The cost of Technical Support - Bonus Chapter

[Bruceper]

Today I decided to write an article on the Cost of Technical Support. I'm writing this as a bonus chapter for "the book" only because of issues I have had today dealing with a customer.

During your time owning and running your directory business you will invariably find the need for technical support. This isn't just referring to support for your script, but for your hosting as well. Especially for your hosting.

I had a customer who decided they wanted to host their site with me. My prices are fair and reasonable and my support is top tier. I happen to be knowledgeable about a lot of things, and since I've been doing hosting for more years than I can remember I know quite a bit about webhosting.

The customer in question is a non profit organization with a budget in the millions per year. They planned on moving their site to my server with an account that cost just over $200 per year.

Before the actual hosting began, it was found out that they have free hosting available from their internet provider who happens to be a telco (telephone company). The decision was made with my endorsement to use the telco as their host in order to save the one person IT department some money.

I was offered a fee to move the site for them, which I agreed to. The move began, usernames and password were sent and logins failed. Apparently a web interface must be used to create an FTP login for the telco host, so one was created.

I logged in and uploaded the required files (~80MB of files) and set about trying to view the site online before any DNS changes were made. This is where technical support became necessary.

Now in my past experiences when a tech calls another tech the call goes very smoothly and quickly. Not in this case.

I called the telco and after pushing buttons for the 40th time I was able to speak to someone. I told them I want to view the users site online before DNS changes are made to ensure that it works properly.

The response was silence.

My reaction was a creeping feeling of horror.

After five minutes of trying to explain to the tech what I wanted to do I convinced him to go ask someone else for help. The other tech that came on the line asked what I needed and I told him the same thing. I want to view the customers site online before DNS changes are made.

His response to me was to visit the IP address.

That doesn't work of course, and it was the first thing I tried before I called. I stated that I assume that it was a shared IP address so I needed to know what method they use for viewing sites with no DNS. In a *nix environment this is typically ipaddress/~username/

As soon as I mentioned linux the response was that neither tech knew anything about linux. A few minutes go by with some typing and it is determined that the customers site is on a virtual IP address that cannot be viewed without a domain name.

This is repeated a number of times in different ways. At this point I feel like the horror has enveloped me and I'm in the actual movie.

The call is ended and I inform the customer that their site is uploaded, the menu change they requested was made and that they cannot view their site until they update DNS and to hope and pray everything works when the site goes live.

This was not technical support that I called. This was more like someone to answer the phone just for the sake of answering the phone to make people feel better about spending money.

Yes, that's what this world is coming to. That's why tech support is being farmed off to the company and/or country with the cheapest labour regardless of ability, language barriers and knowledge.

When you as a business owner pick up the phone or send an email you should expect to get an answer to your question(s). I have dealt with many companies and I find the largest ones have some of the worst support I have ever seen.

Can this type of support cost you money? Absolutely! What happens in two days when the DNS updates for the customers site take effect and the site doesn't work. I guarenteed their site would work on my server. If it doesn't work on the telco's server they'll need to call me back and hire me to fix it. Their IT department guy is a good guy, but he deals with networks, not the internet or HTML.

So the cost to fix it may be minimal, but they will need their site up and running immediately. This means that I would need to pull myself off of another job that I'm doing and fix their site. This means a higher cost to them.

It would have simply been easier and cheaper for them to have me host their site in the long run. And a lot less stress as well.

Now think about this the next time you're looking for bargain basement hosting. Are you going to get the kind of support that you might need one day? Can you afford not to pay a few extra dollars a month to ensure that when you email or call support that they will have the answer and know exactly what to do?

Copyright 2008 Bruce Peresky - All Rights Reserved - No duplication permitted without written permission from the author

[dePaulus]

Thanks Bruce, a nice read if anything.. But my first Q is, How is anyone to know if the Tech Support is any good??.. You say yourself that it's often the "Bigger" names (larger ones as you quoted) with the worst Support.
I have over 40 web sites, hosted with, IXweb, Yahoo, Verio and StartLogic.

IXweb and Startlogic are the (very) cheap ones, But I can honestly say that the support (when needed) has been good.. That is, if you can get them on the phone, now I spend 6 months a year in the USA, and 6 Months in Europe, calling from the USA is no problem, calling from Europe is IMPOSSIBLE, so you have to use the "Live Chat' and chat with "Alexander Ployskovsky" in the Chechenny... this is when support is crap!!.

Verio is more expensive, very friendly and helpful, but soooooooo slowwww.

Yahoo!!.. A BIG name.. Good support??...haha.. this has got to be the worst Support I have ever had to use!!.. I have yet to speak to an actuall Techie, EVERYTHING gets relayed through an old aged pensioner, who was laid off from "Dunkin Donuts" .. They spend 4 hours telling you how to delete your cached files, restart your computer.. delete your credit card details and login Info .. Re-create an account,.. and all of this because I get an error message trying to purchase a domain name!! 3 Months has passed, and they still have not solved the mystery why I cannot purhase domain names through their site... YaBoo.

So, I think you just have to be lucky and hope for the best.

[CEC]

I've yet to understand how Yahoo! can even be referred to as a host. The worst DNS, crap support, and that SiteBuilder junk combine for a type of negligence that if not criminal, borders on it.

[Bruceper]

Therein lies the rub, there is no real way to know if Tech Support is any good. Perhaps I'll edit my post above to detail that.

Unless you're a technical person yourself there's no real way to test support. And if you're technical enough to test someone else then you probably don't need much support to begin with.

Have you ever tried calling up (or emailing) your host and telling them that you want to add a CNAME record to your domain records? Or to add a backup MX record? Try it, a lot of hosts will respond with the same answer, 5-10 seconds of empty air.

As for "foreign" support I'm not trying to be mean or rude or even racist, but if the support doesn't natively speak the same language as you then there's going to be an issue. And since a lot (most?) of the big webhosting companies are based in the US, and most of their customers are based in the US, why do they farm out support to India? The only reason is to save money. It's not to offer better support, it's just to put more money in their pockets.

Way too many companies are doing this now. And it's not going to stop any time soon. A support tech in North America is going to expect around $15-20 an hour plus some benefits plus the costs of training, unemployment premiums and pension premiums which can being the total cost to upwards of $30 an hour for a company. You can hire a company from India for $10 an hour per tech support agent and it doesn't cost you a penny more than that.

$20 an hour savings at 8 hours a day multiplied by 365 days a year equals a savings of $58400 per year PER TECH! That's some serious cash. The cost of losing customers due to poor support is not figured in however, and it's a huge cost that many companies probably dont look at.

I know people who bought Dell computers who will never buy them again because they can't get someone on the phone that speaks english.

It's hard, but the only thing you can do is to listen to advice from others and go with established companies that have been around for a long time and have a good track record.

[dePaulus]

I just purchased 5 PhpLD licences and needed to know if I could run a Screenshot Processor, that needs remote connections to Port 3306, so I double checked with in this case IX webhosting,.. I called, and was #6 on the waiting list, so I decided to use the "Live Chat" whilst I waited, to see what they had to say. here is the full chatlog.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Artem Matvienko'

Artem Matvienko: Welcome, this is Artem, how can I help you?

you: Hi Artem, could you please tell me if my IX account allows remote connections to Port 3306.

Artem Matvienko: For what do you need to use 3306 port?

you: ??.. To create thumb screenshots on my site

Artem Matvienko: Create the ticket and ask to open this port

you: ?? Why, is it Blocked??

you: If so why?

you: Hello?

Artem Matvienko: Do you mean mysql?

you: No I do not mean mysql, I will need MySql, but thats not the problem, I just need to know if IX allows remote connections to Port 3306, to run the Screenshot Processor

Artem Matvienko: It is opened

Artem Matvienko: But not remote connection

you: Really?, Remote connection is not permitted?

Artem Matvienko: No

you: OK, thank you for you time and Help

Artem Matvienko: You are welcome

Artem Matvienko: Bye

you: Good Bye

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

5 minutes later I got to speak to someone from support here in the USA, and after 2 minutes and double checking with someone else, they assured me that it would be NO PROBLEM AT ALL using the Screenshot Processor.
Just goes to show, it's just the luck of the draw with who you get when you need support.

PS. anyone any experience with PhpLD?