Ok, our POP3 has been down for about 5hrs now at mchost. There has been no word from any staff, no announcement in the forum - nothing. This was the same when the Chicago server was hacked and everything was lost, including backups.

My understanding of 24*7 support is that there are real humans working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Some folks are under the impression that 24*7 support means you can email them 24*7.

What is the true definition of 24*7 support?

What error do you see when trying to check your mail?

24/7 support should mean that there is someone there to answer your e-mails all the time, and not just that you can send them e-mails at any time of the day. Even companies that dont have 24/7 support should have an emergency contact e-mail or something similar.

I agree with SplashHost.com ;)

Originally posted by voxtreme-matt
What error do you see when trying to check your mail?
Cpanel brought itself and POP down after last nights update on London.

My point is mchost promise 24*7 support but this problem existed for around 5hrs without being fixed. How can this be 24*7 support?

First of all, so you don't read my message the wrong way, I do of course feel for you, Aussie Bob - these incidents are always too bad when it happen.

As said earlier I think 24/7 should mean someone is there all the time.

I don't know all circumstances in this particular case - but theoretically it could be so that all their support techs were working on other ( higher prioritized ) tickets. My point being :this case says nothing about them lying about 24/7 support.

But as Splashhost says, in general a host should have some type of emergency way of communication - so one at least could know for sure the other side has received the message and are working on it ( or will in XXX hours )

I see that they are still having those problems...I couldnt take all that down time so I had to move on....

24/7 Support means that they have staff avaible 24/7. Now that doesn't mean that they are doing something. It just means that they have staff there. :eek:

You have to put "24/7 support" into context. Say a company has 100 websites hosted... and 1% of these sites submits a ticket on Monday night at 3am... there is only 1 ticket to be answered by the support person who is awake at 3am.
If on the other hand you are talking about a company such as MChost.. who has 20,000 websites hosted... and 1% of these sites submits a ticket on Monday night at 3am... there are 200 tickets to be answered by the support person who is awake at 3am!

It is for this very reason, that some people prefer to go with resellers... most big companies simply dont give customers 'personal support'.

Most hosts advertise 24/7 support but most are just lying, unfortuantely. Sad but true. Very easy to say you have 24/7 email support and hard to disprove. In reality it mean"We accept support requests 24/7 but you'll have to wait at least until I get up in the morning". LOL.

However, I don't doubt that McHost DO work 24/7. They are quite large and would have a hard job operating unless they weren't 24/7.

Originally posted by ASPCode.net
First of all, so you don't read my message the wrong way, I do of course feel for you, Aussie Bob - these incidents are always too bad when it happen.

As said earlier I think 24/7 should mean someone is there all the time.

I don't know all circumstances in this particular case - but theoretically it could be so that all their support techs were working on other ( higher prioritized ) tickets. My point being :this case says nothing about them lying about 24/7 support.

But as Splashhost says, in general a host should have some type of emergency way of communication - so one at least could know for sure the other side has received the message and are working on it ( or will in XXX hours )

What could be a higher priority than a service being down? As a former customer of MCHost, I've noticed that when a service goes down very early in the morning, there's nobody's around to handle the tickets or read the forums. Their idea of "24/7 support" is having a pager that goes off while they're sleeping when their service monitor reports that a service is down. The problem is, their service monitor doesn't always correctly report when a service goes down.

Originally posted by NexDog
However, I don't doubt that McHost DO work 24/7. They are quite large and would have a hard job operating unless they weren't 24/7.
From our experience, there is a definite period of darkness where there is no action from anyone at mchost. There's no staff on the support forum etc. It's usually a 6hr period.

IMO, the extra staff that Marc says is coming is so they can provide true 24/7 support. But it's not there now.

Originally posted by Aussie Bob

From our experience, there is a definite period of darkness where there is no action from anyone at mchost. There's no staff on the support forum etc. It's usually a 6hr period.

Correct, but not entirely correct. The way our support schedules are set-up, there should be a tech support around 24/7, even at 4am. But you are correct, there should be, there is supposed to be, but there isn't. Do you understand what i mean? Thats why i said we are going to do some changes in the next few days which will correct these issues ...

Originally posted by Kiwi


Correct, but not entirely correct. The way our support schedules are set-up, there should be a tech support around 24/7, even at 4am. But you are correct, there should be, there is supposed to be, but there isn't. Do you understand what i mean? Thats why i said we are going to do some changes in the next few days which will correct these issues ...
I predict much improved performance from mchost . I think mchost is in the third phase of its business evolution. Things will get better. They have to. If they don't, mchost will die. So it's adapt or go extinct :)

I pay good money to have support 24 hours a day, and my clients get replies in less than 2 hours in almost all cases. That is what I advertise. Now, if I can offer it, and give what I promise, why is it that these so called big server companies with a 24 hour support phone advertised don't answer their phones? I have been through a few companies which say one thing but give another. This is not for a little virtual account, but for several servers.
I don't know, but I am typing this while the phones-a-ringing

Most phone numbers are 800 numbers... which cost a pretty penny. Most low-cost companies dont even offer phone numbers... the ones that do need to draw the line somewhere, they cant clock up a $200 phone bill, when you only give them $5/month - its just common sense really.

I guess the 'phone thing' doesnt really concern me... since i dont live in the US :D

I have almost everything ready in the next month to start my reselling company, however I do have a problem with Tech support. My internet connection goes down any where from 6:00pm CST to 8:30pm CST.

I guess the net is just busy at that time, but how long is a ticket that is un-resolved considered slow response time? I can't afford to pay to internet service bills a month and the other service available in my area is worse then this. :(

So basicly, if it was 22/7 would that be considered bad? lol.

No, no, you guys have it all wrong.

24/7 support means that you get support on the 24th of July.

:D

Thank you for clearing that up. :rolleyes:

Anyone willing to post a good response ? lol :cool:

24/7 means someone is available 24 hours a day to answer support tickets

now with us toll free phone support is only available from 7-5 pm during office times however email forums and tickets are answered and worked 24/7

there are many hosts that state support is available 24/7 but they only are there to work support 9-5

i feel if you need to back your claims

75% of our sign ups came from people who tried out our support before they ordered just to test it out.

which i hope everyone does before they go for a 24/7 company

I think the definition of 24/7 support depends on how you advertise it....
If you advertise 24/7 EMAIL support, then I wouldn't expect to get through at 3am on the phone.. but I would expect some sort of response at 3am via email.
Same with advertised PHONE support or TICKET System support... what you advertise is what needs to be done...

And like most, I've seen many hosts where this is not done.. even if they have one of the ways 24/7, they think this means the can advertise true 24/7 support and don't mention its only by 1 contact method...

Interesting...
palmtree

How long is a normal response time for a ticket, just an average response that is? Ty.

I think it would depend on your service offerings and what the customers are expecting/needing..

But I think if you can outsource your support and they guarantee a human response within 1 hour and a resolution within 6 hours... then those should be average/typical times. Any quicker than that and that would be great.

Thanks for all your help. :)

I have been looking and yet to find, a program (or script?) that will alert me as to a knew ticket (Perl Desk). Is there any type of program like that? (eg. automatic refresh maybe with sound alert? or am I just dreaming lol).

I use http://www.perldesk.com/ also.... isn't there a feature like that built in? I know you can set it up to send an email to you whenever you get a new ticket... maybe setup your email client to play a sound when you get a new email?

Laterz,
palmtree

This might just work. Thanks! :)

Have your email client page you if you aren't right at a computer to be safe :D

So the big question is...................

Is support 24/7 if it has a 6 hour period of waiting?

I mean 24/7 can mean.....We accept calls but won't answer till later or it could mean.......We have people here but they don't do anything.......or it could mean........We have only one person doing 24/7 support since we have 20,000 Clients you will have to wait.

So is a 6 hour response time 24/7??? :eek:

I think it all depends. The most important thing to anyone should be, is there a person there 24.7 wataching the Network, available for at least server reboots and stuff like that.

Yep, Thats very true but now we are talking about something different.

Virtual Hosts.......24/7 is different from dedicated 24/7 because deds need so much more attention and problems are usually harder to work out.

Yep, sorry about that.. I think that 24/7 could mean so many different things. hehe what does 24/7/365 mean? Does your web-host have someone available on Christmas Day?? :D

Originally posted by MattS
Does your web-host have someone available on Christmas Day?? :D

I see you are making the assumption that all webhosting companies follow Christian Beliefs. I can see this argument developing into something more sinister than 24/7 support.

I think that Marc made a valid statement and Mchost customers can expect a higher level of service in the near future. If you follow these forums closely then you will see that Marc is avidly recruiting new staff.

What would be nice to see across the board with hosting companies is a real service level agreement (SLA). This would mean a commitment to provide a set level of service all the time that was not open to interpretation. Now that would be nice.

Simon

That is a good idea :rolleyes: ....back to work..