Vortech Support Changes

[Dean]

**Vortech Support Changes**

Phone Support:

Effective immediately 1/24/06 Vortech will now offer enhanced phone support from the hours of 7 AM to 11 PM Eastern Time. We have made scheduling and staff changes to ensure the largest number of Vortech Technicians will be available during these peak support hours. Phone support will cease at 11 PM and resume again at 7 AM Eastern Time.

During the overnight hours we will have technicians at our NOC (Datacenter) facility answering support tickets and performing typical day to day server and network maintenance. You support emails and tickets will be answered promptly as always during these overnight hours as well as during the peak daytime hours.

We feel this new support system will create faster response times during peak hours and cut down on unnecessary overnight staffing when things are typically very slow.


Support Request Requirements:

As a Vortech customer you are now required to register for support access on our support site located at http://vortechsupport.com

Register for support here: http://vortechsupport.com/index.php?_m=core&_a=register

Unfortunately we now have to limit and monitor support requests in a strict fashion due to the overwhelming number of Reseller Clients who continually send their end-users to us for support.

Vortech always has supported only **1 PERSON PER ACCOUNT**

[Ballyhoo]

Sorry to hear this.

Might want to update your web site.

[admin]

Yea we will, we had very few calls anyway from 11pm until 7am, this should speed up email replies as most of our customers email from those times any way. We had about 50 ticket to 1 call on 11pm until 7am shift. So we can take a 2 techs from the night shift and move them to day shift and up support there where it about 5-10 tickets to 1 call.

We are in no way cutting support we are just making it better. Replies should also be faster around the clock.

[cleonard]

Originally Posted by admin

Replies should also be faster around the clock.

Yeah, let's see who can beat Dean's 65 second response to an apache restart ticket for me from last week. Never seen anything like it

[mresell]

You guys really should be doing this. It is really ridiculous that resellers do this, knowing better. I do hope the support form is now secure tho. The info that flies back and forth should be encrypted as much as possible. We can change passes, but not really user ids.

[kattouf]

I thought this wasn't going to affect me but i sent an email off to support and it bounced back saying i have to register :-(

[kattouf]

Well that was painless, and all my ticket history was still there! :-)

[admin]

Yep, we removed EVERY ones account so everyone would have to reregister but it only takes a second and it should help us a LOT knowing we are speaking with OUR customer.

I hope this won't effect in any way the support I am likely to receive as a UK customer.

I signed up with you because of your 24/7 support promise.

Have just been told a firewall question will have to wait until a Senior Admin is available.

I've been in situations before working with USA based services where I'm waiting until mid afternoon to get hold of anyone and I would not like to see this happening with Vortech..

I'm sure you will reassure me that this is not the case and that, for example, my firewall issue will not be left outstanding for hours.

Thank you,

Jenny

[admin]

Originally Posted by FastTrack

I hope this won't effect in any way the support I am likely to receive as a UK customer.
I signed up with you because of your 24/7 support promise.
Have just been told a firewall question will have to wait until a Senior Admin is available.
I've been in situations before working with USA based services where I'm waiting until mid afternoon to get hold of anyone and I would not like to see this happening with Vortech..
I'm sure you will reassure me that this is not the case and that, for example, my firewall issue will not be left outstanding for hours.
Thank you,
Jenny

There is something some techs are better at than others here, I found your ticket and it did not apper to be something that had to be answered right then and there. I am sure steve could have given an answer but felt more comfortable letting a unix admin answer you.

The reason for that is your enableing a firewall on a dedicated server, had you enabled it and locked your self out you would not have been happy had steve answered you wrong.

"Junior Member" .. hmmmm ?

[dpyers]

They're still there 7x24 but only handle email tickets during certain hours - not phone support during those hours.

I've never had any problem having tickets handled during the wee hours at vortech - usually get a response within minutes. Think the longest I've waited was a half hour. Personally, I think the 11PM-7AM Eastern Time support response is usually quicker than the prime time response.

[blakemiller]

Originally Posted by Dean

As a Vortech customer you are now required to register for support access on our support site located at http://vortechsupport.com
Register for support here: http://vortechsupport.com/index.php?_m=core&_a=register

I just re-registered, but only after calling tech support for them to tell me. I think you should re-clarify this to say that ALL existing accounts were closed, and that we are all required to RE-sign up. Upon receiving the above earlier this week, I assumed that I was okay, because i already registered for support access (way back when). I never saw that we had to RE-register, even if we were already a valid user. As an existing customer, i read it as "oh, i've already done that... months ago."
If my assumption that you're getting bombarded with phone calls (as I was one of them ), this may be the reason. It should be made clearer that anyone will have to re-register, and that only resellers will be allowed back in.
But if you're not getting bombed with ???'s, then disregard!
Thanks again guyz!

[admin]

Yea it could have been a bit more clear but it also tells you to register if you send an email to support@ so that should be a clue to register.

We cleared out everyone as thats the only way to get all the info we need.

[blakemiller]

Originally Posted by admin

Yea it could have been a bit more clear but it also tells you to register if you send an email to support@ so that should be a clue to register.

We cleared out everyone as thats the only way to get all the info we need.

That's cool. I understand why and how it was done - I actually agree with it too. No worries here. I was just trying to log into my account, wouldn't let me. I didn't go to forums to check in either. I didn't have an actual support issue - until, i guess, i couldn't log in

Just trying to help out if you are getting bombed by calls this week for this reason. Okay, i'm back to hosting... thanks again.