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Are we wrong? General thoughts and opinions...
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Are we wrong? General thoughts and opinions...

BlueVMBlueVM Member
edited January 2012 in General

Alright so we had a customer signup for a VPS and after about a week he contacted us and asked us to help him make sure his VPS stayed online. He said it kept running out of RAM... so we looked into it a bit and told him that it was most likely apache causing the RAM issues and gave him the suggestion that he look into using lighthttpd and possibly follow LEA's guide on how to lower MYSQL RAM usage. He came back to us and told us that it was our job to fix his VPS because we were the admins of his VPS and that he paid us to keep it online.

We told him that as per our site he's responsible for making sure that his VPS is working correctly as its unmanaged service and that while we may offer guidance to help clients fix their problems we aren't responsible for optimizing their VPS. Anyway he pulled a charge back which we refunded within 24 hours and apparently he went to another provider.

I don't mind helping people, but I don't think its our job to hold people's hands especially when they won't go do some leg work and research something or follow directions we gave them. What is your guys opinion on the matter? Should we have just reworked his VPS and optimized it or did we do the right thing in trying to guide him but ultimatly letting him fail/succeed on his own?

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Comments

  • You were absolutely right, when its an unmanaged VPS its his duty to fix such stuff.
    Imho you are lucky that you got rid of him now

    Thanked by 2Aidan sarah
  • KuJoeKuJoe Member, Host Rep

    If you start hand holding, you'll run out of hands. We learned the hard way not to offer to much support or people will abuse it. We've had to terminate a few customers because of it.

  • NickMNickM Member
    edited January 2012

    I can see how someone who is unfamiliar with the industry could expect to have their hand held.

    While our services are unmanaged we are always happy to provide the best support possible and will work to resolve your issue.

    Most people don't know what unmanaged means. It might be a good idea to make it clear for people who don't know the lingo.

  • unamanged = managed by yourself. Write that in bold on your site.

    But many provider prefer to offer 'managed' vps so to get signups even from unsavvy users.

  • SSDNodesSSDNodes Member, Host Rep

    Did you have to pay any chargeback fees?

  • So if I get a VPS with you, you won't install websites, SEO and visitors and you won't earn me money? What a rip-off!

    Of course you're right, get rid of those customers right away. Help them once and they'll be asking for more, and they'll never stop. When you refuse they'll leave. Been there, done that.

  • DamianDamian Member
    edited January 2012

    +1 on that. If you don't quell hand-holding help requests, you'll become overwhelmed by them.

    You might want to start offering some basic shared hosting. Some of our customers were drawn to our site with "omz $1.99 vps!?!?!", then realize that they have no idea what they're doing, which we then sell them on shared hosting. Both parties win because their website is hosted on better hardware than a 96mb VPS, and it's a higher profit margin for us.

    (edit) Regarding chargebacks, do you offer a X-day refund policy? We have a 7 day try-it policy, which has been paramount in preventing our Paypal account getting tagged with chargebacks. (/edit)

  • We offer 30 day refunds. All the person has to do is request it via paypal, however our policy is that once you request a refund we close your account. (We don't want customers who keep buying and then leaving...)

  • In my opinion, looking at the client's VPS, suggesting fixes and where to find info is going above and beyond unmanaged already. Don't lose sleep over this :)

    There is no better environment to learn than an unmanaged VPS. You would be doing everyone a disservice by encouraging this behavior if you did any more.

  • If I were you, I'd be glad that he was longer a client. It's hard enough to maintain your own company, so time nor money should be wasted on clueless clients whom are expecting management when it was clearly stated that it was an un-managed package.

  • Sounds good thanks for the feedback.

  • @NickM said: Most people don't know what unmanaged means. It might be a good idea to make it clear for people who don't know the lingo.

    The thought of adding in a checkbox to the signup procedure came to my mind when I first read this but that might be overkill in this case as it's just a single (and former) client.

  • The whole "unmanaged" thing should be addressed front and centre on the website. Not just for you, BlueVM, but for all unmanaged providers.

    Don't avoid it, or disguise it, or bury it in in TOS, spell it out in brief, clear language and position it so that it's impossible to miss.

    It's truth in advertising.

    Thanked by 1MSPNick
  • Why don't you just tell people they need to upgrade to a managed package if they want that kind of help?

  • @zjen - We don't offer managed packages, its not worth the time or the problems involved.

  • Also what's managed for some isn't managed to others. We for example will install a third party software package while most managed providers won't.

  • KuJoeKuJoe Member, Host Rep

    We added a checkbox to our support tickets with the following text:

    I have already searched for my error on Google and cannot find a solution. I have read Secure Dragon's Terms of Service regarding Basic Management.

  • RophRoph Member
    edited February 2012

    I like Quickweb's decision - when making a ticket you agree that if the problem is due to the user being a novice or something the user could do themself, they will be billed for the support.

  • @KuJoe said: We added a checkbox to our support tickets with the following text:

    Brilliant sir. Would you mind if I add a similar tic to our own system? I'd be more than happy to share any of my own alterations in return.

  • KuJoeKuJoe Member, Host Rep

    @Aldryic Go right ahead, don't forget to make it required so people have to check it and can't skip it. ;)

  • @BlueVM there's a price where it becomes worthwhile.

  • @BlueVM said: @zjen - We don't offer managed packages, its not worth the time or the problems involved.

    There are 3rd party managing services. How about setting up an affiliate programm with them and then recommending them to users who can't manage their servers on their own?

  • KuJoeKuJoe Member, Host Rep

    @gsrdgrdghd said: There are 3rd party managing services. How about setting up an affiliate programm with them and then recommending them to users who can't manage their servers on their own?

    Not a bad idea. Although I've never seen one that has an affiliate program, nor have I found one that I would let touch my servers ever again.

  • melfmelf Member
    edited February 2012
    @Damian4IPXcore said: Both parties win because their website is hosted on better hardware than a 96mb VPS, and it's a higher profit margin for us.

    I thought that getting VPS albeit on LEB is way better then the hosted one in terms of performance.

  • DamianDamian Member
    edited February 2012

    @melf said: thought that getting VPS albeit on LEB is way better then the hosted one in terms of performance.

    I suppose it would depend on the company. Our initial focus was shared hosting, and it's still a big part of our business, so we're not willing to overload our shared hosting nodes. Therefore, in our case, it's the difference between a 96mb VPS with a single CPU core, or a 64gb server that can utilize any of 24 CPU cores.

  • BlueVm you were in the right he should have at least attempted to fix the problem or follow your guidance and if after that hes still having trouble maybe then you can lend the guy a hand. You've helped me very much getting my vps running and i thank you for that support.

  • My twopence worth...
    I think... bluevm did as much as he could. looked into the issue and suggested alternatives.

    But having said that I think it is provider to ensure that the vps has all the resources that the vps is supposes to have. Ie bandwith,ram,processor. etc... as well as some performance ie disk I/o... net connection etc...

    I'm just getting a little worried with wots being said on this thread... ie unmanaged means unmanaged...

    But so far my experience with providers has been very positive.

    All providers have helped with issues and like bluevm suggested alternatives.

    One example. I had this vps and sols was reporting my bandwidth usage as very high. I opened a ticket and my provider worked with me to resolve the issue. I setup up something to moniter my bandwidth usage. To cut a long story short the provider opened a ticket with solus to get thd issue resolved.

    So wot am I saying?
    Supplier and customer need to wirk together even if its an unmanaged service.

    And bluevm did try.

  • @proxima: Yes, that is/was a provider issue, which is above your level of control. Your provider was completely in-line for helping you with that issue.

    I think we're mostly talking about people asking for help with software installed on their VPS's, or how to use them. For example, a customer who asks why Kloxo won't install on a 96mb VPS.

  • This are just new users that grab anything that is cheap, they don't really know what they want and they are not even sure what to do with what they got.

    This being said, LEB market is not made for managed services either you pay them or you don't do them, you will end up losing cash if you start helping every client.

  • I think you did the right thing by letting this customer go as well.

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