A poll

I am perfectly happy with the way support works. Honestly, I have never seen this level of dedication and knowledge from both pMachinists (if I may call them that) and users alike. For me, as a customer, this has provided excellent support. For pMachine it’s actually manageable, both in terms of ressources and money. A win-win situation, if anybody asked me.

Can’t imagine a ticket system would add anything.

I find the present system here much more satisfactory than the ticket system used by my domain host.

I don’t like ticket systems. I even prefer PMH would turn to forum support too.

I even prefer PMH would turn to forum support too.

I’m not sure, hosting issues are so specific to a domain that I’m not sure a user/customer would get much from a forum system. And, I can’t imagine faster service then pmH generally gives now.

They are fine. But there are many hostings that have support forum next to their ticket system. The idea is “why should you wait for a response when you can find it your self via search?”.

My thoughts have always been, ticketing systems are ok for paid support—I offer my clients access to a ticketing/help system where they enter requests ranging from application support to system purchasing. But that’s what they pay me for.

But, I’ve always thought that type of system is way to expensive to maintain in support of a single application. Literally, our clients who pay for support, at our nonprofit, massively discounted rate, have contracts ranging from $20,000-$80,000 per year (admittedly the high end includes more onsite service). If we served corporations, those contracts would literally be 2 to 3 times that amount, now can you imagine that cost focused on a single application. There are already people who complain about the cost of EE (which I think is more than reasonable; especially when compared to the many $2,000+ CMS systems around).

Besides, from what I’ve seen of the average ticketing system, this forum style is typically a far faster response. My ISP offers a ticketing system (which a lot of DON’T CALL US ISPs do) and typically, an automatic email goes out, then 3hrs to 1day later an official response happens, if the matter was marked urgent or emergency. And thats with at least one full time staff, dedicated to providing support. Unless, I post on a Friday or during a holiday, typically I have a response in 1-3hrs on the forums. Occasionally a day for more obscure things.

Also, it’s just nice to see what other people ask. I try to check the forums 2-3 times a week, because I find they give me development ideas, challenge me to learn the application more, and allow me to procrastinate with purpose; when I need to.

Ticketing is great for hosting because it’s specific to your domain… but I swear, I’ve never experienced a more supportive staff or moderator team for my questions and general “figuring it out”.  Viva pMachine!