Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2020 01:05:02 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Aryeh Friedman <aryeh.friedman@gmail.com> Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: OT: Dealing with a hosting company with it's head up it's rear end Message-ID: <20200814010502.9f6fa071.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <CAGBxaX=zfPC77E8Ytct_veLxMEJdmOr8nDnLandQYVY7Qvg53g@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAGBxaXmg0DGSEYtWBZcbmQbqc2vZFtpHrmW68txBck0nKJak=w@mail.gmail.com> <20200813212527.1806a142.freebsd@edvax.de> <CAGBxaX=zfPC77E8Ytct_veLxMEJdmOr8nDnLandQYVY7Qvg53g@mail.gmail.com>
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On Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:38:57 -0400, Aryeh Friedman wrote: > On Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 3:25 PM Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote: > > [...] > > My suggestion would be: Try to find a "technical person" > > who you can talk to, layout your arguments, and explain > > what is going to happen. Yes, this sounds like elementary > > school, but sometimes it helps. However, the "technical > > person" should have power (!) in that hosting company to > > make things happen. > > > > We were working directly with a technical person until the new contract was > signed then within 72 hrs the person we were working with said that neither > they nor anyone else on the sys/netadmin staff where authorized to talk to > end users/customers directly any more and we had to go through the sales > dept. (?!!?!?!??) to file a ticket and if needed it would be forwarded to > tech support and if they didn't work to the techies but the techies could > only tell tech support what to say not to talk to us directly. Yes, that is a big problem. I have seen it several times, especially the part "let's route everything through sales, maybe we can sell them something". Deliberately "unpowering" sysadmins and networking stuff (i. e., people who usually are "technical types" and know what they're talking about, as an opposite of sales who will promise you anything if they think there's a sales opportunity) is something that can be seen as an indicator of general quality decrease. It's more about "what it looks like" than "what it can do" for the services. Sadly, as soon as there's a vendor lock-in, a long running contract or or other "forces", this tendency seems to increase: "They cannot do anything - they're bound by contract, so we can drain them, by hook or by crook." That sounds a lot like Tom Smykowski's function described in "Office Space" (in the two-Bob interview). Some years ago, I had a similar experience with a hosting company: Their technical hotline sent you to a callcenter staffed with sales people. Back and forth a few hours, and by accident (!), someone transfered me to a technical person. We were able to solve the problem quickly. It's always nice if you don't have to explain established termini technici or try to convince a sales drone that a mail server is something completely different than "Outlook" or "Google". That technical person didn't try to sell me "premium gold service 1st class ultimate enterprise professional support", but did his normal work: customer support. He also expressed that he is sorry about the situation, but there's nothing that anyone could do. It is _intended_ to be that way... > I think the bottom line is they want someone to sue if there is a security > breach... this is a hosting company run by bankers and other financial > services types. This gives you all the answers you need. They do not care about customers, they care about money, and contracts (instead of providing a good service) is their way to do so. It looks like they're more an "investment company" with some annoying "IT stuff and computers annex". >From what you're describing, escalating to higher levels won't work, because nobody cares. Contracts signed, money sent. Period. Take it or leave it. We already have your money. :-/ -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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