Customer Service: This is how you do it
 

Bralynn B.: Welcome to Web Hosting Tech Support. How can I help you?
stickfigurepeepshow.com: hi, my domain is stickfigurepeepshow.com
stickfigurepeepshow.com: I was wondering why my site was moving so slow, when I looked at a php script which reports server load avgs...
stickfigurepeepshow.com: 16.65, 14.22, 13.19
stickfigurepeepshow.com: this is incredible.. I wish there was more policing of server stress because on shared space, a lot of people suffer when one or a couple users abuse the server
stickfigurepeepshow.com: I dont get a lot of traffic to my site, but during nights, i'm lucky if any page loads in less than 30 seconds
Bralynn B.: One moment please, while I pull up your account information.
stickfigurepeepshow.com: latest sample... 16.08, 18.22, 15.87
stickfigurepeepshow.com: that took about 40 seconds to retrieve
Bralynn B.: Stats are currently being compiled on the server. This happens during maintenence time.
stickfigurepeepshow.com: now we're timing out it seems...
stickfigurepeepshow.com: pardon my lack of understanding of your admins' logic in scheduling, but I am on the west coast and this is the prime browsing time for myself and millions of other west coasters...
stickfigurepeepshow.com: surely, 3 or 4 am would be a more convenient time to compile server stats
stickfigurepeepshow.com: and by convenient, I mean for the customers...
stickfigurepeepshow.com: heck, I'm probably sure they can configure things so the compilation only takes a certain % of CPU time.
Bralynn B.: One moment please.
Bralynn B.: I understand your frustration, let me check into this.
stickfigurepeepshow.com: The least I can ask of my PAID hosting company is for my website to load within 5 seconds of request.
Bralynn B.: Your request has been granted. The stats will run at 4:45AM CST from here on.
stickfigurepeepshow.com: That is excellent
Bralynn B.: Thank you for your patience.
stickfigurepeepshow.com: I thank you sincerely
Bralynn B.: No problem, glad I could help.
stickfigurepeepshow.com: have a good night
Bralynn B.: Thank you, you too.


The customer wants you to do something?!? DO IT!

what hosting company?

and did you ever figure out why the server was going so slow?

juan, you're slacking... READ

Wow, that's pretty impressive. Who is your hosting company? Most places have a gimpy tech support staff that only knows how to change DNS settings on windows machines, and wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between cron and top.

I use phpwebhosting.com and they have a pretty knowledgable support staff as well, but it's limited to online support to cut costs. I've had few major problems with them, which were cleared up on the same day via their online support system.

damn, why can't I ever get service like that online or over the phone.

The only time I do get good service, is when I'm in person doing the "rogue very concerned" act. (this can intimidating.;))

the hosting company is bluedomino.com

they've been lax on the service before, but tonight was a pleasant surprise

They fear retribution from the horse-penised man, as we all should.

Or if you can't do it, tell the customer why and then suggest things that you CAN do for them.

BTW, that was impressive.

It's a damn shame we all nowdays see this kind of good support as unusual, even bizarre.

I just regained my faith in humanity.

what a pleasant suprise!

Cool deal. I think part of it was that you seemed informed, calm, but just forceful enough.

Glad you got some good service though.

Its refreshing to see a customer service rep resolving an issue a customer has as quickly and efficiently as possible. Unfortuntately your experience bucks against the norm nowadays.

For instance -- went into the Sprint store to upgrade my phone during my lunch one day. That's it -- all I wanted to do was buy a better phone. 2 hours later I'm finally able to plunk down my $300 bucks and they didn't even have time to activate it. I had to do that online.

* I need to stop talking about this -- getting angry all over again.