Just got this request in a while ago

"Where is my F.... website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm trying to get a job with my email address as my
logo and my website is not appearing on any computer in the entire world.
I pay you people working out of your god forbidden basement $5.00 a month to host a website that has been taken offline twice in two years. I Pay you on time all the time where is my website. Please!!!!!!!!! I'm desparate."

How do you react to people like this? Heck, I took that twice in two years comment as a compliment considering the first time the downtime was like 5 minutes and this time i got it up within 20 minutes. Why do people expect 100% uptime over years when they only pay 5 dollars a month? Plus I have no idea where the basement comment comes from, my house does not even have a basement.

I pay like 55 a month for my cable modem and since I use it like all day, I have noticed the service go down once in a while but thats to be expected. If I was paying 5 dollars a month for the service, I dont think I would mind at all. I dont know how to explain to this person in a professional way that they should not expect as much as they do and that they are lucky they have had as little downtime as they have reported in two whole years.

Your customer's email would make it sound like it was down longer than 20 minutes.

It sounds to me like that customer is probably at a bad spot in their life and just a little frustrated.

I would suggest just replying back and stating that you sincerely appreciate their business, apologize for the downtime, and point out that you have a great uptime ratio and that any time there is any kind of an outage, you have always worked quickly to resolve it and that you will continue to do so.

There is a lot to be said for diplomacy when it comes to customer support and so I think being direct, honest and positive is always the best course of action.

Yeap, it does sound like that but like I said that was not the case. Was that all you were going to post? I sort of expected a helpful reply like cdgcommerce's. I do agree with you cdgcommerce on your approach tho.

Twice in 2 years is pretty good uptime if you ask me.

Hes just having a bad day ;)

- Eddy

Having downtime only twice in two years is very good. This guy was most likely having a bad day and frustrated about other issues aside from the hosting. He vented to you because he felt he could place blame with his hosting services.

Yeh, not your fault at all! Reply to him, apologise, make him feel special..lol

2 TIMES A YEAR?!?! YOU'RE SUCH A FAILURE! Ha, yeah right. 2 times a year is quite a track record my friend, congrats. Just reply and be as polite as possible :)

This has happened to us in the passed. A client did email us after Apache was down for 5 minutes around 2AM a couple months ago. It was the first time he was down with us and he'd been with us for almost half a year.
He later apologized for the remarks, I'd expect the same to happen to you in due time.

Its just pure frustration. Dont worry and handle him with care. all you have to do is to apologize for the downtim and explain a little about the problem.

This surely will make him feel better.

I think CSdesk is right, it’s far better to apologize for the temporary problem the customer has faced.
As if you are going to contradict or argue with him it possible that you might get the victory in vacuum, but you may loss the customers goodwill on other hand.

Just responding to the client will usually solve the problem, this client is looking for something or they would not have sent you an email in the first place.

Let them know what happened to cause the downtime, let them know what you have done to prevent it in the future. Ask them if they needed anything else.

This will make a client happy 99% of the time.

Give him a free month and point out that 2 times in 1 year, with the total amount of time you've been down, is not bad at all in this industry.

--Tina

By way of compensating as free one month service or so, you are accepting your fault and highlighting your own mistake in broader way and may be violating your TOS/AUP too.
I think by doing so, it can create a bad impact in the mind of the client about the credibility; they might think that he is compensating it with his own fault. On other hand it might be possible that the client will wait for further chance to meet even a minor problem or may point out other any false reason for availing such free service again.

This is my thought only.:rolleyes:

Originally posted by BlueCapacity
Just got this request in a while ago

"Where is my F.... website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm trying to get a job with my email address as my
logo and my website is not appearing on any computer in the entire world.
I pay you people working out of your god forbidden basement $5.00 a month to host a website that has been taken offline twice in two years. I Pay you on time all the time where is my website. Please!!!!!!!!! I'm desparate."

How do you react to people like this? Heck, I took that twice in two years comment as a compliment considering the first time the downtime was like 5 minutes and this time i got it up within 20 minutes. Why do people expect 100% uptime over years when they only pay 5 dollars a month? Plus I have no idea where the basement comment comes from, my house does not even have a basement.

I pay like 55 a month for my cable modem and since I use it like all day, I have noticed the service go down once in a while but thats to be expected. If I was paying 5 dollars a month for the service, I dont think I would mind at all. I dont know how to explain to this person in a professional way that they should not expect as much as they do and that they are lucky they have had as little downtime as they have reported in two whole years.

Simple: Give a standard response and close the ticket. Remind them of what your terms say about downtime. For example in my TOS it says 98% which allows up to 14.6 hours of downtime a month on average.

And if they keep complaining with every 1 minute server reboot you have simply tell them to look for another host. Then they will either get more careful or they will look for another host which will solve the problem for you in either case.

Originally posted by thomas.smith
Simple: Give a standard response and close the ticket. Remind them of what your terms say about downtime. For example in my TOS it says 98% which allows up to 14.6 hours of downtime a month on average.

And if they keep complaining with every 1 minute server reboot you have simply tell them to look for another host. Then they will either get more careful or they will look for another host which will solve the problem for you in either case. Holy sheepsh*t thomas.smith.....

You're never going to keep enough customers to retire with in a few years if that's the way you treat them.

I've lost like 2 customers that way in like a year and three months... No big deal. Most customers aren`t complaining like that anyway. Most customers aren`t complaining at all... And I think if you provide what you offer there is no reason to complain.

By the way, the big guys are doing exactly the same thing. Businesswise it can`t be bad at all and I`d better safe my time in order to support serious customers.

Also even without doing any ad campaings I gain around 3 times as many clients as I lose just through word of mouth and brand awareness.

I completely agree with thomas.smith that the word of mouth and brand awareness’ is more powerful than an advertisement. It's very true.

A specified brand defines a company's uniqueness and set it apart from competitors. The ultimate customer tends to make a purchasing decision based on peer recommendation (word of mouth) and direct from their own experience and attachment. Your brand image is instilling trust to the customers, and you can achieve the trust by your credibility and reliability only.

Credit his account half a cent for the time his site was down.

25 minutes in two years is good.

Usually a hosting company gives guarantee for 98 or 99% uptime, that mutually being agreed by both when a customer signs up.

Hence it’s well understood from both end that the remaining 2% or 1% downtime respectively might be possible due to some human or technical errors, as disaster don't gives date.

I think it's far better to apologize for the downtime and explain him a little about the problem as professionalism rather than breaking the boundary of his TOS for a refund.