet these are companies that don't get any recognition for what they do and are just another name amid an almost infinate list of "wanna-be" hosting providers.
I just did a web search on google for [+"web hosting" +plan +order] and there were over 817,000 results. And google dosen't even have every hosting provider that provides decent support in their wonderful data base.
Customers are left with almost no chance of randomly choosing a decent host...although this is a lesson that they learn very quickly and hopefully will make a more informed choice in the future....but I still find this whole thing unbelivable....
Ok...sorry....short version is support is important, and something you definatly need to check into when choosing a hosting provider.
Ok...sorry....short version is support is important, and something you definatly need to check into when choosing a hosting provider.
Ok, so I'm sure I have my website in my signature or people can guess it from my username and it lists right there that we don't provide any type of support...
But thats stated up front and this is something my parent company is doing as a test...
What I'm finding pathetic is the fact that people have to ask questions in forums when it should be their hosting provider that should be providing support for them.
I know I used to live in my happy own private world and havent really started looking at forums seriously until about two weeks ago - but is this problem with hosting providers and even dedicated service providers caring so little about their clients/customers that they can't even provide basic support?
I personally have almost a decade and a half of senior level tech support experience ranging from ISP support to network engineering and these things seem common knowledge to me - but for people that don't have that experience...isn't it the hosts job to, well, support their products?
I guess the best example I can come up with is that if you buy a new car and smoke comes out of the engine or it dosent really turn corners properly...you don't take it into a dealership and get told to go search google.
I can almost understand this lack of support with reseller accounts - thats one thing...and I can almost understand that with a dedicated server the individual is "supposed" to have this knowledge (esp if the server isn't managed) - but yet these companies will advertise right on their website how they have these wonderful ticket systems and everythign else - for what?
I mean, I don't know a single data center on the face of this planet that dosen't monitor their network --- so if the only purpose of their "advanced" helpdesk systems are to report server outages....didn't they know about them already from their monitoring programs like Nagios? I mean, nagios will even page me at 2am with a complete description of whats going on --- and i've even written shell scripts that are capable of fixing most common hickups with servers....to be honest, I could probably write a shell script to replace half of these useless companies so-called support groups.
If hosts really don't want to support anything they should either expliciatly state so in big bold letters in size 72 font (and use that blink html tag that Netscape likes so much) to get the point across...or they should define what they do and don't support explicatly (i've seen several data centers list a "support matrix" for just this purpose)...or they should either interview potential customers or make them take a test to confirm they can actually use the product they are being provided.
I don't mind sharing the knowledge that I have...I don't even mind going out of my way to help individuals - but it just angers me to no extent that the hosting providers of the people I'm assisting aren't doing their job. To top everything else off, I doubt that those hosting providers have the cheapest prices for what they are offering either.
********* AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH **********
To get to the point and end my venting - for anyone that is contemplating going with any hosting company - TEST THEIR SUPPORT FIRST. It's all well and good to test network traffic, to do uptime tests, traces and pings, whatever else - but if a company is serious about wanting you as a customer they should be able to give you an explicit list of what they will and will not support.
I used to think this was more of a problem with individuals that were signing up for packages...but now I'm actually finding myself regretting that I ever had that oppinion....its the hosts job to provide support. Users that try to find answers on their own through forums like this should be complimented and encouraged - but why is it that they are FORCED to look elsewhere because their host simply says "well, it looks fine to us" and shoves them out the door?
Even worse still, there are plenty of hosting companies, like many of the ones either owned by members of this forum or who members of this forum work for that do go above and beyond in terms of helping there customers - and yet these are companies that don't get any recognition for what they do and are just another name amid an almost infinate list of "wanna-be" hosting providers.
I just did a web search on google for [+"web hosting" +plan +order] and there were over 817,000 results. And google dosen't even have every hosting provider that provides decent support in their wonderful data base.
Customers are left with almost no chance of randomly choosing a decent host...although this is a lesson that they learn very quickly and hopefully will make a more informed choice in the future....but I still find this whole thing unbelivable....
Ok...sorry....short version is support is important, and something you definatly need to check into when choosing a hosting provider.
