HostNine Support

[stoavio]

Let me first start by saying that so far my experience with H9 has been pleasurable. The offerings for reseller packages are great and everyone I've spoken to has been courteous.

I'm just a little vexed by the quality of my conversations with the support and sales people. Although everyone is kind, sometimes they're not very informative and simply resort to telling me I'll be updated via email. I'm in the process of having about 13GB of data transferred over from my previous web host, and there have been some hitches so far that have resulted in my having to get in contact with customer support. I've been selling web hosting services now for over 3 years and hold myself to certain standards when communicating with clients and potential clients alike. What I mean to say is, when speaking with some of the H9 sales and support representatives, I get the impression that they either lack a strong command of the English language or are lazy. I also read in an interview with H9's founder, Rick, that all support for H9 was provided by in-house staffers, and not outsourced to a third party. In view of the poor communication skills I've witnessed on behalf of most of the sales/support staff, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps this isn't the case?

Please don't view this as a dig at H9. So far, I'm pleased. I just wish the LiveChat staff were a little more responsive, and took more care in responding to me. The replies either contain multiple grammar errors or appear to be formed as though they're being typed in a hurry. Then, after being told that I'll receive an update on the transfer containing more specific information, I get an update that reads: We are in process to complete the backups. We will keep you updated with the status in this regard. I posed very specific questions to which I was told an update would come very email addressing those questions. Updates like that are brief and frankly aren't very helpful. The questions I asked were:

1.) How many accounts have been transferred so far, and may I have an progress estimation of the transfer completion?

2.) How much longer do you expect the transfer to take before it completes?

Unfortunately, the LiveSupport staff seem unable to answer any specific questions and respond by telling me a tech will contact me. You can clearly see by the quote posted above that the tech provided me with nothing useful.

I should note, that the time it's taken to transfer my data from the other web host isn't the fault of H9. The server in which the data is being transitioned from was unavailable for an 8 hour period during the transfer. Please don't mistake this post for one of dissatisfaction. So far, I'm just a little irked that I haven't been responded to with clear, concise, and well-thought out replies. If a sufficient update had been provided, this post wouldn't exist.

Oh yea, and one more quirk. Does everyone working for H9 have extremely ordinary names? So far I've dealt with:

- Frank
- Tim
- John
- Matt
- Jeff

Not that names really matter, but they appear more as assumed monikers than actual American names. Is it possible that John is really Abu Karim Muhammad and Matt is Badi al Zaman?

Apart from my little qualm about quality contact, the price, services, and performance are all very satisfactory so far. I can't give an accurate estimation of any of those things, however, because I've only been a customer for 2 days.

Kindest Regards,

[stoavio]

After deciding to ask for another update, and being told once again that a tech would contact me with more detailed information in regards to my very specific questions, I receive a email that reads:

Hi,

Everything is being restored now


Regards,

Tim
HostNine Support

I don't mean to seem overly critical, but whenever I've addressed a customer, I start by at least including their first name. Not only does this response fail to answer my question, it really just feels impersonal and rushed.

Common guys! Make me feel like I matter! Take more than 5 seconds to plunk off dismissal messages and give me an adequate update on the situation.

Thanks!

[Express]

Not that names really matter, but they appear more as assumed monikers than actual American names. Is it possible that John is really Abu Karim Muhammad and Matt is Badi al Zaman?

Yes! When my site was offline, then i went back up my live chat software picked the visitor from India. However i don't care where they are from as long as they can provide us with your world class support!

[Liam]

I'm having the exact same problems at the moment.

I'm currently on my fourth attempt in asking 'Roughly how long do accounts take to transfer?'.

I can appreciate that there are probably a lot of support tickets open and can be a pain in the bottom to answer them some times but at the end of the day I'm asking questions that need to be answered. It would save everyone's time if they were answered first time rather than me having to send 5 more tickets just to get basic information that I should have been given on the first reply.

While I'm at it, being asked for information previously supplied in the ticket is....just daft.

As per the original poster, this I'm not trying to have a bitch here, I'd just like a bit more time spent reading and understanding what I've asked then a reply that consists of more than a short, sharp sentence.

Liam