Ok the second rant for the day and then I am done. What do you do when you start to realize that a vendor no longer appreciates or requires you business. This is a problem that I have experienced on several different occasions, but most recently with my hosting service.
Lately I have been experienceing a very odd but irritating technical problem with my hosting company. When working with files within my various websites. I update the code (CSS, PHP etc), save the file and upload the new file using my favorite FTP client. Now I travel over to my favorite browser (Firefox) to view the changes and be sure that everything turned out as planned. I work fast and think virally so I may be working with two or three websites at a time. I hit the refresh button and walla, page not found unable to return, blah blah blah. What’s the problem what have I modified in the files that is causing this to happen. Is it my ISP? No I can open a new tab and happily browse to various other areas of the internet. Does this cause a problem with my other sites hosted on the same package? Yes. Ok must be a problem with my hosting service so time to call technical support.
I get on the phone, listen to a confusing menu and some crappy music while my call is transferred to some remote area of a country I have never seen on a map and finally I get “technical support”. (That’s a stretch.) We discuss amazing technical terms like trace routes and such. We upload files, make updates all in search of this problem. Nothing found, everything is fine on our end. Ok I understand that it is near impossible to diagnose a problem when it doesn’t appear to exist, but can you offer me some advice like “well have you tried…” or being that we field thousands of calls a day and have probably dealt with this issue in the past “here is a suggestion”. But nothing. Only I’m sorry we can not find the issue.
I assure you the issue is there and I am growing extremely frustrated with it. This is the fourth time I have called to no avail and I am considering switching to a new hosting service. “Ok that’s fine.”
Wait, what? You don’t care if I just drop you?
I find this appalling. I pay on time every month. I have been a customer for over two years and while my business may not be paying the bills for this company it is certainly adding to the revenue. If you keep dropping off customers like nothing won’t you eventually see the effect. Lastly, what the hell kind of customer service is this?
The problem in this particular situation is a company that grew quickly and started outsourcing everything, customer service, hosting, technical support. The company clearly implements no procedure for this type of call or at least they are so large that it can not be monitored and enforced. The little guy no longer matters to this organization and unfortunately they fail to realize that if they were, on some off chance, to lose all of the little guys that they would probably be left with a room full of very quite but very shiny new servers. So I guess that they no longer require my business and it is time to start looking elsewhere.
As for the business on a smaller scale that suddenly land a few big accounts and no longer seem to care about the little guy, I can only offer one suggestion, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
I strive to create a business that never allows this type of nonsense to occur. Think of it in terms of networking. A few years ago you were at a local business network meeting and you happened to hit it off quite well with a local college student who was in the final days of his degree. You had some drinks and a couple of laughs exchanged business cards, the whole nine. You even offered t give him some advice should he need it. A week or so down the road he came to you seeking advice and the best you could do was let your secretary field the call ad give him some line about how you are very busy and will return his call as soon as possible. Never happens. Little did you know that he had a great new business model that he wanted to run past you before deciding to go ahead with it. You ignored him and he went ahead and launched it anyway. Now he is sitting on top of an office twice the size yours and running company that threatens to put you out of business within a few months. Wow, I bet you wish you had taken that phone call, perhaps you might be the supplier he sought for one of his products instead of that company in two states over who was willing to listen.
Do you find yourself getting snubbed in the world of business?
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