You have to laugh at some clients.

Dealing with clients does require a sense of humor otherwise you will find yourself working in misery. Many clients don't know much about domains, hosting and webdesign but they want a website and have the money. So my thoughts are, you have to take the good with the bad. Nevertheless, I do have to agree that "holding their hand" can be frustrating especially when it seems that the technical questions and support emails will just never ever end.

When I do encounter customers and clients such as described in the opening thread, usually I try to laugh it off or if that doesn't work....... then I just go home and have that extra glass of Scotch.

But the site he was setting up was to offer SEO services. how would he offer SEO services if he has no idea how domains and hosting marry up
 
if he has no idea how domains and hosting marry up

My first ''serious'' attempt at building a website on line is a similar mirror of this statement. I opened an account with godaddy and after logging in i looked for my magical something called a website. There was no cPanel or any other panel to speak of. Instead there was a button that said something to the effect of file manager and a script installer app. With all my support tickets asking where my website was, im sure i broke godaddy that day.
 
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My first ''serious'' attempt at building a website on line is a similar mirror of this statement. I opened an account with godaddy and after logging in i looked for my magical something called a website. There was no cPanel or any other panel to speak of. Instead there was a button that said something to the effect of file manager and a script installer app. With all my support tickets asking where my website was, im sure i broke godaddy that day.

maybe, but when someone orders a domain that refers to them providing SEO services then you expect them to know how domains and hosting marries up. then you give then step my step instructions on what they need to do to be able to order the hosting.

Maybe they wanted me to place the hosting order for them, so they could bypass the security features
 
Maybe they wanted me to place the hosting order for them, so they could bypass the security features

Now that is very interesting. I definitely will rember this while working with clients, as i never thought of this possibility.

Thank you for posting this!

PS, I posted my comment as i was one to be laughed at.
 
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I get this all the time from the "start-up SEOs" they go to the trouble of using all manner of nameservers rather than our provided ones, then cannot understand that they must resolve the www/website address to the same IP that they hosted their domain on (we give a choice of IPs).

It's a nightmare explaining that if they change the domain IP, they have to change the DNS.

"But that should be automatic" the say.
It would be if they used our nameserver cluster.

Usually I provide them with a special checklist, which if they follow, will ensure their domain is working.
 
I get this all the time from the "start-up SEOs" they go to the trouble of using all manner of nameservers rather than our provided ones, then cannot understand that they must resolve the www/website address to the same IP that they hosted their domain on (we give a choice of IPs).

It's a nightmare explaining that if they change the domain IP, they have to change the DNS.

"But that should be automatic" the say.
It would be if they used our nameserver cluster.

Usually I provide them with a special checklist, which if they follow, will ensure their domain is working.

but this guy just purchased a domain from our domain site, he never ordered hosting, but thought buying a domain it would come fully setup with hosting. Then he demanded that i transfer the domain to our hosting site, so it would come with hosting, so it would show in his account on our hosting site. i explained they he needed to purchase hosting first then it would show up in his hosting account and gave him step by step instructions.
apart from me setting up hosting manually ( which would mean he by passes the security processes) he just had to follow my instructions
 
This thread is very informative, as i really read through all the posts and work them through my own situations to ensure i am correct in my personal implementations. A huge thanks for all of you for taking the time to explain your first hand experiences.

Priceless!
 
but this guy just purchased a domain from our domain site, he never ordered hosting, but thought buying a domain it would come fully setup with hosting. Then he demanded that i transfer the domain to our hosting site, so it would come with hosting, so it would show in his account on our hosting site. i explained they he needed to purchase hosting first then it would show up in his hosting account and gave him step by step instructions.
apart from me setting up hosting manually ( which would mean he bypasses the security processes) he just had to follow my instructions

The lengths some customer make to bypass the checks. That why in the past we've only charged £0.01 for the first month, which is loss-making just at the gateway, as they still have to go through the Fraud Check for that 1p.
 
I don't like to poke fun but sometimes you just have to laugh. I mean I get these kinds of people from time to time.
I don't like to make them mad so I remain helpful but come one... How do you not understand what you are doing, specially when there are instructions and help pages plastered all over a website!?
 
The lengths some customer make to bypass the checks. That why in the past we've only charged £0.01 for the first month, which is loss-making just at the gateway, as they still have to go through the Fraud Check for that 1p.

also i think a lot of people are used to getting hosting from ebay users, which most dont have sites let alone systems like WHMCS, so dont do checks and everything is done manually with no questions asked, so they want all hosts to do the same thing.
 
Similar experience.

Sometime it was so funny when I did not reply for long time like 24 hours and they call my support system "Zombie".
 
Similar experience.

Sometime it was so funny when I did not reply for long time like 24 hours and they call my support system "Zombie".

you should not be leaving tickets unanswered for 24 hrs, this is unprofessional.

i even have the WHMCS app on my iphone, so even if i am out i still get ticket notifications, even if i just reply ' i have your ticket and i will check on this when i get back to my PC at approx. **' so at least they know you received their ticket.
I find it hard to look up issues on the server through my iphone due to screen limitations
 
Sometime it was so funny when I did not reply for long time like 24 hours and they call my support system "Zombie".

I must agree with the above comment. I don't find intentionally not responding to clients funny at all. It is actually pretty terrible. You do know that clients are much likely to share bad experiences publicly online than positive ones. What was the purpose of not answering?
 
Yes it is terrible to not reply to a clients ticket.

If you look at review sites and hosting forums you will find out 90% of reviews are negative.
It is very hard to have clients leave positive reviews. This is why i never suggest people chose a host by reading the reviews alone
 
Longevity is usually a good sign in a host. If they are still in business after a long period of time, they must be doing something right!

(I know it's not the be all and end all, and good hosts can go bad, especially when sold on).
 
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