Thinking back over some experiences with webhosts and coming up with the plans for my own service I have come to the conclusion that true 24x7 support might be very rare although almost every webhost offers it. The very first webhost we had offered 24x7 support. Now that I think of it I think the 24x7 support likely only meant you could email a support ticket 24x7 as I never ever received a reply anytiime in the evening or on a weekend. A Friday ticket placement always certainly meant a Monday morning to mid-afternoon answer or resolution. Many companies are one or two person shows at best. Do they really offer 24x7 support in those cases? How do you define 24x7 support? Is this something you should put in your TOS?

Originally posted by dmxconsult
Many companies are one or two person shows at best. Do they really offer 24x7 support in those cases?
Do the math and you'll have your answer.

How do you define 24x7 support?
24x7

Is this something you should put in your TOS?
If a company claims 24x7 in its marketing language and then has to grind the definition down to a fine point their TOS, then I would think that 24x7 is not really what was meant.

The larger companies can indeed offer this because they actually employ people outside the time-zone the business operator is in.

Smaller companies have hard time fulfilling the 24x7 promise because they are limited in people and funds.

I myself do actually answer hosting related emails and messages on the weekend. If the company does not, I think they are coming up short of what I believe is the ideal support solution.

You're correct in that 24x7 for a majority of hosts means that you can email or open a help ticket 24x7. :) Small companies like mine can't afford to staff 24x7. But my TOS states that a helpdesk ticket WILL be answered within 12 hours, not 12 mins. :) and 99.9% they are answered in way less then 12 hours...very rare to have to wait that long...heck, most nights I don't get to bed before 2-3am and up about 9. lol...of course weekends I like to sleep late.

But, I happen to have more intelligent clients then normal and I dont get a ton hand holding support tickets. :)

Yes, I like having computer/Internet savvy clients as well... It helps out a lot. If they cannot figure out something, they Google it and then ask, only when they have found nothing. They trust that this wonderful thing we call the Internet will in fact have the information they need _somewhere_ . :D

Since '97 I've only hosted with one company that had true 24/7 support... out of a ton of hosting companies. I do note that many more companies are starting to see that true 24/7 support is well worth the investment.

Since a lot of webmasters do updates late at night (I do anyway :) ), it would only make sense for a company to offer support during those times.

LOL on the post above that says 24/7 means you can put in a support ticket... never heard of that one! But that is true, but not what customers think of when we here 24/7! :)

24/7 support to me is the company is truly there 24/7 and will have reasonable response times, I think 1 hour or around that range would be very fair.

The sad part is, many hosts, with support teams numbering 1 or 2 claim that they offer 24/7 support, but cannot offer it. Simply stating what you can truly offer instead of trying to deceive customers will put you in a much better position. Some of these companies don't realize honesty is the best policy.

Thanks guys. I was beginning to think 24x7 support was a term like "unlimited bandwidth", wink, wink. Glad to know it is what it is.

Well it does exist, although it's not nearly as ubiquitous as it appears at first glance. The best way to find out if a company offers true 24/7 is to send them support questions at the various times of day.

It's always a case of read the small print and test them with an email at 9pm :-)

Why just 9pm? Why not 1am, 3am, 7am, 12pm, 4pm, 5pm etc. :)

i know that i have been approached from people in pakistan and china asking if my company needs a support tech. although i don't need another one, it is feasable for a small hosting company to provide it.

Per a certain amount of customers and staff of course. For example, I don't think two people working 12 hour shifts would be the best situation.

But yes, as you said it can be done.

The focus of this thread falls more on the fact that so many companies claim it, but never live up to it.

dathorn.com replied my ticket question within 5 minutes in most cases. Doesn't matter if there is 1am, 3am EST or 5pm EST in the afternoon.

So yes, 24/7 in some companies are real.

Comes down to money. Can a host afford to physically staff a helpdesk 24x7. I'd say a good majority cannot.

most US hosting companies cannot provide a reliable Support crew that can handle a 24/7/365 shift. I think this is one of
the most important thing a client should consider.

Having said that alot of small webhost's are using a cost effective method to offer support during out-of-hours

They outsource using companies like www.bobcares.com

most US hosting companies cannot provide a reliable Support crew that can handle a 24/7/365 shift. I think this is one of
the most important thing a client should consider.


Interesting to me why this trend just happens to be so limited to the US hosts. Do you have some statistics that you could show to prove this?

Well, we're based in Canada but offer (and do have) 24/7 support. However we also do a lot of server management and support for a lot of other companies so we need it.

Doesn't require a "huge" # of staff. Just a decent number of well placed ones. We have employee's in Spain to handle the UK hours, a few in Aus for those hours and some in east and central Canada for "normal 9-5" hours as well as a few on the west coast in California to handle that time zone as well.

The one thing we can't afford just yet is 24/7 toll free phone support... but we're working on it.

But I know a few companies that offer it and it's really just one or two ppl who aren't around half the time or on weekends. Easiest way to tell is to email a companies support email at a few select times and see how quick they answer each one.

But I know a few companies that offer it and it's really just one or two ppl who aren't around half the time or on weekends. Easiest way to tell is to email a companies support email at a few select times and see how quick they answer each one.


Exactly. Many people seem to overlook the fact that this simple test can reveal a good portion of the time that a host may not really be what it claims to be. Appearances can be deceiving, and so you cannot believe everything that you hear.

Yep, actually I'd personally have to recommend emailing a hosts support dept at least once or twice not just to test if they have true 24/7 support, but just as a general speed test.

If they take a day or 2 to answer and quick answers are what you're looking for then obviously they can't be the right host for you.

cool, im interested

Exactly. The critical information that you can find out about a company from just a few pre-sales emails can really save you down the road. I think one should test a host whether they offer 24/7 support or not to get an idea of the type of help you're going to get, response times, etc

A pre-sales question could take 5 minutes because it's a pre-sales question. Those are easy and don't really require brain power.

A support question could take 5 minutes or 2 hours depending on what it involves.

It isn't really accurate to judge a company by pre-sales response time.

A pre-sales question could take 5 minutes because it's a pre-sales question. Those are easy and don't really require brain power.

A support question could take 5 minutes or 2 hours depending on what it involves.

It isn't really accurate to judge a company by pre-sales response time.


That depends upon the question first off. There are plenty of pre-sales questions that may require more than just a few moments to answer.

Also you must consider the fact that you have some idea of what type of service you'll get versus no idea at all if you do not try it. Afterall, if a company takes excess time to respond to something 'simple' then you know you don't want to have to wait on things if they really go wrong, so actually it's quite accurate. If they cannot take a few minutes to answer a simple question in a reasonable amount of time, then they'd be removed from my list right away.

The general idea isn't to see how fast they can solve a problem, it's to see how fast they actually answer the email.

They might answer a pre-sales Q in 5 minutes... if they're there. But try emailing them at 3 AM on a Sunday morning and see if they can answer so fast.

A lot of companies are run by only one or two ppl and at night and weekends they may not be so quick to answer.

I think most customers would agree that they'd rather know an issue was being worked on quickly then have to wait hours for a reply. Sending in pre-sales emails gives you an idea of whether or not the company is there to read an answer the emails and begin work quickly on any issues that arise.

Originally posted by xAngelx
A lot of companies are run by only one or two ppl and at night and weekends they may not be so quick to answer.

Shouldn't a web hosting "company" be more than 2 people?
How can 2 people advertise 24/7 unless one sleeps during the day, while the other one works. ;)

Heh you'd be amazed at how many ppl claim 24/7 support Kayla. Like I said, I have a few friends in the business who do it.

They're betting on not many users needing help in "off" hours.

There are a lot of companies out there nowadays that are run by teenagers etc. They either don't have or don't want to spend the $ on extra help, but without advertising 24/7 support they might not get as many clients. So they advertise 24/7 and hope nobody catches them at a bad time.

It seems to be a requirement to have 24x7 support listed on your website just as it is to have 99.999% uptime listed.

Customers want to see it so companies (who have been in business for 2 days) put it on their site.

Heck, the templatemonster templates come pre-designed with these phrases :cartman:

I've been into a discussion on this board before about 24x7 support about one year ago and the majority of the hosts argued that it ment their customers could submit a trouble ticket 24x7 or send an email 24x7.

IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT! It means there is a support person on duty 24x7. And nothing else!!

Imagine Rackshack offering "24x7 support" which ment that when a server needed a reboot you'ld have to wait until the next morning but hey... you could submit a reboot request 24x7 right?
Hosts would scream bloody murder :D

It falls into the category of false advertising. Unfortunatly there is no control over it. You can put nearly anything you like on your website without it having to be true.

I agree Pilgrim. When you say '24/7 Support' that means you can submit a support ticket at any amount of time and get a reply in a reasonable amount of time. Not that you can submit a ticket, email, etc and wait 12-24 hours for it to be responded to.