To all developers who use/have used hosting:

[Jackolantern]

Just as an update, I wanted to let everyone know this is not going to happen due to not wanting to change direction on the business owner's end. Thank you everyone who contributed feedback! Feel free to continue talking about it if you like, but I just didn't want anyone to miss that this is all purely theoretical now!

I am in talks with someone at the moment on a business proposition (his business is struggling and he is looking to go another direction), and I have a simple question for any developer who uses or has used any kind of hosting. Even better if you have used any kind of application hosting, cloud hosting or PAAS experience, but even just web hosting is fine.

Would you pay more for a web host, application host or PAAS provider if they offered 24/7/365 live, over-the-phone support to all levels of paying accounts? It is my experience that live technical support is somewhat of a non-existence in these types of businesses. The toll-free number will lead to a sales department, or a department where you can pay to talk to support, but it seems most of them leave it up to support forums or at best emails if you have an issue. Even larger $300/month+ application hosting services want you to pay to speak with support. So what do you think?

[Foofighter]

in my current situation, no.
but if i would need the data on my webspace to be more reliable maybe.

[vitinho444]

I dont think i understood the question..

My webhost costs 12€ / year, has 50GB Bandwidth that can be upgraded anytime, nice server and those features a host has. Someday the server that was hosting my website crashed, and they offered me full support by email, and it took like 5 minutes to them answer... I think that's enough...

Now if i understood your question, you are asking if we would like to pay for a 24/7/365 phone support?
I would say no.. first, emails are free.. and in my case they work just fine. And second, what about you have a 200$ host, are you going to pay even for just to get full support? I think it needs to be complementary... Just my opinion.

[Chris]

I hate phoning, a good live chat is much better for customers. Saves a lot of hassle with phone numbers, calling fees and sharing documents like screen shots.

As for 24/7/52 support, sounds awesome! Would love that, as long as the pricing isn't outrageous.

[Sharlenwar]

I have used hosting in the past, and it has been via email pretty much. My biggest problem is always trying to find a host that is close to you location wise. Reason I say that, is because the support is usually during business hours and someone seems to answer very promptly. Otherwise after hours it seems slow. I have had a host from the UK, that was a pain for support issues. Had one 2 hrs ahead of me, that one was very good. Up until the company folds and I lose my website and everything. So in that moment, a live support contact would have been useful.

Mostly what I want to see in a host, is where the they are, contact information, and where are the servers that they run. Because depending on what geopolitical location they are in, events in human society can and will definitely affect up-time.

I am interest myself at looking at a host for a website. Since I had the inkling to look at php here again because of Halls. So it would be interesting to see pricing and if I can pay with PayPal.

[xcalpro]

I am happy with my hosting company. They don't have 24 hr support as all support is done through trouble tickets which is fine with me as the rare instances where I did have a problem, they were resolved within the hour. So I would not pay extra for 24 hr phone support as phone support is not necessary for 99% of hosting issues as they are usually on the hosting end.

[Sharlenwar]

I am happy with my hosting company. They don't have 24 hr support as all support is done through trouble tickets which is fine with me as the rare instances where I did have a problem, they were resolved within the hour. So I would not pay extra for 24 hr phone support as phone support is not necessary for 99% of hosting issues as they are usually on the hosting end.

I would imagine that if one would want to pay extra for the phone support, then make it a toll number. $2.99 a minute for live phone support.

[Xaleph]

Ok this may sound strange.. but i`m actually used to 24/7 support? My current provider ( and previous one) both offer 24/7 support. Both by phone and mail. Then again, I don`t live in the US so I don`t know about how it works there. The only downside is, if I call after 8PM we get a ( i think Indian) English speaking person on the phone.

[Jackolantern]

I guess it really doesn't make sense for web hosting, since most people who use web hosting pretty much know their way around it already. What I was really wondering about was more like a "platform as a service" or "software as a service" or at least an application hosting service. I just didn't know how many people here had used something like that, which is why I added in web hosting, too. Many PAAS/SAAS hosts just have email support, and even then just try to route you to the documentation.

What I was wondering is if 24/7/365 live phone/email/chat support was included complimentary for all issues in setting up and using the platform or cloud-based software, would it be an enticement, even if the service itself was not as competitive price-wise as low- or no-support services?

[Sharlenwar]

So you mean, if I was looking for someone to be able to host my server software for a game I'm making? Then the phone support to set everything up and to get it running would be a great help to using the service I would say.