Hi, just wondering how many other people get flip or rude responses from the "sales teams" of various web hosts when you e-mail them some questions about their service.

There've been three different hosts so far that have responded with a "Please read (URL) - all of your questions are answered there." and then I do (I already did before I e-mailed them) and my questions of course aren't answered. I have to e-mail them back with a "If my questions were already answered I wouldn't be asking them." type of e-mail, which isn't the best way to begin a relationship with a new host.

And of course some of them don't know what I'm asking - I guess the sales people answering e-mail have no clue about what's actually on the server, or what services they provide. Two hosts so far have responded to one question with "What's cron?"

My favourite was "We do not offer any dial-up service, so I don't think we offer telnet."

Has anyone else run across inept sales depts.?

-- Jough

I called a hosting company and the *Kid* that answered the phone was chewing gum in my ear chewing it like a cow chews grass ! :eek:

I'd be a bit worried if the salespeople are rude. More likely than not, the support dept. will be just as bad or worse. In fact, the sales dept. is usually nicer than the support dept. when it comes to many hosting companies.

Two words: Ready Hosting. Prior to signing up (not sure why I did after this) I called to ask a few questions. It was a good way to see what type of response I should expect. They answered the phone really fast which was nice but when I would ask any question they would act like I should have known the answer. And I also searched high and low throughout their site prior to asking any questions so I didn't take up more of MY time. I signed up and cancelled short of two weeks later after my site was down for more than 12 hours and I was given no decent explanation.

Here is one.
I had a billing dispute, and they would not answer my emails for 4-5 days, but when I sent my cancelation request the sites whore deleted in < 30 min., and I got this e-mail in < 1 hour.
" Sir,
These 2 domains have been deleted.
Have a nice day. "
I did had a nice day, my problem ended - almost, I still have few more sites on there servers, but not for long ;)

It's almost just a pure fact that techs are usually unhappy at their jobs and it shows to the customers. Before I started this company years ago I was a manager of a call center floor for Gateway 2000. The hardest people to make please the customers were the brightest. They just thought that the peoples questions were stupid and they were unhappy were they were. You have to remember many of the hosts have their sysadmin's answering emails which they feel is beneath them. The companies you need to look for are the ones where the support emails are obviously read through and the employees obviously know it. For instance we read through all of the responses that our support team sends back and if someone ever sounds rude we definetly take action.

I've done business with quite a few hosts over the years, but never had much of a problem with rudeness. My gripe about some of them would be that they either don't answer their e-mail at all (cwihosting.com), or they send a half-assed one sentence reply to a lengthy, complicated question (webaxxs.com). I guess some of it is probably just laziness, but I'm a businessman myself, and if I responded to customers in such a way, I'd run my business into the ground.

Similar to ***** that won't cancel your account & keeps billing you until you change the credit card number ;)

Originally posted by Epsilon
or they send a half-assed one sentence reply to a lengthy, complicated question (webaxxs.com). I guess some of it is probably just laziness, but I'm a businessman myself, and if I responded to customers in such a way, I'd run my business into the ground.

Oh that's my biggest pet peeve after 6 years online. Back when I was a customer of webhosts, if I ever got a one-liner, it would get my hair up... So much so that now, the rare times I *can* answer an e-mail in one line, I'll pad it up a bit to make it at least a few lines longer (usually asking about the service level in general they've gotten etc).

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Don't reply to customers in one line. All that's going to do is have them e-mail you straight back so you're at square one again.

READ their questions carefully so you know everything they are asking

RESPOND to the initial e-mail as soon as possible, even if it's just to let them know you're aware of their problem/concern/whatever, and are looking into it.

FOLLOWUP to their e-mail. Whether it's to complete the support call itself, or to contact them a day or so later to confirm the problem has been fixed.

Whether this is a new thing amongst a lot of hosts, or just something coming to a head at the moment, the lack of some companies to service their customers with the common courtesy of a reply is quite disappointing. Considering a few of them are big enough to know better is even more so. You're in business due to your customers, and your customers 'owe' you nothing. Maybe some people forget they work for their client base, not their stockholders... :)

Greg Moore

Originally posted by akashik


Oh that's my biggest pet peeve after 6 years online. Back when I was a customer of webhosts, if I ever got a one-liner, it would get my hair up... So much so that now, the rare times I *can* answer an e-mail in one line, I'll pad it up a bit to make it at least a few lines longer (usually asking about the service level in general they've gotten etc).

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Don't reply to customers in one line. All that's going to do is have them e-mail you straight back so you're at square one again.

READ their questions carefully so you know everything they are asking

RESPOND to the initial e-mail as soon as possible, even if it's just to let them know you're aware of their problem/concern/whatever, and are looking into it.

FOLLOWUP to their e-mail. Whether it's to complete the support call itself, or to contact them a day or so later to confirm the problem has been fixed.

Whether this is a new thing amongst a lot of hosts, or just something coming to a head at the moment, the lack of some companies to service their customers with the common courtesy of a reply is quite disappointing. Considering a few of them are big enough to know better is even more so. You're in business due to your customers, and your customers 'owe' you nothing. Maybe some people forget they work for their client base, not their stockholders... :)

Greg Moore

Couldn't be put better...

Aloha,
yeah it seems more and more places do not care anymore
but there are some good ones out there

this is a good way to check those off the list that are rude

Originally posted by akashik
So much so that now, the rare times I *can* answer an e-mail in one line, I'll pad it up a bit to make it at least a few lines longer

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that! When I get one of those questions that take 30 seconds to reply to, I end up working for 10 minutes trying to make the reply longer :D

Originally posted by jic
It's almost just a pure fact that techs are usually unhappy at their jobs and it shows to the customers. Before I started this company years ago I was a manager of a call center floor for Gateway 2000. The hardest people to make please the customers were the brightest. They just thought that the peoples questions were stupid and they were unhappy were they were. You have to remember many of the hosts have their sysadmin's answering emails which they feel is beneath them. The companies you need to look for are the ones where the support emails are obviously read through and the employees obviously know it. For instance we read through all of the responses that our support team sends back and if someone ever sounds rude we definetly take action.

There was an article in Web Hosting Magazine last month about this. Basically, hosting companies are totally overlooking their support and sales team. Often, these people are working in rows of cubicles for practically slave wages. Often they are temp workers who aren't even invited to the company parties.

It's hard to be a "team player" when you dont feel like part of the team.

The moral of the story is PAY YOUR SALES AND SUPPORT STAFF WHAT THEY DESERVE!

--Tina

Well, I've been told by the support guy that he is extremely sorry, and he UNDERSTANDS my frustration..

but there is absolutely nothing he can do!!! don't want to go into details, but they messed up big time...

Anyways, I didn't call a shrink, so he could understand my frustration, but a support staff that suppose to help me solve the problem!!!!!!!!

aaaaaaaa!

Originally posted by Lawrence


I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that! When I get one of those questions that take 30 seconds to reply to, I end up working for 10 minutes trying to make the reply longer :D Well at least it shows that you care about satisfying the customer's concerns.

Some people look at answering e-mail as a chore, but a smart business person will look at it as an opportunity to educate the customer, or potential customer, about other services they offer.

You can also ask them for feedback. Something like, "Our goal is to provide a high quality service to each and every customer. Tell us how we're doing!"

Now some hosting companies would shudder at the thought of actually inviting more e-mail, but this sends a message to the customer that you care about their business. And if they respond with a problem, it gives you an opportunity to fix it before they take their business elsewhere.

Just my thoughts.

Originally posted by Epsilon
Now some hosting companies would shudder at the thought of actually inviting more e-mail, but this sends a message to the customer that you care about their business.

And it also gives them a chance to tell you exactly what they think of your service. A customer may sit and stew quietly over some issue before finally throwing their hands in the air and moving on. If they know you *want* to here about anything they're not satisfied with *before* it gets to be a major issue, then everyone is going to have a much cooler head as you both work on getting the problem solved.

A while back we were toying with the idea of sending out a survey every few months or so, but ultimately decided it better not to fill customers in-boxes with more rubbish :) Currently we're thinking of adding one to the site somewhere.

Oh, another quick tip I picked up a long time ago. Start your e-mails with their name, not "Dear Customer". It's a small thing but makes a big difference to the customer involved.

Greg Moore

Originally posted by Lawrence
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that!

I think my worst example of it is a few months ago, I'd written a reply in one line. I sat back to work out how to expand the answer a little when I had to open a window in IE for some reason. I accidently poked 'send' on this e-mail and off it went. To this day I don't know why, but I went into a panic and immediately sent another e-mail to them apologising for the short answer and giving them a heap of information about upcoming features etc.

An hour or so later I got a reply back from them, laughing their heads off at me, but thanking me for the extra time and effort. End result - happy customer and me feeling like an ass for the rest of the day :blush:

Greg Moore

I'm with Greg, I ALWAYS address them by their name, include step by step instructions, and (if I have something in mind) give them a link to a site where (after their problem is solved), they can read up on the theory behind what they are trying to do. Smarter customers are ultimately better.

Regards.

I also find it useful to use the customers language. What I mean by that is, as an example in our case, if they say they have "phantom admins in their message board", I won't reply and talk about "ghost moderators in their forum". It helps their understanding of the solution that you give them when you use the terms that they're obviously familiar with.

And also never reply with an answer of "no" when they're asking about, for example, if a certain feature is in your hosting package. Always offer an alternative suggestion (a quick but not particularly good example that comes to mind is, "No, we don't have Telnet, but we do have SSH").

Originally posted by akashik

Oh, another quick tip I picked up a long time ago. Start your e-mails with their name, not "Dear Customer". It's a small thing but makes a big difference to the customer involved.

Greg Moore


Absolutely! I start out almost every email with "Hi (name)," - I firmly believe it makes a BIG difference.

--Tina

Originally posted by Lawrence
I also find it useful to use the customers language. What I mean by that is, as an example in our case, if they say they have "phantom admins in their message board", I won't reply and talk about "ghost moderators in their forum". It helps their understanding of the solution that you give them when you use the terms that they're obviously familiar with.

And also never reply with an answer of "no" when they're asking about, for example, if a certain feature is in your hosting package. Always offer an alternative suggestion (a quick but not particularly good example that comes to mind is, "No, we don't have Telnet, but we do have SSH").

Good advice! Another thing...we have an extensive Searchable FAQ section - and most every question that is asked is almost ALWAYS covered there. Instead of answering support email with "Its in the FAQ" - I will tell them "That answer, and many more, is covered in our FAQ (link here). Basically, the answer to your question is (answer here)."

This serves two purposes....first, it lets the customer know that we actually care to help...second, it makes them check the FAQ first, the next time!.

--Tina

These are all VERY informative posts. I agree with Epsilon on asking:

Our goal is to provide a high quality service to each and every customer. Tell us how we're doing.

That is a great point. Also for a company that is does 100s of emails per day, its important, as things do get repetitive, and sometimes time is an issue where as how many cases a particular worker needs to complete. I think this is what also leads to no names addressing of the emails, short/rude replies and on. To ask the customer how everything is and addressing them by their name surely makes a HUGE difference. This makes it much more personnel then so they don't feel like faceless/nameless customer# 3923

As a response to Epsilon's first post, on emails, we have added a tracking system to guarantee response to all support cases.. This way, if you have further questions, or think the answer is taking to long, you can call with tracking number in hand. Sometimes if you have a lot or emails, one can accidentally be overlooked. Help desks and other customer support software has helped greatly for this area in our industry I think.

On the initial topic which we got a little broad on, Rude Sales is something you surely should not stand for. If these are the people trying to get your business, you can only imagine once they have it. Shouldn't even reply to a rude sales email except for maybe letting them know your looking else where due to the rudeness, and ,maybe email/copy it to a person in a higher position.

Originally posted by CWIhosting
As a response to Epsilon's first post, on emails, we have added a tracking system to guarantee response to all support cases.. This way, if you have further questions, or think the answer is taking to long, you can call with tracking number in hand. Sometimes if you have a lot or emails, one can accidentally be overlooked. Hmmm... well, my difficulties with your company, CWIHosting, went far beyond that. I actually opened an account last week and closed it this week. I don't care to go into all the reasons here, because it's not my intent to try to damage your business, but I believe you received a fax from me this morning. (I faxed over my letter because I didn't get a response to the e-mail I sent on Monday).

No problem Epsilon. That is why we offer 3 different methods to close an account, whatever is easier or faster for the customer.

You didn't send a request for support then, which I am talking about. I was suprised, as we do answer all our email, I promise you? All those are tracked and you would have a tracking number. You must have emailed billing, which tries to confirm cancellations and questions as fast as the can at the end of each Month when it is very busy for them, due to trying to contact and remind all those that have not paid yet or problems with their card and other end of month reconciliation type of things.

Thanks for the great points in your posts, which I am sure many will benefit from.

Not that it matters now, but I did email support. My tracking number was 12945. I explained that the user/pass issued to me did not allow me access via FTP. I got an error message saying "user not found". Also, when I typed the URL for the control panel and entered the correct user/pass, I got a 404 not found error.

Well, I got a response from noreply@cwihosting.com that said only, "I have just checked your account and can find no problem with the User/Pass you have provided us."

First of all, you provided them to me, not the other way around, and secondly, they still didn't work. It wasn't user error, either. I've been using my FTP software for years. Anyway, like I said - it doesn't matter now. Thanks.

Ok, so we DID answer your email unlike your first post in this thread. "don't answer their e-mail at all (cwihosting.com),"

I was just wondering because you said we don’t answer our email which is not true.

Trying the same login you sent in the ticket worked here fine? Furthermore, you could have called with your tracking number to get more personal help. Like you said, this is getting off the topicof this thread. Feel from to PM me if you would like to talk more on this.

No, I wouldn't care to PM you. But when I said you don't answer e-mail I was referring to the e-mails I sent on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday of last week, and Monday of this week. The service ticket was the only one I got a response to, and it was one of those one-line responses that didn't help me in the least.

I could also add that I called you on Saturday about the then unanswered service ticket from Friday and the "operator" said she would page someone and have them call me back immediately. Nobody called, which is why you received my account cancellation on Monday. So much for 24/7 tech support.

Odd that you're so eager to respond to me here.

Oh, well.

This is one of the most useful post I have found on this board, at least for me. Many thanks to everyone posting valuable information/advise here.

Those are my rules, of course I'm not in a hosting business.
Rule#1 - client is always right.
Rule#2 - your client is your employer, if you don’t understand, go back and read #1 or find another employer.
I have been doing this for about 7 years, with no advertising what so ever, just client-to-client recommendations.
Of course you do work for free one day, but you will be paid in a long run.
One more think your client only need you to solve his problems, not blame him for what he/she did wrong.

Epsilon - did you search WHT before you open with CWIhosting ? You don't need to answer ;)

hey Epsilon, I'm not the ONLY employee at this Corporation. You never emailed ME personally, so that comment was not necessary or fair to me. I'm just trying to lend a hand and discuss this where it pertains to the thread, unlike this or personally.

Obviously this getting no where, and doesn’t “really” matter as its off-topic. You send a ticket to CWI, your guaranteed an answer, which you got. Saying we don’t answer “at all” is not true. “Emails” don’t go to support anyway. However I can not track every single email we get only support requests, nor do I know who you contacted here, so I was simply offering assistance, and thanking you for your informative post.

As stated before, and m6.net comments, I also think this was a VERY productive thread so far except the little off-topic spiel which I aided, and apologize for. More hosts and consumers should share information like this, . and less negativity. Great thread, and all who posted. I have already submitted these ideas to management for consideration of standard procedures to email responses, and the ones we did not already have are starting to take effect. Such as always addressing by name, and looking it up in our quick database if the name was not given.