I had narrowed down to these three choices. I need some more inputs about their service if your hosting company use them for support.

TouchSupport, Bobcares, SupportPro?

Thanks.

We use TouchSupport, and have done for the last few months.

So far, I have no complaints. They have been everything we could expect them to have been.

The fastest response time I have seen from them was 9 minutes, the slowest was 49 minutes, but that was while they were having a few issues (I presume staff off sick, or something similar) which has now been totally resolved.

I can't argue with their prices at all.

Overall, great service, both for us and our customers.

Moved to Running a Web Hosting Business.

Lois

We use Bobcares from time to time when needed and we have been very pleased with their services.

I tried BobCares a couple of years ago. I remember the techs would close tickets and have bad english skills. So I never quit their service.

Anyone else used any of these services?

Originally posted by Skeptical
So I never quit their service.

So you are still using their services ?

I recommend you also have a look at RootSupport.com as well. We've been using them for over a year now. They have greatly helped with the business and are a solid support backbone for us.

I think getting such review is good things which is a kind of word of mouth from the ultimate users, however I would suggest you should also insure their capability by dropping a ticket and going for a free trial and through online chat /phone asking few question like the staff they keep on board either full time or equivalent, language and fluency, their disaster-recovery plan added with some security based serious question.

I think this type of enquiry will also enable you to get a clear picture of that outsourcinng company.

Good luck!

Touch is really great and I highly recommend them, I used BobCares for a while a year and a half ago and was not impressed, in fact I fired them.

Originally posted by ThinkSupport
So you are still using their services ? Don't know what I was thinking when I typed that last sentence. I quit their service a long time ago.

Hello again,

Has anyone deal with http://www.databasedba.com/

I like some inputs from people who use them. Thanks

touchsupport.com is the way to go out of the three. They are great. We do not use them anymore. We will when ticket loads begin to grow again.

One of our dedicated server clients used supportpro.com and we had such a hard time dealing with them that we eventually had to cancel the client. They absolutely would not follow security protocal and literally harrassed our HelpDesk until we banned them from being able to submit any more tickets. Very unprofessional, in my opinion.

--Tina

TouchSupport is awesome.

Also I'll throw in a plug for rootsupport, they are great to deal with as well.

Originally posted by bwb
Touch is really great and I highly recommend them, I used BobCares for a while a year and a half ago and was not impressed, in fact I fired them.

You did the right thing by firing the guys who claimed to be BobCares and gave you support. I looked for your name (Ben Welch) in our billing history and saw no reference to it. I also searched for
http://www.slabhost.com/
http://bweeb.com/
http://greenknight.org/
http://www.resellerguide.com/

I was unable to find any such client present or past with Bobcares.

Now let's hope you have not had any interaction with us through some other hosting company which you are "associated with" or which is owned by "a friend" ... I guess we have all heard that before. :)

In future I would recommend using our sites to contact us. Also, please use our sites only for paying up....

I think the best way to check a company is to take a trial with them. It would not take more than 3 days to check if they are truly good or not.


Regards
Amar

I apoligize, I used you guys for a trial period and was not happy with your performance but the company I ended up using for a couple months that I was thinking of was Tripodsupport. But I do not recommend you or Tripodsupport, at the time I used you both companies needed improvement to your services and the ability of your techs to not just email the customer back with more questions and no solutions.

Also you got my name wrong, its Ben Welch-bolen and the company was Bweeb Inc / BweebHosting.com which was sold in October of 2004.

Kinda a harsh reply, a bit defensive?
Thanks, Ben

It contradicts what you said earlier. You made everybody believe that you used us for a while a year back. Atleast that is what I inferred out of it and I am sure many other would have done the same.

Also, FYI we did not give any free trials 1.5 years back.

Anyway, I am not trying to win an argument here. I feel what you said here was not correct.

Why you do not recommend us, I do not know.... But I am sure we have not done anything to harm you or your company at any stage.

Bobcares may not be a greatest according to many... but we have surely been in the market for the longest period of time. And we have many great clients who have made us who we are today. It is our clients because of whom we have grown both in India and the US. And I think it is because of this very reason that everybody else is like "bobcares" ...

Anyway, I guess I am getting out of topic. Sorry about it.

Take care.

Regards
Amar

Ok thanks, yep I did use you for a while, just a trial of three days I believe, but maybe it was a week, I'll see if I can find the series of emails, I might have paid a small fee for the trial too. Sorry was a while back, I'll see what details I can find and post here to resolve this.

Thanks,
Ben

I think what sets TouchSupport far ahead of most outsourced companies is the fact that english is there first language. Where as most outsourced companies struggle greatly with english grammer and spelling. Made somewhat obvious by a few posts in this thread.

As I said earlier Ben. I am not interested in any argument. I feel you have made your point clear to me.

Somebody once told me not to get into issues which does not benefit either you or the other person.

In this case, I do not see you as my client ever in the future and I am sure you would not come to me either. So why waste our time and energy in it. I am sure you are busy with other works and as far as I am concerned it is late night for me and I have to sleep... So I won't sit here any reply to your posts.

If you want feel free to chat with me or send me an email and I would love to hear from you if you have anything constructive for us. We would love to improve...


Take care

Regards
Amar

Ok, as I said this was a year ago so perhaps you guys have.

Thanks, Ben

Originally posted by Lubby
I think what sets TouchSupport far ahead of most outsourced companies is the fact that english is there first language. Where as most outsourced companies struggle greatly with english grammer and spelling. Made somewhat obvious by a few posts in this thread.

I guess more important than English is your communication skills and technical knowledge.

Linus Torvalds made Linux with a bunch of guys from around the world. And his first language is not English. He is from Finland. Interestingly many Linux distros are in English. That shows what one can achieve with good communication skills and good technical knowledge.

Another interesting thing I noticed when I was in the US was that even in US people are not really great with English. e.g. if you phone number is 1-603-234-3455
An American would generally say one , six, O, three. What you should say is One , Six , zero , three...

Another interesting thing I have seen is the usage of the term "TOGO" .. Is it for here or togo. What does togo mean and in which dictionary is it.

Please note that I am just trying to stress the fact that more important that English language itself is the communication skills and technical skills.

I am sure Shakespeare would have been a worse tech than I am... But Linus torvalds would be surely a lot better than I am... :)


Regards
Amar

What does togo mean and in which dictionary is it.

What they are saying, Amar, is, "Will you be eating inside our restaurant, or will you be taking it away?". That would be correct, at the very least, better than they do say.

What you see as one word, however, is not. In fact, although it does sound like one word, it is "to go", rather than "togo". Meaning, to take away.

I see your point, we are all guilty of not using the English language properly, damn those yanks, you screwed it up real bad. ;)

In the tech support industry though, speaking fluent English, if representing an English speaking company, is often regarded as higher on the list than having good technical skills.

Anyway, this thread isn't about technical support companies been able to speak English, we know the ones who do not have English as their first language try their very best, and that's all we can ask. :)

Jamie I agree with you that English is important if one is representing and English speaking company.

There is another aspect that we must take into account when we talk about the hosting industry. Does the hosting company cater to a global market or is its core market purely local. i.e. if you are from Concord and if you cater to customers only in Concord, New Hampshire then it is best that you take local people...

If you are catering to a global market then the main focus should be being globally competitive. I'll stress this point with a story I used in a presentation I had given in hostingcon 2005.

Story -
A DOE blind in one eye was accustomed to graze as near to the edge of the cliff as she possibly could, in the hope of securing her greater safety. She turned her sound eye towards the land that she might get the earliest tidings of the approach of hunter or hound, and her injured eye towards the sea, from whence she entertained no anticipation of danger. Some boatmen sailing by saw her, and taking a successful aim, mortally wounded her.

Moral - Trouble comes from where we least expect it


After I gave my presentation a couple of webhosts came to me said that this was indeed very true. For many larger webhosts in the US for example their main competitor may be in Germany or Japan. e.g. See the way 1and1.com is eating away the market of so many webhosts in the US.

When it comes to being globally competitive one has to focus technical knowledge and communication skills.


Regards
Amar

Greetings:

Some of our managed service customers use and are happy with http://www.hostworks.ca/

We've worked on some joint trouble shooting efforts with the staff from http://www.hostworks.ca/ and they come across both nice and knowledgeable.

Thank you.

I read this thread almost every day. This thread has become an interesting thread to follow up! =)

I have interacted with the staff of TouchSupport & Bobcares and I must say, both of them are great. I think TouchSupport has an upperhand though. :)