What is Good Customer Service Worth?
For the last week, anyone who has visited here might have noticed that the site looked a little outdated. My hosting company had moved my site to a new server, but incorrectly changed their DNS server to point to an old location. During this process, all of my authentication was also changed, so I had no access to my e-mail, ftp server or aything else on my account.
I tried contacting them for days, to no avail. When I finally got a reply, I was told that they had checked the server (that was incorrectly hosting my site) and the most recent file upload was August 9th. I obviously hadn't changed anything in 10 weeks. Bye now!
I politely informed them that I had made at least 12 changes to the index page, and a significant number of changes to other areas of the site, all of which were missing.
I was again informed that I was wrong and to stop bothering them.
Now I was getting angry.
I really hate being told I am dreaming things that I know happened. Especially when I have no way of directing my rants to anyone human.
I wanted to contact someone who would actually care about the issue and believe me when I told them that the site was outdated. Sure, they have e-mail addresses, but I haven't heard back from a billing issue I submitted over a month ago. They have a support ticket system, but they usually take days to answer it and much of the time the ticket is closed with no notification.
There are no phone numbers to call, no Live Person agents to help you out, no ICQ, AIM, MSN or Yahoo Messenger IDs to page, nothing.
It is a frustrating and helpless feeling to just sit there as your site is crippled with no way for you to fix it.
In total I sent 12 letters and 2 posts on their forums pleading for help. I even suggested a possible fix for the problem, which was immediately disregarded as 'impossible'.
Well, not only was it possible, but it was, in fact, the correct solution for solving the problem.
I got no explanation, no apology for treating me like a fool, no communication at all. No offers to 'make good' with a free month or discounted something-or-other.
So, why am I with this web hosting company? Because the last company I was with (for 6 years) was robbing me blind with monthly charges that were obscenely expensive. I decided to move to one more competitive, a host that supported a lot of newer technologies and had a good plan. This new company had all of that, and more, for a great price.
But in the end, I think I would actually pay more (it works out to just a few more dollars a month) to be able to call someone on the phone and get them to work through the problem with me. Or at least hear someone say "We're working on it."
Bad customer service lasts a lot longer than the service provider thinks it does. People will remember it for a long, long time.
Good customer service is worth a few extra dollars a month for me. And for the service provider? Sure it might take more resources or a shift in attitude toward the customer, but in the end...it ends up being worth it.
[ Update Nov 1st, 2000 ]: I was contacted by the owner of the Web Host that I was feuding with. He apologized for the problems I experienced and offered restitution that I felt was fair.
I tried contacting them for days, to no avail. When I finally got a reply, I was told that they had checked the server (that was incorrectly hosting my site) and the most recent file upload was August 9th. I obviously hadn't changed anything in 10 weeks. Bye now!
I politely informed them that I had made at least 12 changes to the index page, and a significant number of changes to other areas of the site, all of which were missing.
I was again informed that I was wrong and to stop bothering them.
Now I was getting angry.
I really hate being told I am dreaming things that I know happened. Especially when I have no way of directing my rants to anyone human.
I wanted to contact someone who would actually care about the issue and believe me when I told them that the site was outdated. Sure, they have e-mail addresses, but I haven't heard back from a billing issue I submitted over a month ago. They have a support ticket system, but they usually take days to answer it and much of the time the ticket is closed with no notification.
There are no phone numbers to call, no Live Person agents to help you out, no ICQ, AIM, MSN or Yahoo Messenger IDs to page, nothing.
It is a frustrating and helpless feeling to just sit there as your site is crippled with no way for you to fix it.
In total I sent 12 letters and 2 posts on their forums pleading for help. I even suggested a possible fix for the problem, which was immediately disregarded as 'impossible'.
Well, not only was it possible, but it was, in fact, the correct solution for solving the problem.
I got no explanation, no apology for treating me like a fool, no communication at all. No offers to 'make good' with a free month or discounted something-or-other.
So, why am I with this web hosting company? Because the last company I was with (for 6 years) was robbing me blind with monthly charges that were obscenely expensive. I decided to move to one more competitive, a host that supported a lot of newer technologies and had a good plan. This new company had all of that, and more, for a great price.
But in the end, I think I would actually pay more (it works out to just a few more dollars a month) to be able to call someone on the phone and get them to work through the problem with me. Or at least hear someone say "We're working on it."
Bad customer service lasts a lot longer than the service provider thinks it does. People will remember it for a long, long time.
Good customer service is worth a few extra dollars a month for me. And for the service provider? Sure it might take more resources or a shift in attitude toward the customer, but in the end...it ends up being worth it.
[ Update Nov 1st, 2000 ]: I was contacted by the owner of the Web Host that I was feuding with. He apologized for the problems I experienced and offered restitution that I felt was fair.
<< Home