Question for existing customers about support from Hostgator - good or average?

#1 02-24-2006, 01:17 PM

Support emails have been responded to very quickly which is impressive. Also Hostgator have these excellent forums which other many other hosts don't provide.

Tried to telephone Hostgator last night and was kept on hold for 15 minutes with no response.

How many support staff does Hostgator have?

What has your experience been of email/telephone support response times please?

ltrump · #2 02-24-2006, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azam.biz

Support emails have been responded to very quickly which is impressive. Also Hostgator have these excellent forums which other many other hosts don't provide.

Tried to telephone Hostgator last night and was kept on hold for 15 minutes with no response.

How many support staff does Hostgator have?

What has your experience been of email/telephone support response times please?

I have only had to contact support a few times, but everytime I did, I got nothing less than excellent support. HG has the best support than any other hosting company I have ever been with.

Serra · #3 02-24-2006, 02:56 PM

I've never been put on hold. Chat response time is slow, like two minutes between typing something and getting a reply, when I've used it, so I don't use it.

Email support response time is good and I normally get a response/resolution in less than an hour, even on complex issue. I've put in about 50 tickets and ONE was lost/forgotten and I had to follow up.

#4 02-24-2006, 07:30 PM

Thank you for the feedback. I must agree, the support from HostGator has been out of this world: beats any of the 20 other webhosts I've tested.

I tested the support again by ringing twice today and each time they picked up the phone instantly.

Keep up the fantastic level of service guys

Azam.com · #5 02-24-2006, 10:51 PM

Just want to say for the sake of other people considering HG, support experience has been truly great. I signed up for HG today and am pleased I did.

Spent nearly 80 hours researching the market and HG came top out of 100 webhosts!

#6 02-25-2006, 06:33 AM

All support is good but the live chat. Do not get on that thing at all, you just waste a lot of un needed time.

#7 02-25-2006, 10:39 AM

In regards to the live chat I found if very helpful not had any roblems as yet and found it really helpful. I spoke to Andre on there before and if knows his stuff came back with instant replies and all worked. Keep up the good work Andre

Serra · #8 02-25-2006, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moonshine

In regards to the live chat I found if very helpful not had any roblems as yet and found it really helpful. I spoke to Andre on there before and if knows his stuff came back with instant replies and all worked. Keep up the good work Andre

I've never had much luck with it, everytime I use it they tell me to send in an email...

khepri · #9 02-28-2006, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serra

I've never had much luck with it, everytime I use it they tell me to send in an email...

With your knowledge...you probably don't call in with "normal" problems eh?

#10 02-28-2006, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moonshine

In regards to the live chat I found if very helpful not had any roblems as yet and found it really helpful. I spoke to Andre on there before and if knows his stuff came back with instant replies and all worked. Keep up the good work Andre

Thanks Moonshine. I try my best and will keep it that way

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serra

I've never had much luck with it, everytime I use it they tell me to send in an email...

There is an explanation for that, and I have to agree with khepri

(*Andre waves).
LiveHelp covers Level1 support issues only.
(We have no direct administration access).

Whenever an issue requires the attention of a Level2 or Level3 tech it has to go through the helpdesk. The logic is quite simple: image us fixing Level3 issues in LiveHelp... We would be always overbusy and no empty "slots" would be available for those just starting out.

Our support is VERY organized.

Serra · #11 02-28-2006, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatorAndre

T
There is an explanation for that, and I have to agree with khepri

(*Andre waves).
LiveHelp covers Level1 support issues only.
(We have no direct administration access).

Ok, I admit, I likely don't ask any level1 questions.

vtrain · #12 02-28-2006, 08:12 AM

Personally I think that email support does not always read our problem description properly. Very often on the first emails we get a fast and simple answer saying it's sorted out when we can check that the problem was not fully addressed. So a fast first answer is not the only parameter to evaluate.

I have needed 5, 6, 7 emails in the same support ticket until the problem is addressed and solved. But yes, support is always there when we need it :-)

Live support is a nice addon for a simple question like "mysql seem to be down on XXX, can you check?". Maybe the possibility to have live support route the first contact to an email ticket when needed would be nice... a leave the suggestion.

Vt.

Serra · #13 02-28-2006, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vtrain

Personally I think that email support does not always read our problem description properly. Very often on the first emails we get a fast and simple answer saying it's sorted out when we can check that the problem was not fully addressed. So a fast first answer is not the only parameter to evaluate.

I agree, but I wonder if the support people aren't just trying to guess what the problem is instead of spending time to figure it out. That is often an indication that the tech is over worked and is just trying to respond to as many questions as possible. If they guess wrong the first time, then we will reply. If they get it right, we are gone. Sort of a ticket prescreening process by the techs.

In defense of the techs, I do tech support for my stuff and customers often send lengthy emails that explain what is going on, but don't give any clue as to what the problem actually is and they are often totally in left field.

I got one this week that basically said, "When a customer go to the website, they get an 'Expired Page' error and it has been happening since Wednesday". Well, the customer bookmarked a dynamic page and guess what, it isn't there any more because their session expired. But they DID have a problem. I was able to trace it down to a shipping method problem in the shopping cart software, which I fixed. I don't suspect the techs at HG would have done that, it is just too much work, they can't spend 30 minutes on a problem that may or may not exist.

The tech don't always get it right. I sent an email asking about gnupgp keys not generating and got a reply about moving SSL certificates (key signing requests). Then Pli had the same problem and sent just about the same email I sent about four months later and got the SAME REPLY about moving an SSL. I think the tech saw keys and keys means signing request which means moving an SSL, never bothering to figure out what gnupg was.

vtrain · #14 02-28-2006, 10:07 AM

I aggree with everything you said Serra

I just understand that clients get sometimes a bit fustrated if after the 4th email (and 24h after) on the same ticket number the answers are still "If they get it right, we are gone" ;-)

What do you do when you have a problem where you know you need Level3 tech?
You just say that in the email? that would probably jump the first 4 emails of reciprocal deaf talk ...

well, but I by no means think the support sucks. For the contrary usually rocks !

I'm also happy to know (from other thread) that HG is beeing more carefull with outsourcing there support.

Vt