Tag: chimpie

Categories
General

Where’s Chimpie?

“Chimpie, where have you been?”

I’m such a bad chimp. I win HostGator’s Site of the Month award, create a blog entry about it, then abandon the site for the next 40 days. tsk, tsk tsk

I apologize to all of my followers. I’ve been extremely busy with my current job (Sales Floor Team Leader at Super Target) and my new job, Sales Manager for The Hacienda Collection (www.thehaciendacollection.com).

To all of my Target friends, no, I will not be leaving Target just yet. But I have to say that I’ve very excited to be working with doors and cabinetry again.

I’ll post more soon (yeah right, Chimpie). But for right now check out our website at www.thehaciendacollection.com!

Chimpie

Categories
General Webhosting

Chimpie.com is HostGator’s Site of the Month

I’m happy to announce that Chimpie.com has been awarded HostGator.com’s Site of the Month!!

HostGator.com currently hosts over 3.6 million websites.  There are some fantastic sites being hosted by HG and it’s truly an honor to be ranked amongst them.

In their June 2010 newsletter, HostGator writes:

Site of the Month:
Chimpie.com is a personal blog that talks about the products and services that Chimpie uses and the experiences that he has. His goal is for businesses to improve and excel.

Chimpie.com recently launched a new feature called Chat with Chimpie, where he interviews key players in the tech industry and talks about recent events and developments. Whether it be webhosting or the latest cell phone apps, Chimpie.com is becoming a go-to place for honest reviews.

Chimpie is a very active member of our Forums and we are very proud of his blog’s progress.

I would like to thank Josh Loe and HostGator for this recognition.  Chimpie.com has had many versions over the past seven years. I’ve been running the new blog format for a couple of months now and it’s been a lot of fun.

There will be two new features coming to the site in July.  Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter so you’ll be the first to know about them.

For those looking for a webhost, I strongly recommend HostGator.  Brent Oxley launched HostGator in 2002 from his dorm room at Florida Atlantic University.  Since then, HostGator has grown into one of the largest hosting providers and was named the 21st fastest growing private companies of 2008 by Inc. Magazine.  Earlier this month they were named one of Texas’ Hottest Texas Companies.  HostGator has its headquarters in Houston, Texas and will be opening a second office in Austin, Texas later this year.  With more than 8,000 servers under management, HostGator hosts over 3 million domains which makes up approximately 2% of the U.S. web site traffic.

To Josh and HostGator, thanks again for this recognition.  It’s been a pleasure being hosted by you for the last two years.

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Are you following Chimpie on Twitter and Facebook?
www.twitter.com/chimpie76
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Categories
Chat with Chimpie General Webhosting

Chimpie Interviews Tom Sepper of Site5

Hey everybody. It’s time for another Chat with Chimpie entry.

Earlier this month I created a blog entry, Tips on Creating a Great Support Ticket.  I received some great feedback and wanted to take the topic one step further.

I recently chatted with Tom Sepper, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Site5 Web Hosting about support tickets.

What are some common mistakes customers make when submitting tickets?

The biggest mistake is not including their domain name! We see countless times that customers forget that vital piece of information. Often times we are able to locate their account based on their email address, but when the email address is on file, we have to request additional information from them which may lead to further delays for a quick resolution.

What are some common requests you receive that customers can do themselves?

The most common requests we receive that customers can do themselves are password changes, adding parked/addon domains, and database imports. All of these can easily be accomplished within the customer’s control panel.

When we see common requests such as these, we in turn add them to our documentation. The feedback we get from these requests allow us to improve our documentation and provide better self-help resources for those customers that enjoy resolving issues on their own. For those customers that don’t enjoy that, we’re here for them!

What information should customers include every time they submit a ticket?

The most important piece of information is obviously their domain name!  Beyond the domain name, it is key to provide a thorough explanation of the problem.  Included with that explanation should be step-by-step instructions on how we can replicate the problem. Listing out steps will help us be able to resolve any issues in a quicker fashion since we are not having to figure out how to replicate the issue.

Does updating a ticket with additional information still bump it to the bottom of the queue?

No, thankfully! With our helpdesk that we built from the ground-up, we are able to ensure tickets are answered in the correct order and manner that is fair to everyone involved.

What goals does Site5 have to resolve a support ticket?

We’d like to be able to solve all tickets on the first response, but we know that isn’t realistic in every situation. Our goal is to resolve the ticket to the client’s satisfaction as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality.

What is the average time for a support ticket to be first addressed?

As quickly as possible! In all seriousness, as I type this, our average wait time for an actual support staff member’s response is five minutes.

What is the average time for a ticket to be completed?

That’s actually very difficult to answer, and here’s why – Site5 staff members do not close tickets! Why? Because we’re not the ones who dictate when a problem is resolved; the customer determines that. Our helpdesk will notify a customer when their ticket has been awaiting their reply for more than 30 days. If no response is received after that notification, their ticket will be closed due to inactivity.

What are some recommendations you can give to those who submit tickets?

Above all, remember that there’s another person on the other end of your ticket that is there to help. If your ticket contains a complaint, we’re all ears as we value constructive feedback – both positive and negative.  Ranting, shouting, etc. is a sure-fire way of invalidating your point real quick — no matter how valid your point really is. Presenting your complaints in a clear, concise, professional, calm, cool, and collected manner will go a long way.

Oh, and be sure to include your domain name! 🙂

Chimpie’s final thoughts

Support tickets are our link to our web hosts.  We use them in times of need.  When creating a support ticket we can help ourselves and our host by ensuring that we are providing accurate and pertinent information.

I would like to thank Tom for taking the time answer these questions about support tickets.  I hope you found the information useful.

If you’re looking for a web host, be sure to check out Site5.com.   Be sure to also check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

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Are you following Chimpie on Twitter and Facebook?
www.twitter.com/chimpie76
www.facebook.com/chimpie

Categories
General HTC Droid Eris

Chimpie’s review of HTC Droid Eris 2.1 firmware upgrade

I purchase my HTC Droid Eris back in March (2010) and have been running the stock version firware (1.5) since then.  This morning I received an alert in my notification bar that a system upgrade was available.  The long awaited 2.1 version was ready to be downloaded.  I noticed that my battery life was at 60% and figured that should be enough to get me through it.  I was also fairly close to a Verizon tower so I knew my phone wouldn’t be struggling to find a signal.  Time to start the process.

The download only took about twenty minutes and the install took about fifteen.

As soon as you click install the phone goes black, and then an icon and status bar appears.  Once the first phase of the install is complete, a new icon appears showing that the new upgrade is installing into the phone.  After the second part of the install is complete, the Eris reboots.  This reboot takes about three minutes to completely load.  I guess it’s testing out all of the installed apps to see what is up to date and what is not.

ICONS CHANGED, MISSING

The first thing I noticed after the phone finished rebooting is that all of my homepage screens had gone back to default.  This bummed me out a little, but it also gave me the opportunity to start all over.  I was very eager to jump in there and start adding things, but decided to take this opportunity to blog about my experiences.

PEOPLE (CONTACTS)

When I purchased my phone back in March, I had all my contacts from my LG Venus transferred to the Eris.  I didn’t think this was even possible so when the sales rep completed this for me I was thrilled.  While using 1.5 I synced my contacts with Gmail.  After the firmware upgrade all of my previous contacts were gone except ones I manually entered after purchasing my phone.

Attempting to sync contacts with Gmail

I had some trouble syncing my contacts with Gmail.  I will not fault HTC, Verizon or Google for this as this is the first time I’ve had this problem and it may be caused by the mass amount of people attempting to sync after the upgrade.

Once I chose to sync manually the phone began syncing with both Gmail and Facebook right away.  This process took about 15 minutes which was very surprising, but, again, I chalked this up to everyone receiving the upgrade.  If you have to sync manually follow these steps:

Settings > Accounts & sync > Sync now

You can click on a particular account (Facebook, Google, Twitter) to fine tune any settings.

Now it’s time to start updating my homescreens.

FACEBOOK

My next step was to add the Facebook icon back to my homescreen and start it up.  After about five seconds everything was updated and good to go.

TWIDROID

I use Twidroid to access my Twitter information.  Just like Facebook, I added the icon back to my homescreen and launched the app.  Again, after about five seconds everything was updated and good to go.

INTERNET

I launched the Internet app for the first time (since the upgrade) and it asked me, “www.google.com wants to know your location”  I chose ‘Share My Location’ and since I don’t have the GPS turned on it picked the cell tower closes to me.  Good enough.

Now it was time to see if my bookmarks were still in place.  WOW…. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT… at first.  There’s a new option on how to view your bookmarks.  Before it was just thumbnails and list views.  Now there’s a grid option.  I found it very ugly and decided it had to go… AT ONCE.  To get back to my thumbnails, click Menu > Thumbnails

Okay, Internet is good to go (yeah, I say that a lot) so let’s dive back into the Android Market to see what’s new.

APPS & ANDROID MARKET

It was at this point I decided to check out Android Market to see what apps needed updating.  The list included:

Google Maps > 4.2.0
Advanced Task Killer (ATK) > 1.7.9
Facebook for Android > 1.2

After the installs were complete, the first app I went to was the Facebook app, since I’m on that several times a day.  After accepting the new install I opened the app.  I couldn’t find anything new.  It must be just new coding.

ATK – same thing.

Google Maps – I turned the GPS setting on and it found me very quickly.  It even displayed where I was in the house.  I turned off the app, and then the GPS settings, then restarted it.  Instead of the familiar blue dot showing my location, it was now an arrow which seemed to keep changing which direction it was pointing in.  I’m not sure what is going on, but I’m going to do some more research and write a more detailed review later.

TIME FOR A REBOOT

Okay, enough playing around.  Let’s do the first reboot since the upgrade.

The familiar three droids on skateboards appear, but no more driods popping up.  While this saves time, I’m going to miss the little guys.  After the three disappear, an HTC splash screen appears: “htc – quietly brilliant”  The Verizon Wirelss logo appears next.  The nice animation is gone and the logo sticks around for a few more seconds than before.

I will note that the startup time is much quicker with 2.1 than 1.5.  I’m very impressed with that.  In fact, the phone including apps all started very quickly.

Well, that’s going to do it for this blog entry.  As I dive into the phone more I will post additional updates.

Thanks for reading!

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