Corporate e-mail
  
In-house e-mail
  
A la carte hosting
  
Technologies/issues
  
Mirrored Web
  
Website developer
  
Support
  
E-mail support
  
Telephone support
  
7x24 support
  
$9.95 domains
E-mail support
for low cost personal websites

We believe that good quality support goes hand-in-hand with high reliability service. This section tells you the support you can expect when you order this product.

You can e-mail us any time you want to for technical support. The e-mail address for support will appear in your administrative console. Please include your system number and domain name. All e-mails are normally answered in the order received. We try to respond to and resolve all e-mail queries within 4 hours of receipt, though in most instances e-mail responses will occur much sooner. Responsiveness is governed primarily by the demands for telephone support in any given day, with these fluctuating needs taken care of before responses to e-mails are prepared. Responsiveness is also governed by time of day. Daytime and evening e-mails, even when occurring on weekends, are likely to be responded to promptly while those that occur after midnight frequently slide until after sunrise.

On all e-mails, please include a phone where we can reach you if we have questions not answered by your e-mail request. We find that a telephone conversation can sometimes reduce the amount of time we spend supporting e-mail customers.

Should you buy a program that includes only e-mail support?

Most of the low-priced web hosting programs below $15 normally only include e-mail support for customers. Occasionally, we see what appears to be a bona fide program at $10 to $15. If we see a program with telephone support at less than $10, it makes us wonder whether the company is making a bona fide offer, rather than a deceptive one, because staffing for proper telephone support is quite expensive. The high expense of telephone support is why major hosting companies typically have a spread of $10 or more between their e-mail support programs and their telephone support programs. Conversely, e-mail support fills in the valleys between call clusters.

We have described the process so that you understand that the quality of e-mail support can never be as high as phone support, and that conversely, more will be expected of you as a customer in the support cycle if you elect to use e-mail support. Let's deal with these issues:

1. You must be able to define your problem. In an interactive process such as phone or chat conversations, the support person asks you questions about what is happening, and independently tries to figure out what is wrong Thus, you get the assistance of a professional in diagnosing your problem. If you are writing to a professional, you must take the time to think out the problem so that someone else can clearly understand it and direct you to the correct solution or resource. If you do not clearly define the problem, or provide incomplete information, you may have to go through a number of e-mail exchanges, possibly spreading over several days, before you get to a correct solution.
   
2. You must be self reliant and willing to read/learn. While reading and learning is also required in a phone or chat process, it is much more important in e-mail support. Generally, the answers to your problems can be found in the assistance section of our web site, or in other readilly available sources on the Internet or on your computer. But you must read and digest these as part of the process. Quite often, once you have read the correct documentation, you will realize that you do not need to correspond with our support department at all on the particular matter.
   
3. You must be willing to be patient. E-mail is an intrinsically slow process because it involves the composition of a series of letters, rather than a rapid 1-to-1 human exchange. If your time is valuable to you, or you consistently need rapid resolution, then a service with a telephone support contract will have greater value.

Support is to the environment administrator

Our support is provided only to the system administrator of an environment. Users of the environment must contact their system administrator if they have a problem, and the system administrator (who is probably you) will contact us if they are unable to resolve the problem.

Operations support included

Support to our customers is of an operational nature. Thus, if you are having trouble with ftp, using our administrative tools or other software, or need assistance in setting up or supporting an e-mail user call us.

Application and hardware
support only available on a
time-and-materials basis

While we may be able to provide you with a second opinion about where problems are occurring, and save you time this way, our support is focussed on the services we sell. Our employees are thoroughly trained in support of these services, but are not trained to assist in fixing users' broken PCs or incorrectly installed software, Similarly, because of the myriad of software solutions, we cannot realistically teach you how to write web pages, fix broken web-page-links, or to debug a a Java-script you have not properly written with such products.

While such service is available, it is outside of the scope of our standard service, and is available only on a time-and-materials basis. The hourly rate of such services will vary with the skill of the individual needed to solve your problem, but will not be less than $150/hour, with a half-hour billing minimum. We may also, at no cost, be able to point you toward independent contractors who can provide these services at lower costs, and may have the added convenience of being near you.