For those that observe the Sabbath, do you still take calls and sales?

If not, can you explain how your customers have responded to this and how it has worked for you?

interesting issue...

You might want to try to hire someone to work during that time?

It is not all that uncommon for a host not t take calls on the weekends for sales. Just list your hours on your web site that the sales department is only avilable 6 days a week.

Though for support issues you will need to hire someone to maintain support for the sabbath. Although, if you are only a small company I do believe your clients will more than understand if you explain support is not available one day a week do to religoous beliefs. But if you grow I would highly suggest hiring somoene to cover for you.

I cannot speak directly to being a Jew or completely understanding the religion, though I do work support for a large hosting company and not offering support one day a week would kill us, but Like i said above if you are quite small, I would not sweat it too much.

Lane

Thank you for the answers.

Please take no offense to this, but this is why I titled the post Jewish Hosts. I'm not talking about a vacation day where you say, "Hey watch the store till I come back." It's a day where you say the store is closed.

For instance, some sites actually shutdown, with a sort of "Under Construction" page.

Lastly, I'm not asking what I can do or should do, I'm asking what Jewsih hosts on this forum do.

If your a webhost and closing down 1 day of the week all your going to do is loose customers, people dont care why your closed, just the fact you are closed if there is a problem.

You could take on a partner or outsource support for the times that you are not available.

If it is against your religion to work on a certain day, or have anyone work for you on that day, then you shouldn't go into a business that requires being staffed 24/7/365. It's just that simple.

--Tina

Man, I thought I was clear but you guys just LOOOOVE talking. If you are not a Jewish host that observes the Sabbath, then this post has nothing to do with you.

Let me repost my first post.

For those that observe the Sabbath, do you still take calls and sales?

If not, can you explain how your customers have responded to this and how it has worked for you?

Man, I thought I was clear but you guys just LOOOOVE talking. If you are not a Jewish host that observes the Sabbath, then this post has nothing to do with you.

Let me repost my first post.

For those that observe the Sabbath, do you still take calls and sales?

If not, can you explain how your customers have responded to this and how it has worked for you?


I'd say with that attitude and thinking its possible to run a hosting company 6 days a week, you'll do just fine. :rolleyes:

PS: This is an open forum. If you don't want replies from all members of the group, go to jewishwebhostingtalk.com.

--Tina

I'd say with that attitude and thinking its possible to run a hosting company 6 days a week, you'll do just fine. :rolleyes:

PS: This is an open forum. If you don't want replies from all members of the group, go to jewishwebhostingtalk.com.

--Tina
I agree very much, you posted in a open forum and we are doing nothing more than trying to help you out. As you can there are either very few or none Jewish web hosting companies on here.

I do believe it is next to impossible to run any good size hosting company without being able to work 24/7. If you still plan to go ahead then take the advice from us here who either are hosts are have been hosts at one time. We are speaking from experience trying to give you a helping hand and all you did was throw it back in our face.

With that said i would suggest you do some google.com searches for hosts who are Jewish and email them and see what they say.

Lane

PS. I did search google for "Jewish Web Hosting" and came up with zip so your going to have to be more creative.

I'm well aware this is a public forum. I've been on here for years. I don't have an attitude at all, I'm just reiterating what I asked. You're posting and can't answer my question so why even post?

I'm asking for a blue ball and you keep telling me I can't have red ball.

You even reposted after I said what I was asking for. I'm not even sure why you would respond to that post but you did. Now you have me responding to you. Adding four or five posts that have nothing to do with my original post.

Since you can't answer my question don't post.

If you're up-front about it, I don't think people would care; those who do wouldn't become customers in the first place. Heck, drak.net doesn't take orders during the dark of the moon, but their predominantly-pagan customer base apparently doesn't mind, considering how long they've been around...

This is an open forum, as AH-Tina and DeadEnd quite rightly said, so they are more than welcome to post replies to your comment, even if they didn't realise what you were asking for.

If you are asking a cultural question (and not about 24/7 support) about customer or staff expectations, then I think it could have been better phrased. This is a forum about general webhosting so it is not surprising everyone took your question as concerning support coverage.

I'd say with that attitude and thinking its possible to run a hosting company 6 days a week, you'll do just fine. :rolleyes:

PS: This is an open forum. If you don't want replies from all members of the group, go to jewishwebhostingtalk.com.

--Tina

Agreed, Just my opinion but being a host thats not there 24/7/365 is like being baker that doesn't work on peoples birthdays. I mean, how would you feel if your local fire department said we don't work on Sunday's for religious reasons. In a sense, thats what you are doing, so if something goes wrong on Sunday, then your clients are to suffer until Monday. Honestly I wish you the best of luck as you are another DIY'er Host but If I was a customer and saw this on your site, I would press the back button in a heartbeat.


Cody

I think you will have no problem with this but i haven't heard of this issue before.

I think its a great idea as it sets you apart in a way that doesn't limit the type of clients you can take. Plus if you are running a hosting company branded as jewish it makes it a lot easier to advertise and convert customers. Just focus on jewish web sites and newspapers and so on and since it falls in line with their beliefs and lifestyles it will probably work fairly well. Esp since most businesses don't need Sunday tech support.

Could always hire those heathens touchsupport.com to do work on sunday! :)

I see no reason why you would need to take down the web site for your entire business during the Sabbath... it's one thing for your obverse the Sabbath and it's another thing for someone else to keep your company running when you are unavailable. You != The Company.

We're not Jewish, we are however Christian, so have the issue of Sunday working (not the same, but close enough I hope).

Our site does remain operational and automated billing will run on a Sunday. Many of our customers are also Christian, this way we get little or no requirement for Sunday working and virtually no expectation for support on a Sunday (in fact I often get more personal "how do I do this?" questions after the church service than I do from the business all week). I would presume if you had mainly Jewish customers they would also be observing the Sabbath in the same way as my customers do.

What do your local Jewish shopkeepers and non-internet businesses do? I'd have a chat with them as I presume they've also had to address the business / Sabbath issue and may have already researched the necessary scriptures and have an answer.

I'm Jewish but we just have other employees take calls, that's all.

Hey guys, let me see if I can clarify a bit being a religious Jew and observing the Sabbath.

Firstly, in the first post there is an oxymoron

For those that observe the Sabbath, do you still take calls and sales?


if you observe the Sabbath than you aren't taking calls, or, if you take calls you are, de facto, not observing the Sabbath...

Now, there are several questions which do not have a simple answer;

1. Can you employ a non-Jew to take care of the calls / sales etc. in essence this is not allowed unless he works "for himself" and not for you, which means he would get all the profit of Sabbath, or, for example in outsourced support when they work at any time they wish and not spesifically on Sabbath.

2. WHEN exactly is Sabbath in cyberspace? :) is it the hours of Texas where the servers are? the hours of Jerusalem where the manager is? or the hours of New Zealand where the client is? this is an issue being debated by the Rabbies as technology advances and new issues and questions come up.

Many people simply close their site on Sabbath (I guess the hours where the manager physically is) and as for support I would think they take an outsourced solution. I ave found a site who has created some solution to automatically detect if it the Sabbath hours for the vistor of the site wherever he would be in the world and close the site for him while leaving it open for others where it isn't Sabbath: http://www.shomershabes.co.il/shomershabes/a_montias.asp

I have also heard on opinion that you may leave the site open for visitors and orders as long as money has not actually entered in your account on Sabbath, so if your order form simply emails you the CC info and you process it after Sabbath then it's ok whereas if you use paypal for example where the money is transfered immediately that would be a problem.

Lastly, even if you have no immediate solution and sort of leave the site and customer support "hanging" for 24 hours, the merit of observing the Sabbath correctly will surely keep you out of problems and in the end your business will only gain... (from experience ;)

Though I am not a Rabbi, I have learned in a Yeshiva (talmudic college) so you guys can keep the questions coming and I'll do my best to answer.

Shneur

P.S. let me rephrase the first point I mentioned;

You should (and are obligated according to the Torah to) observe Sabbath 100% correctly and as such taking calls on Sabbath is, de facto, not observing Sabbath as mentioned. BUT, the correct approach the Torah teaches us and especialy stressed in the Chabad Movement is that one should start with keeping a bit of the Torah laws and then slowly but surely advance. As such, every moment you are not transgressing the Sabbath (for example while eatng the Sababth meal, praying or even sleeping!) you ARE observing the Sabbath regardless of the fact that you may take calls or do other things not to be done on Sabbath. And evetually you will slowly observe the Sabbath better in the future.

I'm sorry if I swereved way off topic as all we care here about (including me) is webhosting and maximizing the profit off it... :D

monaghan,

Shops close, but it's also a little different. See even If I were to stop doing new business, the automatic billing still runs on the 15th and the 28th which may or may not fall on the Sabbath.

Levi, have you addressed automatic billing in your business?

I'm asking for a blue ball and you keep telling me I can't have red ball.Has religion taught us nothing? Instead of arguing over who has red balls and who has blue balls, shouldn't we accept balls of all different colors? How else will we ever achieve peace in this world?

Selah.

Your question was the answer. Business as usual.