I know that there are several threads about DreamHost Customer Support, but as they do not seem to be making much difference, I have decided to start a new thread...and will subsequently start a new thread every time I have to deal with this.
/*THE PROCESS I HAD TO GO THROUGH TO GET A RESPONSE:
TOTAL TIME: 5 DAYS ********************************/
I recently had an issue that I needed dealt with. There was nothing I could do on my side of things, as it was a server tweak.
On Sunday, December 5th I turned in a ticket.
On Monday, December 6th I turned in another ticket
I waited until Friday December 10th to try anything else, but had no response.
So I opened a chat window and waited but eventually forgot I had a chat window open, and when I finally checked the guy had come and gone.
Tried posting my issue on the forum, but no one seemed to be able to help.
The next day (December 11th) I opened another chat window, finally got through, and after half an hour I was told I would be contacted later that day.
The next day, after no response, I opened another chat window and after an hour, was told that I would hear from someone later that day.
Later that day I received a final response telling the the issue was dealt with.
/******END OF PROCESS **********************************/
1. Even if the issue was complicated, or Customer Suppoort Was overwhelmed..I still was left completely in the dark about the original ticket I turned in. The entire week went by without an email response. I was not sure what to do, or if my ticket even made it to support.
It would have been nice to have a reply with a note telling me a realistic time-frame to wait ( "We are overwhelmed right now but you will hear back from us by this time next week")..although not optimal, I would have at least known what I was working with.
2. Okay, there appears to be paid phone-call support; however, I had to dig around in the wiki to learn much about it:
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Call_Backs
The only place to "Sign Up" for that is at the end of a long process of creating a ticket, at which point there is not a whole lot of information about how it works.
Apparently this gives me unlimited chat support, and 3 phone calls (back) a month. Can I use this for other accounts or only the account I sign up for the service? I rarely need customer support, so it would be nice if I could just buy 3 phone calls a month with DreamHost and use that across the many accounts I manage for multiple clients...
Soooooo....
Can anyone else speak about the paid for support? Does it make a lot of difference having that?
Can I use phone-support for other accounts?
As it stands now, as far as I can tell: email support is sort of a lottery. You may or may not get through. Using chat and forums might get you further along.
Can we now reasonably assume that the included support that comes with a DreamHost account is a hit-or-miss type of deal, and that if you want assurance that your problem will be dealt with then you must purchase the additional support?