How Can Tch Improve...

[Head Guru]

As the topic says, we are looking for feedback on ways that we can improve our hosting services to our clients.

 

Please feel free to opine after you have voted. Do no hold anything back, let us know your true feelings here, nothing will be censored in this post.

 

Bill

[stevesh]

I voted for Not a Darn Thing - TCH is just right for what I need.

 

Also, I assume that 60% increase in cost to provide telephone support is a real number. I'll use it from now on when customers on my Web stores ask why I don't post a telephone number. For my money, the Help Ticket / Email support works fine. I've never understood why users insist on talking to support people.

 

Steve

[btrfld]

I recently had an issue with one of my clients and their security rating. When I asked the TCH Help Desk about it, they (probably quite rightly) replied that they can't do the kind of change required on a shared machine. So my only alternative would be to go to a Dedicated machine, but my current client base doesn't warrant that much extra cost. If VPS allowed me to have a little more control over such things, I'd be all over it.

 

Other than that, I can't imagine how TCH could be any better. I sleep well at night because TCH handles everything brilliantly, and any issues I've ever had have been dealt with quickly and completely. Thank you Bill. Thank you TCH.

 

I look forward to seeing how the voting comes out.

[Head Guru]

Almost 9,000 members of the forums and we can only gather 261 topic views?

[TCH-Bruce]

Must be the holidays

[Madmanmcp]

Almost 9,000 members of the forums and we can only gather 261 topic views?

 

Well Bill, you know thats not a valid number to use for anything, its the total number people who have registered since the forum opened. Most are no longer here and and the ones who are no longer read here unless they have a problem.

 

Now I haven't voted because most of the things I would want are impossible to give (free hosting for instance or zero downtime do to problems) so I will spare everyone and not waste your time.

 

I am very happy with the service you provide and will continue to bring customers here as long as you can maintain this level of service. Keep up the good work.

[cajunman4life]

I'd go for VPS'.

[Head Guru]

Well Bill, you know thats not a valid number to use for anything, its the total number people who have registered since the forum opened. Most are no longer here and and the ones who are no longer read here unless they have a problem.

 

Now I haven't voted because most of the things I would want are impossible to give (free hosting for instance or zero downtime do to problems) so I will spare everyone and not waste your time.

 

I am very happy with the service you provide and will continue to bring customers here as long as you can maintain this level of service. Keep up the good work.

 

Well thats not actually factual. The forums have nearly 9K members, over 70% of them are active members. The forums receive nearly 100K page views per week. I am not sure why you think all our forum members are no longer here

[Madmanmcp]

I am not sure why you think all our forum members are no longer here

 

As you know I've been here awhile and I read the forum more than several times a day, so I can see who posts here.

But I don't want to move the thread away from its original topic. I only meant to comment on how good the service here already is.

[Head Guru]

As you know I've been here awhile and I read the forum more than several times a day, so I can see who posts here.

But I don't want to move the thread away from its original topic. I only meant to comment on how good the service here already is.

 

Well you have already gone , why stop now?

 

Perhaps you were not online in late october when the forums saw 6K unique visitors? Where is the rule written that says one most post to be online? I dont recall the day in october but at one point we had 700+ users browsing the forums.

 

Besides, what do I know, I only see the SQL usage that these forums take on

 

Oh and by the way, since you visit here so much ; can you please fix your avatar or pm a mod to have it fixed. The little red X is driving me nuts.

[Madmanmcp]

Oh and by the way, since you visit here so much ; can you please fix your avatar or pm a mod to have it fixed. The little red X is driving me nuts.

LOL, sorry about that. Awhile ago the servers at Prodigy where my original photo was located were finally decommisioned. I made an attempt to replace it and spent way too much time trying finding one to scan and editing it down to a reasonable size and then I started getting a 404 on it and I just gave up. When I find some time I'll play with it again and become normal again.

 

I only see the SQL usage that these forums take on

I know you can see stats that I cannot, I only see what I see online here and what I see is less than when I first started.

 

Perhaps you were not online in late october when the forums saw 6K unique visitors? Where is the rule written that says one most post to be online? I dont recall the day in october but at one point we had 700+ users browsing the forums.

 

Oh I was here and thats an impressive number at face value. How many of those unique visitors posted, how many were guests?

The ones that matter are the members and the ones who post. Posts are "content" and the content is what brings more of the visitors back to become members or to view what has been posted and hopefully post themselves.

 

Ahhh, here's a suggestion. How about topic here where you can post the forum stats. We can see what you see and comment on what these actually mean. For instance page views, these can be a huge number or a small number and why would a certain topic be so much higher then another.

[Head Guru]

I would not post such information on the forums, as it is confidential. If I told you , then it would not be a top tch secret.

[click]

Hmmm... If most of the 9k members are reading but just not posting on the forums, kinda makes you wonder why a post by Head Guru was only read 260 times. and round and round we go.

 

Hey - If it's view counts you're after, I bet a post about that big announcement of yours would get a few. May as well give it a try.

 

 

Wondering if this topic could be a bit of foreshadowing (except that 60% increase part )...

 

-Steven

[Head Guru]

I see you talking click, but all I hear is

 

blah....blah....blah...blah...blah....blah...

 

This post has NOTHING to do with view counts or page counts or hits or whatever. This thread was taken off topic by another poster and your post continues to be off topic.

[Head Guru]

LOL, sorry about that. Awhile ago the servers at Prodigy where my original photo was located were finally decommisioned. I made an attempt to replace it and spent way too much time trying finding one to scan and editing it down to a reasonable size and then I started getting a 404 on it and I just gave up. When I find some time I'll play with it again and become normal again.

 

I have removed the avatar from your profile, when you schedule permits you can add it back.

[click]

I see you talking click, but all I hear is

 

blah....blah....blah...blah...blah....blah...

Ya know, that seems to happen a lot with me.

 

Sorry, the post was meant to be in fun; I certainly didn't intend any ill will. My apologies.

 

And in a feeble attempt to bring things back on topic and make a productive contribution, the only problems I've had with TCH would be occasional (but seemingly a bit more frequent lately) heavy loads on the server. I don't know what the cause is (spammers are somehow involved, no doubt), but it's usually resolved pretty quickly so I don't know what more TCH could do about it. Just a trade off of being on a shared server, I suppose.

 

Anyhow, I hope you have a merry Christmas and try to not spend too much time fixing servers this weekend.

 

-Steven

Edited December 24, 2006 by click

[PeterPeter]

Click you hit the nail on the head regarding why sometimes the servers are under a heavier load and why we ask that people ensure their scripts are current and secure.

[Lisety]

I voted for a few of the things but I have to say that I am extremely pleased with Total Choice. There is minimal down time, tickets are responded to in a timely manner, and there's the forum to get extra feedback and help. I have 3 websites hosted here and they are fast!!!

Thank you!

[jwbowden]

For my needs and what I pay I couldn't be happier.

[nirenjan]

No need to change anything...

[Deverill]

I didn't choose public uptime reports because they are often misused by competitors and people with a bone to pick, but it would be cool for customers to see it. It still can be misused but if they want to pick nits they can become ex-customers and not worry about it, IMO. Barring unforeseen disasters, thus my choosing of better backup schedules, the uptime here is awesome so I think it would be a positive thing to have available.

 

Your team is doing a great job keeping things running. Sometimes it's so great of a job we don't realize it's happening. I'd personally enjoy a staff-member-of-the-month page with a short bio and a description of how the staffer contributes to TCH and a few "personal interest" type comments from each. We see all the faceless names and it would be nice to see the talent and experience that goes into this place. And yes, you too, Bill - you can't have everyone else do an article on themselves and not do one yourself!

 

I know it's not anything you have control over, but while we are wishing, I wish we could get more substantial web related conversations in the forums... more how-to's and such, instead of just happy birthday - welcome to the forums, but as I said - TCH has no control over that because it must come from us, the customers/visitors... but I can wish! lol

[Samrc]

More backups or redundancy would come in handy when servers need emergency rebuild, etc.

 

Having a second line of website hosting that offers phone support at an additional cost would have gotten two more accounts to TCH from clients of mine. The folks were impressed with the forum, cpanel, with overall features and benefits but would not move because there was no phone support and would gladly have paid extra for the phone assistance. I do not need the phone support and find the email/ticket system works well but understand some people would never host where they can not call.

 

I am still a big fan of TCH and recommend based on so many things...involved management, cost, features, support excellence, forum. The uptime has been terrific as has the support!

[wampthing]

My vote would be to stop making big announcements that an announcent is forthcoming, then taking weeks to actualy make the announcement.

Sadly, I didnt see that as an option.

[nortk]

My vote would be to stop making big announcements that an announcent is forthcoming, then taking weeks to actualy make the announcement.

 

And then, as in the case of Ruby on Rails...nearly a year without actually coming through with the promises of the "major announcement". I would be much more content to hear a definitive "We changed our minds...we can't do it.", rather than the like-a-broken-record answer of "We'll let you know."

[TCH-Dick]

Hi nortk,

 

We realize the Ruby project has been ongoing for some time and it was not our intention to disappoint you. The reason we never told you "We changed our minds...we can't do it" is because neither of those statements are true. However, since the demand for Ruby is rather low and the project has derailed (pun intended) it may be time to scrub it.

No matter what we decide about the Ruby project, I promise "We'll let you know".

[heyguy]

So now that the Big Announcement has been announced (nice work, btw), is it too greedy to ask about the odds of "Offer VPS servers and improve Dedicated Server offerings" even though only 8 people voted for it?

[mr_lucas]

Hello everybody

 

here's one charge everybody a dollar extra for five months

 

get ultimate form mail on every server and it can be installed via panel or Fantastico

 

surefire would love that

[surefire]

Ha...

 

That's a good one. I'm pretty sure that would be an unpopular choice... but I'd be happy to oblige.

[Head Guru]

So now that the Big Announcement has been announced (nice work, btw), is it too greedy to ask about the odds of "Offer VPS servers and improve Dedicated Server offerings" even though only 8 people voted for it?

 

The biggest announcement is yet to come....

 

That is a huge YES to your question heyguy.

 

We are going to have a big announcement coming in the next ten days.

[stevevan]

We are going to have a big announcement coming in the next ten days.

Here we grow go again!

[Head Guru]

LOL

[OldTimer]

So now that the Big Announcement has been announced (nice work, btw), is it too greedy to ask about the odds of "Offer VPS servers and improve Dedicated Server offerings" even though only 8 people voted for it?

 

Well, I was one of the eight. So this will be watched.

[musiclc]

I vote for offer larger outgoing email quantity as an (additional) service to legitamate companies hosted on TCH.

[TCH-Bruce]

Budget hosting is what TCH does best. If the limits are lifted not so legitimate companies would sign up and get the servers black listed for sending out SPAM.

 

Regardless if you are a legitimate company or not, sending bulk email whether wanted or not will most like cause a server to become blacklisted.

[mike]

Well, I see nothing wrong at all. Any help I have ever needed has come graciously from the forum and if I had to use a help ticket I got no less than fantastic results.

 

I love TCH, just the way it is.

 

My hats off to all of you.

[biff]

How can you improve?

 

I'd say do something to get the email working consistently. I've had problem after problem getting my email to work. I'm using a PHP script to forward the mail to my domain and checking the email with Horde.

 

I just opened Horde and found that all my email address are no longer in the menu on the left.

 

It was working fine for months. In the past, I've spent a lot of time getting a setup to work and then sometime down the road, it stops working and then I have to spend a lot of time again to get it working.

 

Any suggestions on what I can do to keep it working on my end?

 

Thanks

[TCH-Thomas]

Hi biff,

 

The Horde problems are because of some mail changes. Please read more here.

[biff]

Hi biff,

 

The Horde problems are because of some mail changes. Please read more here.

Howdy Thomas,

I read the thread at the link.

 

I must have gone daft or something, I can't figure out how to get my email to work.

 

I have a subaccount that I (used to before the update) route mail to from a script. I also have this subaccount as the default address.

 

When I log in as the subaccount, the login takes me to the main account in Horde.

 

In that other thread, it says to re-subscribe. How do you do this. I see nowhere to subscribe or re-subscribe.

 

Thanks^2

[TCH-Bruce]

In the first post of that thread:

 

Due to the conversion , anyone using an IMAP client or webmail will need to resubscribe to their folders before those folders will be visible. The easiest method to resubscribe your folders is to log in to SquirrelMail and select the folders you wish to subscribe to.

 

You need to login to SquirrelMail and select the folders you wish to subscribe. You should not be logged into cPanel when doing this because it will use your default account when logging in. Go to http://yourTCHdomain.ext/sqmail

[biff]

Thanks Bruce,

I'm able to get in now and send receive email now by logging in outside of cpanel. I still don't get what you mean by "select the folders you wish to subscribe".

[TCH-Dick]

Thanks Bruce,

I'm able to get in now and send receive email now by logging in outside of cpanel. I still don't get what you mean by "select the folders you wish to subscribe".

 

 

Once you log in to SquirrelMail select Folders from the top menu. On that page, you will be presented with a list of folders available for subscription. Select the folders to which you wish to subscribe and submit the form.

[sychen]

I moved from US to overseas these years. and like many of my friends, we operate small consulting firms. Most of my friends follow my recommendation and pick TCH.

 

I have been with TCH for many years. Overall speaking, I am very satisfied. But I also hope that I can have more control over my hosting, although it is on a shared machine.

 

One of the problem I encountered was the email. Due to the policy/setting on the server, emails from many of my clients are rejected. I hit walls several times on the tech support. Finally I call for help here and someone agrees that they can "whitelist" domain by hand (that means, one by one).

 

I asked my friends and many of them have the same problems. Internet is a place without boundary, so we will certainly encounters people/computer from different culture. Many of my friends do not even talk to the tech support, and they are preparing to give up and move to another hosting service.

 

I believe there are many small business here like me. And I suggest this problem to be resolved in an feasible and systematic way. Email and web site is the virtual sales for business like us. If I can not have more flexibility on my email, our firms will soon be belly-up. And last time I also felt that I was forced to move to another hosting company. But, I still get a very good feedback finally. So I stayed.

 

Other than that, I will say I have almost 100% satisfaction.

 

Regards

S-Y. Chen

[TCH-Dick]

Due to the policy/setting on the server, emails from many of my clients are rejected.

 

Hi,

 

I recently reviewed this issue with the entire TCH team and after some serious considertion we decided to disable it.

As of July 9th you should have not had any problems with rejected emails. If you continue to have trouble please update your ticket and we will investigate.

[sychen]

This is why I am always with TCH. The problem is always solved in a prompt fashion.

 

Thanks again !!

 

Regards

S-Y. Chen

 

 

Hi,

 

 

I recently reviewed this issue with the entire TCH team and after some serious considertion we decided to disable it.

As of July 9th you should have not had any problems with rejected emails. If you continue to have trouble please update your ticket and we will investigate.

[joats]

I've looked at other hosting sites and am not knowledgeable enough at this time to say what TCH could do to improve site service. The service I have received has been good.

I do wish the search engine were more effective when attempting to search the knowledgebase, though.

I put in something like 'scrolling text' and get something totally off the wall. I don't know what it is called, so I can't be more specific. (I'm thinking i'll look under tables...)

thanks

j

[mike]

TCH ROCKS.................IF IT AIN'T BROKE...............DON'T FIX IT.

[amansker]

I have had a reseller account with TCH for about 5 years and also a handful of individual accounts with SSL, etc. for a total of 25 clients or so. It was a very positive experience for about 3 years with a few expected bumps in the road. About 18 months ago my reseller accounts were transfered to a new server. This had happened before with little incident. During this transfer, however, I lost one customer and almost lost two more. It was two months of hell for me trying to get db apps up and running correctly again, etc. For the first time with TCH the support was weak and slow. I think you must have been going through some major transitions with the company.

 

After things settled in and got back to normal I was weary about hosting critical clients at TCH, but everything smoothed out. Service stable, quick tech responses, etc. In fact, Over the past 10 months I have rarely had need to post in these forum/work ticket . . . that is a GOOD sign.

 

Two months ago my primary reseller account was relocated. I was notified in advance and then again just before the transfer. I was needlessly anxious as the transfer went very well. The few expected glitches were quickly resolved with TCH Andy on the spot. In short, I was very pleased and continue to be happy with TCH server performance, support, the ergonomics of the reseller interface, cPanel, etc.

 

With the noted exception, I have found the Family Forum and Work Tickets to be very effective with quick responses. Even on a Sunday I can expect a response within a couple of hours. I have also started using the IM support system which often results in immediate resolution to the problem.

 

I am very content with everything over the past year and plan to retain TCH as my primary hosting company.

 

It hasn't been a problem over the past year, but the accounting / payment system has always been a little awkward. It seems the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Fortunately this has only been a nuisance and not a major issue.

 

So, I can confidently recommend TCH to anyone considering them as a hosting company. I recently set up a new reseller account for one of my clients and moved all 10 of his sites to TCH. Keep up the good work.

[RudeMood]

I have been using TCH for years now with around 5 sites I think and they are fantastic. It's hard to think of improvements.

[Larry]

The only thing I could think of is Add-on domains, that way we could host multiple domains on our single account. (Personal sites that don't require a reseller account)

[KnowsAirplanes]

Sounds like gushing admiration....but:

 

TCH has the strongest customer support i have ever experienced.

 

I do not care to understand how you staff/manage/reward employees, but DONT CHANGE IT.

 

If all of the vendors I deal with could respond HALF as well as you people do, I would be happy.

 

Keep up the good work, and dont allow the bean counters talk you into SHAVING a little here and SAVING a little there.

 

Thanks

 

todd

Edited December 4, 2007 by KnowsAirplanes

[erisande]

I would agree with the Add-On domains. I know the price is so nice I can afford two accounts, but my sites are currently so small I don't need the space and bandwidth yet.

 

 

Otherwise: Excellent work, all!

Edited December 12, 2007 by erisande