Customer Experiences thread

[hotdog]

For some reason I can't reply to a thread in there which is open and says I can reply ... so will reply here

re unhappy (take 2)
Most hosts delete negative reports, it's a fact of life.
HG are only doing themselves a dis-service as people find their threads deleted here so they go elsewhere (webmaster/hosting forums) and post there which has a bigger audience which damages them more. All you can do is make an invisible line and get over it.

I remember seeing in that section all the yellows, red and a few greens and thinking who needs a Xmas tree

[jlgreer1]

I tend to agree with Brent on this issue. The initial problem grew to a larger problem since the email wasn't getting through. HG didn't have a chance to resolve the problem. Brent ultimately took over and solved the problem. As the customer himself stated, 70% of the problem was due to one of the customer's clients.

The ticket system and automatic email response is a pretty failsafe system. From what I can tell, HG has hundreds of clients. This forum is a casual form of support. I personally don't find live chat all that useful anywhere on the internet. The email support ticket system has worked every time for me. Sometimes the answers are terse. (Have you tried calling any major company recently? They can't hold a candle to HG. They are usually on another continent and barely speak english.) When all else fails, Brent will answer the phone just about anytime you call.

That's pretty good service for $25 per month.

Just my $0.02 worth, Jeff

[amartins]

Hotdog: The customer experiences forum threads can only be replied to by the original poster or HG admins.


jlgreer1: I don't think HG hides or will deny the fact that it too uses outsourced tech support.

Antonio

[vtrain]

I think email ticket support is worse now then in the past. Probably is because of outsource. Before we had Brent or others answering to our problems now it's many different people and that do not go deep in the problem.

Maybe if they get improved support they could not have this prices and this service...?

Well. I just learned if email ticket support is not solving my problem after some tries we have to go to one of the Gators... or the problem will stay forever.

About deleting threads: In general I dissaprove. Usually the last to answer takes the "gold" if he writes well and clear what has been done. So why delete? but they have their one rules.... do positive reports have write support ticket number also?

just my €0.02 worth, also

[eoheod]

Originally Posted by jlgreer1

I tend to agree with Brent on this issue. The initial problem grew to a larger problem since the email wasn't getting through. HG didn't have a chance to resolve the problem. Brent ultimately took over and solved the problem. As the customer himself stated, 70% of the problem was due to one of the customer's clients.

The ticket system and automatic email response is a pretty failsafe system. From what I can tell, HG has hundreds of clients. This forum is a casual form of support. I personally don't find live chat all that useful anywhere on the internet. The email support ticket system has worked every time for me. Sometimes the answers are terse. (Have you tried calling any major company recently? They can't hold a candle to HG. They are usually on another continent and barely speak english.) When all else fails, Brent will answer the phone just about anytime you call.

That's pretty good service for $25 per month.

Just my $0.02 worth, Jeff

Just thought the customer himself would stop by! LOL

Anyway, the whole issue was customer service. I sent the email to support intially and never got an auto-response. Being relatively new to Hostgator, I didn't even know there should be an auto-reponse.

Instead of posting helpful information, like checking mail filters, or trying a different email address, Gator Brent posts a threat- "Post a ticket number or else this post gets deleted!"

That's not good customer service in ANY book. It took another reseller to PM me to get that issue resolved so I could get my ticket number.

Then, Gator Brent calls me. Helps me resolve the problem. Without even ASKING if he can delete or change the customer experience, it vanishes. This tells me and should tell anyone else that Hostgator would rather beam bad experiences out into a dust cloud. A good company with good customer service would have followed up on the post, or asked, or used the opportunity to make a negative experience into a positive one. Good companies don't hide problems- they face them and make them better. When people see them do this, it reflects well on the company.

The two problems I've had with Hostgator can be traced easily back to simple customer service. My overall opinion has been that Gator reps feel their customers are idiots who are either unable or unwilling to understand even the simplest things.

That's my $0.02

[hotdog]

HG seems to think a lot of us are mind readers, then when they don't they tend to give different opinions, mail policy is perfect example. Go read the policy, is it set at 200 an hour or 600 an hour (throttled) or even 360 depending how your maths is

End of the day the threads in the "Customer experiences" section should not be deleted (but hey it's HG site and they can do as they please) or like everything else they need to reword it as it says

Customer Experiences
Good, bad, or indifferent, tell us how you feel about HostGator. Share your personal experiences or read about the experiences of others.

which should really read

Customer Experiences
Good, bad, or indifferent, tell us how you feel about HostGator. Share your personal experiences or read about the moderated experiences of others. Bad and indifferent views may be removed if problem solved or topic disliked. Ticket numbers required for bad experiences or will be removed.

As mentioned, the last post is the golden egg, if someone posts a "your system sucks" meassage and it turns out the person was at fault then HG come out as being helpful, patient and among else human (which everyone wants in a host), but with the deletion of threads and aftermath postings HG comes across as - we are always right, we never make mistakes.