How is PowWeb's technical support?

[Eloff]

My hosting provider that I currently have is great except that they have no service. They are unreachable most of the time, and uninformative the rest of the time. PowWeb has the best deal I've seen yet, and they seem to have great service if the testimonials are any reference. I'd like to get the opinions from those who actually use the service, however. So what's your general opinion? are they up most of the time? Do they deliver? Is the technical support fast and the people polite and informative?

[Ddr]

I started off with some difficulties here, expecting more support than I was led to believe was being offered. (See this thread: http://forum.powweb.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=896 ) In fairness, the problems I was having were not related to Powweb at all, but rather normal DNS propogation. Even though it took more than 24 hours to get a response, (it was on a Sunday) I did in fact get three responses from Powwebs' support via email. Since they surely knew my issue was not Powweb's fault, I am grateful that they attended my issue the way they did.

What I did find was a very helpful group of people here in this Forum that in most cases, and for most problems, steps in to help where support does not. Support has made it clear that they are not here to help us program our sites, but rather to keep the servers and services that come with packages working properly.
It seems that most, but not all problems can be solved here with the expert advice that the Mods and other good people give.

In the threads I have followed about potential server issues, it does appear that Powweb is rather quick to deny it's culpability in any issue, offering instead, shoot from the hip denials. Yet, some very persistent people have made convincing cases here in the Forums, even after the initial offhanded dismissal of their issue by Admins. Powweb sometimes relents and implements server modifications once the issue has been substantially proven to them. One thing is certain, though. Even if you are not hearing from support@Powweb, some admins are always monitoring these forums.

So, did I answer your question...or help at all? *laughing*
I would say that the overall support in this community is good. The servers have worked well for me so far.

Good luck

Dale

[alphadesk]

Hey Eloff,

I have had an account with powweb for 4 months. At first there seem to be some problems. I have since realized that some of the problem was me. Powweb in my opinion is getting better all the time with their service. They do have servers that go down but they seem to be very responsive in getting things back up and running as soon as the problem is known. It appears that someone named STAR and other Poweb employees monitor the BB and will get you a response if not the answer very quick. There are some volunteer's ( SimCoWeb and others) also seem to know alot about Powweb to answer ??? also. I host another site somewhere else and as soon as the contract runs out I will move it to Powweb, because the service there is not very good.

All in All, in my opinion Powweb does a very good job!

[fcsnc]

Eloff,

I would advise you to just sit for an hour or two and read these forums. You will find happy people and unhappy people. I think you will find that most are happy. Also, there is very little censorship of these forums. You have to get pretty obnoxious to get a post edited or deleted, and I don't know of anyone who has ever been banned (although I was nearly banned once because I was so obnoxious). <grin>

The features you get and how "well things work" are superior here. But you will have a frustrating experience now and then, as with any shared hosting. The reachability of technical support is --- ah ---- average in the industry. 24 hours is about the norm. I think it's great that they have a phone number; most hosting companies try to hide where they are, and sometimes you wonder if they really exist. Powweb is real people.

You will probably not find technical support helpful because if there is a problem the techs will have fixed it before tech support ever gets back to you and if there is no problem they will have difficulty figuring out what you're talking about.

As Dale said, these forums are a fantastic resource. There are just a whole slew of ordinary users here who are extraordinarily helpful and talented people. I have probably learned enough from others here to make the $7.77 a worthwhile investment.

My advice would be to plunge in and be poised to take advantage of the 30-day "no questions asked" money-back guarantee. Then after about 3 weeks, take a moment to consider how poised you are.

[Eloff]

Overall the feedback seems to be positive, not especially enthusiastic, but that's to be expected, especially for $7.77. I sent a request to technical support to powweb about an issue that my current provider has been ignoring, sidestepping, and generally doing nothing but wasting my time. I recieved an autoresponse saying they will get back to me within 24 hours (I'll beleive it when I see it) and lo and behold they responded to my request within 1 hour. If my current provider did that at the $15/month they charge me I wouldn't be here hunting around for alternatives. Thanks for your input Dale, it sounds like this forum makes up for any shortcomings of tech support. Tom I will take your advice and jump in headfirst and get ready to bail if I'm not satisfied. Should worst come to worst it's $100 I'll be losing not the $250 I blew on the last place.

[fcsnc]

I don't think you will regret your decision :)

Let us know if you need any help "getting started!"

[Eloff]

I'm quite well versed in html and css and no expert but not bad with perl and php/mysql so if you guys need any help in that department let me know.

[fcsnc]

Thanks! Making a note of that :)

[Ajarn]

I've had generally good contacts from Powweb tech support when there were some initial problems with my new accounts. They host 2 of my websites.

On a recent inquiry though, a response was not forthcoming until a follow-up email a few days later.

That response was innacurate information, and, had I followed that advice, it would have caused many more problems. I think it was a case of a busy support person assumimg without checking first for accuracy. Anyway, I caught it, so no real problem for me.

The original question I had about the powweb server configuration was never answered. I needed the info in order to correctly format my .htaccess file commands. Their response was that they don't advise on html coding or outside scripts, neither of which had anything to do with my problem.
Anyway, I finally figured it out after a few hours of trial and error

Saying all that, I must say that powweb is 10 times better at responding than my last hosting company, which is why I left them (ezpublishing) and came here. I don't regret it, even with a few support glitches.

But, One of my websites has been down today at least 3 tiimes, for periods ranging up to 20 minutes each. Last week, it was down for a few hours while they did some upgrading on the servers. This is a bit annoying...Perhaps they can give us a heads up before these upgrading sessions...

Definately, the powweb forums are the place to find answers to almost anything. The moderators are patient (even under fire!) and it's the first place I look when I have a question

[Eloff]

I'm very impressed with powweb, I think they are doing a fantastic job of things. Not perfect, but then no place is. Thanks for your help. Now if only I could get siteturn to give me back my $200... Doh! That's a lot of money for a teenager.