How To Contact Support, Properly.

[RootNerds]

Hello @ElliotJ,

this is an awesome post and I wish more people would read it. We try to give equal support for all customers (even if discounted over 80 %...) but they need to learn that there are other (more important) customers or issues you have to deal with. They paid 2 bucks and expect you to answer within 15 minutes. (Which we often do anyways)

Thanks for the great read.

 

[InertiaNetworks-John]

We have had multiple clients open tickets with titles like "HELP HELP HELP MY VPS DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH RAM FOR MY PROJECT! I AM LOOSING $1000 EVERY MINUTE"

and then just say:

"Can you upgrade it?"

 

[RootNerds]

@InertiaNetworks-John, at least they write in understandable English with you  

 

[Abdussamad]

Since this thread is chock full of hosts I think it is a good place to ask this question.

I have always wondered whether it makes sense thanking support personnel after they've answered your query? I suppose it is a polite thing to do and helps them close the ticket early. But it's also just a "pointless" reply that adds to their burden. I can imagine that they go through hundreds of tickets a day and if customers didn't thank them it would lower their burden a little. So which is better? Thank them or not?

 

[Awmusic12635]

I thank you for this

 

[mikho]

Since this thread is chock full of hosts I think it is a good place to ask this question.


I have always wondered whether it makes sense thanking support personnel after they've answered your query? I suppose it is a polite thing to do and helps them close the ticket early. But it's also just a "pointless" reply that adds to their burden. I can imagine that they go through hundreds of tickets a day and if customers didn't thank them it would lower their burden a little. So which is better? Thank them or not?

I usually end up with a thank you reply and a comment on how the ticket was handled.


Then I close it myself.


That little extra, even if not read by the person behind it, could help me or the provider the next time I needed to submit a ticket.

 

[shovenose]

I usually end up with a thank you reply and a comment on how the ticket was handled.


Then I close it myself.


That little extra, even if not read by the person behind it, could help me or the provider the next time I needed to submit a ticket.

As client, I always say thank you and then close the ticket myself.

As a provider, I usually don't see it right away in the ticket queue since it's closed however the replies do get emailed to me so I see it a bit later and it makes me smile. Next time that customer submits a ticket? They get a little extra love

 

[Abdussamad]

Ok so hosts like to get thanked. Good to know

 

[D. Strout]

As client, I always say thank you and then close the ticket myself.

As a provider, I usually don't see it right away in the ticket queue since it's closed however the replies do get emailed to me so I see it a bit later and it makes me smile. Next time that customer submits a ticket? They get a little extra love

As a client, that's what I usually do as well. Good to know it works out well that way from the provider's end. As @Abdussamad mentioned, I don't want a mere "thank you" message knocking the ticket back up to the top of the queue unnecessarily.

 

[Abdussamad]

The thing is that a simple thank you is quite easy to send. I reply to tickets via email so it is quite easy to do. But if I have to close the ticket as well I will have to login to the client area and that might discourage me from doing anything. Also some providers don't let customers close tickets at all.

 

[D. Strout]

WHMCS allows closing tickets, and AFAIK they don't allow response by e-mail. So if I'm in a WHMCS client area reading the response, it makes perfect sense to say "thanks" and close the ticket. And since WHMCS is so popular, that's pretty much always how it ends up.

 

[SkylarM]

WHMCS allows closing tickets, and AFAIK they don't allow response by e-mail. So if I'm in a WHMCS client area reading the response, it makes perfect sense to say "thanks" and close the ticket. And since WHMCS is so popular, that's pretty much always how it ends up.

Response by email works if the host sets it up.

 

[shovenose]

WHMCS allows closing tickets, and AFAIK they don't allow response by e-mail. So if I'm in a WHMCS client area reading the response, it makes perfect sense to say "thanks" and close the ticket. And since WHMCS is so popular, that's pretty much always how it ends up.

It takes all of two minutes to set it up properly to make email replies work. Try it in your next ShoveHost ticket

The formatting is better if the customer does it directly from the WHMCS client area though, and it's faster and more reliable (I run the ticket/reply import script every minute, so there is up to a 60 second delay before I get the customer response).

 

[D. Strout]

The formatting is better if the customer does it directly from the WHMCS client area

 

Definitely agreed. E-mail exchanges filtered through a ticket system are a mess. Gmail chokes and gags on them, so I prefer not to use them. And from the looks of them, the ticket system itself doesn't like them, so as part of the "how to contact support properly" post, I would say don't make a mess of your ticket by going directly through e-mail.

 

[Magiobiwan]

Also, take a moment to READ THROUGH YOUR TICKET. You really don't want to be THIS GUY 

Who opens a ticket about your torrents being slow. SERIOUSLY. Of ALL the things you could do. I'll admit though, that guy did do a good job of testing to confirm the problem, and he wasn't like "WHY MY TORRENT SLOW! IM GONNA DISPUTE!". Threats for PayPal disputes are a great way to get yourself suspended/terminated for fraud, and have service denied due to high risk, by the way. 

 

[MannDude]

Just wanted to bump this as it needs to be seen more.

 

[Magiobiwan]

You should sticky it. EVERY CUSTOMER should read through this guide at least once.

 

[Riccardo_G]

great tips

everyone needs to follow these tips

 

[perennate]

If you really only want customers who have read these then add a checkbox to your checkout page affirming that they have read it, followed by a short quiz that prevents ordering if they answer incorrectly.

 

[NickM]

I have a tip:  If you're submitting a ticket where the provider may need to `vzctl enter` your container (OpenVZ), or log in to your KVM-based VPS, give them the information they'll need to do so - root/Administrator password, etc - and explicit permission for them to do so.  I don't know if all hosts follow this policy, but I know of at least two hosts that won't go into your container/VM unless you've given them explicit permission to do so, and giving them the info and permission right away will just make the process go a lot quicker, rather than having to wait for them to reply asking for permission and passwords, then you reply, then have to wait for them to see it.