Regarding support for resellers

[osirion]

Well like someone above (sorry scanned through the thread) said, I would like to see a HG reply to these suggestions.
Basically, everytime I run into some problems and have to get support - I always have to specifically ask "what went wrong" or the likes because I only get "its fixed now"/"try now, it should be fixed".

But like Ive said so many times before (and I see Im not alone here) - I need to tell my clients something other than "Its fixed".

[trialbyfire]

I've also had the same "it's been fixed" problem.

This is so absurd. Our concerns about losing our customers because of our inability (via HG) to provide adequate customer service should be Host Gator's concern about losing our business because of their inadequate customer service.

Maybe HG feels like they've got a corner on the market. Don't get too comfortable, HG! These are major issues. There's only so long that people will allow themselves to be marginalized (and made fools of) by your silence and uncooperativeness . . . before they start shopping elsewhere. Just a caveat.

I wouldn't think it would take too much for the techs to contact customer support and give them a brief description of the problem & solution. Heck, I'm sure most of them could be stored in a macro ("Restarted Apache Server").

There's a saying that if one person has a problem, there are probably many more that are having the same problem, but just haven't spoken up. Well, here we have several/many people voicing the same concern . . . now imagine how many other people are out there that just haven't spoken up! *cringes*.

I don't want to be coddled either, but sheesh, this is a matter of respecting your customers, plain and simple.

Please address this issue publicly on the forum. Ignoring it won't make it go away and not posting in this thread only reinforces many of our beliefs that HG customer support is poor.

Let us know that you're acknowledging your customers needs, what you're going to do about it, and when we should expect improvements. (And I'm guessing that merely telling us that "The problem has been fixed." is not going to be enough )

-john

[abstraktMedia]

Originally Posted by britbob

This thread, and the suggestions forum are a complete waste of time. 6 weeks on and no one from HG has bothered to comment on this I think all the folks above who have posted in here at least deserve a response?

Get use to it....in the last 2 months HG has been avoiding many threads where they should say something about it....for example MySQL 4.1 thread in Suggestions is just one.....this one is number two....

Sorry to say HG but you are definitly getting worse in "listening" to
your customers (especialy resellers) and that was your very strong point once.......

[GatorBrent]

We have been doing this for a while...........

http://forums.hostgator.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14

If you ever want to know about an outage just ask there, if it hasn't already been posted.

[bagel50]

well... better late than never I guess.

It's a bit of an insult to us to assume that the 28 posts on this subject are all from people who have ignored or missed that forum. That forum clearly does not cover what we are talking about. The threads are for the most part "what's up with server xxx?" for the first couple of hours, and we cannot rely on that. We don't need to hear that other people have the same problem, we need to know what the problem is. Some customers will notice a failiure as soon as it happens, and if we don't have the information to give them, it just makes us look bad. A question to support is usually met with "it's working now", so then even after a delay that is all we can give end-users who ask. It's not good enough. You, Brent, are in my experience the exception to the general trend that is towards less satisfying responses to us. It's a real shame, because it's turning a lot of people off. Why not listen to what your customers are suggesting? you've given us the opportunity to ask - I understand you can't always say yes, but if no, then please say why it's no. It would mean a lot to me, at least.

Olly.

[MichaelA]

Brent,

Hopefully, I can clarify what everyone of us are asking. While looking at that particular topic would tell us if a certain server is down, if ours is out, even for a short time and is not listed, we get calls from clients that are asking for answers. I know that HG does a good job at getting them back online in a hurry, but instead of "It's fixed now", maybe a short explanation would help us so that if anyone calls us and says "What Happened?", instead of saying "it's fixed now." we could tell them something like "there was a glitch and the server had to be rebooted." or whatever the problem was. Most of my clients know a little about web servers and if I just say "It's fixed now.", what do I tell them if they say "Good, so what happened?".

I know the other thread is for outages and I believe that was what you are referring us to, but what we are asking for is can we get an answer for the short glitches we experience in case we get asked by our clients? When we contact support, all we get is "It's fixed now.". Couldn't they just as easily say "What happened was [insert trouble here] and it's fixed now."

I can't just make something up because I would be just like the host not far from here that I am competing against and the reason everyone is bailing on them and coming to me. The first thing they ask me is "If I have a question, will I get it answered?" I want to be able to say "Yes it will." instead of "Maybe".

[abstraktMedia]

Well put Mike...

[piperone]

Hi all
How long do you have to wait for whmap,

piper

[swhbuild]

Originally Posted by Kevin Moreland

One of the new companies I am using notifies all re-sellers by e-mail in advance when they have a repair scheduled, are rebooting the system to put in a security patch, email when equipment is being swapped etc, if upstream line is being repaired, and if somebody's loading down the system..."we've kicked them off and are rebooting"...so refreshing!

Hi, Kevin, could you tell me what this company is? Thanks!

Aubrey

[eoheod]

Hi, Kevin, could you tell me what this company is? Thanks!

Aubrey

Ditto! I'd love to know that company too!

[eoheod]

I have to agree totally!! Hostgator NEEDS to understand that OUR bottom line affects THEIR bottom line!! As resellers, if our customers dump us because we're clueless as to an outage, then that hurts Hostgator in the end- if I have no clients, I don't retain their services. Further, if I get annoyed enough, I WILL find another service provider. Granted, the pricing is impossible to beat here at Hostgator, but I'd rather pay more for reliable communication and not being treated like an idiot with one of their typical "It's fixed now." answers.

Hostgator- PLEASE. Listen to what you customers ask, and either say yes or no. Don't sit back and laugh between yourselves as you read these posts- you can almost see Gatorman 1 talking to Gatorman 2:

1: Would you look at the forum?? These people think we actually care!!
2: Yeah, I know. What losers. What, 30, 35 posts in this thread?
1: Yeah, those losers could ALL leave and it wouldn't affect MY paycheck.

[Trinity31]

HOSTGATOR... are you listening?

I too agree. We need to be notified via email.
The Server Outage forum is great for discussion DURING downtime...

BUT WE DON'T CHECK THAT FORUM EVERY 15 MIN OF EVERYDAY TO FIND OUT IF THERE IS A SERVER PROBLEM.

If there is a planned outage, or an unexpected problem, WE NEED TO BE NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL RIGHT AWAY so that we can begin addressing the issue on our end and with our customers. When a customer calls and says the server is down, I'm not going to say "One moment while I check the HostGator forum"... instead, I should already have an answer as to what the problem is.

1) Start sending us emails. Not a single person in any of the similar threads has opposed this suggestion.
2) Respond to this post!

Originally Posted by Trinity31

HOSTGATOR... are you listening?

I too agree. We need to be notified via email.
The Server Outage forum is great for discussion DURING downtime...

BUT WE DON'T CHECK THAT FORUM EVERY 15 MIN OF EVERYDAY TO FIND OUT IF THERE IS A SERVER PROBLEM.

If there is a planned outage, or an unexpected problem, WE NEED TO BE NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL RIGHT AWAY so that we can begin addressing the issue on our end and with our customers. When a customer calls and says the server is down, I'm not going to say "One moment while I check the HostGator forum"... instead, I should already have an answer as to what the problem is.

1) Start sending us emails. Not a single person in any of the similar threads has opposed this suggestion.
2) Respond to this post!

http://forums.hostgator.com/showthre...5645#post15645

Read the end of that post by GatorBrent. We are listening.

[gdwoods]

I'd just like to throw in my two cents as a new (2 days) reseller. I transferred about 20 sites from another company due to unsatisfactory support.

There was an issue with emails not working on all sites after the transfer. I have no idea why. HG tech support has been fairly quick to respond and help (BIG improvement over previous company) but the "it's fixed now" messages got really annoying when it WASN'T fixed and I would repeatedly ask "what is the CAUSE of the problem?" My thinking is that if I could understand the problem, perhaps I could help fix it or at least prevent future occurences. After NUMEROUS inquiries one of the techs finally said something about "email group ownerships" but instead of fixing the problem account wide, I've had to give them email account info domain by domain. 2 days and some still aren't working. I haven't even started tackling the private nameserver issue that forced me to revert all accounts back to the HG nameserver....Sheesh! ...sure hope it gets better!

My point is that HG should not be afraid to share technical details and explanations of causes of problems. We're all big boys and girls and I know I for one would rather hear "we messed up on one of your account settings, and that's why your email doesn't work" or "we're finding that there is an issue with cPanel restores that screws up our system. Here's what we suggest doing in the future...." It's much better than "It's fixed now, let us know if you have any further issues"