Ticket Support Issues [resolved]

[mugwumpr]

I have to say that I've found the support at HostGator over the last year to be suffering a severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder.

The guys 'n' gals in chat support have been incredible! Always polite, friendly, helpful and always come across as wonderful people (Alexander and Chad have lately been able to stand out even in that crowd for their marvellous attitudes).

Chat support --> (rarely rate below 10)

On the other hand.... the ticket support people are... well.... none of the above. They're abrupt nearly to the point of rudeness (and sometimes well beyond rudeness), they offer advice that's about as useful as a bra on a bull (any and all problems are invariably either my fault or the result of 3rd party something-or-other, and there endeth the support), they don't answer the questions asked, and they don't even give the most basic information requested. They make it painfully clear that having to deal with clients is a highly annoying interruption to their otherwise busy schedules. If their intention, as a group, is to make submitting a ticket such a painful experience that it's not worth it (unless the only other alternative is to stick a pencil in your eye repeatedly), they're doing a GREAT job of it!! I cringe whenever one of the lovely chat people says the issue has to be escalated to the goon-squad.

Ticket support --> (rarely rate above 3; usually 1 and only that high because 0 isn't an option)

This isn't in reference to any particular problem; it's a pattern encountered for ALL of them over the course of the last year. Reading through the threads in this forum on support reviews is mind-blowing; nearly all of them say exactly the same thing, yet nothing seems to improve.

Overall, I've really enjoyed my year with HG; they provide the software I need and 95% of the time things could only be better if they were free. However, on the remaining 5% when I genuinely need help, I really don't need to be treated like nothing more than a moronic irritation by the very people who are being PAID to provide the information I'm asking for. Or maybe working in the ticket support area is a form of community service for felons? That's certainly the level of enthusiasm and charisma they bring to the job.

[GatorChrisN]

I am glad to hear that you have had good experiences with our chat representatives but I am sorry to read that you have had issues with our Admins in the ticket system. If you would provide a few ticket IDs where our responses have not been useful or polite I would be more than happy to look into them and see where we went wrong, and if nothing else address any issues with the support representatives involved.

I myself am an admin and I always try to take the extra step to make sure the customer is satisfied with my response. Sometimes through the ticket system responses can become rather impersonal or at least seem that way because there is no live dialogue going on. I know many of my peers also take pride in making sure your ticket system experience is the best it can be, but sometimes things can get lost in translation.

Thank you for your feedback, I will do my best to resolve any remaining issues you are having and to address your previous support issues with those involved.

[mugwumpr]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your quick response. The latest pointless run-around can be found in ticket EGL-4786711. All I needed to know was the path to dofullbackup.html on the HG cPanel.

Twice I got told to "update the script". Ummm.... ya.... I got that far all on my own.... what I needed was WITH WHAT?!?! One of them even suggested I replace the script with another one... which was identical to the one I was currently asking about!

When I asked a 3rd time for the info I needed I was told HG doesn't support 3rd party scripts. Recommend yes, give needed HG-specific info for them to work... not so much, evidently.

On the 4th go-round, a nice person named Kris K***** changed the skin in the script from x to x3 and manually ran it, which was the kind of above-and-beyond service I've come to expect only from the chat people. This was very nice of him/her. Why did it take 4 e-mails, and sufficient levels of frustration to provoke me into posting a tirade here, when it could all have been done in the first reply with the words, "change x to x3". Four words. Or, rather 2 words and 3 letters. Was all the other nonsense necessary?

Please extend my gratitude to Kris K. I really don't want to send it through the ticket system; God alone knows what kind of response I'd get to that.

I, too, work in support, and I know how difficult it can sometimes be, so I try my darnedest to be understanding and patient, but sometimes.....

P.S. Maybe the whole "friendly and helpful" thing is related to variants of the name "Chris"?

P.P.S. The other outstanding example ticket (where the sudden appearance of strange files relating to porn on my account was evidently my fault somehow) has disappeared from the list of tickets. It was in the range of Sept/Oct 08.

[GatorChrisN]

I will give Kris K his kudos the next time I see him, I am always happy to see when one of us goes above and beyond to get things resolved. I read over the ticket and I really do believe that this could have been delved into deeper before dismissing this as a 'consult your documentation' type of response and I will speak with the admins involved just to let them know that a simple fix was available if they had looked into this further.

I was unable to track down the other mentioned ticket after reviewing your history. It's possible that this somehow was lost in transitioning to our new ticket system or upgrading it in the past. I apologize for not being able to shed more light on that incident.

If you see any other issues in the future with our support staff failing to resolve your issues in a timely manner, please respond to the ticket and request that they escalate your ticket to an upper-tier admin to prevent further delays.

Thank you for your business and for this feedback. With help from customers like you we can and will improve the quality of our support structure.