I really want to be a happy DH customer

Hello all

rrrrrrrrrgggg... Ok, had to get that out. Basically, I want so badly to be a happy, warm, fuzzy DH customer. The web panel beats anything I've seen, hands down. The space and transfer is really cool, but I don't care about that as much anymore.

What I really want to have is confidence that if one of my sites go down, I can expect that my trouble ticket will be answered within 5 hours, much much less actually.

Seriously, I really don't want to leave. I've posted before that I will be willing to sacrifice space / pay extra for a live phone person, or at the very least, quicker response time on the trouble tickets.

The biggest thing I don't want to lose is the control panel and the ease of site managemet allowed to me at DH. If I could really afford it, I would opt for the dedicated plan, just for the peace of mind that my site (and my clients' sites) will not go down so often.

DH: I know you intermitently read these posts. Any chance of setting up at least a VPS plan?

I recently signed up for a VPS plan after this last little spat of outages, and I gotta say, horrible web panel, no fun at all (they have a custom one - I absolutely hate cPanel, piece of junk).

They do however have phone support....

Listen, offering phone support would not be hard. Charge me for your time, please. Give me a little peon that has limited understanding, but that if my problem is legit (and not my fault, DH's fault), forward me to a 2nd-tier tech who has more understanding. Even if this first-tier less-trained phone support person can tell me "Yes, we are aware of the problem...", I will be extremely happy knowing that the problem is being worked on and I will leave you alone.

Having a first-tier phone support person with limited knowledge will go a very long way and guess what, you don't even have to pay them that much. They're kind of like a specialized operator.

Okay, so that's my first suggestion. Here's the second:
When you guys have 600+ tickets open, it seems to me there are two main ways at tackling these. Opening one ticket, reviewing the problem, doing some thinking, and then getting back to that one person (leaving the other 599 tickets waiting..) or the better way is to go through all 600+ at a time, and seperating out multiple ones that are for the exact same issue. Then take each as a batch (I would assume 100 tickets might be for one issue) and tackling each as a batch including repsonding to each batch all together.

I know you guys are addressing the support response times at DH. These are just my two cents here.

I want really to stay with DH and continue with DH as long as I am building websites and running my business (15 years now).

I will be steadily upgrading my account as my needs change. I will refer people to you (I don't even want the $97). I want to have a very very long standing business relationship with DH.

BUT, this relationship needs to be solid on your end.

Your hosting service does have all the trappings to be a real Dream.

Do away with all of the extra space. It can only be hurting you financially in the long run. Get back to a manageable level where you can actually promise a rock solid reliability. Stop worrying about giving all of us insane deals. Start worrying about how these deals might be crippling you, and invest heavily on better hardware, better customer service, more employees, and redundancy, redunancy, redundancy (redundant, huh?).

Please, please, please, please, please.

Nobody really wants to leave you. Please change your approach. The current one is costing you dearly.

Thanks for letting me rant.

-Art Main
GoldCoastDesign.org

I somehow highly doubt if it was hurting them financially they'd of done it at all, never mind twice. I've already voiced my arguments against telephone support for DH in the last thread you started about it. Granted I've only had a minimal amount of downtime, but I've had no problems whatsoever with the current support system. If they bring in any more staff, it should absolutely not be to sit there and respond with a "yes, we know" to every single support case. Which is exactly what would happen if telephone support was implemented. They instead should be bringing in more technicions to help keep on top of server issues as they come up, and continue to respond to current support cases either as they're resolved, or when they get a free minute to say they are, actually, working on it. The key phrase here, though, is "when they get a free moment". Because you just know there'll be replies to the tune of "no you're not, or I wouldn't have gotten this".

In short, make up your mind... do you want the problems to get fixed, or the staff that *could* be working on fixing your problems to instead respond to one support ticket after the other with a "we know, and are working on it"? I'd prefer the latter. If that means the tickets pile up, that's all well and good, because when it's believed they've fixed the problem, *then* they go through ahd communicate that to the effected customers. This results overall in less of a support load, because most customers effected by whichever problem is generating the high number of support requests hopefully won't have any lasting issues when it's fixed, and those who do can be looked at on a case by case basis.

Yes, I have an opinion.

Get a minimum 50% off with the "haveadreamyday" promo code, and... have a dreamy day. Original, no?

In reply to:
Basically, I want so badly to be a happy, warm, fuzzy DH customer. The web panel beats anything I've seen, hands down. The space and transfer is really cool ...
Seriously, I really don't want to leave.

Agreed.

Dreamhost say:
This is just a note to let you know that although it's almost been 24 hours since you sent in your message, we haven't forgotten about you!
We strive to answer all questions within 24 hours, but due to the large number of questions we have right now we're afraid we may have to go over a bit this time. :(

Those emails are becoming as meaningless as our local train service announcing that the next train is running late - again.

In recent weeks, there have been about 7 times that the response came through at the 24 hour mark, and on at least 3 occasions it has taken more than 2 days just to get a first response to a support request entered through the panel - and no, most weren't anything difficult, just stuff that can't be done from the panel. One of the 2 day responses was for a high priority request - so the priority level makes no difference.

In reply to:
What I really want to have is ... quicker response time on the trouble tickets.

What I would suggest is for DH to out-source initial support responses to another company (one web host I have been with seems to use India) The responses are usually on the mark, and I receive them within 15 minutes as a rule, which is a huge relief from the frustration of a 24 - 60 hour wait.

Anything that they can't handle could then be sent up the line to a DH employee to manage.

Oh happy day, when most support requests are answered within the hour.

In reply to:
What I would suggest is for DH to out-source initial support responses to another company (one web host I have been with seems to use India)

Oh God! Please, please, no!

This would be an absolute disaster for those of us that only send support requests to DH when there is something that *DH* has to do (as opposed to the "how do I do x?" , or "why can't I get my mail in my foobar client", or "what is a shell" type of questions).

It would just add another layer of delay to the process. By definition, such a support center would have to drag *everyone* through their "scripts" before sending things to "level 2" or whatever at DH. I most definately do not want to be dragged through that process by a call center employee, who very likely understands this stuff less than I do, is limited in what he/she can do on the DH system, and doesn't have the "tools" I have available, as a screening device between me and DH.

Oh God! Please, please, no!

--rlparker

In reply to:
Oh God! Please, please, no!

Agreed, having dealt with Dell phone support a few times (which is out-sourced to India), it can take forever to reach someone who actually knows enough to help me, as opposed to reading canned responses from their sheets.

I definitely don't want my support requests to DreamHost to be as frustrating.

Mark

In reply to:
Oh God! Please, please, no!

What a dramatist!

I have had personal experience of such a setup and found it wonderful to have accurate, sensible answers back usually within 15 minutes, almost always within half an hour.

Such a refreshing difference from the teeth-grinding, blood-pressure raising experiences I have had on some occasions with Dreamhost.

Originally the Japanese were only copying Western goods, but soon they became the innovators. Indians are not only filling university lecture theatres doing IT courses, several of the teachers and lecturers are Indian.

Don't be too quick to dismiss the idea. I was only suggesting using them as a filter to at least get fast responses back to most people, thus freeing Dreamhost staff to sort out the more difficult situations.

In reply to:
What a dramatist!

Good point, there. I was pretty emphatic, but that is how strongly I object to the idea of inserting an additional "filter" (*your* term) between me and the technical people that can provide the help that I need. wink

Generally speaking, when it comes to contact with tech support at Dreamahost, I don't require too many "answers", as the web, wiki, forums, etc can usually provide the *information* needed. What I need the most from tech support are the kinds of things that require DH to take some action. To have a request for that type of help be subject to a "1st tier" filtering process is not something I want to see happen, as it would increase the amount of time I have to spend to communicate my needs, force me to go through an extra "hoop" when I need help the most, and delay the ultimate resolution of the problem.

I have never been subjected to a "teeth-grinding, blood-pressure raising experience" (speaking of beng a dramatist wink !) at Dreamhost. I'm sorry if you have had such experiences, but please don't assume all of us would rather have a "comforting" answer from a tech-support filtering drone (no insult intended, that *is* part of what such 1st tier call center staffers are *supposed* to do), followed by a referral to a *second* technician, than to be able to get directly to someone who can actually fix the problem (even if it takes a bit longer).

In reply to:
Originally the Japanese were only copying Western goods, but soon they became the innovators. Indians are not only filling university lecture theatres doing IT courses, several of the teachers and lecturers are Indian.

I have no idea how this sentence is even relevant in this thread, and it actually strikes me as more than a bit racist. What in the world does the nationality of who staffs the call centers have to do with this discussion? I made no mention, or objection, in my post to *your* reference to outsourcing being in India, and am actually a little insulted that you would assume the nationality of people to whom the function is "outsourced" would have any bearing on my objection to the process. shocked The nationality of those staffing an outsourced tech-support center aren't relevant to me, the extra step, and the nature of the filtering process is what I object to.

I *do* believe it is fair to say that the typical Dreamhost tech support staffer of today is better trained than those I have dealt with in "outsourced support" encounters, and am *certain* that they have better, and higher level tools for tweaking DH systems at their disposal than those I would expect to see if support was "outsourced". I also do not want to see DH make those levels of system tools available to an "outsourcing organization." While I have some reservations about the overall *quality* of "outsourced tech support" as I have encountered it with *many* large tech companies, *none* of those reservations are based on the nationality of the staff.

As for being "too quick to dismiss the idea", this post should evidence that my objection to this suggestion was not a "knee-jerk" reaction. Please don't confuse my "quick" response to your post as being indicative of not having considered the suggestion. The kind of "filtering" you suggest is a common, and well-established, process in use in many industries, and one with which anyone working with technology is already very well acquainted. It's one of those, "Been there, done that, and I have the T-shirt," kind of things for most of us, and we ususally have already decided, based on our experiences, whether it "works" for us.

As with any such thing, people have different preferences, and YMMV regarding what works best for each person. Your idea is what you think should be considered; I was simply expressing my *strong* feeling that I would not like to see such a thing at Dreamhost.

Dreamhost Honcho's have been very frank on threads in this forum regarding current support response time performance statistics, and their goals. I would far rather see them continue to work to improve that response time than see them "outsourcing" tech support functions.

--rlparker

In reply to:
Agreed, having dealt with Dell phone support a few times (which is out-sourced to India), it can take forever to reach someone who actually knows enough to help me, as opposed to reading canned responses from their sheets.

Agreed. Although, apparently Dell and some other companies are learning their lesson, as they're starting to bring those outsourced services back home. Hence the opening of a few facilities that I'm aware of for companies like Dell around this area.

Yes, I have an opinion.

Get a minimum 50% off with the "haveadreamyday" promo code, and... have a dreamy day. Original, no?

I really want to be a happy DH customer