How (not) to deal with the slow customer support at UK2net
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Loading ...Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | Mark | Off topic
October 27th the pokerbrb.com domain was up for renewal with our host UK2net. Somehow UK2net managed to screw up the DNS for the domain which resulted in our site crashing for 5 days until now. In the process they have managed to charge us 3 times for the domain renewal. This short summary sets the scene for the 5 days of frustration we went through until our site came back online today. I’m writing this piece because I do not want you to make the same mistakes we did when dealing with the customer support at UK2net.
The customer support at UK2net works through a ticket system which they seem to be very proud of. McKay Howell from the technical support team at UK2net explained to me in a very nice way how the system works:
“I would like to take this quick opportunity to remind you how our ticketing systems work. Our support technicians answer requests on a first come, first served basis which means that when you first submit a ticket it will be at the very bottom of the queue to be answered and gradually work its way to the top. However, each time you submit a response before we can reply to your ticket just causes it to be pushed back down to the bottom. We are very rarely getting a chance to even look at your ticket because you have replied numerous times hour after hour and this just sends it right back to the bottom of the queue. We recommend that you simply submit one request with all of the relevant information at once in order to get the quickest response.”
So basically you are supposed to send in a ticket and wait patiently until they answer. This could be in hours or days…there’s really no way of knowing because there is very rarely an online live support available. I forgot to mention that if you by mistake (or simply because you did not know any better) send in a ticket to a wrong department you have to wait until the ticket is passed through the elaborate Uk2net support system to the correct department. In the meantime your site is down and you are losing customers and potential income every minute that goes by. See how frustration can build up?
I’m afraid to say that in my case I was not very patient and in fact this caused delays in fixing our site as McKay Howell points out:
“In the future PLEASE only submit one ticket on the same issue. You are correct in saying that this is very confusing for our technicians. You have also submitted tickets on the same issue to numerous departments and this causes even greater confusion. Please note that it does not speed the resolution of these issues any further and indeed actually takes longer for us to solve as we have to track several tickets to determine if another technician already replied to you.”
Sorry Uk2net…my bad. I can see how the slow process of fixing our site is totally my fault. In addition I would also like to apologize for some of the childish support tickets I submitted during my mental meltdown…..brace yourselves this might get ugly.
I started my dialogue with Uk2net mildly agitated, but still relatively calm
Shaheen
When can I expect this problem to be solved????? I am completely at
your mercy here and hove no way to fix the problem myself. You have
made a mistake that is costing me money every minute. Where’s your
sense of responsibility for your customers? I cannot believe it can
take this long to solve the problem. Do something!!!!
Mark
I would really appreciate if you could tell me what I can do to speed
up the process of activating my domain. We run a league and today is
the start of November’s competition. It is critical for our success
that our site is up and running again.
You have made a mistake…please fix it.
Mark
Then after a few days of downtime for our site things started to escalate. Especially because UK2net assured me the problem was solved which is obviously wasn’t. Guys seriously, do yourself the favor and go the the site url before you claim that the problem is fixed.
Hi
I was told my site www.pokerbrb.com would be up and running again this
morning. As this is clearly not the case I would like to know when it will
be up. I am amazed you have taken this long to solve the problem. Your
customer service sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark
On the 4th day I finally lose my mind and go mental on the UK2net support system
My site is still down. It is absolutely critical that I get it up and running tomorrow. WHY IS IS SO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO FIX THE PROBLEM????? WHY DON*T YOU ANSWER THE TICKETS?????
FIX MY SITE!!!!!!!!!
You’re responsible for my site being down for 3 days now. Do you have any sense of responsibility? FIX IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How fast can we fix the pokerbrb.com website….doesn’t that sound like a fun game to play?
LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA ……I want my site fixed, I want my site fixed…I will not use you as a host anymore, I will not use you as a host anymore LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA
You cannot seriously mean that is takes you in excess of 3 days to update the DNS of my site. Get you act together for fucks sake. You are supposed to be a support not a bunch of headless amateurs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When looking back on the incident I cannot help but feel a bit ashamed. I mean these guys are just sitting there trying to do their job the best they can and then some basket case owner of site which has only been down for 5 days starts spamming the support system with angry messages. Sorry UK2net. I will end this article with my final feedback to UK2net and just want to say that if anyone from UK2net find their way to my blog I hope you take my feedback seriously and implement some systems to improve your support so you don’t have to deal with people like me in the future.
Hi McKay
Well it was about time you fixed my site. I cannot believe it has
taken 5 days to fix a simple DNS error. I recent the fact that you try
to push the blame of the slow fix back on me. It is YOUR
responsibility and only YOUR responsibility to fix sites that are down
ASAP. People lose money every day when their sites are down.
When people’s livelihood is on the line they get frustrated when the
problems do not get fixed. This is amplified when the only way to get
into contact with you is a support ticket system. And even more so
when it seems that all that is happening is you guys bouncing tickets
back and forth between your different departments.
I do not see anywhere on the support website that one should only send
one ticket. Hence the most obvious reaction to a severe problem is to
send as many tickets as possible to wake you up.
You say that it takes longer time to fix the problem when people send
multiple tickets but I do not buy that. If one of your technicians had
taken the responsibility they owe to their customers and checked up on
my site on a regular basis then this problem would have been solved a
lot faster.
I am not the only person who has experienced problems with your
support. For one of my friends it took 30 days to get his site back
online.
IMO the biggest problem with your support is that one feels completely
powerless when the only thing one can do is sit and wait for a ticket
to be answered. In addition one feels resentment because you make
people pay for mistakes you make. This does not paint a positive
picture of your company.
You would benefit SOO much from having a 24/7 online live support
system where technicians can be contacted directly.
I am sorry to say that this whole incident has left us with a very
negative feeling about UK2net and we are currently discussing our
options regarding changing host. Sure our site works now, but what
about next time you make a mistake….will it be offline for weeks then?
I hope you send this email to the person responsible for support and
customer service. You owe it to yourself to improve your company.
Mark
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19 Comments to How (not) to deal with the slow customer support at UK2net
Mark. I’ve never replied to something like this before but am so furious I can’t see straight. Thank you for your rant and info on UK2net. I have spent a very frustrating few days trying to get through to them by ticket (numerous!!)and phone to the various departments which always ring out. My email via domain name has been not working since Friday.It is the most appalling customer service ever, and this combined with the fact that I’ve had a sneaking suspicion for a while that I don’t get some emails people send to me (ie they get lost in the UK2 ether) means I will not hesitate to stop using them. Even BT who I can’t stand has better service than this. But thanks for the heads up on not continuing to send in a ticket – fraid I’v sent a few in fury.
SJL
Hi SJL
I actually just received an answer from UK2net regarding their email problems:
“Dear Mark,
Thank you for contacting UK2 Technical Support. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing such issues with your e-mail account functionality.
We currently have external consultants specialising in Email systems working
on the email cluster to expand its capacity. Unfortunately this puts load on
the servers which is affecting the access to the system. We took the decision
to keep the mail system live , with intermittent access, rather than take it
off line for 4 to 5 days.
As the system works though the upgrade you should see the performance
improving.
Once again, we apologize for the frustration caused by these issues, understanding the critical nature of the e-mail service provided to our clients, and assure you that we are working to have the matter resolved as soon as possible.”
I haven’t heard from them regarding their over billing of my domain renewal though. Go figures. Uk2net truly have a terrible customer service.
LOL now Uk2net’s entire support page is down….well I guess it does not make a big difference from when it’s online.
I still haven’t received an answer regarding their overbilling of my domain renewal.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..The PokerBRB leaderboard concept =-.
Tried sending the following email to what I think is the CEO of UK2net, ditlev@uk2.net. Look forward to get a response….but probably won’t.
Hi
I am writing to you because your billing support department does not respond to my tickets (it’s been over a week since I sent the first ticket to them). I have been billed 3 times for the domain renewal of my site http://www.pokerbrb.com. This cannot be right.
I have experienced a lot of problems lately when trying to contact your support team. I have written about these problems on my blog : http://pokerbankrollblog.com/how-not-to-deal-with-the-slow-customer-support-at-uk2net.htm
If you search for “Uk2net support” or “slow UK2net support” in Google you will see my article show up as one of the first hits.
I would love to be able to write something positive about the Uk2net support on my blog but until now I would have to lie in order to do so.
Best Regards
Mark
.-= Mark´s last blog ..The PokerBRB leaderboard concept =-.
Sweet!!!! After more than a week I finally got word back from UK2net’s slow customer support.
They have reimbursed the 20 pounds I paid to much for my domain renewal:
“Hi Mark,
Apologies for the late reply.
The site is now up again. I have refunded your duplicate payments. The money will be back in your account within 5 working days.
Please let me know if you require further assistance.
Kind regards,
Phil Baker
Billing Support Representative”
I got an answer after sending a message through the live support feature…maybe that’s the way to go?
Wow UK2net are sure having problems these days. My email account is still not working. It’s been down for almost a week now. However that seems to be the standard response time for the bad UK2net customer support.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Poker Bankroll Building on a stake deal_update 1 =-.
Our support@pokerbrb.com email account hosted by UK2net is still not functioning correctly. Here’s their latest reply:
Thank you for contacting UK2 Technical Support. I am sorry for all the issues with the e-mail functionality. This will be a result of the problems we are having with emails recently.
As a result of issues with our mail we are migrating to a new mail system. Your mail will be automatically redirected to our new system. You do not need to change any settings, as these will happen automatically in the background. Once you have been migrated to the new system your mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird etc) will be able to collect new mail.
Existing mail, folders and contacts are still being copied over but this may take some hours or even days. Once completed you old emails will re-appear in your inbox. For the latest update, please visit our status page at http://status.uk2.net/
If you are using a mail client on your computer, you may experience an SMTP (send mail) error. We are in the process of rectifying this issue. Our Webmail service is unaffected.
If the system is not accepting your password try resetting it here: https://controlpanel.uk2.net/emailpassword.
Once again, we apologize for the frustration caused by these issues. We understand the critical nature of the e-mail service provided to our clients, and assure you that we are working to have the matter resolved as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Phil Baker
Billing Support Representative
.-= Mark´s last blog ..PokerBRB Eastgate Tribute 50$ freeroll the 20th of November 2009 =-.
On a positive note, I am still receiving replies from the avalanche of support tickets I sent in regarding our site and billing problems. It gives me great pleasure to see that they are still chewing their way through my angry tickets.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..PokerBRB Eastgate Tribute 50$ freeroll the 20th of November 2009 =-.
UK2net still have not fixed my email account and have stopped answering the support tickets I submit. I have found an alternative way to solve my problem but I feel really sorry for the poor customers who depend on having a UK2net hosted email account. UK2net’s customer support is appallingly slow and incompetent. I how no idea what so ever how they managed to build a business.
Here’s my latest support ticket to them:
“Do you simply stop answering support tickets at leisure? I have sent a number of tickets regarding the problems I have been having with my email account support@pokerbrb.com but so far I have not received a single useful answer. Seriously, your way of conducting a business is appalling.
You owe it to your customers to take their problems seriously.
My Uk2net email account support@pokerbrb.com is STILL NOT WORKING PROPERLY. I can send emails to and from the account, but it does not receive autogenerated sign up emails from my site http://www.pokerbrb.com. This is the only thing I use the account for so you would have thought you could at least get this right. Don’t even consider giving me an answer stating that it is my site that is the problem!!!! I have of course checked that my sign up email generation system works with my trusted gmail account, and it does. Why can’t you be as reliable as gmail?? It shouldn’t be that hard to make an email client FFS.
Please answer this ticket ASAP!!!!!”
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Thoughts on making moves in online poker tournaments =-.
Wow…finally my email account works again. Here’s the reply from UK2net.
Hello Mark,
I have modified a few server side configurations and your pokerbrb.com site should now be able to successfully send the autogenerated sign-up emails to your support@pokerbrb.com account. Please let us know if you continue to experience difficulties after this time.
Best Regards,
McKay Howell
Technical Support
UK-2 Ltd
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Thoughts on making moves in online poker tournaments =-.
RobNovember 19, 2009
Groan, what have I let myself in for. Earlier today I transferred a domain to UK2.net and opened a ticket asking a basic question. 5 hours later there’s still no response. So much for 24/7 support.
I’m sad to hear that you also have UK2net problems Rob. But unless you are really lucky you will never receive an answer from the slow UK2net support within 5 hours.
I would say the average response time is more like 24 hours.
RobNovember 19, 2009
I’ve now had two responses but I’m astounded by how clueless they seem.
OMFG…..now the entire UK2net site is down together with PokerBRB.com and my buddy’s site WOSB.
WTF is wrong with these guys???
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Tournament mistakes_part 1 =-.
RobNovember 23, 2009
I’ve only been with UK2 a few days and already I’ve seen enough, I’m transferring away to another registrar.
My experience with the online ticket support system has consistently been like this:
1) I raise a ticket, stating a simple problem.
2) A day passes.
3) A clueless tech guy pastes in a boilerplate response without reading or understanding the actual issue.
4) I restate the problem.
5) Another day passes.
6) A better tech jumps in and fixes things.
If they’re this bad with just domain registrations, I hate to think what their actual hosting is like.
Newest UK2net problem: They have closed down SSH access and have no ETA on when it will be up and running again.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Throwing Multitablers a Curve Ball =-.
SSH access is still not restored and there is no ETA on when they will open up again. This is pissing me off big time so I’ve sent a couple of nasty emails to UK2net’s slow and incompetent support. Probably not the mature thing to do, but it help me vent some anger:
UK2net:
Hi,
Technically we’re not to blame, whoever wrote the software that can be exploited is to blame, we’re just fixing the issue. As of yet our system administrator has provided us with an ETA.
Kind Regards,
Marlon
Senior Technical Support
Me:
I disagree….who else am I to blame than you?
You are supposed to be a professional company. Why don’t you have back-up systems in place so customers can still access their backend and run scripts with SSH?
I cannot believe you just cut off all customers from acessing their crucial data.
UK2net:
I understand your frustration with this very serious issue. However I have given you all the information I have available about the situation and our system administrator are working to resolved this problem as we speak.
Kind Regards,
Marlon
Senior Technical Support
Me:
Unbelievable…that’s all I can say. Unbelievable that a company’s support team does not know when their system administrators are finished with repairs that are causing their customers to lose business.
It is beyond belief and there are no words to describe how disgusted I am with your treatment of your customers
Finally after giving the people at UK2net hell for a couple of days they opened up for my SSH access.
Those guys really suck!
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Freeroll strategy =-.
Well I finally took the step and changed host from the wankers at UK2net to a dedicated server on eUKhost.com.
Man what a difference. eUK have qualified live help and respond to email….They are simply awesome!!!!
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Littlewoods Poker =-.
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November 3, 2009