Why can't Media Temple keep their promises to their paying customers?

Arman,

Let me break this down a little further:

* To be accessible, friendly, and helpful at all times.
You guys are always friendly even when I've met you in person at various events. However having to call to get some action on a ticket isn't accessible. Even then it wasn't very helpful.

* To answer the phone when you call, 24/7/365.
You did answer my phone call. But again I shouldn't have had to call.

* Reply to your emails and support tickets within 24 hours.
More then 24 hours went by on 2 occasions before I got a response and even then it wasn't overly helpful.

* And lastly, we promise to listen. Should we fall short of our goals we want to know about it so we can quickly remedy areas needing improvement.
I mentioned twice in my phone call that the response time was unacceptable (it was hours past the estimated time). It was after that call my support ticket seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"Try using our Support Resources more often and you will see that this is not the norm."
That right there REALLY bothers me. I tend not to have reasons to contact support. So should I just put in tickets to test how long you take? That seems to be counter productive.

Quite frankly I didn't know what to do, (mt) left me out to dry with no idea as to what was going on. Doesn't make me feel so great about the service I am paying for.

As it stands right now I got my answers but I am still unsure if I will renew after my current plan is up.

"Try using our Support Resources more often and you will see that this is not the norm."
That right there REALLY bothers me. I tend not to have reasons to contact support. So should I just put in tickets to test how long you take? That seems to be counter productive.

All I meant from that was that you've only had to contact us a handful of times, yet you described it to be something that repeatedly occurs. Obviously we hope no one ever has to submit a support inquiry and that everything just works, but to take one particular event and use that as a definitive reason that we did not hold up to our promise is unfair, to be honest.

In either case...look, no hard feelings. We're only here to help! I'm sorry if my reply was taken in any way other than constructive which was my intention. Please enjoy the 3 months of credit we gave you as a result of this, and we hope that you stick around. If you decide to switch because of this, then we wish you the very best in your projects and businesses (even if we're not a part of that experience)!

An outsider's opinion:

An important business reminder is that the customer is always correct.

I as a customer may experience no problems for many years and then, one fateful day, suddenly run into difficulties.

This problem should be reported and then corrected or steps should be taken by the company to immediately correct the issue.

It is not the job of the customer to create a database of overall customer satisfaction before evaluating the company.

Id est:

I go to Bob's Burgers with my friends and listen to music a couple hundred times but never eat anything. One day I order a burger and the service is slow, the burger is cold and they didn't cook it how I wanted. I have enjoyed the music for quite some time now....but other restaurants have music and good food. So I will probably go elsewhere.

An employee from any company should not attempt to explain to the "disappointed customer" that the company didn't actually let him down or anyone else. He should not be "disappointed" because you have no reason to so be.

An employee should say that they apologize for any inconvenience, credit the account of the customer to make up for the obvious shortcomings, and then act swiftly and deliberately to resolve the issue that first created the current status.

In the end this will leave a lasting impression of dedication to your customer and will begin to build that track record, which a company aught to have.

The company will then keep one customer and the excellent service provided to one customer will bring in more clientele.

Just my thoughts

* To provide timely information regarding System Incidents.

How about this one... My sites were up yesterday when the incident reports were out. Today they were down. First the rep wouldn't even say he would look into it without a password. I wasn't at my computer but knew my sites were down. At least say you'll take a look.

Then when I complain about the systems incidents to the second guy, I get an email with a systems status last updated yesterday at 1:46pm. That's not very helpful, especially when it says that all the issues should be resolved.

FINALLY, after almost 3 hours, I get an email from Media Temple saying they still have issues and my site will be down.

Media Temple's System Incident information has never been timely. Or very up to date. There's still no update today (October 17th 2008) about ongoing issues. This isn't the first time something like this happened (regarding timeliness of incident information.)

In response to zyoung:

Thank you for sharing this here. We apologize for the initial difficulties you had getting information about your account without verifying first. For security and privacy purposes, we can't disclose any information about an account without making sure we're talking to someone who's authorized. It's one of the unfortunate -- but necessary -- precautions of protecting our customers.

You are absolutely correct otherwise. As a company, it is important for us to stay in clear communication about what's going on with your service and provide that information in a timely fashion. In addition to addressing the root cause of the problem itself, we have been actively developing better methods of making sure affected customers are informed and notified in a timely and convenient manner if an unforeseen event does occur -- whether that be by making sure our representatives are informed or by introducing new tools that can help you help yourself. You should expect to see these improvements in the very near future.

Thank you again for the candid and descriptive account of your own experience. We hope you see now that we want to (and are taking action to) improve on these aspects as much as you desire us to.