Marc Bollinger

You're absolutely right here and I totally agree. I'm working to get this corrected once and for all.

Marc

waldo

Same here

I can't host my clients with such uncertainty in the air. I honestly think at this rate, Dotable will not be about in a year (I'm sure UK2 still will be, but I reckon Dotable will be shut down with customers punted elsewhere).

This has been such a shocking transformation; everytime you (UK2) cock-up, I keep on insisting I'll give you another go, but every time I come back to the forums I read more complaints, more unanswered tickets, more broken promises...

Given the above, I'm sure you'll understand why we are generally not accepting yet more 'promises' of change.

ozspeed

my ticket number is 5113

Dotable Vladi

Hello ozspeed,

I have contacted the one of our billing team members and your ticket has been answered.

hal

Marc

You know the situation when a customer opens a ticket, and your techs, admittedly quickly afterwards, write a reply such as, "Updates with you soon", "I am forwarding the issue to admin, please stand by for updates" or "Our admin will update you with details, please standby"?

Well, these statements are not, in any way, an adequate substitute for the following:
1) a resolution to the ticket
2) if a resolution is not immediately possible, then information about why it is not possible and the steps that need to be taken in order to progress the ticket *
3) if a resolution will take any more than a modest length of time to obtain, then a deadline by which the issue will be resolved, OR (and this is important!) a deadline by which the ticket will be updated with further information * +

* Note: In situations where options 2) or 3) are applicable, repeat the process indefinitely until option 1) is achieved.
+ Note: deadlines should not be broken!



Marc, if you have been spending more time over the last few days than is usual perusing Dotable's ticketing system, then I am very surprised that you have not stumbled across my tickets, particularly the one with the simple subject of:

'Complaint' which continues as follows:

= = = = = = = = = =
[sent nearly 48 hours ago]

Billy

To remind you of the following:

The 'FTP issue' ticket #5429 has been open for 10 days, and remains without any meaningful updates despite your staff promising 'details...shortly'. 6 days ago, I requested a timescale by which time the issue is likely to be resolved, but this has been ignored. Left with no other appropriate method to contact your team, and in exasperation, I opened ticket #5843 to again request a timescale. Given the fundamental nature of FTP functionality, it is extremely difficult for me to understand the delay in this resolution.

The 'PostgreSQL issue' ticket #4316 has been open for 2 months, and remains ignored with no meaningful updates from your staff for over 2 weeks, despite the fact that I have requested updates 5 times in the ticket. In ticket #5843, I made it clear that I was sympathetic that the issues involved may not be straightforward and conceded that this may explain the delay in the resolution, but stated that I required, at the very least, a timescale by which time you will be able to make some progress and provide some further tangible information.

Now, rather than simply close, I find that you have deleted ticket #5843 stating that, 'All issues will be answered in the respective tickets. Please do not open up more tickets as it only confuses the techs.'

Disappointingly, despite what you have said, you have not provided any information in the tickets, and have not provided the timescales that I requested.


Although I can imagine that you and your team work extremely hard to maintain the servers, your approach to providing the customer service aspect of Dotable services has become lacking. Although I understand that each ticket is obviously and unfortunately time-consuming for you, with each delay in its resolution and with each client ticket post ignored by your staff it also becomes more and more time-consuming for your customers.

However, it is clear by your actions and by your responses that you have no appreciation or regard for my time, and sadly little or no respect for your customers.

Billy, I feel I have been reasonable in my requests but now you are leaving me with few options. Unless you can address these problems within 24 hours (and, by that, I do not necessarily mean the technical issues), I will write to Ditlev Bredahl directly to put these issues to him.

Sincerely

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Extract from ticket #5843 follows:

I would like a timescale of when these issues will be addressed and, with respect, 'soon' and 'shortly' are not finite measures of time, especially bearing in mind that many of my tickets, currently and previously, have been left for days or weeks without a response.

If the issue is difficult, and cannot be resolved immediately, then that is of course acceptable on the proviso that more detail is given about what is causing the delay (for example, what information your admins are waiting on), and when, at the latest, we will hear a response (if your suppliers are needed to provide some information, then their service level agreement to you will give an indication about when the information will be obtained).

In short, this is all very standard and well-known customer service methodology, so I don't feel I am being unreasonable by asking for it.

On a different subject, to remind you, you have still not addressed the FTP problem (#5429) which I cannot believe is a difficult issue.

= = = = = = = = = =


So, Marc, am I really being unreasonable?

You would not believe the time I have spent 'tending' to unnecessary Dotable-related business since the start of the year. It has without doubt put me behind my schedule of work, and will cost me money in the medium term by pushing back other projects to allow for this, and hence prevent me from taking on new work. I am not exaggerating; Dotable has sadly become a burden that is in stark contrast to the Bob/Steve entity.

I would like to give your company the benefit of the doubt, as obviously moving to another host would inevitably cause further upheaval for my customers after the devastating time that they suffered when Jupiter failed in January.

However, there are some very impressive hosting offerings in the market place, which offer the same or better functionality at an equivalent price. At the end of the day, what I need is a host that I can trust, can rely on, and which understands the importance of efficient customer service practices. Unfortunately, I am not sure how many more 'benefits of the doubt' I can afford to give Dotable.

Hal

UPDATE: The ticket entitled "Complaint" was created by me on 26 Feb 2009 and was actually deleted (not simply closed) from the system 10 days later on 10th March, without addressing the concerns it contained or even providing a comment. I find it quite surprising that a company could act so unprofessionally in response to a formal complaint.

mgrohan

As i am as well for my 2 accounts. The transformation that has occurred at dotable from being one of the most reliable hosts with the best support system, to what it is now is unbelievable.

Tickets i have open for over a month, have useless replies, with no problems i have brought up being properly looked into, nevermind solved. The drama i experienced at Jupiter, not only resulting in lost data for tens of sites, but other sites are still not functioning properly on my jupiter account. Sites that work on other hosts, and on my other dotable account (not jupiter). And what has dotable done to make my account usable, absolutely nothing.

Very dissapointed!