Frequently Asked Questions

About Us

• Why are your personnel located offshore?
• Your prices are so low! Does this mean I will be supporting a sweatshop?
• What kind of infrastructure do you have?
• I can't find your phone number on your website. What number can I reach you on?
• What is your customer center for?

Outsourced Help Desks

• How well qualified are your staff?
• Will my clients know that I have outsourced my support services?
• What names do you normally use to sign off a support ticket?
• How do I know that my business and customer details will be safe?
• Do I have to provide you with root access to my servers?
• What ticket systems do you support?
• What if I don't have my own ticket system?
• I have designed my own ticketing system, can you support it? What information would you need to know?
• What is the time-frame involved for start-up?
• I host some adult websites. Can you take over my tech support?
• Will you train me so that I can learn more about technical issues?
• Do you have any plans that are not 24-hour plans?
• Will the assigned technicians work exclusively for me?
• Can I assign adhoc tasks such as writing or research work to my assigned staff?
• I have some Windows and some Linux servers. Can you support both?

Phone Support

• Can I have a phone number outside my country?
• Can I keep my own current customer support phone number?
• Will you make outbound calls for me?

Web Design

• What software do you use?
• I just want a single website built. I do not need a permanent designer. Can you help?
• Will you provide me with a firm quote for the time it will take to complete my project?
• Will I be able to talk directly with my assigned web designer?
• Will I own the design work you create for me?

Web Programming

• Will you provide me with a firm quote for the time it will take to complete my project?
• Will I own the code you write for me?
• If I hire a programmer, will you supervise that programmer and manage the project they are working on?
• I notice you provide PHP, ASP, .NET and Java programming, but what if I want code written in another language?

Billing and Payments

• Can I pay you via check?
• Do you provide any discount for upfront per quarter or annual payments?
• What payment methods do you accept?
• Do you offer a free trial?

About Us

Why are your personnel located offshore?

Our personnel are located in India. There are many factors that make those countries perfect locations for establishing outsourcing operations. For example, India has one of the worlds' largest populations of English speaking IT graduates, and the Philippines is renowned for its high-quality English-speaking workforce.

Due to the current economic situation, technicians in India. This allows us to pay our personnel good wages, while still maintaining the quality of the people we hire. Those benefits are passed on to you through our low-priced service.

 

Your prices are so low! Does this mean I will be supporting a sweatshop?

Absolutely not. We are a progressive company and we are dedicated to providing excellent remuneration, modern office conditions and team satisfaction for all of our personnel. Our low prices are due to the relative economics of India and the Philippines compared to countries like the US/UK, and all of our team members receive good wages in the context of their local economy.

 

What kind of infrastructure do you have?

We operate from first-class IT facilities in India and the Philippines. All our facilities have state-of-the-art infrastructure with full backup power, uninterruptable power supply, multiple high-speed ISP connections and structured networks.

 

I can't find your phone number on your website. What number can I reach you on?

Currently we do not offer phone support. We do however provide quality online support, with a team dedicated to monitoring all incoming messages from both new and existing clients. Existing clients can contact us immediately at any time of the day or night through live chat, instant messenger, or through our online form.

 

What is your customer center for?

Our comprehensive customer center plays several roles including gathering information about your requirements to ensure that our technical staff are properly equipped with the information they need to provide quality service. Our customer center also provides you with 24-hour control over all aspects of your account, and includes other value-added tools.

 

Outsourced Help Desks

How well qualified are your staff?

We are very fussy about who we hire. We insist that all staff have strong English skills, a talent for customer service, strong troubleshooting skills and at least university-level IT qualifications. Some staff have relevant technical qualifications such as RHCE, MSCE, MCSA, RHCT, MCP or CCNA, and years of experience working with Linux and/or Windows and various web hosting control panels.

 

Will my clients know that I have outsourced my support services?

We make every effort to ensure that the transfer of your support services to us is completely transparent. We will respond to your customers' queries just as you would, and give no indication that our responses are coming from anywhere but your own in-house support team. After all, we are your very own support team!

 

What names do you normally use to sign off a support ticket?

We normally use our actual names, or no names, to sign off on tickets. If however you have any special policy or requirements we will be happy to follow that.

 

How do I know that my business and customer details will be safe?

Customer confidentiality is our business. As part of the sign-up process we enter into a legally binding agreement with you which includes relevant non-disclosure clauses. We take all security and privacy issues extremely seriously and stringently insist on utmost professionalism from our staff at all times. Within our company information about you and your service is only provided to staff on a need-to-know basis In addition to this, the questionnaires you complete in "The Hub" (our customer control panel) allow you to outline any issues you consider to be confidential.

 

Do I have to provide you with root access to my servers?

The level of access you give us is entirely up to you. You may, at your discretion, provide us with superuser (root) access to your server(s). Alternatively, you can provide us with access to a restricted set of superuser commands by using a tool such as sudo if you wish. It is possible that in order to perform certain tasks however we may need root access.

 

What ticket systems do you support?

We support third party ticket systems such as PerlDesk, Kayako, TicketSmith and many more.

 

What if I don't have my own ticket system?

If you do not have your own ticket system then we can help you install one. There are a good range of commercial ticket systems available, some at low cost. There are also some free open source ticket systems available.

 

I have designed my own ticketing system, can you support it? What information would you need to know?

You can certainly use your own ticket system. If we are using your ticket system we will need to know the login information for that system. If you are on a shared support plan, your ticket system will also need to send us an email notification when a new message arrives on your ticketing system.

 

What is the time-frame involved for start-up?

Once you have supplied us with you details via our questionnaires in The Hub we generally require two days of "lead time" to organize your support prior to starting full customer support operations. This is to ensure the smoothest possible transition of your support services. If you want your assigned technicians to provide live service immediately rather than having a two-day preparation period, then we can do that but it is not recommended. If you are on a dedicated support plan (as opposed to shared support) you may also wish to provide an extra training period for your team members, depending on the type and complexity of your service.

 

I host some adult websites. Can you take over my tech support?

Our policy on adult-content is that we can provide you with services that do not require us to directly deal with the adult content. For example, we can provide server maintenance, administration and monitoring, but could not provide customer service to your clients.

 

Will you train me so that I can learn more about technical issues?

Sorry, we do not currently offer training as part of any of our packages.

 

Do you have any plans that are not 24-hour plans?

Our 24/7 outsourced support plans (including web hosting support plans) cover 24 hours every day of the year. If you do not need the full 24 hour period covered then you can hire out individual technicians to work 8 hours a day (including meal breaks) under our Full-time System Administrator plan. However, since all staff rotate shifts once per month the work schedule of your assigned Full-time System Administrator would vary from month to month.

 

Will the assigned technicians work exclusively for me?

Yes, when you purchase the 24/7 Web Host Technical Support plan your assigned staff will work exclusively for you (one at a time) around the clock during the week. That is, your assigned staff will not work for any other clients while on duty for you. On weekends, shared support is provided in order to keep our prices as low as possible, and keeping in mind the fact that support volume tends to be lower on the weekend.

 

Can I assign adhoc tasks such as writing or research work to my assigned staff?

Generally only tasks explicitly included in the service plan you have purchased can be undertaken. However, exceptions can sometimes be made (for dedicated service plans only, as opposed to shared support plans) and if you would like more specific advice on this issue please contact us to discuss the matter prior to signing up. For full details of what is covered and what is not covered in each service plan please see the service plan details on this site.

 

I have some Windows and some Linux servers. Can you support both?

Yes, we can. Depending on your circumstances and the volume of tickets for each operating system, we may need for the Windows tickets to be lodged in a different ticket system than the Linux ones, or clearly differentiated in the Subject line of the tickets. If you require both Windows and Linux support, please contact us before placing your order so that we can discuss the matter with you.

 

Phone Support

Can I have a phone number outside my country?

We can provide a phone number for your customers to use to contact us in any of the following countries:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Canada
• Many other countries

You can also use our BYO Phone Provider option to add phone numbers in virtually any country (depending on availability of suitable phone service providers in that country).

 

Can I keep my own current customer support phone number?

Usually this can be done. We will provide you with a phone number for your customers to use to contact our support team. If you do not want to use the number we provide, then if your phone company allows it, you can redirect your incoming calls from your existing phone number through to the number we provide. Your phone company is likely to charge you for each redirected call, and you would need to pay the applicable charges directly to them.

 

Will you make outbound calls for me?

Outbound calls are generally not included but if you have specific requirements for outbound call services then please contact us to discuss options.

 

Web Design

What software do you use?

We use Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash. Photoshop files are also supported via Fireworks.

 

I just want a single website built. I do not need a permanent designer. Can you help?

Our minimum contract length with our web design plans is one month so you are welcome to hire a designer under that plan for one month (or more) in order to build your single website. For small website projects, purchasing a part-time web designer plan for a single month is often sufficient to complete the project.

 

Will you provide me with a firm quote for the time it will take to complete my project?

Sorry, but with our service model we simply hire out web designers to work on your projects for the set number of hours each day during their working week. Our designers will work hard to complete all work within the shortest possible time, however we cannot provide any guarantees about exactly how long it will take to complete particular projects due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate and complete specifications at the outset of work (often specifications are changed along the way) and the difficulty in assessing the time requirements given the number of variables involved with this type of work.

 

Will I be able to talk directly with my assigned web designer?

Absolutely. You are welcome to contact your designer directly through either Instant Messenger at any time during your daily support period, or via email at any time.

 

Will I own the design work you create for me?

The short answer is 'Yes'. The long answer is that some basic limitations apply to the use of images. Specifically, you cannot re-use any of the images in other works, and cannot re-sell more than one copy of the work. These restrictions are in place to comply with licensing requirements from third-party image vendors (where we source some images). Please note that the above restrictions mean we could not usually build you website templates for multiple re-sale, but we can build a site for you or any client of yours without any problem. If you want us to create templates for multiple re-sale then we can do that (by explicit request) but would be limited in which images we could use for such work.

 

Web Programming

Will you provide me with a firm quote for the time it will take to complete my project?

Sorry, but with our service model we simply hire out web programmers to work on your projects for a set number of hours per day during their working week. Our programmers will work hard to complete all work within the shortest possible time, however we cannot provide any guarantees about exactly how long it will take to complete particular projects due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate and complete specifications at the outset of work (often specifications are changed along the way) and the difficulty in assessing the time requirements given the number of variables involved with this type of work.

 

Will I own the code you write for me?

Yes, you will. The only qualification to that is that it is likely we will use some standard functions (the sorts of functions that are used repeatedly for various clients, such as a function to validate an email address) and we would retain the right to re-use those functions for future clients. Any functions that are specific to your project would not be re-used for any other client and you are welcome to copyright the finished work.

 

If I hire a programmer, will you supervise that programmer and manage the project they are working on?

For programming work, we provide basic supervision only. That is, we ensure that your programmer(s) attend work and work efficiently while at work. We do not however provide project management service. Essentially, your programmers would work directly to you in the same way they would if you were directly employing them. The only difference is that they are carrying out the work in our office rather than yours.

 

I notice you provide PHP, ASP, .NET and Java programming, but what if I want code written in another language?

In this case, please contact us to discuss your requirements before placing your order. We may have programmers available which meet your requirement and would be happy to discuss the options with you.

 

Billing and Payments

Can I pay you via check?

Check payments can be made via PayPal, but they cannot be made directly to us. We accept payments via PayPal (credit card, check and PayPal balance) and also can accept direct credit card payment (Mastercard and Visa only).

 

Do you provide any discount for upfront per quarter or annual payments?

We currently do not provide any discounts for additional upfront payments. One reason for this is that we strongly believe that our prices already provide our customers with the highest value-for-money available.

 

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept payments through PayPal (check, credit card or PayPal balance) and via direct credit payment. PayPal provide quick and easy payment facilities so if you are not already a member that is not a problem - it will still only take you a few minutes to place your order.

 

Do you offer a free trial?

We do not offer free trials however we do provide a 14-day money-back guarantee, which means that if you are not satisfied with our service for any reason then all you need to do is cancel within 14 days of placing your order and we will refund any unused portion of your fees in full.