Top 10 Things To Ensure Faster/Friendlier Support

I've been working in this industry for 5 years now. Over the years, I've come to realize the little things that customers do that REALLY piss tech support off. This is a guide for customers for 10 things NOT do when contacting their host's technical support team.

This is a repost of what I already posted before the big catastrophe.

Please forgive the brutal honesty. It's for your own good.

1. One ticket per issue.
Emailing your issue to Support, Sales, Billing, Abuse, the owner, each individual tech, and the mayor of your town is not going to get your ticket answered any quicker. Additionally, opening 2, 3, 4, or 10 tickets isn't going to get things done any faster. Seriously - all it will do is irritate the support guy

2. Contact the proper department
If your account is suspended due to non-payment, or your account hasn't yet been setup, or you want to upgrade your account - please don't bother contacting support hoping it'll get done faster. All it will do is slow down their response time to customers that have actual support issues. Billing issues goto Billing. Sales issues goto Sales. Abuse issues goto abuse. Get the picture?

3. Contact support via ONE medium
If you put in a support ticket, don't get on live chat and call too. Trust me - you'll get the same answer on live chat and the phone as you will in the ticket . Same goes for requesting "updates" on your ticket - if your ticket is in queue, wait patiently for a response. If you don't get a timely response, contact the management to complain.

4. Everyone thinks their ticket is CRITICAL
Tech support reps realize that you think your issue is CRITICAL and must be dealt with IMMEDIATELY. But, guess what, so does everyone else that submitted their ticket before you. Your CRITICAL ticket will be answered in the order received after everyone else's CRITICAL ticket has been answered.

5. Do not try to "bump" your ticket
Making continuous replies to your ticket in an event to get a faster response won't work. In fact, in most common helpdesk applications, each reply made rotates the ticket to the bottom of the queue. So really, by bumping your ticket, you're just making yourself wait longer. Not getting service fast enough? Contact the manager of the company!

6. Include all relevant information, but only relevant information
Seriously - we don't care to hear your life story. Submit your ticket with your client ID, domain name, username, password, error messages, steps to reproduce, and other information directly pertinent to your issue. If your website is inaccessible, check http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ and include your local IP address (from www.whatismyip.com) and a traceroute. That will save you a reply.

7. Just because YOU can't see the website does NOT mean the server is down
So please - don't come shouting at us claiming we're fraudsters and have horrible uptime and demand a credit. Most of the time you will find there is either a firewall issue or a routing issue - or scheduled maintenance. Check http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ and your host's forums before screaming at them.

8. Avoid live chat & phone support
Unless you have a quick question, live chat and phone support are probably not going to be good avenues. Chances are, if your issue requires someone to login to the server to investigate, you're just going to be escalated to a support ticket. Instead of whining about how long the support ticket will take to get answered - just get it in queue. Figure if you spend 5-10 minutes on the phone only for them to tell you that you need to submit a ticket - that's 5-10 minutes that your ticket could have been looked into. Think about it. If you do call or chat - be brief - and keep in mind we have other customers to help.

9. We don't make the rules
If you don't like a company's policies or procedures, don't complain to your support tech about it. They don't make the rules, they just follow them. If you want a change, contact the management of the company.

10. Do NOT disrespect or mistreat support people
If you curse at us, disrespect us, or mistreat us in any way - you can almost be guaranteed that we won't be going out of our way to help you beyond the minimum. By polite, cordial, and courteous to your support tech and it will get you a LOT farther. We don't get paid enough to deal with people's abuse.

11 (Free bonus ). The amount of money you pay does not matter to us
Seriously - the fact that you pay us $9.95/month does not matter to us. We're going to provide you with the same support that we provide somebody that's paying $3.95/month or $99.95/month. Don't expect better treatment based on the amount of money you pay.