Why we switched to forum based support for free users

[markjr]

You may be wondering why we switched from email based support to forum based support for the free users on Zoneedit.

Once we acquired Zoneedit it became apparent very quickly that the support ticket volume from the free users had been understated by an order of magnitude or more. We needed to make sure that the paid members were prioritized (whose tickets usually involved billing issues, etc) while still taking care of the free users' issues. Alas, the free support queue was quickly overwhelmed.

As some of you know, we eventually had to implement an "auto-close" system on the free support queue, in which tickets were closed if we had not gotten to them within 72 hours, and an auto-responder with known system issues was sent out on auto-close.

Most of you hate this. So we had to think of a better way to do it. Given that a high percentage of support questions from free users are multiple people asking the same things, we've decided to go with a community based forum support for free users.

We think this will work much better for a few reasons:

1. If a question has already been asked and answered, you'll know right away because it will be here in the forums.
2. Another Zoneedit user may have an answer to something you are asking about.
3. We'll be actively monitoring the forums and if there is a system-wide issue, we'll know about it quite quickly.
4. When there is a system-wide issue we'll be able to post it here instead of repeatedly sending the same email response out to the same question being asked by multiple people.

Thanks in advance for your understanding on this. Once we came up with this approach internally we realized if we made it work it would mean being able to keep the free DNS at Zoneedit alive and thriving.

 

[Vescovo]

Even paying user are directed to this forum. Why?

 

[Mark Jeftovic (#fb)]

Even paying user are directed to this forum. Why?

When you click on "get support" you should be getting the form to submit a ticket. If not there's a glitch somewhere, shoot me your userid via IM and I'll check it out. (If you email support@zoneedit.com you'll get the autoresponder directing you here, I'll IM you the email address for paid users)

 

[AIVAS]

I too am referred to this forum and am still waiting (28+hrs) a reply after submitting the online support form.
I am BOTH a free user and a paid user. The domain in question appears as "Legacy Free DNS" but does have Tertiary DNS & Backup MX which, according to the automated email received, qualifies for personalized support.

"Greetings Zoneedit User,


We have moved to a community support approach for all free users of the
system.

...

Personalized support continues for paid users, which is any account that
has any paid product such as:


- DNS Zone (premium DNS level)
- Has a domain transferred or registered to Zoneedit as Registrar
- RapidSSL cert
- Any add-on such as backup mx spool or tertiary nameserver"

 

[Mark Jeftovic (#fb)]

We've been a little shorthanded this week, IM me your domain name or ticket ID and I'll take a look.

 

[mbreaton]

Same here. All I want to do is drop tertiary and eliminate the monthly charges on my "Free DNS" domain

 

[Mark Jeftovic (#fb)]

Click in the "Domain Info" menu item (left hand side)

You'll see your add-ons and you can remove them there.

IM me your domain name and I'll replenish your last month's credit.

 

[mbreaton]

Click in the "Domain Info" menu item (left hand side)

You'll see your add-ons and you can remove them there.

IM me your domain name and I'll replenish your last month's credit.

Ok, I see it. The remove action (little red 'x') wasn't immediately obvious to me. Thanks!

 

[sandy]

 

[Jarrod Coombes]

Hi Mark,

This is all very well and good, but in the situation that I am in, the problem for my free account is one completely out of my control, it's something your engineers messed up during the transfer (well that's my best theory at this point) and it can probably be solved in about 5 minutes, but here I sit with a fairly serious issue that is affecting my users.

So this particular decision on your end has probably guaranteed that I will never become a paying customer, since I have to get this fixed yesterday and there is little reason for me to stick around with ZoneEdit. Granted I am just one person and I doubt you guys would even notice if my business left, but I can't be the only one who is ditching you for this.

How about a pay-per-incident support model? The issue I am having is one that I would gladly have paid $30 - $50 to get a support rep on the phone, as it's a major one. If it were a minor config question, functionality issue or minor bug, then I'd be very happy to sit around waiting for a forum response, but I can't. So right now it's more or less a race against the clock here, either I get some sort of response from you guys on my post or I switch over to something new (which I may even pay for), which I am researching now.

 

[Mark Jeftovic (#fb)]

Hi Mark,

This is all very well and good, but in the situation that I am in, the problem for my free account is one completely out of my control, it's something your engineers messed up during the transfer (well that's my best theory at this point) and it can probably be solved in about 5 minutes, but here I sit with a fairly serious issue that is affecting my users.

So this particular decision on your end has probably guaranteed that I will never become a paying customer, since I have to get this fixed yesterday and there is little reason for me to stick around with ZoneEdit. Granted I am just one person and I doubt you guys would even notice if my business left, but I can't be the only one who is ditching you for this.

How about a pay-per-incident support model? The issue I am having is one that I would gladly have paid $30 - $50 to get a support rep on the phone, as it's a major one. If it were a minor config question, functionality issue or minor bug, then I'd be very happy to sit around waiting for a forum response, but I can't. So right now it's more or less a race against the clock here, either I get some sort of response from you guys on my post or I switch over to something new (which I may even pay for), which I am researching now.

Jarrod, IM me the details and I'll get it looked after.

Thx.

 

[Lanni]

Though being a free user (am I? I had paid services (backup MX) and still some money in my account) I was able to submit two tickets today and got a reply within 1 hour.
Great job (and thank you)!

 

[sandy]