Is this a policy?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by XeonHSV

hmmm, i wonder if you are experiencing the same outages I am at the moment?
I'm on the boss.websitewelcome.com server, and it just seems to crash cPanel and FTP access intermittently every 10 hours or so. Gets so frustrating! Grrr.

Doubt it.. he is on a semi-dedicated machine and you are on a reseller.

[busy]

First, with a visitor count of 1500 users, you will not be able to generate any real income, as you've experienced.

You've got to be kidding me! With 1500 people daily there is always a way to grab a few of their interest with something that makes you money. I run very profitable sites that have way less visitors than that.

That's besides the point anyways, he came on here complaining about server downtime, not asking for someone to call his project a business failure. It doesn't matter if it's a business, or a hobby, or whatever. Telling him suck it up, you're just a hobbyist is pretty rude and unnecessary. Not to mention telling him his expectations are too high when all he wants is a site that doesn't go down.

[GatorBill]

Here is what I recommend when I notice a hiccup with my site:

Go to http://internetsupervision.com/ and enter your domain name into the box on the top-right (leave the default email message, as i am not interested in actually receiving any emails from them). The results are given to you as a breakdown of countries around the world. This checks all the major hubs around the world. The only server hub that typically gives a false negative is the Chinese server. China has a tendency to block almost any IP address that they deem 'offensive or political in nature'. Unless you live in China, it is best to ignore this particular hub. The logic goes as follows: if any one of those hubs can reach the server, then the SERVER is UP. If your particular region cannot view the site, then it is something to do with your local ISP or THEIR internet carrier. This is often seen with Australia and UK; a routing issue occurs in their area and prevents their ISP from contacting the server, to THEM making it look like it is DOWN, when it is merely UNREACHABLE from that location. ALWAYS CHECK THIS SITE FIRST. Then you know who to call; if all of the hubs show down, then call Host Gator as it could be an issue with the datacenter or the datacenter's internet access. Otherwise, pick up the phone and give your ISP a reaming. If it's Comcast or Cox Networks, I'm sure they DESERVE the phone call.

I know that many customers wish to target their frustration at the online support staff. Remember that every time a server even 'hiccups' for anywhere between 5seconds (apache restarting because someone added a domain to their account) or 1 hour (regional/ISP issues) about 100-200 emails/tickets are submitted. The HG system will reply back if it has been received. Continually commenting or questioning via that email (or duplicates) will only serve to have the system place your email at the end of the queue.

I find that Host Gator staff does an amazing job at digging waist-deep through everyone's emails, phone calls, live chats, etc to get to the root of the problem. I'm sure that more than 1/2 of the tickets are simply 'my account doesn't work' -- no details, no description of what you were just doing before it stopped working. The staff then needs to reply back and forth just to get ANY info regarding the customer's outage. In some cases, it is a problem different than the rest and separate troubleshooting needs to be done. This needs to be done with the OTHER problems found need to be addressed. Live support staff is always multitasking problems ranging from the mundane (where someone wants the staff to BUILD THEIR SITE for them) to the severe (the entire continent of Australia cannot reach the Texas, USA, servers and are all calling hooting and hollering). The HostGator staff assists every question, call, email, chat in the order they are received and in a fast and friendly manner.

You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

[GPG]

Originally Posted by GatorBill

I find that Host Gator staff does an amazing job at digging waist-deep through everyone's emails, phone calls, live chats, etc to get to the root of the problem. I'm sure that more than 1/2 of the tickets are simply 'my account doesn't work' -- no details, no description of what you were just doing before it stopped working. The staff then needs to reply back and forth just to get ANY info regarding the customer's outage.

I'm sure most do a great job, but if there are too many tickets for the staff to deal with, then more staff are required. I don't expect to queue for hours when I go to the supermarket because it is busier than the corner shop. Having been asked for my login details, when I know I supplied them with the original ticket makes me think that some staff at least, are more interested in "dealing with" tickets than addressing problems. The worst case was when I quoted an error message telling me I had to do x, but didn't know how to do that, so I submitted a ticket, asking for advice. The reply, after several hours, was sarcastic, telling me no more than was in the error message. I'm not an IT expert, but I'm not stupid either and I never submit a ticket unless I've already tried to find a way of sorting it myself. On the other hand, some staff have been absolutely brilliant and gone that extra mile to help, and they deserve all the credit they get.

I have a quick question about China. It seems that my site is no longer accessible from China. Is there anything that can be done about that?

[Serra]

Originally Posted by GPG

I have a quick question about China. It seems that my site is no longer accessible from China. Is there anything that can be done about that?

Yes, that would likely be helped if you installed democracy in China.

Put in a ticket to make sure that the server isn't blocking China.

[smp]

Originally Posted by Serra

Yes, that would likely be helped if you installed democracy in China.

LMAO

Originally Posted by GPG

I'm sure most do a great job, but if there are too many tickets for the staff to deal with, then more staff are required. I don't expect to queue for hours when I go to the supermarket because it is busier than the corner shop. Having been asked for my login details, when I know I supplied them with the original ticket makes me think that some staff at least, are more interested in "dealing with" tickets than addressing problems. The worst case was when I quoted an error message telling me I had to do x, but didn't know how to do that, so I submitted a ticket, asking for advice. The reply, after several hours, was sarcastic, telling me no more than was in the error message. I'm not an IT expert, but I'm not stupid either and I never submit a ticket unless I've already tried to find a way of sorting it myself. On the other hand, some staff have been absolutely brilliant and gone that extra mile to help, and they deserve all the credit they get.

You should read one of Jay's lastest posts in the HG blog

Regards, Steve Xx