When support is needed...

[ldcdc]

I was wondering, from a hosting customer's perspective, when and how do you use support?

Do you first take a look in the host's FAQ pages, knowledgebase and/or flash tutorials (like the ones featured at Demodemo.com) to see whether the answer to your question is there, or you simply contact the host via the helpdesk? Or maybe you usually to try to find an answer using Google (or another search engine)?

If the host has (or would have) a live chat feature, do (would) you jump right to it to get the help you need?

What about support by phone? Does it play a part in your "looking for support" process?

[crislem]

The way I use a company's support depends on the problem that I encounter and also on my previous experience with that company.

For example, a while ago when I had a problem with my account from Hotmail, I knew that it would take quite a while before I get an answer from them so I first looked in their knowledge base (and after I didn't find what I was looking for, I contacted them)

But, what I usually do, and I might be the weird customer now , I contact the support right away and explain what my problem is. Depending on how urgent my problem is, while I wait for their answer I look sometimes through their knowledge base and try to find the answer myself. While doing this, I also might use a search engine to try and find a solution. I know, it might not be the nicest thing to do, but that is my reaction to panic and I raise all antennas.

With English not being my native tongue, I avoid using the telephone. If the problem is not solved by e-mail I would go past that and would not hesitate to call (I never had to do this though)

About livechat... I would use it before calling, but after using e-mail.