As Part Of This Cheap Hosting Plan, We Let Your Server Rest Six Hours A Day
from the the-scary-part-is-how-true-it-feels... dept
The web hosting business is a funny one -- as people are basically making huge decisions about who will help keep their servers online without much real data as to whether or not the company is any good. Personally, I've had both good and bad luck with various hosting firms -- and when you come across a bad one, they can be just awful. Tim "Geodog" Bishop, who has done some work for Techdirt in the past, is apparently experiencing the worst of the worst right now. I'm sure some people can sympathize with the incredible support chat he had with the tech support staff who is supposed to help figure out why his server is down (again):Darryl : Thank you for contacting Technical Support. My name is Darryl. How may I help you?Just what we all want when machines go down: tech support staff joking around with the clueless newbie who's supposed to be helping you.
geodog : my site, twjb.com
geodog : on echo5 seems to be down
geodog : both email and http
Darryl : Looking
geodog : thanks
Darryl : Yes, it does not appear to be responding; one moment
Darryl : okay I have just been given the following information:
Darryl : Sites on Echo5 are only up 18 hours a day
Darryl : 1.00 a month, special hosting plan
geodog : what the h?
geodog : I've been on echo5 for 3 years
geodog : first time I have every heard anything like that
geodog : and i pay a lot more than 45 a month
geodog : than 1 a month
Darryl : sorry
Darryl : the guy I was talking to was joking with me
Darryl : I'm new here
Darryl : looking into the issue...
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W-T-F??
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cancel.
I'd tell the guy to transfer me to the joker, then explain to the joker exactly WHY I'm cancelling, then get transfered...or call back, to the manager to outline the situation.
A joke's a joke, but we already have to deal with moronic, morose and sometimes cretinous tech support staff for everything else...when my site is down, its a major problem and having that kind of stuff hit me in the face while upset would NOT calm me down.
What WOULD calm me down is getting the sense that the staff is committed to resolving the situation OR finding someone who can (because not everyone can solve EVERY issue)>
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Re: cancel.
Why not? Im sure you took worse.
>I'd tell the guy to transfer me to the joker
There was no 3rd party named joker in the chat conversation.
>moronic, morose and sometimes cretinous tech support >staff for everything else.
That's why all tech support staff must eat there wheaties daily.
>when my site is down, its a major problem and having >that kind of stuff hit me in the face while upset would >NOT calm me down.
Chill your inner childhood and have some icecream.
>What WOULD calm me down is getting the sense that >the staff is committed to resolving the situation OR >finding someone who can (because not everyone can >solve EVERY issue)>
Icecream normaly works for everyone.
And im pretty sure if i paid only a dollar for my website
i would except jokes like that also.
But that's not the case here.
If all you do is sit by a computer and take peoples tech support which you have no training of. The repeat of the "jokers" comments where not suppose to be transcribed.
.I.E. Not in his manual. Fact of the matter is Darryl isn't being properly trained. And don't ever forget its up to you who you do business with.
So the poster of this article needs to be aware of who they do business with.
The end of the articles statement.
>Just what we all want when machines go down: tech >support staff joking around with the clueless newbie >who's supposed to be helping you.
Wrong Sir Wrong.
How can a newbie help you?
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Re: Re: cancel.
Well I see you have a long career ahead of you in the food service industry...
Why yes, I think I WILL have fries with that thanks :)
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Re: Re: cancel.
>>I wouldn't take that.
>Why not? Im sure you took worse.
>>I'd tell the guy to transfer me to the joker
>There was no 3rd party named joker in the chat conversation.
What kind of moron are you? Did you not see :
"Darryl : sorry
Darryl : the guy I was talking to was joking with me
Darryl : I'm new here
Darryl : looking into the issue...
"
Looks to me like there WAS a 3rd party. While not in on the chat, the tech support rep didn't just pull that bit of funny out of his ass.
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Re: cancel.
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Re: Re: cancel.
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Re: Re: cancel.
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Horrible
Mean humourless uptight penny-pinching "I deserve the best couse I pay you" type of bitter fucks .
Its a newbie , someone made a joke , and it wasted 2 minutes of your time OMG ! Oh fucking NOES ! A joke ! In an IT department !
As N0hope said it
"fuckin Amaerican , Die in Twintower Fatburger !"
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Re: Horrible
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Re: Re: Horrible
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Re: Re: Horrible
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Re: Horrible
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Re: Re: Horrible
I educated myself on spammers' techniques for retreiving email addresses and did some further investigation of the mail I receive. I believe the credit for my overstuffed inbox should go to my ISP instead of Techdirt.
RE: " I'm not sure if I'm coming back after reading comments like that. I'll stick with Slashdot"
Is Slashdot any better? I visited once and the post I read was worse than this site. This site introduced me to blogs ( aliitle behind-the-times); now I'm on an endless quest for a GOOD blog - one with logical, intellectual debates on substantial topics...do they exist?
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Re: Horrible
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Re: Horrible
Tech people are suppoed to be professional not jokers.
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Re: Re: Horrible 2 mike
Had this been a truely important site and a serios hosting plan , it'd have a SLA that states what kind of compensation a customer deserves for downtime that exeeds the maximum downtime stated in the SLA .
With all due respect , this is NOT customer abuse , but a silly joke that was made WHILE the problem was taken care of . Not every whiny blogger deserves Techdirt's stage .
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that or...
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hosting
I can understand the frustration with the customer. I used to work for a web hosting company whos' network department didn't have a clue. So after they sold their business and sold all the employees jobs me and two other coworkers started our own webhosting company and website design business. With this business we are gearing towards customer service first not what excuse we can give the customer for something failing for the 10,000 time.
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omfg
can you believe i had to go on a proxy at school to visit this site!!?? (they blocked it)
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Oh well, live with it. Computer's break - doesn't matter if you make your living off them or not - if it's that critical, run your own web servers...
And learn to take a joke, geeze..
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Any tech supporters angry with this exchange?
Granted it wasn't the best joke, because it impacted the customer by upsetting them further. But no time was lost in the making of this humor. If it'd been followed up with 'I'm just yanking your chain, newbie. I'm already looking into it,' and the newbie had apologized to the customer and said that the tech guy was already looking into it, the customer should be allowed a morose chuckle or a grim "I see." But y'all are overreacting.
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i'm guessing
This seems like overreacting.
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But What Happened Next?
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Re: But What Happened Next?
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Come on...
Now how long did it take to resolve the issue and other then that one comment, how was the rest of their support?
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I agree with Adam
The guy who called in needs to get a life and a clue and take the corncob out of his butt.
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Re: I agree with Adam
From the chat it seems that geodog knows whats going on because he immediately lists important information to get the problem resolved. From that, to me, it appears that he knows what he's talking about.
However Tech Support managers like you who says that every customer needs to get a life deserves to get their ass fired
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That's pretty funny. Either pony up for better hosting, or laugh with the guy. If you know tech, you gotta remember you're first tech job. That deer in the headlights feeling at questions that you thought college would have prepared you for, but are now woefully inadequate. Makes me want to move to Echo5 actually, I know the guys who can laugh are actually the ones who care. Its the stodgy ones that can't take jokes, who leave at the stroke of 5:01, and do nothing but play CYA all day, barely ever doing any real work.
>
Thanks for listening
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Sounds like somone needs a nap
If it's that important get off of your wallet, set up and pay for business level hosting with a real SLA.
Otherwise if you're on the tightwad plan, expect some occasional outages and keep your sense of humor handy.
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The Real Tech Support
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If you look at the situation from both sides, like Adam pointed out the Tch Support side, then your perspective on the situation may change. Users can be the most idiotic people in the world but then again, they could know more than the tech support person they're dealing with. It goes both ways. Whenever I call tech support, I let them know right away that I know what I'm talking about and not to give me the typical "try this" crap. Usually, I go straight for the 2nd or 3rd tier support since I know I'll get someone who knows what they're talking about and not someone who's reading a checklist to me.
I can see where both sides are coming from, why the guy got pissed, and why tech support says get over it.
As a solution, I'd say...Don't pull a joke on a customer until you have a feel for their personality and mood. Although the joke was HILARIOUS!!!
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Re:
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To those who think its a joke
And it shouldn't matter what he is paying for the service- if the contract says good tech support for the $1 tier and doesn't say anything different for the $1000 tier, then both customers should (and probably do) get the same treatment. If I wanted to pay extra charges for special treatment, I'd host with the phone company or maybe M$.
This case is no joke- looking at geodog's original post, the problem had been happening "weekly" since a change of management. That would imply that the problem had been going on for a few weeks (duh). I appreciate geodog's comments- they'll keep me from using the same hosting service. Next time I'm looking, I'll try my luck with somebody else.
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Shameless Plug...
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Asshats
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Then I told him I was just joking. We laughed over a beer and bong about it an hour later.
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He should be fired.
Indeed, at the very least he needs a refresher course in who he is and who he is supposed to be assisting -- typically stressed-out *paying* customers with problems that need fast remedies. The last thing they expect or need is a sit-down comedian.
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Background on my experience with Webhostingplus
People who think I am just a whiny blogger should check out the background at http://www.thebishop.net/geodog/archives/2006/03/05/if_your_web_hosting_company_is_acquired_by_web_h ost_plus_run_for_the_hills.html, or better yet, check out netbunch's own customers service forums at http://forums.netbunch.com/index.php
I have as much of a sense of humor as the next person, but after all the problems I have had to deal with since webhosting bought my hosting company, I lost it.
Thanks for all the helpful recommendation people have been leaving me -- I'll try one of them this weekend.
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I'd cancel with them
Short story, their techs are not properly trained. If you rely on your site being up then move along.
That's not the type of joke a tech should share with the paying customer. Both the "joker" and the tech involved are to blame. Personally if I were their boss I'd can them both.
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Lighten up, Francis!
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This is the problem with most people today. No one thinks outside the box. Oh it sounds cliche, I'm sure. But really, if you can't find someone else to fuck with, fuck with yourself!
Oh, but do it in private; I don't want to have to read about it on TechDirt, and you don't want to mess up their spiffy new GUI.
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Front Page News!
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It's great
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WebSiteSource.com = Very Good support.
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A view from the other side
Take this theoretical chat - customer walks into the lobby of a Marriott Hotel and talks to the desk clerk:
Arrogant client: Hi, last night at 2:00am I decided to check-in across the street at the Motel 6 (your competition) because they offered me 5 cents less per night on a $10/night room.
Clerk: I'm sorry you chose to leave us. Is there something I help you with?
Arrogant client: Yes - first, I would like you to pro-rate my bill. Since I didn't sleep in my room all night long, you owe me a refund. I don't care that the room was "booked" in my name and you couldn't rent it to anyone else, since I didn't use it for the entire night, you owe me a refund.
Second, I left some luggage in my room, but since I moved to another Hotel, I don't have the room key anymore. I want you to go upstairs to the room, get my suitcase, and bring it across the street, up to the 5th floor, and put in my room on the luggage stand, and open it so when I get back to my new room I can get my toothbrush out easily.
Translation: Hosting customer decides to change hosting companies without any notice. Expects large refund because he chooses to bottom-feed for the lowest price offer regardless of quality.
Second, customer forgot to retrieve all their files and now wants you to drop everything and retrieve his files from backup tapes so he can continue to have his site work properly on your competitor's service.
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But still...
Everyone should be able to have a fun workplace. Plus, you only get one crack at putting one over like that on a newbie. I'm all for the humor. I like to think that even if it was my site, I'd have been able to laugh, then follow with, "Now get you ass to work."
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NO MORE COMMENTS!
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HaHa
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meh
I had a hosting company before that i paid for a full year, it went out of buisiness with no warning about halfway though the year...no refun of my money or anything....the hosting was cheep...but i still should have gotten my money back. their number was even disconnected...so i couldn't even call and complain
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get a sense of humor
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Re: get a sense of humor
If you read the post, you see that the site was still down an hour later, and it was only the latest in a series of problems with the hosting company.
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Cheap hosting = cheap staff
You get what you pay for.
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August 30, 2006
"We are sorry to inform you that We had 16 servers completely wiped clean of all data. We are working with FBI and other Law enforcement officials at the present time.
At this point all we can do is recreate your account and give you 1 month of credit for the loss. If any data is recoverable, we will restore it.
Thanks,
Jim"
One month free. How generous. 9.95 for months of work. Good thing we had a backup of all our sites.
Consider your self warned.
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crisp quality
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crisp quality
http://burmastreet.com/siteseller/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1199
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