Adarsh SojitraFinally, We have sorted the support. And the changes are going live soon. I will release the launch date once we are ready to launch.
You see, we face a very unusual issue. That is to provide the application level support. When a site goes down, It is often the case where code conflict or there are changes in code. Imagine wrong configuration, wrong htaccess code, wrong database credentials and much more.
However, Users are not wrong. They have us as a server manager and a closest technical team when something goes wrong at the cloud hosting level. But our business is to provide server management, not troubleshooting for each application at site level.
And, there were no existing solutions available. So, I did a total research, talked with a lots of good friends and users to understand How to solve this issue. In last 2 months, I made a few plans and presented it to different ServerAvatar users. I also ran some polls to understand the sentiment.
As a final result, I understand a few things. The support for this type of application depends on 3 levels. Here are those 3 levels.
Platform Level Support (SL1): This support includes bug fixes, small improvements and other small changes that many customers request us. These issues are managed by developers because it requies us to change something in the code of ServerAvatar. When you face this kind of issues, You are not alone, other ServerAvatar users are facing the same issue.
Server Level Support (SL2): This support includes the assurance of up-to-date server configuration and set up. This is what we do. We provide you automatic set up and management panel. We manage your server configuration files and installations and other things that needs changes in the server configuration. Each task you perform with ServerAvatar requires some command execution and config file editing.
Application Level Support (SL3): Application level issues are the reason behind majority of the downtime. A small issue in the .htaccess file can take your site down. Similarly, Trying out an untested plugin or theme can take it down if it has issues. Similarly, some manual changes in the code too! The solution of these issues is not something we do at ServerAvatar. We solve these issues for all the customer right now but there is no “Education” present behind that.
And, We have cracked the solution for each level of support. Here are the solutions:
Solution for Support Level 1 (SL1): As I mentioned above, when there is a platform issue, like “Something went really wrong!” when something should not go wrong. We will manage it with the roadmap designed for short term updates. This is where you will create an issue that you think many other users must be facing. The priority of the issues will be given based on How many users are upvoting that issue.
Solution for Support Level 2 (SL2): We will continue to provide server level support for free. But, we will make it easier for you to identify the server level issues. On the support section, You will find a “Re-check Server Configuration” option that you can use to instantly check if there is any issue in the server configuration. If there are any issues, You will instantly get the list of issues, and you can solve it with the help of support. So, the person providing support also knows what is the issue on your server.
Solution for Support Level 3 (SL3): This is the paid tier we will add to the overall support. In this case, when an incident happens of the application level downtime or issue, You can ask ServerAvatar support to troubleshoot your site with the technical knowledge of the team. The pricing of this level of support will be $10/Incident. This level is for the users who identify themselves “non-technical” and cannot understand logs and site level code (PHP).
If you are an LTD account holder, You will see $7.5/Incident pricing for 6 months instead of $10/Incident. Thanks for supporting us early on!
