Terrible Customer Support


Swizzle Firma

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Hi,
 
Decided to post here because I'm getting extremely annoyed at the level of "support" Hawk Host is providing recently and It might help get my problem resolved too since Hawk Host have decided to stop addressing certain support tickets and their phone 'support' is non existent since they disconnect you to voicemail after 2 minutes if all staff are busy.   <---- Not making that up!
 
Bit of a long read but if you're here to help decide whether to choose Hawk Host or not I strongly suggest you take the time to read so you know what kind of Support Service to expect for your money. 
 
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I have been a customer of Hawk Host and Frog Host for a few years and never had a bad thing to say about them.  On a rare occasion when a minor problem occurred support were always quick to respond and address the problem.
 
How things have changed.  Recently I had to contact support several times and the level of service has dropped dramatically. It's clear tickets sometimes aren't even read and are assigned to BILLING were they are ignored. If you're lucky enough to catch the 'Live Support Chat' (which appears only to be available for a few hours on random days) the tickets/problems are looked into straight away.
 
So, why are problems ignored for days in the ticket system when the problem is addressed there and then in Live Support Chat?
 
Anyway - below are some examples of my recent experiences with Hawk Host.  Please note the times are GMT which is 5 hours ahead of US Eastern Time.
 
 
Example 1
 
Recently I registered a new account to Hawk Host to move over a couple of sites from another provider.  I had to request a Dedicated I.P. 3 times
 
First Time - in the "additional notes" section while ordering - clear  now that no one even bothered to read that.
Second Time -  I requested it in Support Chat and was told that it would processed when the Billing staff arrived.   Never heard anything back.
Third Time - Submitted a ticket looking for an update - only to be asked questions for information to which I already I already provided twice - clearly indicating the last 2 requests where ignored and I was lied to/misinformed. 
 
At least it was arranged quickly once the support ticket was created.    
 
 
Example 2 - This is still unresolved (after 2 weeks)
 
I transferred 4 domains over to Hawk Host on the 28th of August. 
 
After 6 days the transfer never happened and no authorization mails were sent etc so I made a ticket [#JNU-843-64509]
 
07:39 PM on September 3rd - Ticket was created
07:49 PM on September 3rd - Ticket was moved to BILLING
I received no response
12:03 PM on September 4th - I asked on the ticket for an update.
This also received no response
05:00 PM on September 4th (approx.) I went to the Live Chat Support and spoke to Tony B.  I was informed that indeed something was wrong on Hawk Host side of things and that he would start the transfer then.
01:35 PM on September 5th - I updated ticket as Admin contract for domains finally received authorization mails.  However he also received a 5th authorization request for a domain which had nothing to do with me or the administration contact.
 
I then waited 6 more days for the transfer to complete. However it didn't
 
08:31 AM September 10th - Made another ticket [#XTV-590-47455]  I marked it as high priority as it has been 2 weeks and I need access to the domains urgently at this point.
08:35 AM September 10th - Ticket was moved to BILLING
08:45 AM September 10th - Ticket was marked for review - still no update received.
08:46 AM September 10th - Ticket marked for review again - no update received
02:13 PM September 10th - Asked for an update - received nothing again.
07:00 PM September 10th - Sick of the lack of response I decided to phone Hawk Host Support for an update. I called several times only to be put on hold for 2 minutes before I was disconnected each time.   This was somewhat annoying since I was calling from Europe.  Those phone calls are expensive.
 
So.. right now I'm stuck here. Support isn't answering or updating tickets...unable to contact them by phone.  The domain WHOIS info actually says the domains are now hosted by Hawk Host but they are not accessible in my account.
 
Is there any chance I can get someone to look at this problem and perhaps give me an update?  What do I have to do to get a response?
 
 
Example 3
 
On the 1st of September I transferred another 2 domains to Hawk Host from Frog Host. By the 5th of September again I received absolutely no updates and the domains were still active on my Frog Host account. Thinking there could have been an undetected problem like the previous 4 domains I submitted a ticket.  I also submitted a ticket regarding an unrelated domain issue [#JEJ-389-45324] just before I did.
 
01:53 PM September 5th - Ticket created looking for update  for domains [#LAM-776-46741]
02:01 PM September 5th - Ticket updated instructing me to follow ticket  [#JEJ-389-45324](unrelated issue) which was forwarded to BILLING. These issue were not related and the only thing in common is that the word 'domains' in the subject and post.  It is obvious that these tickets weren't even read before they were transferred.
02:07 PM September 5th - I asked why should I follow ticket  [#JEJ-389-45324] regarding this issue - as they are not connected.  I received the following update
 
 "Sorry for the confusion. Our billing department is dealing with the domain transfers and related issues. I've already transferred the ticket JEJ-389-45324 to our billing department. The issue in the said ticket was a related issue. Please follow up in the said ticket so that they can assist you with both the cases."
 
Again - this highlights that they didn't even read the support tickets...
 
03:30 PM September 5th - Pointed out that they weren't related and requested the ticket to be moved BILLING. The ticket was then transferred to BILLING
07:07 PM September 5th - Received no update so logged onto Live Support Chat were the issue was investigated instantly. I was informed that the domains actually transferred yesterday, but I had received no communication in any way to inform me the domain transfer had taken place. I also pointed out that the 2 Domains are still active on my Frog Host account.  I was informed they would disappear with the next CRON job.
 
 
EXAMPLE 4 - This is still unresolved
 
After a few days the domains that where transferred to Hawk Host were still active on my Frog Host account. Because one of the domains was due to be renewed an invoice was made and I started to receive email reminders to pay it.
 
10:17 AM September 6th - Submitted ticket to Frog Host support [#YEI-953-67822] informing them of the unpaid invoice on my account.
Got no response. 
3 days later I received an Invoice Overdue Notice e-mail. They would have charged my credit card if my card details were saved on the account.
09:55 AM  September 9th - Posted looking for an update.
Again no response.
 
That's 4 days - and not one person has responded or even addressed the issue. The unpaid invoice is still on my account.
 
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And that's my saga... still ongoing.
 
I guess this is the part were someone replies and says sorry.. but I've heard that word so many times the last few weeks that it means absolutely nothing.   Right now I'm on the verge of closing down all mine and my clients Hawk Host accounts and moving to a provider that bothers to deal/respond with support tickets. Thankfully 2 of my accounts still qualify for the 30 day money back guarantee.  If only I wasn't so lazy, under pressure from a client who's 4 domains are stuck in limbo for 2 weeks and stuck by the 60 day hold delay to re-transfer domains to another host.
 
Regards,
 
SF   :(
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  • 3 weeks later...

That is pretty dissapointing to hear and what's worse is no one has replied to this post.

Missed the topic but this was long since resolved. It's been a while so just trying to remember this a bit but I believe the initial problem was some domains the transfers did not go through due to a software bug. That bug has since been fixed but at the time some transfers were not pushing through and not telling anyone about it. So we resolved that and the domains got transferred over and hit a sync issue (also software bug fixed) and they were with us just could not be managed by our back end. I would like to point out however regardless those domain transfers once initiated had to take 7 days we had no control over that. The mysterious domain authorization did not come from us at all and we had nothing to do with it. We could never control what another registrar does. In fact authorizations are hard coded to go to the administrative contact no exceptions.

Then I believe the other issue was transferring registrations between companies we operate. This created some confusion as you cannot transfer domains within the same ICANN accredited registrar using the typical methods. So internally it was always with us and when that was realized the domains were renewed like a transfer and canceled on the previous entities side. This could happen between our brands or anyone using the platform we use unfortunately.

To address some other aspects. We do not provide 24/7 sales and billing and I know everyone wants it but for the longest time we've been 9-5 Monday-Friday give or take a few hours. We however did some new hiring recently and now have night time sales/billing as well to cover our ever growing international presence. It takes time however to train staff and so at times a staff member cannot resolve an issue and it needs escalated. We also have systems in place where not all staff have access to everything. This is for security reasons as we wouldn't staff not trained in an aspect or not having the skill set working with tools they shouldn't. That could mean depending on the issue it needs to be escalated and I believe in this case it needed to be.

I wish this situation could be handled better but unfortunately software bugs slowed things down. I'd guess if the transfers happened today they'd go through in the typical 7 days and it would have gone much smoother. I would like to make things clear however this was never once a support issue but billing and during this entire period of time we probably resolved hundreds of support inquiries. We have however like I said added additional billing and sales staff to help improve sales and billing response times. Now the vast majority of those are handled twice as fast and our managers on during shifts are handling more of the escalated issues faster rather than helping on tickets handled by our less experienced staff.

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Technical support has been great..so far...  Can say much for Sales Support.

 

 

*steps up on soap box*

 

Trying to upgrade and renew my account at the same - 1 credit card charge.....

 

Not been an easy task... Especially since I am  trying to take advantage of the current 30% discount....  Guess I will just have to complete the upgrade... and see what happens come renewal time,  if the 'client portal' will let me renew!!!

 

Gotta love how Sales is a LOW priority item in the ticketing system

            Department: Sales
            Priority: Low

And still sends me courtesy reminders that I have not responded in 72 hours....Mmmm...would be nice if Hawk Host responded in 72 hours

 

 

*climbs down off of soap box*

 

**UPDATE** 10/4/2013

Got things taken care of... finally took a few days.....

 

Now.... Trying to do an Add-on Domain... Sitting in "Systems Administration Department" limbo land.

"Your ticket is in queue and you'll receive a reply as soon as they get to review the ticket. Please wait." - Polite but means nothing

 

Beginning to think the renewal was not worth the headaches

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