Tekamba Computers, LLC

This morning I was on my way to a class I was taking part of in Prescott that was about “Customer Service”. On the way there I noticed a vehicle that was emblazoned, I mean EMBLAZONED with a local businesses name. There was no mistaking who this vehicle belonged to. As we were traveling down the road I was in the lane to the left of this vehicle, and in front of him was another vehicle that could have been going a little quicker, but wasn’t “slow” by any means. This other vehicle slowed a bit more to pull into a driveway we were passing, and the driver in the company vehicle laid onto his horn for a LONG time period. I would assume to express his displeasure over the slowness of the other vehicle. I suppose there could have been some other reasoning for it, but either way it sent out a definite message. The first thought in my head was, “Wow, that guy has a really short temper, wonder if he acts that way while working on clients projects?”.

Now, let’s be totally fair, it’s possible he had just received some bad news, was having a generally bad morning, or a myriad of other possibilities. But the bottom line is you are out representing the company you work for (or, even worse, you own?) so you have to be MORE cognizant of what your actions are portraying to those around you. I wasn’t the only vehicle in the area, and I would hazard to guess that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Typically (in my experience) people are either that “aggressive” in their driving or they aren’t.

I wholly intend to contact the company in question and let them know what I witnessed and just let them know they may want to be more cautious of who they let behind the wheel of their moving billboard in the future. But I also wanted to take a moment to mention to everyone out there who has their vehicle marked up in a similar manner (and those that don’t for that matter – myself included) to remember that everyone has their reason for their actions while on the road. Maybe that driver had to slow because there was a person/animal crossing the driveway that the driver behind couldn’t see, maybe they were simply distracted for a moment and didn’t realize how slow they were moving. At some point, I’ll put money on the fact that YOU will be the driver in that front vehicle and someone will get a little perturbed at your actions. Hopefully they think for a minute, and display a little courtesy and restraint.

Be aware of the perception you are displaying to the public at large, you never know WHO might witness it, and who them might share it with. Especially in this day of “social media” one small wrong move on your part could have far reaching implications that you couldn’t even begin to realize at the time.

Just wanted to share…

Greg

I awoke today and did my typical run through of the previous nights (and any left over from the day) emails. I did think the load was a bit light, but for whatever reason, left it at just that, a thought. Finishing up with the emails, I then watched a couple online videos, and did a little sitting around (you can read that as sitting on my bum and not doing a gosh darned thing since that is a better description). So after my brief break (you could use the word brief to describe a 3 hour session of not-doin-a-danged-thing right?) I checked my email again… nothing. Now that IS really strange, I can never go more than 10 minutes or so without receiving an email to at least one of my accounts. So I investigate further and realize one of my servers (I have a few clients and my own websites both personal and this one you are reading) hosted on this server. Nothing on that server is responding.

Not a real big surprise, this is my server running Windows Server 2003, and despite Microsoft’s spot on operating system, it does from time to time lock up. I know what you are saying and can hear your shocked tones, but it does happen, trust me! (-; So I head over to my control panel at the company I rent my server off of to request them to do a power cycle. That usually brings everything back up in less than half an hour and I’m off and running again. So I log in, request the power cycle, and wait… and wait… and wait… and (you ARE seeing a pattern here right?) As we get well past the half hour MAX that these reboots usually take I decide I may need to contact them directly to see what is up.

So I get onto their company website again, and right there I see it, Contact Us! and a phone number (open 24/7 it tells me). So I call the number… and get put on hold. With them telling me that my call is important to them and they’ll get to me as soon as possible. OK, if my call were THAT important to them, then I would be talking to the RIGHT NOW! Anyway, I waited patiently (c’mon, it’s my blog, I can use creative license all I want) and after about 10-15 minutes I am talking to a real live person (and either their accent has been carefully hidden, or they are actually here in the US) either way, we can actually communicate and they ask me what is going on. Now remember, I went through an automated system to get to this person, and this system requested my customer ID number to better assist me (which I provided) and the first thing I am asked when I get a live person on the line is for my customer ID number. (Are you starting to realize I don’t like support lines, and even less than that, I hate having to provide these support lines with the same information multiple times). So, they ask me what is going on and I inform them my server is down and I can’t reach it. They ask me HOW I am attempting to reach it, and I politely (remember, poetic license is mine) inform them that I have tried all the different methods, and since I am a tech guy myself I know, the server is completely down and requires someone with MUCH higher access than me to restore access to it.

Now, did I mention that between all the options in this automated system was “Assistance for web hosting”? So that’s the one I chose, because while my account isn’t your typical “hosting” account, but nothing else even came CLOSE to matching. The support person informs me that he is hosting support and that I need SERVER support. I inform him I didn’t hear that option on the menu to which he informs me that I didn’t because there is NO phone support for servers. Excuse me? There is phone support for hosting (the service done by the casual user) but for HOSTING where other businesses like mine sign up and pay extra to have our own server housed in their building there is no way for me to actually TALK to someone? Instead they inform me that I will need to either fill out a trouble ticket online, or contact the chat support for the servers department. I opted for the Chat option, was given the instructions on how to get to that area of their website (since I wasn’t seeing it readily available) and hung up the phone.

I log into the area, and see my two choices provided to me again, I could either fill out an online trouble ticket and they would get back to me within 24 hours, NOPE, that’s not happening, I need this thing back online NOW. So I go for option 2, chat. I go through the motions of initiating a chat session, and get put on hold. Yes, they know how to put you on hold while you are sitting in a chat room. Again, I patiently (please see creative license comment above) await my turn in the queue. I am informed I am 7th in line and someone will be with me shortly… so I wait… and I wait… and I wait… and I’m 6th in the queue. OK I see this isn’t going to keep my blood pressure down, but I do my best and watch the number decrease as I watch the blades of grass grow.

Finally someone shows up to chat with me, and asks me the problem. I again inform them my server is down and I’d like to find out why and what could be done to resolve it. I am informed they are sorry for the inconvenience and can I please give them a moment to look into this issue. Sure. So I wait… and I wait… and I, oh, that wasn’t such a long time. I see they are typing something then the most brilliant line I have ever encountered appears on my side of the chat window. “It seems your server is non-responsive.” REALLY?!?! I believe I JUST told you that it wasn’t working. I do my best to keep my cool reminding myself that these aren’t the guys I am mad it, it is their bosses that are nowhere to be seen on a Sunday afternoon dealing with these matters and more than likely this guy would much rather be home playing with the kids or hanging with friends. So I agree with them that, yes, my server is not responding. Then I see the next response, and this one I believe was sent to just see if I could manage to keep my composure, either that or they wanted to know for sure that if someone could reach through a computer screen and choke them out this would be the time it would happen.

On my screen appears this phrase, “OK, let me fill out a trouble ticket for you”. EXCUSE ME?!?!?! You mean that trouble ticket option that I saw HALF AN HOUR ago? The one I could have filled out myself and not been sitting on chat hold then being told what I already knew? Oh, but let’s not forget, THEY WOULD FILL IT OUT ON MY BEHALF! So I ask them if this is the same trouble ticket I could have just done myself, to which I am informed it is. They ask if the email address on file is good, I inform them that it is, AFTER they get my server running again since THAT is the server the email is through. So I provide them another of my email addresses that I know is functional and then comment that next time I guess I should just fill it out and forgo the chat session. They inform me that I can, but it is better to chat AND fill out the trouble ticket as by chatting you get the trouble ticket noticed sooner.

So they fill out my trouble ticket, ask me if there is anything else they can help me with (to which I refrain from pointing out that they haven’t really helped me with anything to this point as of yet) and send me on my way. I then begin the waiting game, and every so often for the next hour or two I check back to see if my server is accessible again. Around the 1 1/2 hour mark I see that my server is indeed back online and things are back to normal. I dig through the servers logs to try to determine the issue and if there is anything I can do to prevent it in the future and continue on with my day.

You will notice I didn’t mention WHO it is I dealt with. That is because their service was neither good nor bad, it was just enough. So I don’t want to give them publicity in either direction as I don’t feel they are deserving of publicity in either good or bad light. But I am posting this as an example of the failings that more and more companies have and how easy and basic it would be to exceed the expectations of the public. If almost any ONE of the at least half dozen items I pointed out here had been handled differently, this company would have received my gratitude that would have most likely resulted in not only my guaranteed business for the foreseeable future, but also my referrals for others in need of the services they have to offer. But the lack of anything that made me stand up and take notice has me just doing that, not standing up NOR taking notice. I’ll be watching for better deals (and by better deals I don’t mean price, I will GLADLY pay a higher price to be treated with more respect) for options to maybe move my server to, and will keep those in mind as time approaches to either replace this service because of future issues, or add another server. As of this moment, there is a better than even chance I will take my business elsewhere when I find a company that does take notice of they customers.

It’s the little things that can make all the difference when you are a business. With just the smallest bit of effort you can gain your customers for life.

Greg Hicks
Tekamba Computers, LLC