I've been with Site5 for over 3 years. Noticed that all my sites are down and their online live support told me that server is fine, and I need to submit a ticket.

And to top things up, when I log the ticket, I notice this new functionality.

Priority tickets! You can mark your ticket as high priority in order to bump it to the top of the queue ($1.00 fee per ticket applies). While we don't guarantee response times on prioritized tickets, you can usually expect to receive a reply within 15-30 minutes. Normal priority tickets can still expect to receive a reply within 24 hours or less as is outlined by our response time guarantee.

Is $1 extra per ticket is what your customer worth to you.

Wow, I did not know that companies were charging for prioritized tickets? And I thought 15-30 minutes was an average response time? I guess everyone has to make money somehow...:P

I would say yes if it is a priority and need action taken NOW. Then yes $1.00 is worth it - better then customers emailing or calling you.

Now charging for tickets in general -- we charge for tickets on all unmanaged services(vps and dedicated) -- not shared and reseller hosting.

But each company is different and have different reasons for charging.

Wow that is a good way to make money for a company, however if it is something that is wrong with their service I don't think they should charge you being it is something wrong with their service. It should be their responsibility to fix it without charging us extra. In some cases it is a way to sorta issues into categories. Only a serious issue would someone pay for support with.

I've been with Site5 for over 3 years. Noticed that all my sites are down and their online live support told me that server is fine, and I need to submit a ticket.

And to top things up, when I log the ticket, I notice this new functionality.

Priority tickets! You can mark your ticket as high priority in order to bump it to the top of the queue ($1.00 fee per ticket applies). While we don't guarantee response times on prioritized tickets, you can usually expect to receive a reply within 15-30 minutes. Normal priority tickets can still expect to receive a reply within 24 hours or less as is outlined by our response time guarantee.

Is $1 extra per ticket is what your customer worth to you.
LOL - That's ridiculous.

Never heard of charges on high priority tickets.

I get response in 15-30 mins at InnoHosting.com for Medium Priority tickets and sometimes for Low priority tickets.

And between 5-10 mins with SLHost.com for Normal priority tickets.

It is insane to charge and still give no guarantees about response time. IMO if you have to charge for priority tickets and can't deliver within the stipulated time you have to refund back the money.

I've been with Site5 for over 3 years. Noticed that all my sites are down and their online live support told me that server is fine, and I need to submit a ticket.

And to top things up, when I log the ticket, I notice this new functionality.

Priority tickets! You can mark your ticket as high priority in order to bump it to the top of the queue ($1.00 fee per ticket applies). While we don't guarantee response times on prioritized tickets, you can usually expect to receive a reply within 15-30 minutes. Normal priority tickets can still expect to receive a reply within 24 hours or less as is outlined by our response time guarantee.

Is $1 extra per ticket is what your customer worth to you.


Haha, when did they implement that system? I don't think it'll be too popular with most customers :P

Technical support should be provided equally, quickly and effectively to all customers regardless of the size of their wallet.

This is a good way to tell their customers, we want all your money. Crazy, just crazy, I can't say anything else. This is definitely not your standard practice of customer service.

This is a good way to tell their customers, we want all your money. Crazy, just crazy, I can't say anything else. This is definitely not your standard practice of customer service.
From my experience, Site5 has not been providing "standard practice customer service", at least not when I was with them and according to many threads on WHT in the last couple of years, they have gotten much worse.

If you do not want priority support, you don't have to pay for it. I guess $1.00 for emergency situations is not bad at all, or else you can find a host that doesn't offer the world for under $5.

If you do not want priority support, you don't have to pay for it. I guess $1.00 for emergency situations is not bad at all, or else you can find a host that doesn't offer the world for under $5.
$1.00 for Emergency Situtations may be acceptable to some.

What struck me was the Response Time = 15 to 30 mins that too NOT guaranteed. If you can't guarantee don't charge.

If you still want to charge refund the money if you cannot respond within the stipulated time.

I would be upset with a company if it took them 24 hours to respond to a ticket, at least in the hosting industry.

I think if a host is going to say 24.7 support then they should be there answering tickets as they come in. If they do that response times should not exceed 30 minutes for the most part. Then charging $1 to get what you should be getting in the first place is just not the way I would go...

I certainly won't pay a dollar just to get "high priority". And not being able to guaranatee high priority tickets doesn't make it worth it either. A good support system is key to keeping your customers.

If you do not want priority support, you don't have to pay for it. I guess $1.00 for emergency situations is not bad at all, or else you can find a host that doesn't offer the world for under $5.

Well when I joined them tey had a good reputation on WHT. Obviously things have changed. I don't have the cheapest account they offer. and their prices are not out of line with the hosting market. They just offer crap customer service.

I remember when they are doing some serious marketing here at WHT, they were known for their prompt support. Just funny what happens over time.

I have to agree - 1$ per priority ticket isnt that much if you like to pay more to bypass the line

If its not worth 1$ to you - then its probably not an urgent issue and can wait the standard 24hour time.

Just seems ridiculous to me. I would never accept that. You should not be charged if you have something of high priority it would be like charging you $100 before you can talk to an operator as soon as possible instead of waiting 5 min which would be free when you call 911

I have to agree - 1$ per priority ticket isnt that much if you like to pay more to bypass the line

If its not worth 1$ to you - then its probably not an urgent issue and can wait the standard 24hour time.
There are no guarantees that you'll actually be able to bypass the line after paying that. :)

hiring the right support staff is the key but it's very difficult. customer service is an art.

I've been with Site5 for over 3 years. Noticed that all my sites are down and their online live support told me that server is fine, and I need to submit a ticket.Given that you've just now noticed the $1 priority ticket charge, I'd say you didn't need their support in a long time. That part sounds good to me. :)

How was the recent downtime handled?

I am with them and was getting the run around on an issue until they ran out of ideas on how to fix it, then they just stopped responding to my open ticket. So just for fun I clicked the $1 special. Well guess what, 4 hours later not a single word from them regarding my ticket. SITE5 BLOWS! And I want my dollar back!!

We had a few plans with site5, and the 1$ priority ticket was a complete waste of money. Average response time was 8 hours!! These replies were very annoying, as it was a one liner requesting some kind of additional information! We have since moved away from site5.

Seems quite a few people are dissatisfied with them.

IMO all hosts that charge for there services should respond to support tickets well within 30 minutes more like 10 minutes tops, there are loads of ways to recieve support tickets such as though your mobile etc...

Again IMO I tend not to go with hosts who do not respond to my tickets within 10 minutes i am paying for a service i expect to be helped with my problem asap like 10 minutes, not 30 minutes later could be to late by then for what ever issue i am having.

so charging extra for support unless it is major technical such as reconfiguring a router or soming then it is outrages, if i had a hosting company the price for what ever package or servcies was chossen would include support i would not charge extra! F**k admin time lol wages are comming from the packages and services that you charge for it's being greedy charging extra, example 250$ month for a dedicated server and extra 100$ month for server admin work etc.. ok fair enought if you out source your support.

sorry had to get it off my chest lol

I tend not to go with hosts who do not respond to my tickets within 10 minutes i am paying for a service i expect to be helped with my problem asap like 10 minutes, not 30 minutes later could be to late by then for what ever issue i am having.Oh, impatience and the "I need it yesterday!" trend. Some issues simply take time. I bet it took you 10 minutes or more to read this thread and reply to it (that's assuming you read it all). It's exactly what can happen with a support ticket, and that's without taking into account the investigation of the issue being reported, correcting that issue, and writing a polite, grammatically correct, detailed reply. Humans don't move with the speed of light. Besides, reply times are overrated. I'd rather have the issue solved within 10 minutes and a reply within the hour, than the other way around. :)

That is very funny. I have never seen any place that does this. In my opinion, they a expected to answer you support ticket within 15-30 Min (at least at my company, we try to provide this)
Priority tickets! You can mark your ticket as high priority in order to bump it to the top of the queue ($1.00 fee per ticket applies). While we don't guarantee response times on prioritized tickets, you can usually expect to receive a reply within 15-30 minutes. Normal priority tickets can still expect to receive a reply within 24 hours or less as is outlined by our response time guarantee.