Have you ever tried to take advantage of free online technical support? Did you wonder why your e-mail went unanswered? Ask yourself this question: Do you sometimes feel swamped by the pile of e-mail you receive everyday? Do you ever receive so much e-mail that you have to pick and choose which ones you’ll deal with based on how “hot” they are? Then welcome to the harried world of the web host.
One of the balancing acts that cheap web hosts must perform is determining how much staff they can afford to assign to their free online technical support. Most cheap web hosts are already operating on paper thin margins and can ill afford to have support staff sitting around waiting to pounce on every problem that may arise.
You get what you pay for
With most of the cheapest web hosting plans it’s unusual to get free telephone support. Instead, the cheap web host will typically offer e-mail support along with a promise of fast turnaround on your questions.
The best web hosts know that the quality and responsiveness of technical support is one of characteristics potential customers consider in their hosting selection decision. In reality, though, price often trumps technical support at the selection stage of the relationship.
Therefore, you’ll often see free online technical support heavily marketed by every web hosting company, but how many of them live up to their claims? How can you evaluate technical support before you sign up for a hosting plan.
The Reality
The simplest way is to send an e-mail to the web host’s support ID and see what kind of response you receive. Ask them a few questions. It doesn’t matter what. And see how long it takes them to respond with an answer and, when they do, see how good the answer actually is.
Needless to say, if you don’t receive at least an acknowledgment of your e-mail within an hour or two you should be looking elsewhere for your new web host. And even if you get an acknowledgment, you should track the total turnaround time from your initial inquiry to its final resolution.
This one aspect of web hosting warrants close attention because it is often the one that breaks down and sours the relationship long after the “thrill” of cheap hosting has faded.
In our Top Hosts section, we list only the companies who deliver quality service at affordable prices. And they do this while providing good quality free online technical support including, in many cases, free telephone support.
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Secret #7
