fixidixi
Active Member
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 ..
Acceptable time to wait for ticket response?
- Thread starter Minmeo
- Start date
. Of course I'm not payin for it personally rather my employer does ..TheLinuxBug
New Member
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!
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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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.
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.
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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And after an hour on hold, you need to be transferred to someone else, and get cut off in the meanwhile.
Life if good :-(
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.
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.
Wintereise
New Member
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.
If I do, then whatever said contract says.
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.
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).
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).