Support Reliability

[cbjroms]

Some more feedback given with the intention of being positive and constructive.

Just after midnight on 31st January my website stopped working. I did not spot this until 8am on 1st February when I looked at the Event Viewer on my windows semi dedicated vps and saw error messages saying that the sql password had expired.

With the benefit of hindsight, I should have fixed the problem myself as the cause was blindingly obvious (option was set in sql for password to expire at end of month) and much more to do with the way in which I had setup sqlexpress than anything to do with the service provided by Eukhost.

But I didn't want to take the risk of fiddling around with something that I did not understand and so went onto LiveChat just after 8am and various Eukhost people got involved with the problem.

4 hours later I received an email saying that everything was well. In fact it was worse as the Plesk default page was now showing on my domain. Then Martin got involved and things started looking-up but it still took another 2 housr until the website was backup. This 2 hours was due to the fact that Martin had to fix something which had been 'broken' by one of his colleagues when they attempted to fix the problem.

I am not complaining. I made the decision to seek help from technical support when I could have solved the problem myself. The point I want to make is that the reliability of support is entirely dependent on the individual who responds from Eukhost. Clearly a number of support staff were unable to solve my very simple problem, did not know what they were doing and created more problems. When Martin stepped in the problem was quickly sorted and he then had to waste his time correcting the damage.

I wonder whether it is the supervision within technical support that could be improved. As a customer I do not want someone, however well intentioned, to do something to my vps if they are outside their knowledge and ability - prefer to be safe than sorry.

Chris

[eUKhost.com]

Hello Chris,

I will go through your chat transcripts and take steps accordingly. Our livechat load has increased recently as we have more than 30 chats running at any given time and its really difficult to have all those managed by few people equivalent to Martin. Most of our senior staff members are mainly focussed on Tickets only as they don't need more than 1 - 2 minutes to resolve a ticket, however each livechat takes much long time to close.

We do have some excellent staff members on livechats as well as phone support, but new staff members are recruited every month and it takes some time for the new staff members to raise their level to that of their seniors.

As I said, I will go through your livechat transcripts and find out which staff members need more grooming to make them perform better.

[eUK-Martin]

Hello Chris,

I may have not explained it well on the Live Chat, please let me explain.

When the issue was reported on the Chat/board, one of the members from technical department got involved as neither Jack or I was available.

Now Jack and I have made a few manual changes (in order to overcome few Plesk limitations) on your VPS that are not in the PSA database. The person who got involved had no knowledge about the changes that were made and the last thing that he did, was to run a utility that is provided by Plesk to set a domain on the default settings, which removed all custom settings including the 404 Error Page setting from IIS.

I am not trying to defend any one but just to say that whatever measures that one took was in direction to help you & get your issue sorted.

[cbjroms]

I truly believe that Eukhost is interested in learning from feedback and, therefore, I would like to make a couple of points on the replies above.

I can see that Livechat must be difficult to manage from your point of view. Lots of people with different problems expecting instant answers and limited ability for you to sort the easy from the complex. I would have thought that tickets would be much easier for you to prioritise, correctly allocate and manage overall.

Indeed, from my point of view although I did recive instant attention between 8am and 9am on Friday it was a complete was of time for me and you. Would you not expect someone on the end of Livechat to be able to solve the very basic sql password problem that I had within a few minutes?

Once I realised that the person on the other end of Livechat was struggling, I closed the chat and submitted a ticket at about 9am. I was told 3 hours later that it had been fixed when it was not. It took another 3 hours for the website to be sorted and then Martin had to start sorting out the damage that had been done and so the website was not properly sorted until 8 hours after I raised the ticket.

My points are:
a) I could easily be pursuaded to use the ticket system rather than Livechat if I got the same sort of speed of reaction from the former as the latter.
b) An instant response on Livechat is no good if the person your end cannot understand or solve basic problems.
c) If I know that a ticket concerning a fairly basic problem is going to take 8 hours to sort-out then I am going to use Livechat.
d) How can someone respond to a ticket saying that the problem is resolved when it is not?

I guess that my point here is that Livechat failed me due quality of reponse. The ticket system failed due to time of response. Would it not be better for Eukhost to concentrate on trying to fix either qulaity of Livechat or speed of tickets rather than both?

Again, I hope that you realise that I am not complaining juts trying to help you improve the service.

Chris

[John]

Hi Chris,

I'm sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced. I will answer each point in the order they were given.

a) I don't think we can ever get ticket response times to under a minute, the same speed of live chat. Live chat is always going to be faster for some issues. There is also less chance of a delay in response, from the client, on live chat.

b) I totally agree with this point. I find it disturbing that the person you spoke to could not fix this basic problem. Please supply me with the agent name and the date/time the chat took place.

c) I also agree. 8 hours for such an issue to be resolved is ridiculous. Please let me know the ticket ID.

d) I totally agree again. Please supply the ticket ID and I can assure you, the person will be spoken to.

Both are achievable. We have over 90 people working on eUKhost now (across various shifts and departments). There should be no reason for such a delay in ticket responses and everyone on live chat should be able to solve the issue you described.

I thank you for your understanding. I'm not sure if I would be so understanding in your situation.

[eUKhost.com]

Hello Chris,

First thing we have decided is to Ban on one line answers. It appears to me that some of our staff members are in their own comfort zone and they simply answer to tickets with a single line template like "Please check now. This has been sorted".

All staff members have been informed about this change in our QA policy and those who fail to follow this new policy will face strict action.

You are most welcome to update this thread if you see such one line answers next time. I don't think one can loose more than 10 - 20 seconds extra in typing detailed response to any ticket or chat.

[cbjroms]

I cannot remember who was on the other end of Livechat at 8am yesterday morning and although I ticked the box for the transcript to be sent to me it never arrived.

My ticket number was LMQ-37733-446 but I don't want to cause a 'witch hunt'. I only want you to use my expereince to learn from in order thst customer service can be even further improved.

I think that increasing the information contained within emails can only be a good thing. The more information that is fed back to us the better able we are to help ourselves next time.

Chris

[eUKhost.com]

Hello Chris,

I have seen name of person who gave that wrong reply and I am finding it difficult to believe. I am not sure how such senior staff member can do such mistake.

I will talk to him as he may be in need of vacation or something else to keep his motivation intact.