Jury is still out

[AlphaWolf]

I'm posting this because I almost did not become a HG customer after my experience with the folks in live chat. I did live chat 4 times, and only once did I actually get someone who seemed like they had a clue. OTOH, I called voice twice with questions before finally deciding to at least give HG a try, and my questions were answered immediately by a guy who actually sounded confident in his answer...chuckle...

I know how hard it is to give support in live chat, or even in email when you have 4-5 others you are dealing with at the same time, so I don't mind short answers. I have to do that often with my own customers. What I mind is answers that clearly have no relation to what I asked. For example, I asked a question about DNS Zone editing and what I would have to change to have little to no 'down time' in moving a CMS site over here. I was told "we will handle your domain registration, please see <insert URL>

I won't go into the other 2 bad chat experiences, other than to say that it was obvious that I was being a bit too technical for the person on the other end...

But I am here. I decided to try a reseller account for a month or so to see if tech support was adequate enough for me to lease a couple of dedicated servers and move all my accounts here.

I like the responses I have seen here in the forums, and some of the HG tech folk obviously know their stuff. My concern is that it seems many also do not. Perhaps more careful screening is in order.

As for the price, the server speed, everything else seems to be top notch!

Peace

Wolf

Chat is for quick questions that take maybe 15 min or so at most. Such as how do I create a mail account or something simple. For difficult questions such as DNS zones and so on you need to email support@hostgator.com. Our ticket system has escalation procedures so that tickets get to the right person.

That said, we are also working on improving chat but please understand it is not something you drop into with a complicated problem or question and expect a solution in 5 min or less. We have a ticket system so that if your problem is serious it goes to a system admin, or if it requires an internal expert say on DNS it goes to that department.

Let me know if you have any questions,
Thanks, Ben

[AlphaWolf]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for responding. And yep, I realize that. I was just testing the waters with the chat requests, and would never use that for a serious problem. It just concerned me that it seemed as though the chat staff were a little 'un-technical' even for level 1 support. Then again, mea culpa, I should have realized they would be because I am betting that 90% or better of your customers are 'end users' who would be asking questions like "how do I create an e-mail account". That dawned on me actually just this moment. And is food for thought for re-sellers, like me, who could probably use less tech-savvy folk for first line support.

Peace

Wolf

Ya they deal with a lot of interesting questions on the "internet" and "world wide web thing" ...

We are working on improving our chats and hopefully over the next few months you will see a big improvement, we emphasis to them to try to get people to put in tickets for more serious issues since the ticket team is a lot more efficient and can focus on the one task instead of multiple problems and multiple chats.

Thanks, Ben

[AlphaWolf]

BTW.... I can find nowhere in my account activation e-mail or under Support or Contact Us where in the blazes I go to complete a Trouble Ticket. I suppose I am just missing it somewhere, but figure I should know before I need it...chuckle

Peace

Wolf

[GatorJustin]

Our web-based ticket system is undergoing some final checks right now, and hopefully will be ready soon. In the meantime, simply compose an email to support@hostgator.com and you will receive an auto-response with your ticket # followed by a second response addressing your question.

-Justin

[AlphaWolf]

*tips hat to Justin*

Thanks... I so need it now..chuckle

peace

wolf