Today I entered round 10 with the tech support people at iPowerWeb, which hosts my domain, BrendaCoulter.com. My e-mail problems continue; I'm afraid I'm never going to be able to give this bunch high marks for customer service. ("I'm not even getting any bounce messages," I complained to one of the techies. "My test e-mails are going into a black hole." He replied, "Okay, send me the headers from one of the bounce messages.") I've had a very stressful afternoon and evening, and just now my husband accompanied me on an errand. On the way home he read my mind and swung his car into the neighborhood Starbucks parking lot in a sweet (and ultimately successful) attempt to make everything all better. My outlook began improving even before Taylor the latte boy handed over a venti-size (is there any other size?) cup: On the counter by the cash register I had spotted the new (compilation) Rolling Stones CD, Rarities.
For years I've been trying to impress on my Number One Son that the slow, bluesy "Wild Horses" is the best thing Mick and the boys ever did, so perhaps you can imagine how my heart fluttered when I saw that title on the back of the CD. I immediately nudged my husband, who had already paid for the coffee, and asked sweetly if he had another twenty-dollar bill he wasn't using.
When he gave me an "oh, grow up" look over the top of his glasses, I explained that the CD contained a live version of the Best Stones Song Ever. Taylor's ears perked up and we talked music for a few minutes, until my (jazz-loving, rock-hating) husband (if the man hadn't married me thirty years, ago, I'd swear he has appalling taste) cleared his throat and opened the door and shot me an expectant look.
So now I'm slugging down latte and getting my groove back. It's a challenge to type while swaying in my chair and singing, "Wild horses...couldn't drag me away. Wild, wild horses...we'll ride them some day," but the Stones therapy is working great. I'm almost mellow enough to pick up the phone and place yet another call to tech support.
6 comments:
Brenda, this reminds me of the time my keyboard died, and I had to get in touch with tech support. "My keyboard's not working." "OK, try rebooting and holding down F8."
Precisely. When I logged on this morning there were two more e-mails (from two different tech support people--I've decided to increase my odds of success by playing several of them against each other)"restating" the problem but getting it exactly wrong. And then giving me Canned Response #24B, which does not apply in my situation.
Could it be time to move on to a different company? I don't have a website [what in the world would I put on it?] so I have no idea if you could just transfer it to another server [is that the right term?] or if you'd have to re-build it [which has nightmare potential, I'm sure!]
Anyway, good luck, Brenda. Wish I could be more help, but I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff.
It would be a nightmare, Shelby. I'm not eager to transfer my 28-page website to another host.
Thanks for feeling sorry for me. ;-)
Hi, Brenda,
Sympathies! If you asked me whether I'd rather shoot myself in the foot or go a round with most companies' tech support, I'd have to think about it a while before answering. ;o/
But if you ever do change website hosts, I can recommend one -- addr.com. I've used them for years and have consistently gotten prompt, courteous responses when I have questions, they're cheap, and their servers are almost never down. Their tech support is aces, too. (Once, they made a rare error and told me the system couldn't do something I thought it could, so when I e-mailed back to inquire again, they investigated, found out I was right, and -- unasked -- gave me six months' free hosting as part of their apology. They made a friend for life.) And I mean this in NO insulting way to people who are intelligent enough to master multiple languages, but the Addr.com techs who I've encountered seem to be native English speakers, which is an advantage to me; this can be a problem with some companies' tech support hotlines that are outsourced overseas, especially when you're already facing the non-techie vs. techie language barrier. ;o)
My only complaint about them, actually, is that their online documentation has kind of a steep learning curve. I've had to call them several times when I couldn't make heads or tails of it; I've gotten their tech person to patiently walk me through whatever I wanted to do. Which they kindly did, at no charge. They offer various levels of service and might quote you a price that involves the site migration process.
Oh well -- I'll put a cork in it now! No affiliation -- just a happy customer. Hope you're able to resolve your problems quickly with your present host!
- Carolyn B.
Carolyn, I think they might have solved my mail problem overnight. I'm afraid to get too excited, though, until I know why this was so difficult that it took them more than a week to fix. They've hosted my domain for three years and I've never had any trouble until now.
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