New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Comments
Friendly replies to whatever is asked, and make sure server does not die!
Make sure the server is up and connected to the network.
Decent uptime, reliability and friendly replies for the times when support is required.
Somewhere around the lines of @linuxthefish
A professional but friendly response that states the service is unmanaged, but at the same time can point the client towards the right direction and not just leaving them hanging completely.
That everything just works. As long as you can keep the hardware, the network and the OS templates all working perfectly and when they're not you're friendly and helpful in ticket replies and/or communicate well about the issue all is fine and dandy.
If we're talking dedi server then also emergency help - stuck installing OS, root pass was set wrong during install with no option to reinstall etc. I don't expect help if google-fu or looking through the panel for reinstall options would solve it although as long as it's the very odd honest mistake I would expect that to be pointed out to me in a nice way.
As long as it's better than this:
http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/31635/fortacloud-2-gig-ram-free-vps/p1
There are two categories. The first is big fishes with dozens of employes. I'm waiting from them never to need opening a ticket and, when I do, a professional and accurate answer and solution.
But I prefer the small and reputable providers form my live sites. What do I expect from them? Be client-centric, friendly and showing that every customer is valuable for them. I do not expect from them to answer to questions that are far beyond from an unmanaged service but whenever they have the time to do it, it will be a big plus and earn the client forever.
I would love also an approach out of ticketing system, even if this is not on regular basis (e.g. a skype live conversation or/and irc, whenever a provider has time to communicate with their clients).
And answering the tickets as soon as possible (not over half a day).
IMHO, this way a provider can earn forever and make loyal their customers that they will ignore even some failures that from time to time all maybe will have!
To fix anything that's your fault, to maintain the VPS nodes (i.e, remove abusive clients) and perform tasks that are absolutely not possible from the client's end (i.e. updating RDNS if not available for the client).
Anything above that is not expected, although highly appreciated.
I only open tickets when there are critical server/network problems caused on the provider side or when I need to know resource upgrade prices. I expect the support replies to be short and accurate, if they are not able to fix the problem within a timely manner then i'd appreciate it if they could update the ticket and announce that.
A commitment to the things that are only capable of being solved by them, and a willingness to explain to a client why their problem is not your problem, while being kind enough to offer any advice that is reasonably offered without much effort on your part. At the very least, a "you should contact ______" where applicable.
In some cases, the willingness to fix what is not your problem if you can reasonably do so in a very short amount of time. At least, that is what I expect of myself, and therefore of others.
I expect support for every problem that the support is capable of handling.
If you know how to do something, why don't pass your knowledge to the client?
Edit: To specify this: Don't just do anything you can for the client but teach them on how to do it and try to resolve errors in the process.
uptime! friendly support
I think the only time I open support tickets is when the server is down. If your services are up, chances are I won't even bother your support department.
At what point do you accept something like, "Sorry but we are unmanaged and cannot assist with ______. Please visit our community IRC channel." ? There isn't any way for the client to know if a provider has time to do more than provide basic unmanaged service after all.
Sure, if you know how to do something, why not? But should that be the default for a host who categorizes themselves as unmanaged? At what point then does "unmanaged" lose its meaning?
Keep the hardware and client area panels (Solus, etc.) up and running. For OVZ, keep the templates working.
I do not expect any troubleshooting at the application level (Apache, PHP, WordPress, etc.).
The client asking for you to setup a reverse proxy failover in their Apache configuration won't know the difference in how easy it is for you to do that in comparison to "can you install apache" or they would be crazy to ask for it in a ticket to an unmanaged provider. So the client really isn't, on average, going to understand where a line should be drawn.
With that said, if what they are asking is literally 15-30 seconds of your time, I would do it without question. If not, I wouldn't. They're just not going to know the difference as they cannot see what you do for people as opposed to what you won't do for them. There's no real way around it, you just have to know what you can do and what you can't in the moment, in my opinion.
I expect assistance with hardware issues and for them to make sure the network is solid and the servers/nodes/whatever are stable.
Client software should be offlimits imo.
Well said, it is a fine line, but I think the big thing especially with VPS the big deal of knowledge is not all folks know OpenVZ or KVM platforms, so some adjustments and knowledge need to be relied upon the provider be it managed or unmanaged, as the customer wouldn't have the core control.
I do appreciate you guys in that as I know a thing or two in my time toying with OpenVZ I've been able to ask you guys for assistance and say "Can we raise ______" and you accommodate me, but all in all from an unmanaged standpoint you guys do a awesome balance in my mind, always feel like my issues are handled and my services are online.
Easier solution is to do what Digitalocean does, build up an awesome community driven tutorial and faq resource where folks can find the answers they need for almost everything. I'm a firm believer in only answering the question once where possible (via a faq or tutorial). Then whenever the same question comes up, just point them to the full answer linked page. Cuts down support for commonly asked questions
I expect solid network connectivity and the hardware to be functioning well and configured properly. I typically hit Google for answers to my questions. I think when you purchase unmanaged services, that should be your expectation. I think it's kind of taking advantage of a situation when you want/expect managed support but aren't willing to pay the managed price.
*Disclaimer: I have been a Ramnode customer for a couple of years, now.
Yes! DigitalOcean's tutorials are really fantastic and a real win-win for users and authors because they even pay pretty well ($200 for full-length articles, $100 for short ones).
Expect the VPS to be up and perform as advertised. Shouldn't have to open a ticket for any downtime, the provider should know and email beforehand if it's planned, or email a postmortem if unplanned.
The only time I would consider opening a software-related ticket with an unmanaged provider is if there was something wrong with one of their OS templates. (mainly on OpenVZ)
Also, "it's unmanaged" shouldn't be an excuse if I submit a ticket that my 4GB VPS is OOMing when I try to use 512MB of it
Apart from that... as long as I get what I pay for, I pretty much have no reason to ever open a ticket.
No frequent downtimes like BlueVM, AlienVPS and other companies, panel always up, perhaps a wiki to help and that the provider could answer tickets when there is a problem with TUN/TAP, iptables on server, not client side.
I personally would expect everything working like a charm and I never want to open a ticket. And if something goes wrong I'd expect a quick fix to solve it.
No, I've been misunderstood, I' talking about two different things. In tickets, although I know that unmanaged cheap server providers cannot afford the staff/time to answer to questions that a user should know or should search himself, but if the provider have time, don't just throw tickets with that kind of answer (Sorry but we are unmanaged...). A method that follow the big companies, that are giving specific orders to their support staff (what to answer and what to ignore).
As of skype or irc, I am not suggesting that as a help desk but a place that provider or senior staff of the company is there from time to time (when he can) and having a more human approach to their clients or helping them. Not in a regular basis, though.
E.g., Justin and other staff from Bluevm are logging frequently to their irc channel, and they give some helping hand there, too. Andreij from Dr.Server talks a lot via skype to his clients, when it is needed to solve problems they have with service, usually problems beyond the obligation that the company has on an unmanaged service. And, of course, you in your irc channel
Again, all this as a plus, when a provider has time, not as an obligation to the clients. Besides, a good provider will not have to deal with a lot of tickets (in my two accounts with ramnode I never had to open a ticket myself). The extra communication with clients or a helping hand when this is doable, is IMO the best way to glue clients with a company. Just my 2 cents.
Complete knowledgebase/guide/tutorial and the kitchen sink, and unofficial community support channel, like you guys been doing with IRC, and a forum would be nice for gossiping.
In general, unmanaged VPS providers are expected to provide support for:
Keep the hardware and network going, I'll be happy :-).
You can find a more beautiful way to say "no"