# Acceptable time to wait for ticket response?



## Minmeo (Mar 31, 2015)

How long is to long to wait? Most respond fast (maybe 2 hours) and some are always slow (sometimes 24 or more hours). What is acceptable to you? Also if you know someone with fast support please let me know.

This is for support not billing ticket.


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## trewq (Mar 31, 2015)

Under $20 - 24 hours


Over $20 Under $30 - 12 hours


Over $30 - 10-30 min


Everything is relative. I don't care about my dev environments, they are very portable. Production needs to have fast support and I pay for that.


People can't expect an instant response for the cost of a burger per month.


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## Licensecart (Mar 31, 2015)

It depends on the time.

If you submit a ticket on a monday - friday at 3am you have to wait until they are open at 9am.

If you submit a ticket on the weekend you might need to wait for Monday 9am so it could be 24 hours to 48hours+ but if they advertise 24 hours support I would say 4 hours maximum.


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## KwiceroLTD (Mar 31, 2015)

trewq said:


> Under $20 - 24 hours
> 
> 
> Over $20 Under $30 - 12 hours
> ...


I disagree at about $30, I think honestly, unless you go with a very reilable company which has a guarantee, then you can't get an exact time when they will reply - as they work on their own schedule, not yours, or anyone elses.


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## cociu (Mar 31, 2015)

I thinck maximum 1 hour is ok for enyone


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## zomgmike (Mar 31, 2015)

Whether you have a $3 VPS or a $100 dedicated server, your ticket is going into the same queue.  The price of the package has less to do with the ticket response time than the way the support desk is run and the type of ticket that is submitted.  Unless a vendor explicitly sells different support packages, I think they ought to be giving the same ticket experience regardless of actual price paid.

Depending on the complexity of the request and the urgency of the support request, 10-15 minutes is where a server vendor should be for service-impeding tickets.  That should be complimented with one or more live options (livechat or phone) for more urgent requests.  With a request that is non-urgent or takes more time 1-24 hours seems reasonable to me.  Sales and billing ticket response times should be within one business day.

It's my own personal opinion that the expectation a customer has for a quick response time is inversely correlated with how much they pay.


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## Vertical (Mar 31, 2015)

It all depends on what your vendor offers as support times. Some companies offer better support than others but generally what zomgmike outlined above looks about right. Most vendors worth their salt will answer tech support tickets within the hour or better and sales/billing tickets the same day or within the 24hr window.


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## Nick_A (Mar 31, 2015)

Our first response goal is 15 minutes max regardless of the customer or plan. Follow ups just depend on the request and overall ticket load. We want people to at least have acknowledgement that we see their request, even if we can't get to it immediately.


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## drmike (Mar 31, 2015)

It depends on the labeled priority.   If things are hard down and some other mass failure I expect promptness.

I hold folks to the levels they advertise.  So if your company says 15 minute average response time, I expect that and might get a tad aggressive about it after 30 minutes.

Problem is 60% of the companies out there either lie about support, or fail to staff enough folks, or fail to staff competent folks.   Lots of tickets can linger because staff isn't in the mood or attentive. Support times are all over the place, some places are only their business hours staffed with emergency only major systems overnight.

More in general needs to be done to standardize reports, reviews, and experiences of customers with providers so we can all gauge who is talking it vs. who is walking it.


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## tmzVPS-Daniel (Mar 31, 2015)

Labeled priority is not what it used to be @drmike. I have seen a simple issue that can wait 2 weeks to be resolved being marked as critical. Everyone needs everything done right away. We try to keep resolution time under 2 hours, normal ticket replies are usually within 15 minutes. 

- Daniel


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## MannDude (Mar 31, 2015)

Allowing customers to label their own ticket priority or even see what the ticket priority has been set to is a bad idea, especially if you use that to judge who gets attention first.

Vast majority of customers will always submit their tickets as Critical / Emergency.

No, your pre-sales question is not an emergency.

"First in, first out" is a motto I picked up when working in the food industry in regards to food items that have entered the storage freezers. It should be the same with tickets: Answered in the order they're received, with only an internal/staff viewing of any adjustment to ticket priority.

Unfortunately the internal/staff only viewing of ticket priority and the setting of is not a feature that exists... but it should.

In regards to response times... For support issues I'm happy with acknowledgement within an hour or so. I'm not super picky. I've seen support as fast as five minutes, which wowed me, but I'd not have been upset had I waited 50 minutes either.


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## fixidixi (Mar 31, 2015)

depends on who am i sending that ticket.

for example if its work hours and im sending in a ticket to a mission critical system. then.. i expect them to give me a straight detailed anwser in half an hour max.

if its about my lowend box unavailable then is "the sooner the better". but i expect a general anwser in a few hours ("yea there is a problem") and a more detailed one in 24 hours..


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## AnthonySmith (Mar 31, 2015)

It is completely relative.

Personally I think having a 'first response' time is a complete waste of time, but some people love metrics for the sake of having them.

I think that the only thing that is of worth is the first *meaningful* response and the resolution time.

If I open a ticket and get a "We are looking in to this for you" reply, I just cringe.... unless it comes from the person that is actually doing the work and does not have 1st line support after their name.

I know my opinion will not be shared by all, I like results not fluff. 

Also if you open a ticket with "my site not working" don't expect the worlds highest priority if your on an unmanned service


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## TierNet (Mar 31, 2015)

I think 30 min is ideal time to get a response on a ticket and 2-3 hours for the issue to be resolved or for updates.


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## drmike (Mar 31, 2015)

AnthonySmith said:


> If I open a ticket and get a "We are looking in to this for you" reply, I just cringe.... unless it comes from the person that is actually doing the work and does not have 1st line support after their name.


There are some sLowend companies that were notorious for jerking the chicken like that.    I am no fan of ticket hockey and unneeded updates like that.  Totally with you on this one.  Meaningful responses, not empty discards littering my inbox.


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## AnthonySmith (Mar 31, 2015)

fixidixi said:


> depends on who am i sending that ticket.
> 
> for example if its work hours and im sending in a ticket to a mission critical system. then.. i expect them to give me a straight detailed anwser in half an hour max.
> 
> if its about my lowend box unavailable then is "the sooner the better". but i expect a general anwser in a few hours ("yea there is a problem") and a more detailed one in 24 hours..


Are you paying for mission critical or are you just expecting because it is critical to you they should jump anyway?

(not a loaded question)


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## mikho (Apr 1, 2015)

drmike said:


> There are some sLowend companies that were notorious for jerking the chicken like that. I am no fan of ticket hockey and unneeded updates like that. Totally with you on this one. Meaningful responses, not empty discards littering my inbox.



Not only companies in the sLowend give that kind of ticket response.


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## PacketPunks (Apr 1, 2015)

Ideal first response I think is between 15 - 45 minutes, follow-up 1-2 hours.


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## souen (Apr 1, 2015)

Generally I don't mind waiting up to 48 h, with lowend price range especially I don't expect priority support. However, if the server is down and the provider has a SLA, then I'd expect some answers Soon, preferably within 8-12 hours given timezone differences. A quick first-response is nice, if only as a sign there's somebody around. Resolution can take a little longer as long as it's not going in circles or turning into ticket hockey. I've had anywhere between 10 mins to 4 hours for first responses, 5 minutes to 3 days for subsequent replies (days usually only when the provider was supposed to wait for something to report back but forgot about it.)

+1 @MannDude's observation about letting the customer set the ticket priority. If the provider bases their response time on it, there's nothing stopping other customers from marking theirs as Critical to get their tickets answered first (and other customers might be tempted to follow in case it gets their tickets pushed down), and if they don't, it's an extraneous step on the ticket form, not sure why I bothered.


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## WebTech Hosts (Apr 2, 2015)

Personally when I used to buy web hosting and vps - i was not phased about the time as I wasn't running a business - as long as it wasn't days to respond. What annoyed me mostly was hosts responding with

"We will check this and update you back soon" within the first hour, and then nothing for 5 hours on a basic request.

The only reason they do this is so they are living up to their SLA, which i don't really think is acceptable or living up to the SLA....

If you have time to answer the ticket then you should attend to it, not give a bullshit response.


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## fixidixi (Apr 2, 2015)

AnthonySmith said:


> Are you paying for mission critical or are you just expecting because it is critical to you they should jump anyway?
> 
> (not a loaded question)


It would be really interesting if it would be missioin critical and there wouldnt be paid support for it . Of course I'm not payin for it personally rather my employer does ..


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## TheLinuxBug (Apr 2, 2015)

While not directly related to the question at hand I just wanted to include in here for reference.  While the question here allows a bit more extrapolation on individual expectations, I just wanted to point out there was some very good discussion in this thread about this and other expectations.  If you haven't read it you will probably enjoy it 

In my daily work, as I do provide support in a help desk my self, we strive to reply to tickets in 15 minutes or less and then have a resolution as soon as is possible, while keeping the customer updated.  This works for us because we are not a 'low end' provider so we have enough staff for this to really work.  Some smaller businesses in this community are run by only a few people and on a strict budget, so I think you have to adjust your expectations.  Sometimes I think when purchasing virtual products my self that it would be nice if a companies website set the real expectations instead of being all pretty faces, fancy/flashy logos and in your face, buy this now fashion.  There are some good examples of that in all different markets, however one that comes to mind to me is @Kujoes SecuredDragon brand which spells out what you can generally expect right on their front page.  This is refreshing, but not all hosts do this. 

If the service is a low end service, I try to be realistic.   For a simple request I generally have come to expect most unmanaged providers who are selling discounted servers will get you a reply in the 2-8 hour range, don't get me wrong, a lot are quicker than that, but that is what my expectation would be.  When purchasing an 'enterprise' or 'professional' class managed product however, I would expect times for first response to be ~15 minutes.  If you are unsure how to differentiate which class the host you are with falls in, don't be afraid to open a ticket with them and ask them what you can expect.  Most are happy to send a quick reply because this is what their 'company' is (this is a service industry right?), it may even excite them that you care enough to ask. I don't mean send an e-mail saying "Hey, are you low end?", I mean opening a dialog with the host, asking them what their "general response times" are like for their unmanged tier and if you needed them in an emergency what would be their availability (also by opening a ticket and seeing how long it takes them in a time where it isn't an emergency should help you to judge for your self what they could do in a true emergency)?

Hope this helps.

Cheers!


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## raindog308 (Apr 2, 2015)

After submitting a ticket, I wait 10 minutes and then if there is no response, I open a thread on LET asking if the host has deadpooled.


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## AnthonySmith (Apr 3, 2015)

Well strictly speaking the confirmation your ticket has been opened and someone will get back to you is a first response which WHMCS for example does automatically, and frankly is just as much use as the second response that most people call the first response for some reason where by someone tells yous someone is looking in to it, which you should already know or be expecting as you took the time to open it in the first place.

I guess everyone is different, I don't need to be wrapped in cotton wool and called princess, I just want results and I have no problem being told that it is my problem either if that is the case.

Unfortunately we live in the world of fake SLA's and manipulated metrics and that my good sirs is why all the jobs are going to India and the quality of everything in general is going down hill fast and that is why when your internet goes down at home your call is answered by a computer (all calls answered within 30 seconds target met), you are then placed in a VERY long queue with hold messages which then tell you if there are any known service outages (Important announcements made available to customers on first contact target met) then when you do get through to someone and explain that your router just went on fire they say "Ok sir I would be very happy to help you with your problem today" (polite responses and good first impressions target met) and then ask you if your connected by wifi or Ethernet anyway....

Circa 1999 I called my ISP, it was answered by a qualified human, I explained the issue, they jumped on the router remotely and fixed the problem and that was that, took about 3 minutes.

Sadly that guy from 1999 no longer has a job, things go wrong more often, they take 100 times longer to report and get fixed, the quality of actual service that matters has all but died and ironically the price has not really changed at all.

So yes.... you can take your first response that only exists to generate nice meaningless numbers and stick them up your...... press 1 to be connected to a customer care representative, i'm sorry are call wait times are longer than expected right now, you may be holding for over an hour for me to tell you someone else will look in to this.


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## WebTech Hosts (Apr 4, 2015)

AnthonySmith said:


> Well strictly speaking the confirmation your ticket has been opened and someone will get back to you is a first response which WHMCS for example does automatically, and frankly is just as much use as the second response that most people call the first response for some reason where by someone tells yous someone is looking in to it, which you should already know or be expecting as you took the time to open it in the first place.
> 
> I guess everyone is different, I don't need to be wrapped in cotton wool and called princess, I just want results and I have no problem being told that it is my problem either if that is the case.
> 
> ...


And after an hour on hold, you need to be transferred to someone else, and get cut off in the meanwhile.

Life if good :-(


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## httpzoom (Apr 4, 2015)

trewq said:


> Under $20 - 24 hours
> 
> 
> Over $20 Under $30 - 12 hours
> ...


This sounds right to me. I think under $20 can be lower than 24 hours but should not expect it. Of course it depends on the type of suport.


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## reckless (Apr 4, 2015)

The providers I use for my main vpses usually respond within 2-3 minutes (Quadranet, Linode), Dediserve would respond in about 5-10 minutes sometimes less, Datashack responds in about 5 minutes or less for the $25 server I have with them. It's been a few months since I have used Ramnode but I remember them responding fast too in around 10 minutes and a lot of times less. All of those companies offer budget hosting and yet provide extremely fast and quality support.


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## Wintereise (Apr 4, 2015)

24 hours is fine by me if I don't have a written SLA contract with you.

If I do, then whatever said contract says.


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## drmike (Apr 4, 2015)

> @KujoesSecuredDragon brand which spells out what you can generally expect right on their front page.  This is refreshing, but not all hosts do this.


Some other providers public post their current ticket response time averages.  It really should be standard at least in client area behind log in.


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## eva2000 (Apr 4, 2015)

factor in timezone differences as I am in Australia and most web hosts I use in USA, acceptable for me is less than 24hrs


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## WebTech Hosts (Apr 4, 2015)

eva2000 said:


> factor in timezone differences as I am in Australia and most web hosts I use in USA, acceptable for me is less than 24hrs


I am in Australia and I still expect that my tickets has been at least responded to within an hour. Not just a confirmation saying that it has been received, a HQ response.


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## Servers4You (Apr 5, 2015)

This is a question I get asked a lot, so I will respond with my opinion (being a customer for many services).

If you open a ticket at night (E.g. 2am), I expect a response some point during the day (E.g. 9am - 1pm), usually within 12 hours. If you open a support ticket during the day (E.g. 12pm till 5pm) I would expect a response within a couple of hours (max of 6 hours). Weekends usually have less staff so I'd expect a response either within 24 hours or first thing on the Monday morning (depending if they provide weekend support).

Although saying this, this would depend on the service and what you have paid for, if someone has paid for a service costing the price of a drink, don't expect an immediate response (24 hour response most likely).


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## samK (Jun 15, 2020)

For email, customers generally *expect* a *response* within 24 hours. For social, the recommended benchmark is to *respond* in 60 minutes or less. For phone, the generally *accepted response time* is three minutes. Of course, for any of these, the shorter the *timeframe*, the better


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