Phone Support

[mckayk]

I can't submit a ticket through cp.hsphere.cc as its currently down for me. So its a catch 22 for me.

[Danl]

If you do submit a ticket through the hsphere system we won't get it, you just need to send an email to support@vortechhosting.com also the cp is back up now.

[ttyler]

So what happened this morning?

Our services were completely off line. Your website was off line. Your phones were off line. I checked in this forum after you were back on line, but nothing in here. I understand that you are busy possibly short handed, however, something explaining the situation would help so we can communicate to our clients as well.

Thank you

[tkraffty]

All clients were offline for most of the day, with no web or mail services. Datacenter was unreachable by phone, HTTP or email. Please advise on (1.) what happened this morning, and (2.) what URL or contact info we may access in case of any outages of this magnitude and severity. I don't expect a response... but I do expect a webpage or automated email to resellers that provides a quick message or explanation of the problem, which we can then communicate to our clients.

[tkraffty]

Also (totally unrelated to the weather, and a MUCH lower priority - but just wanted to post before forgetting)... The SSL cert on your CP is expired.

Nothing better than getting a big red flashy bar across the top of IE (the latest version) and an error page all telling me it's not recommended that I access my own reseller account.

[danivi]

I totally agree with tkraffty, and I would like a letter explaining what happens and what are you doing to avoid this situation in the future so we cand then communicate to our clients

[dcsweb]

I'm in agreement with most of the posts here. That outage was the worst I've seen at Vortech.

Despite what any of the admins are saying....
- Complete outage for ALL of my V hosted sites for over 4 hours
- Could not call V.
- Could not access ANY sites of Vortech's; main site, forums, support
- Could not access Hsphere

When the automated phone lady told me the your number had been disconnected or no longer in service....my heart dropped.

Ideas for V:
- If you're running VOIP for your business....perhaps pay the extra to have a few hard-lines brought in and add them to a hunt group. That way at least there is a hope of a phone call getting answered in the event of lost bandwidth.

- Host your forums somewhere else?

Bottom line, it looked like you guys went out of business yesterday!

[Danl]

Yes we did, and that scared me pretty bad because I had no idea what to do about that, we'll have a forum hosted outside of our network within 2 weeks, I'll let everyone know when I have it up.

[ixie02]

I put in a ticket on yesterday's outage yesterday afternoon and did get a response. But it sure was a scare because I haven't had the time to get all my accounts away from VT. The direction Vt has been going in the last couple of years has forced me to make the decision to leave. It's sad to see how a once excellent company can deteriorate so rapidly. But the bottom line is that we have to look out for ourselves.

[doublez]

Originally Posted by dcsweb

When the automated phone lady told me the your number had been disconnected or no longer in service....my heart dropped.

Mine too. I lost 2-3 years of my life when I heard that phone message.

[CoolTechie]

Having a similar issue as greyroom. My site has been down for a week now! It comes up as suspended. I emailed billing and they tell me to update the credit card info. The card on file is fine... I don't need to update that info. I just had larger payments go through yesterday! And this is only $9.00!!

No one ever picks up the phone there. The person replying to billing tickets (Cheryl) does not read the email and understand the issue. Just fires off a template response! Are you kidding me? Granted you guys have the hurricanes, but an operation your size must have Business Continuity Plans in place. Especially because you are in the hurricane zone!! My company is quite small and I still have a BCP in place! It's freaking business, not a bloody picnic!! People's livelyhoods are affected by this. And talk about inflexible billing policies. You don't even accept paypal! I want to pay.. and I have tried several times, but I can't pay you!

Seriously, get your act together. This is USA. Customers here don't react well to closed door policies. They want responsive customer service and want multiple options - whether its billing, support or just having coffee. You guys are shooting yourself in the foot by not being able to provide good support. You're killing your credibility. And in your business, that translates into a pretty large go-away rate. How you handle this situation is upto you. But numbers don't lie. And you'll be looking at some dissapointing ones if this goes on... You know that.

Do something!