how long does a support ticket take?

[PaulC.]

I submitted a support ticket yesterday at 4:06PM and another at 7am this morning. Both still have a status of "new" in the ticketing program. Anyone know?

Paul

[areidmtm]

Tickets may take several days. Tickets are the SLOWEST forum of communication with bluehost because they have thousands of them.

Calling them or using live chat is always the best way.

[Early Out]

Heck, I've got a ticket from June 6, 2006, and another from November 11, 2006, both of which are listed as "awaiting reply." Obviously, the problems in question have been taken care of, but the ticket system itself appears to be a bit of a muddle.

They need to put someone with a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder in charge of that system, and get it straightened out. :D

[CodeMonkey]

Tickets may take several days. Tickets are the SLOWEST forum of communication with bluehost because they have thousands of them.

I wish I read read that before I transferred my domains.

[Early Out]

I wish I read read that before I transferred my domains.Remember, they're hosting over 200,000 domains, and the ticket system isn't just for reporting problems. People use it to ask all sorts of questions, to ask for help with something they don't understand, to ask for various changes on their accounts, and so on. Seen in that light, the "thousands" figure doesn't surprise me.

[Tom_S]

Then they shouldnt shoot back an email that says "You can no longer create a new ticket through email, only through our Help Center. To create a new support request, please go to http://helpdesk.bluehost.com."

That is indeed it's intended purpose. Don't believe me? Just call. They will tell you exactly that.

[Early Out]

Then they shouldnt shoot back an email that says "You can no longer create a new ticket through email, only through our Help Center. To create a new support request, please go to http://helpdesk.bluehost.com."

That is indeed it's intended purpose. Don't believe me? Just call. They will tell you exactly that.
Tell us exactly what? That tickets are for asking for help with things?

The only thing that has changed is that they want you to log a ticket through the helpdesk system, rather than through email. It was probably too messy to integrate an emailed request into the ticket system. No mystery there.

[DarkBeer]

Depends on the ticket system. I work with helpdesk systems that an email request will automatically generate a ticket, plus a response to the requester letting them know their request has been received. Any updates to the ticket (escalation, change in asignee, or comments) get emailed back to the user as well.

BH doesn't help their cause with the way they handle their ticket system. You create a ticket, and the system shows you a "due" time of 8 hours. If they can't realistically hit that mark, which is quite obvious they can't right now, then change it to a time that is realistic. If it is 4 days, then do it that way. Don't give the customer and expectation of an 8 hour response, and then go days with no response at all.

To those that would suggest that calling is the best support option, that may be true if you can afford the time to wait on hold. Recent threads indicate 30 minutes to 2 hours for a response. Many people don't have that kind of time to sit and wait. Live chat works if you keep hammering on it, but even then, you may or may not get it resolved. My request to address fastphpd issues was told not to worry about it, where another user gets it resolved. If they effectively used a helpdesk system the way it should be used, tickets would get escalated or assigned to people that could handle the request.

I think the other issue here is the recent change in upgraded storage/bandwidth. Right after the move to 50 gig storage, tech response was slow. Matt Heaton indicated they were correcting that and hiring more staff, and it did indeed start improving. Now they've upped the ante again without having the tech resources in place to handle the flood of new customers as a result of the marketing.

/rant

[Early Out]

I agree with everything you've said, DarkBeer. Just from the posts I'm seeing in here, it appears that BH support is simply overwhelmed. This is disturbing, and it's a shame - BH's support was one of its best features, and it seems to be going to the dogs.

This seems to happen to every hosting company that succeeds in attracting a lot of new customers. Yet each one is surprised when it happens to them. It's as if every new hosting company is starting from scratch, with no understanding of what happened to those that have gone before them!

[Tom_S]

Okay. So now I have submitted three support tickets. Each of which have found their way into the dark regions of cyberspace never to be seen or assigned. Splain that one.

BTW...I am seeing a pattern here bigtime Early Out. Almost every post I have on BH you seem to follow me with an answer.

[Early Out]

Hey, I hang out on the boards a lot, and these kinds of discussions are interesting to me. So sue me! :D

[Hercules]

Like a year ago tickets were mostly resolved within 1 hour, for now it's better to call if you live in the USA or use the livechat function if you live outside.

[Tom_S]

Hey, I hang out on the boards a lot, and these kinds of discussions are interesting to me. So sue me! :D

I didn't mean it in a bad way :p

I like about everything you have written. A couple of things I may argue the point but you do have a good point to argue. ;)