We’re Not Stupid!

Earlier today, I had a funny yet equally annoying experience with a host’s customer support representative. I don’t like the host — they’re a really cheap “budget host” and they’ve demonstrated incompetence so many times. If I owned the account I’d move the websites away from them as soon as possible. Unfortunately the account is my friend’s and I would have to bear for a few more months with this host until the contract expires.

I won’t name the host just yet because I’m currently writing my review on them, but you probably won’t believe me when I say that the support rep seemed to think all their clients were stupid!

If you guys know the site called Not Always Right, you’d know that a lot of employees there are making fun of their dumb customers/clients. I think this support rep we’re talking about is trying his luck with clients, and hopefully if he chances upon a really dumb one then he could have his story published on Not Always Right. Or he could save himself the trouble and embarrassment (and possibly keep his job for a longer time) by just making up a funny story.

Anyway here’s what happened: My friend has a shared account with the host. His sites were going up and down and since I manage most of his stuff for him, obviously it was my job to contact support about this issue. I had a ticket conversation with their support rep and it was hilarious and annoying at the same time.

Here’s how the convo played out. Keep in mind this isn’t the exact conversation as I don’t want this post to be thousands of words long.

Me: May I know why your service is constantly down? The sites on this account have been going up and down for the past few days.

Support: This should be fine now.

Me: Yes [of course it’s up right now, it’s been going up and down] but I’d like to know why it’s constantly down.

Support: The web server was stopped suddenly and I have started it again.

Me: Does this explain the other downtimes as well?

Support: Exactly.

Me: So are you saying that there’s a problem with your server and you don’t intend to give it a permanent fix?

Support: We’ve fixed the issue. It won’t happen again.

A FEW HOURS LATER…

Me: So.. the sites are down again.. may I know what the issue is?

Support: (some 40 minutes later) I can access it from my end.

Me: Well that’s because they’re up now! Service was down for 15mins around an hour ago.

Support: I’ve checked the server and there wasn’t any downtime.

Me: Okay they’re down again. You can try checking now.

Support: Your site is not down.

Me: The sites are down from my end. You can even check doj.me and other “down or just me” checkers, they all say the sites are down.

Support: It could be an issue with your Internet connection.

Me: My Internet is fine. Other people I know can’t access the sites either.

Support: This is just an issue with your Internet. Please check back later.

And then he closed the ticket.

I literally laughed my ass off when I read his message saying “The web server was stopped suddenly and I have started it again.”

Just how incompetent can hosts be these days? Keep in mind this issue has been going on for some time now and only got worse by the day. This made me think, they actually allow incompetence like this (web servers stopping suddenly and randomly) to happen over and over? Ridiculous! If my friend was hosting a business site with them I bet we’d be so mad. Thankfully his sites are just hobby sites with very little traffic.

I also don’t understand why he kept insisting it’s my Internet. He’s been avoiding the issue and he kept saying everything’s fine. He even went as far as saying the problem had been resolved permanently. Why couldn’t he just tell me what’s wrong and maybe I’d understand? I’m not that stupid to believe everything that tech support reps tell me! I mean come on, it’s my Internet? Really now…

I guess this experience says more about the support rep (and the host) than me. Not all clients are stupid, and even if there are gullible ones, you shouldn’t treat them like that. Stop making obvious excuses. Stop beating around the bush and trying to avoid the client’s questions. Stop being so reserved and tight-lipped about what’s happening. Instead, you should help them understand the issue better and explain in detail what’s happening. For crying out loud, your clients have every right to know if your servers are already on fire or something!