Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Hostgator - how many support staff in India?

[Azam.biz]

Was just about to sign-up for an account with Hostgator and then was told, when asked, by guy on live chat that some support staff are in India.

I'd like my webhost to use native English speakers, not oursource to a third world country where staff have problems understanding English.

Question for existing Hostgator users: what percentage of times when contacting support have your queries been answered by Indians?

Thank you.

[Konrad4]

It seems like every large company has support people in India...

[TheWalrus]

India is not a third world country.

[hostgator.com]

Our Boca Raton office is staffed 24/7/365 by Americans that can be reached on the phone at any time you please. We do still have a few people in India however our new policy is not to hire any more remotes. We are slowly working on bringing the few remotes we have left in house, this even includes helping the few Indian workers we have left to get a visa and work from our local office.

[Azam.biz]

Hostgator - thanks for that prompt response. How many of the remotely-staffed people will you bring back to the USA? What proportion of your staff will they constitute? Whether somebody is based in the USA or India, they are not going to become a native English speaker.

I have had endless problems understanding non-native-English speaking support staff and would rather pay double to have native English speakers (to give one example out of dozens, I said to one guy "I can't thank you highly enough" and he was gravely offended, thought I was insulting him).

Originally Posted by TheWalrus

India is not a third world country.

I don't like the term and it's not really the point of the discussion, but what is it then?

According to Wikipedia and other sites it is.

I have nothing against India. It's just I prefer to talk about complex hosting issues with a native English speaker as English is the language I speak best.

[hostgator.com]

We are not exactly sure yet on numbers, but anyone that cannot be understood or cannot do their job correctly will not have a job with us. I recommend you call in and test out our support line so you can see what I'm talking about.

Our American staff is taking over 400 chats a day, 200 phone calls, and the majority of tickets.

[a_loser]

I have to agree - I have nothing against Indians or any other ESL "students" - but for anything that involves non-person to person direct contact (i.e. email/chat/IM, or anything not done over the phone or in person) I much prefer to speak to a native English speaker than a non-English speaker; there are WAY too many things that can be misinterpreted on either end.

[brianoz]

Slighly off-topic, but if the support people speak good English, can understand me, and I can understand them, and are technically knowledgeable and courteous, I personally don't mind where they're located. It's a matter of staff selection wherever they're located, you can get lousy staff in the big ol US of A far too easily!

[rootsupport]

I think that Azam.Com can call and test the services as suggested by hostgator.com and then take a decision about it.

[kapina]

Ummm... correct me if I'm wrong, but I have the impression that some "native English speakers" are totally incomprehensible. On the other hand, take a person who has been in decent school and learned the language, and then eg. been a long time in US or England. He/she can became fluent enough that it's be hard to tell the difference.

Ofcoz it depends on person and language skills, and the hiring policy of Hostgator (in this case). My point is that "native speaker" guarantees nothing.

I understand the worry, tho. Finnish Dell support has been outsourced to Estonia where many people speak some Finnish. Some guys in my previous workplace hated speaking to the "Estonian chicks", although I personally never had any problem understanding them or getting service. (Most of the time, they'd just agree that the desktop or laptop was broken and send a Finnish repairman on his way...) Perhaps it was the slight cultural differences and the feeling that they were not that much interrested in our little problems....

[Dormouse]

I don't care where support staff originate or where they are located, or whether English is their 1st or 5th language. I do care about their expertise and ability to understand and communicate.

That said, I haven't had a single positive experience with support centres in India and haven't spoken with anyone in Dell support who knew half as much as I did about the products they were supposed to be supporting (and sometimes what I knew had been gleaned from a 5 minute search on the net).

[europeancorp]

Well. The most import thing is that you getting the best possible support.

[zoobie]

true
you can be a 3rd world country and have nuclear capabilities
go figure

[albertindian2001]

I am from third world country named India. SOrry for little harsh here in this thread.

Friends the language ENglish born at england but there even not all use english as their communication medium. The americans are not a real americans. They are from other lands(second and third worlds) got settled before some generations.

You are in a world of information. Nothing is better than information. THat is the reason google became number 1 in search.

Some friends said that they don't want to listen to other country people. They want native english speaking person on call. Can I ask you one thing what is native english. English transformed into different versions. In india mostly all understands and speak two different kind of english. British and american. but an american friend can't understand both but they understand only one.

Today the world of information is ruled by so called third world countries not the first world. The first world is just getting service from us and looking like a strong bull. Inside there is nothing.

The entire world watched when the three states went down without electricity. But at the same time third world will never go down because we are self dependent.

Friends this is not the place for these kind of activity or just posting these kind of threads. THis is the place where we get information about webhosting and other stuffs. I got my hosting provider from here only. A cheap hoster till now no problem. PLease friends let the world be ONE don't split it into multiple. If you split then this world can't survive.

[I, Brian]

I've been with Hostgator for a while, and have had a few issues - technical, billing, etc.

While it may be said that their support system hasn't been the best at times, I think the current support at Hostgator is running very well.

One of the original problems I had with Hostgator is that support tickets would be answered fast, but not very well, requiring a few tickets to resolve an issue.

Nowadays, the response is very fast and as helpful as anywhere else.

Like any host, especially a fast expanding one like Hostgator, the ride is going to be bumpy at times. But I have to say, I think Hostgator are doing a really good job with their support, especially at the moment, and it seems to be a real priority for the company.