Comments on: WordPress.com announces 24/7 support

By: meethere

meethere — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:14:21 +0000

Cool
but will it be free ?
and available for only wordpress.com blogs ?

By: Mark Ghosh

Mark Ghosh — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:40:17 +0000

Well there are differences in type of business, free versus paid, nature of questions asked, audience location and various other factors that make the two support organizations quite different.

By: Dave Gray

Dave Gray — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:40:16 +0000

I remember when I first started my blog on WordPress.com - it seemed that you could post a question for support inside the Dashboard anytime. Then not that long ago they “disabled” this option and I never saw the option to contact support ever since. I am not sure if they worked different hours or allowed for overseas timezones. But it just seemed that they were available. Then they just about shut down this functionality. Or so it seemed.

Now I see that they are offering the 24 hour thing and I am thinking - didn’t they have this before? Seems to me they did. Especially when you consider that I am in Aussie land - anytime I was on the support seemed available.

Anyone know how this is different to way back when?

By: amolpatil2k

amolpatil2k — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:16:46 +0000

Some sort of points system could also help. If I help someone, I get x points. If I need help, I pay y points. This might also lead to specialization and template answers for template questions. The killer feature would be some sort of question sorting system. A z type of question goes to 5 people who are known to handle such questions. Then whoever handles it gets those points. If the answers are to two different aspects then the points are shared. WP needs to worry more about such pre-sorting and points as opposed to the actual answering.

By: m@

m@ — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:18:46 +0000

I’m pretty sure premier hosting customers have much better support. Servicing users for a free service around the clock is impressive.

By: Trey Cruz

Trey Cruz — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:12:58 +0000

Hey Mark… well, the way I thought about it was Bank of America has so-so millions of customers - and the same holds true for WordPress.com? Am I not correct?

Bank of America is in the finance industry and their whole purpose is to retain customers through satisfaction, loans, and all that other crap — to create money and re-disperse it into the economy.

WordPress.com host blogs… millions of them — some, like CNN.com and People’s stylerack, are in the publishing industry — and it is WordPress.com’s job to respond to them way quicker when they have a question considering they are paying the 500/month for hosting.

But then when I think about it again, wouldn’t a large company have an IT person there anyways??

By: Mark Ghosh

Mark Ghosh — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:16:26 +0000

You hit the nail on the head and then turned your eyes elsewhere while you were striking with the hammer. Apples to oranges really, both in terms of size, capital and purpose.

By: Trey Cruz

Trey Cruz — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:15:56 +0000

What I think would be better is if they prioritize their support to paying customers.

If bank of America can respond within 12 hours so can they.

By: Charles E. Frees-Melvin

Charles E. Frees-Melvin — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:13:12 +0000

I consider the forums on wordpress.org, ot the wp-hackers mailing list, or #wordpress on IRC the best and fastest ways to get answers to any WP question you can imagine.

By: DjZoNe

DjZoNe — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:06:37 +0000

Guys-guys…

I think, with that much e-mail traffic, that WordPress.com has, it is almost impossible to give a prompt answer. Even if the case is simple. And what if it needs some more investigation.

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:31:31 +0000

I agree with primal sneeze, 24/7 without quick reply defeats the purpose!

By: Primal Sneeze

Primal Sneeze — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:35:13 +0000

24/7 support != Answering cases “within 24 hours or lesser [sic]“.

24/7 support == Answering cases immediately.