Some General Customer Feedback

[Poe]

First off, I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, I didn't notice a general feedback forum. I'm sure a moderator can move it though if this isn't the right place.

The entire web hosting business was an absolute phenomenon to me. Over the last 5 years I have been the customer of countless hosts, and I came to the conclusion it was the ONLY industry in the entire world where EVERY SINGLE COMPANY was CRAP!! This was mind boggling to me, and I am NOT exaggerating. Even enormous brand names like Dell gave me the most ludicrous customer service problems I cancelled my account within 3 days for a refund. I could give you so many examples of incompetence of each host, and the nazi attitudes I received from some of the people I called for help, but it would be too much to read. Only to say that they were never small issues to overlook. The service was so horrible from EVERY COMPANY that I had to cancel. And in most cases I was left thinking to myself "you know, if I was running a business strictly online, it would have just gone under because of my host." I kid you not.

And then, of course, I found futurequest. I found the link here from the ubbdev board and looked it over. And boy am I glad I clicked that link. I mean how impressive is it that even the CEO and CTO of the company post regularly on this board and respond to client concerns where everyone can read it. You all seem to genuinely care when a customer is not happy and work hard to resolve the issue. And if you can't, you seem extremely careful to point out WHY it is beyond your control. Not just hang up with a "sucks to be you" attitude.

I just sent a very short, simple question to customer service about my accounts and how to go about changing something. Within MINUTES I had a very lengthy, detailed, extremely helpful step-by-step guide to do exactly what I asked! And this was not a generic reply, it was all typed out personal to me and my sites by Sheila (thank you Sheila). So many times when I asked for help at my past hosts I swear to God it was as if they didn't even READ what I typed!! And that is what I literally had to reply to them: "Did you even read what I asked you???????"

And this was not just one pleasurable experience with Futurequest Customer Service, it is like that EVERY SINGLE TIME I ask for help. I have not once had a single stressful moment since I joined and I can't tell you how releived, and how pleased I am to finally not have to deal with that kind of stress just to run a few websites on the internet. Not to mention that there is hardly ever any downtime, and the performance could not be any better 24 hours a day. (for my sites anyway)

Sorry that this was long, but I've been thinking about posting it for a while and I think that when somebody tries as hard as you guys do to run a company like this where you really want your customers to feel satisfied with what they are paying for, you deserve to get credit for it. I would actually go out of my way just to get you guys more clients if I knew anyone to suggest your service to who was looking for a host.

So that's it. Sorry it was so long but that's how happy I am to have found you guys :D

Sincerely,
David.

[Deb]

I would actually go out of my way just to get you guys more clients if I knew anyone to suggest your service to who was looking for a host. Heh, no apologies David :o You did just go out of your way to 'get more clients for us' by making this post, and you also showed part of the reason we do really care :)

It's posts like these that make it worth it. The majority of the team, myself included, know exactly what you mean when you speak of those "other hosts". Most of this community have been there, and we're all striving to set a standard of what's acceptable and what isn't in hopes of the industry standards being forced to improve over all. Until then of course, those few, whom we're proud to be a part of, will continue to do our best to service our little neck of the Internet in the absolute best ways we can and that of course is a group effort between both the host and the client. Thanks for assisting in that area and for noticing!
:QTthumb:

Deb
- Doughnuts for Sheila in the morning hmm ;)

[jimbo]

David,

One word of advice: don't leave. Ever. I had go to another host to due to resource issues, and let me tell you, it was like walking out into the cold, dark night.

My server locked up the other night, and after he rebooted the machine, I swear to god the tech actually told me "it seems to be fine now - let us know if it happens again". I never (ever) heard that from FQuest. There are countless posts by Terra here talking about tracking down bugs and isolating the problems to fix them, in order to prevent them from happening again.

And I'm not just saying this because I'm trying to kiss up and hoping that someday Deb will tell me they'll host me for free (but am I any closer? %) ), I really mean it.

Congrats on finding FQuest and hosting with them. I'm jealous :).

-jim

[sheila]

Originally posted by Deb:

- Doughnuts for Sheila in the morning hmm ;)
MMMMM....doughnuts....
/me gets coffee to go with them...

[Javier Mosqueda]

Going along with Poe...

I've been here since dec'98 and when I decided to have FQ as my host I had a list of 10 companies and pure quality of service in all senses was the key to my final decision, starting with the way the sales/reps, etc., replied and how soon they would reply, Deb personally was in less than 3 hours back with the right reply for me. The list of what bad things are out there that one doesn't need is so long that it would be a waste of time and space to put them here, but they certainly get condensed in that Poe's expression of "it sucks to be you" what other companies suggest when dealing with customers.

By the way, I re-selled the FQ hosting to a company time ago. They changed administration and systematically they also changed hosting (to one that was located in their city). In less than 3 months they called me back to give them hosting again... This customer doesn't "see" FQ, but does recognizes Quality when enjoying the service.

In brief "FutureQuest is the Best"

[TVB]

Originally posted by sheila:

MMMMM....doughnuts....
/me gets coffee to go with them...

Krispy Kremes????????%)

Betsy

[Whisperer]

I've got to add my two cents here and say that so far my experience with the FQ support team has been nothing less than phenomenal!!! I'm not a reseller but a small business owner who does all my own IT work and have dealt with many hundreds of TS people at many dozens of software providers over the years. I know enough about web site management to barely get by, and have little time for learning or for struggling with borderline TS. I did a lot of searching around on the web before choosing FQ -- the consistent accolades were almost too good to be true -- and can say that although I've hit them with quite a lot of questions, they've been no less than AMAZING at how they have responded. As the earlier post says, it's always very detailed, extensive answers addressing exactly what I had asked about (and we've all had those experiences with "canned" replies from other companies that seem like they surely didn't bother to actually read your inquiry), always extremely fast, and with the utmost courtesy. (I keep apologizing for asking so many questions, and they keep assuring me they're more than happy to be there -- although I'm quickly learning that there's truly a ton of information on their web site, and I expect that any moment now I'll barely need to bother them at all... we both hope ;) .) The accolades are all 100% valid -- this is one first-class group of people who really have their act together and who provide a level of service that I'm sure few if any in the business can ever hope to begin to hold a candle to.

I have no idea how they do it. I'm sure "really caring" has a great deal to do with it.

THANK YOU, FQ!!!

[Andilinks]

I try to avoid posting anything that is just a "me too," but in this particular thread I think it is appropriate.

I don't think I've had a better ongoing business relationship online or off. The FQ management and staff maintain their professionalism even in the face of unreasonable requests and foolish inquiries--and that really is the severest test. I've made a few myself--though I hope no one has noticed. :)

The way that disputes and problems are resolved here in the open provides the best possible model for customer care and service. But only the very best could pull it off this well.

FQ is an amazing company.

Andi