Comments on: DreamHost Support Queue http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2006/05/16/dreamhost-support-queue/ Tips & Tricks for Dreamhosters Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:48:15 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Unofficial DreamHost Blog » Blog Archive » Fileserver Outage http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2006/05/16/dreamhost-support-queue/comment-page-1/#comment-1366 Unofficial DreamHost Blog » Blog Archive » Fileserver Outage Mon, 17 Jul 2006 07:49:26 +0000 http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2006/05/16/dreamhost-support-queue/#comment-1366 [...] Since the discussion forum also seems to be hit by the outage, it’s hard to tell how many customers are affected by this, but judging from the support queue (which has had an average of 400 customers in queue and a maximum of 600) the incident might not be as severe as it sounds. Hopefully DreamHost’s staff will soon have everything back under control. [...] [...] Since the discussion forum also seems to be hit by the outage, it’s hard to tell how many customers are affected by this, but judging from the support queue (which has had an average of 400 customers in queue and a maximum of 600) the incident might not be as severe as it sounds. Hopefully DreamHost’s staff will soon have everything back under control. [...]

]]> By: Pete http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2006/05/16/dreamhost-support-queue/comment-page-1/#comment-448 Pete Wed, 17 May 2006 01:35:07 +0000 http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2006/05/16/dreamhost-support-queue/#comment-448 I can definitely confirm what Michael said about our response times. We have hired on several people for support in the last six months and our times have been going down steadily despite the fact that our subscribers continue to rocket upward. We are also reworking parts of our back-end systems to help reliability, which should help prevent people from having to submit a ticket in the first place! That could take months though, per project segment, with the testing and beta-rollout procedures and soforth, so it won't be like.. tomorrow or anything. There are fewer requests during the weekends, but there are also fewer staff. There are also fewer tickets over the graveyard shift, and likewise fewer staff... so it doesn't really make a big difference when you submit your ticket vs. how long it takes to get answered. The keys to getting a fast response are simple! Provide as much information as you can. "My email doesn't work" will prolong your response, and in many cases will result in us asking for additional information (and thus a second delay!) "My email account, foo@example.com is getting the error 554 Relay Access Denied" will get you a faster answer. Related to the above, you should also fill out the support form correctly. We have drop-down menus where you can select a domain, email address, or other details about which service is not working properly. If you specify the wrong information here, it can get your ticket delayed. This does not, of course, apply if you're emailing your support ticket, but if you're able to submit the ticket from the panel, this additional information helps us out. Don't forget to mention potentially confusing conditions, e.g. if you have multiple accounts under the same email address, if you're managing your own DNS server, if you've installed your own custom PHP and anything else that might have an affect on the problem in question. Hope this helps! I know they're kindof "duh" points, but you wouldn't believe how often people forget! I can definitely confirm what Michael said about our response times. We have hired on several people for support in the last six months and our times have been going down steadily despite the fact that our subscribers continue to rocket upward.

We are also reworking parts of our back-end systems to help reliability, which should help prevent people from having to submit a ticket in the first place! That could take months though, per project segment, with the testing and beta-rollout procedures and soforth, so it won’t be like.. tomorrow or anything.

There are fewer requests during the weekends, but there are also fewer staff. There are also fewer tickets over the graveyard shift, and likewise fewer staff… so it doesn’t really make a big difference when you submit your ticket vs. how long it takes to get answered.

The keys to getting a fast response are simple!

Provide as much information as you can. “My email doesn’t work” will prolong your response, and in many cases will result in us asking for additional information (and thus a second delay!) “My email account, foo@example.com is getting the error 554 Relay Access Denied” will get you a faster answer.

Related to the above, you should also fill out the support form correctly. We have drop-down menus where you can select a domain, email address, or other details about which service is not working properly. If you specify the wrong information here, it can get your ticket delayed. This does not, of course, apply if you’re emailing your support ticket, but if you’re able to submit the ticket from the panel, this additional information helps us out.

Don’t forget to mention potentially confusing conditions, e.g. if you have multiple accounts under the same email address, if you’re managing your own DNS server, if you’ve installed your own custom PHP and anything else that might have an affect on the problem in question.

Hope this helps! I know they’re kindof “duh” points, but you wouldn’t believe how often people forget!

]]>