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Comments
Handling network/hardware issues are the obvious ones, but overall I find the way support is being provided to be more important than how much support you're willing to give as an unmanaged provider. I've only ever opened a few tickets, and most had to do with network problems, unable to SSH into my VPS, etc. plus one that inquired about upgrading a plan. I think it would be safe to say that it's always wonderful when a provider goes the extra mile to help you with an issue (for example, @Jar helping me with mail server problems even before I signed up for his MXroute service), but even if it's something I should manage on my own and you're unwilling to spend time helping me through it, I expect the response to be polite, if not friendly.
One or two word answers, copy and paste answers that don't really address my questions-- those are the sorts of things that do affect my impression of a provider. If your support cannot be bothered to spend a minute or two more to type a proper sentence that ends on a friendly rather than curt or hostile note - even if the question I'm asking is a no-brainer for those with more experience - it ends up reflecting on you as a provider as well. It doesn't matter if a client is spewing epithets or trying to smear your name on a public forum because you've caught on to the fact that they're a spammer and you're refusing a refund. Whether unmanaged or not, you're still a company and maintaining a level of professionalism is a must. In fact, seeing the way you handle things would impress clients (potential and existing alike) and make them more inclined to sign up for your services or stay as customers for the long haul.
not expect any others than ^
thats the reason unmanage cheaper.
+
dont make clients open your site often, only when time to pay invoice
^ This.
Not like a provider here who just close a customer's account when a ticket is submitted. Though I admit the question was not really technical, it could be handled better and friendlier.
Help with anything that is beyond my control, like IP changes, node problems, network problems.
The boundary for me is simple, if I have to log in to a client vps it is managed, anything up to that point is unmanaged.
1) Staff should be friendly and knowledgeable
2) As it is unmanaged I expect them to give only basic support for cases like that the VPS died and anything from the client area does not work (reinstalls, reboots, etc...) and of course everything that the client can not solve such as faulty network configuration passed by SolusVM (can happen sometimes, had that often enough).
That's what I expect under unmanaged. Basically they help you with that what you simply can not solve because you don't have access to the hostnode to fix things like wrong network configuration by SolusVM for containers or fixing a dead VPS (I was with a host that had some template issue where init didn't boot up and therefor the VPS didn't boot up and died everytime and they fixed it as you can't fix it because you don't have access to the hostnode, OVZ).
Agreed, unless some anomalies occured.
Sure, there will always be exceptions
So you'd agree on my definition, too?
For the most part, re-installs/reboots should be done by clients, if there is a global issue preventing this then obviously that is a different matter.
But at the end of the day we are all human, we all make some mistakes so some help is sometimes needed beyond that, my take on this is that if it is clear that the client has tried to help himself I am always happy to help, if there is a general attitude of 'I have tried nothing, please fix this' then I am less inclined to assist without said client taking a semi-managed plan first.
That's what I mean. The provide simply should help with cases that the client can not solve at his own. Example: VPS template has issues and the VPS isn't booting up at all and reinstalling is not helping. That is a case where only the provider can help. Or when SolusVM delivered wrong network configuration to a VZ container. A client can't fix that he'd need root access on the hostnode.
I would like to get a good uptime, reliable services and customer support must be friendly.
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Since its unmanaged, i would expect as low as possible unplanned downtime windows and zero application support. All tickets should be service related. A little support should be offered for OpenVZ - iptables or networking related issues.