Hi all

We need to look at outsource support company, on a limited budget. We only have a VPS, with 2 resellers, and 46 of our own clients. Currently we get about 2 - 5 tickets a week, so we don't want / can't afford something like $100 pm just for support.

Ideally we're looking for a per ticket support option, and server monitoring (with support), as an extra would be nice.

So far, the only company I could find, willing to work with me is
http://www.cliffsupport.com

http://www.hostechsupport.com/ seems like another option, but their prices are double. The thing is, I need to multiply everything by 7.5, since we're in South Africa, so costs is an important thing to take into consideration

I have already search the forums, and their name doesn't come up, so I don't know how good their support is. True, you get what you pay for, but if I have two pay more for support than what I make in profit, the company's not going to last.

Any feedback on them?
Any other suggestions / offers?
Anyone willing to give me a "free" (aka no setup fees) run for like two months?

I basically need "Stand by" support between the hours of 21:00 GMT +2 & 8:00 GMT+2, as well as times when I'm unable to manage support myself.

hmm, that is a problem faced my all small hosts, but as you mentioned you have 2-5 support requests a week, why not handle yourself via email? True, the response time will not be always 10 minutes, but good support will come expensive and not cost effective until you get a decent client base.

Maybe I should add. I don't advertise 24/7 support, since I can't offer it, and I'm not going to offer something if I can't actually do it.

So, I'm looking at being able to offer 24/7 support, with good turn around times. I also need someone monitoring the services / server, and take the necessary steps when it fails / reports errors /etc. Monitoring normally comes @ $5 pm, which is affordable, but I need someone to take action when things go wrong. Recently we outgrew the server I was on, and it caused downtimes a few times, mostly at night, so I only knew about it when my clients phoned me, 2 hours later. So, this is something I'm trying to work on.

Get an alertra account and have it sms you when the server goes down.

and or get a blackberry and have support request and server alerts sent directly to it. Leave it on by your bed at night.

eTechSupport (http://www.etechsupport.net/) - they will give you a quote as well.

Get an alertra account and have it sms you when the server goes down.

and or get a blackberry and have support request and server alerts sent directly to it. Leave it on by your bed at night.

This is an ideal solution if you are starting out..

There is no point in offering support if the quality is low. It can do more damage than provide benefits if it lacks in quality.

The truth is, you won't be able to find quality (or even low quality) support for less than $100 from an outsourcing company.