TLDR: Afrihost escalations are 100% ineffective (don't trust the escalations for a second); the support team is only equipped to deal with very basic surface issues (reset router and change DNS settings are about as far as it goes); there's clearly either a breakdown of the support system, or an inability to handle the influx of new fibre customers; the website up-times are misleading.
I noticed a sudden outage on my fibre line 10 days ago. Most websites simply failed to load. I immediately reported it to Afrihost via the support email. An efficient ISP customer service process would've worked like this: acknowledge email > get in contact for more info > diagnose problem > resolve. I requested that they try me on a different server but this was refused. The solution should've taken 30 minutes from start to finish, instead it took 7 days (and I'm still getting emails apologising for slow responses 4 days after the solution).
Afrihost eventually replied to my initial report with a vague troubleshooting that didn't help. When this didn't work, they assured me it would be escalated. A day later, when I'd yet to hear back, I submitted a ticket via the support system and received similar pointless feedback. When this didn't help, I wrote a comment on the Facebook page. I went through the same troubleshooting process for a third / fourth / fifth time (each time taking 30 plus minutes of airtime / data on chat).
When this didn't work (even though I told the agents it was a waste of their and my time), I was assured of further escalations and then just never heard back. The social media team even said he could see the tech team were working on the matter nearby and an answer was imminent (I never heard back from this individual in spite of promises).
Eventually, something called Critical Care got hold of my case and assured me of a resolution. Though contact was more frequent, this was never forthcoming and it was just more of the same head scratching and empty promises. CC had my case for at least 3 days - while my fibre was still out. It was clear the problem was still being kicked around the office like a football between the few support members who stumbled across it each morning.
During this time I was told by several different agents that my problem was both a general issue, and also one unique to me. People with seemingly high authority also claimed it was complex and unique and therefore not worth putting on the site as an outage (ultimately they admitted it was a wide-spread issue).
After a week without fibre I was at my wits end. The escalations were totally pointless; they appear to be a way to get rid of a customer rather than truly get the right people stuck into the problem. My inbox is littered with promises to revert back to me, keep me updated, escalate the problem, assurances that tech teams were giving it their all. Yet no one was asking me any questions, giving any answers, keeping me informed, or even prepared to share what work exactly they were doing to resolve the matter. Just that it was being "worked on". I was eventually told it was an upstream problem, and that it was receiving "urgent attention" and was out of Afrihost's hands (evidence indicates that most of these promises were in fact lies); quite what the urgent attention was was never shared with me.
Eventually a general manager got onto the case and for the first time he called me directly. He asked all the right questions, I gave him the answers I'd given several agents (who'd clearly not read / listened properly) and he promised to keep in touch, which he did. Within 30 minutes he had diagnosed the issue, and within an hour, he'd resolved it. By the sounds of things, a very simple fix.
Though he didn't say it, it appears as if every single bit of tech support provided previously had been ineffective. In essence, the tech support only started 7 days after I reported the matter - when the GM called me. It was ultimately a minor issue that could've been resolved with a single phone call. The service provided by this one manager, who's clearly swimming in a sea of ineffectiveness, was enough to restore some hope in the service provider.
But here's the crux of the state of the support system at Afrihost. I'm still getting feedback from my initial contact and tickets that have long since been closed. Emails keep coming through apologising about the delayed tech response (up to 5 days), usually at ungodly hours, and asking me if the issue has been resolved. Some of these 4 / 5 / 6 days after the initial reports and offer absolute guarantees of resolutions and constant feedback.
I was prepared to let these go, but remarkably, this morning, at 7:30 am - a Sunday and a public holiday - I received a phone call referencing my initial ticket sent days ago, apologising for waking me up and the extended delay, assuring me it was being attended to and had been escalated, and then, hilariously, telling me to try resetting my router and changing my DNS settings.
I'm not writing this out of spite, or frustration, but really to say Afrihost, you really really need to get your tech support in order. These are my suggestions:
Start with streamlining your internal communications, then ensuring that the first contact individuals have a greater understanding of tech issues. Improve your response times (18 - 72 hours is not good enough, especially when the proposed solutions are clearly ineffective. Those basic troubleshoots should be within 15 minutes of first contact). Stick to your promises of regular support updates (even if it's just an email to say what's happening and why). Provide clients with work logs to put our minds at rest that something is actually being done and to hold your staff accountable. How about a transparent private live blog of sorts to show these updates and efforts? Then scrap your current escalation procedures (which currently seems like nothing more than a yellow PostIt stuck on the office fridge), and replace them with a streamlined process to get the right people working on the right problems immediately - not seven days later.
If a manager can pick up the phone, ask the right questions, listen to the answers, diagnose the problem within a few minutes, and resolve the problem an hour later, then your entry-level tech support member should be able to do the same. The fact that it took half a dozen tech individuals "escalating" this matter and not one provided a resolution within 7 days is an indictment on the system you currently have in place. Finally, give the man who resolved my issue a raise - he knows how to handle frustrated customers, listen to and diagnose problems and ultimately resolve issues in a way that may just have me giving Afrihost a second chance.
I noticed a sudden outage on my fibre line 10 days ago. Most websites simply failed to load. I immediately reported it to Afrihost via the support email. An efficient ISP customer service process would've worked like this: acknowledge email > get in contact for more info > diagnose problem > resolve. I requested that they try me on a different server but this was refused. The solution should've taken 30 minutes from start to finish, instead it took 7 days (and I'm still getting emails apologising for slow responses 4 days after the solution).
Afrihost eventually replied to my initial report with a vague troubleshooting that didn't help. When this didn't work, they assured me it would be escalated. A day later, when I'd yet to hear back, I submitted a ticket via the support system and received similar pointless feedback. When this didn't help, I wrote a comment on the Facebook page. I went through the same troubleshooting process for a third / fourth / fifth time (each time taking 30 plus minutes of airtime / data on chat).
When this didn't work (even though I told the agents it was a waste of their and my time), I was assured of further escalations and then just never heard back. The social media team even said he could see the tech team were working on the matter nearby and an answer was imminent (I never heard back from this individual in spite of promises).
Eventually, something called Critical Care got hold of my case and assured me of a resolution. Though contact was more frequent, this was never forthcoming and it was just more of the same head scratching and empty promises. CC had my case for at least 3 days - while my fibre was still out. It was clear the problem was still being kicked around the office like a football between the few support members who stumbled across it each morning.
During this time I was told by several different agents that my problem was both a general issue, and also one unique to me. People with seemingly high authority also claimed it was complex and unique and therefore not worth putting on the site as an outage (ultimately they admitted it was a wide-spread issue).
After a week without fibre I was at my wits end. The escalations were totally pointless; they appear to be a way to get rid of a customer rather than truly get the right people stuck into the problem. My inbox is littered with promises to revert back to me, keep me updated, escalate the problem, assurances that tech teams were giving it their all. Yet no one was asking me any questions, giving any answers, keeping me informed, or even prepared to share what work exactly they were doing to resolve the matter. Just that it was being "worked on". I was eventually told it was an upstream problem, and that it was receiving "urgent attention" and was out of Afrihost's hands (evidence indicates that most of these promises were in fact lies); quite what the urgent attention was was never shared with me.
Eventually a general manager got onto the case and for the first time he called me directly. He asked all the right questions, I gave him the answers I'd given several agents (who'd clearly not read / listened properly) and he promised to keep in touch, which he did. Within 30 minutes he had diagnosed the issue, and within an hour, he'd resolved it. By the sounds of things, a very simple fix.
Though he didn't say it, it appears as if every single bit of tech support provided previously had been ineffective. In essence, the tech support only started 7 days after I reported the matter - when the GM called me. It was ultimately a minor issue that could've been resolved with a single phone call. The service provided by this one manager, who's clearly swimming in a sea of ineffectiveness, was enough to restore some hope in the service provider.
But here's the crux of the state of the support system at Afrihost. I'm still getting feedback from my initial contact and tickets that have long since been closed. Emails keep coming through apologising about the delayed tech response (up to 5 days), usually at ungodly hours, and asking me if the issue has been resolved. Some of these 4 / 5 / 6 days after the initial reports and offer absolute guarantees of resolutions and constant feedback.
I was prepared to let these go, but remarkably, this morning, at 7:30 am - a Sunday and a public holiday - I received a phone call referencing my initial ticket sent days ago, apologising for waking me up and the extended delay, assuring me it was being attended to and had been escalated, and then, hilariously, telling me to try resetting my router and changing my DNS settings.
I'm not writing this out of spite, or frustration, but really to say Afrihost, you really really need to get your tech support in order. These are my suggestions:
Start with streamlining your internal communications, then ensuring that the first contact individuals have a greater understanding of tech issues. Improve your response times (18 - 72 hours is not good enough, especially when the proposed solutions are clearly ineffective. Those basic troubleshoots should be within 15 minutes of first contact). Stick to your promises of regular support updates (even if it's just an email to say what's happening and why). Provide clients with work logs to put our minds at rest that something is actually being done and to hold your staff accountable. How about a transparent private live blog of sorts to show these updates and efforts? Then scrap your current escalation procedures (which currently seems like nothing more than a yellow PostIt stuck on the office fridge), and replace them with a streamlined process to get the right people working on the right problems immediately - not seven days later.
If a manager can pick up the phone, ask the right questions, listen to the answers, diagnose the problem within a few minutes, and resolve the problem an hour later, then your entry-level tech support member should be able to do the same. The fact that it took half a dozen tech individuals "escalating" this matter and not one provided a resolution within 7 days is an indictment on the system you currently have in place. Finally, give the man who resolved my issue a raise - he knows how to handle frustrated customers, listen to and diagnose problems and ultimately resolve issues in a way that may just have me giving Afrihost a second chance.
