SiteGround to drop all WordPress-related Support

Ympker · October 2020

Siteground to drop all WordPress-related support completly.

Oh, well. I was with them a couple of years back and it was quite snappy. I used to justify their sometimes a bit more pricy plans with their support quality that often went the extra mile. But now it seems they dropped that completly.

I mean, they must have ended up becoming like LE Support Desk getting inquiries for buggy third party plugins they can't do or known much about. Still, dropping wp support entirely will make justifying their higher pricing a bit more difficult. They could have instead limited support to core wp or similar. But then again, there'd be many customers who wouldn't known where to draw the line.

Tl;dr: If you relied on Siteground to deal with your or your client's WP issues look elsewhere.

vyas · October 2020

Lol interestingly enough there are long discussions on some FB WP forums on this. Lots going on in SiteGround world.

Chievo · October 2020

They wish To pay To less persons. The problem is coming from the fact that the vast majority of people going with siteground are using WordPress. So it could be problemátic. At lesst in my opinión is wrong movement but...

Lee · October 2020

There comes a point when you are not supporting WordPress clients but in fact, running their website for them. I guess this is the point where SG has arrived and I sympathise. WordPress was the number one support ticket I received over the years and the number grew YoY. It really was, "can you install this", "this plugin I installed is not working, please fix".

vyas · October 2020

@Lee said:
There comes a point when you are not supporting WordPress clients but in fact, running their website for them. I guess this is the point where SG has arrived and I sympathise. WordPress was the number one support ticket I received over the years and the number grew YoY. It really was, "can you install this", "this plugin I installed is not working, please fix".

That is an interesting insight @Lee ...

Coming back to the Facebook group in question,
The number one question is "Who is the best host/ cheapest host/ good host for my needs"?

(needs or requirements: traffic, type of content or site, location, etc.. typically not defined! )

Siteground's name is mentioned very often, in addition to Cloudway and Vultr High Frequency + Gridpane. Probably because of affiliate relationship for the first two.

The discussions often turn towards, customer support, pricing plans (Siteground adopt the "bait and switch" model i.e renewal prices are very high.) Mostly a thumbs up from some folks, but..

Finally, a lot of users vent frustration and proclaim how happy they are after leaving Siteground for Host "X".

So migrating customers in at low price, (not sure if they offer 'free' migration) "free" migration, etc.. only to see them leave in a year or two- not sure they are making real money, that's my take as an armchair analyst.

Ympker · October 2020

@Lee said:
There comes a point when you are not supporting WordPress clients but in fact, running their website for them. I guess this is the point where SG has arrived and I sympathise. WordPress was the number one support ticket I received over the years and the number grew YoY. It really was, "can you install this", "this plugin I installed is not working, please fix".

I agree. I totally understand why they dropped it. Still, for some of their customers this might have been a game changer.

bikegremlin · October 2020

I explained one such tech. support problem/complication (not with Siteground, but particular hosting provider is not importan for this), named it Catch 22 problem type.

Now multiply this with the huge number of WP plugins, and multiply that with the number of plugin combinations (permutations), themes etc, and imagine the knowledge level of 90% of the customers. I'm sure there is a point when you must start charging by the hour, and/or promise only "best effort" results.

Edit:

[Sherlock mode]

WPX is also a Bulgarian company (like Siteground)
https://blog.wpx.net/siteground-dropped-all-wordpress-support-wpx-never-will/

Quoting that article:
"Siteground Have Dropped All WordPress Support. WPX Never Will. Here's Why."

They just have higher prices?
Perhaps the same owner?

Charging a more reasonable price for a much greater amount of support load?

[/Sherlock mode]

Ympker · October 2020

@bikegremlin said:
I explained one such tech. support problem/complication (not with Siteground, but particular hosting provider is not importan for this), named it Catch 22 problem type.

Now multiply this with the huge number of WP plugins, and multiply that with the number of plugin combinations (permutations), themes etc, and imagine the knowledge level of 90% of the customers. I'm sure there is a point when you must start charging by the hour, and/or promise only "best effort" results.

Edit:

[Sherlock mode]

WPX is also a Bulgarian company (like Siteground)
https://blog.wpx.net/siteground-dropped-all-wordpress-support-wpx-never-will/

Quoting that article:
"Siteground Have Dropped All WordPress Support. WPX Never Will. Here's Why."

They just have higher prices?
Perhaps the same owner?

Charging a more reasonable price for a much greater amount of support load?

[/Sherlock mode]

Nice post. Catch 22, I like

InceptionHosting · October 2020

Wow, who would have expected that!

_MS_ · October 2020

Every "managed" host should write in detail what they "manage" in their "Service Support Scope" page.

deank · October 2020

Well, having read the blog, I will say it sounds like bragging more than anything else?

Basically, "We are so good that we can't this shit up."

Ympker · October 2020

@deank said:
Well, having read the blog, I will say it sounds like bragging more than anything else?

Basically, "We are so good that we can't this shit up."

I did think the same, but I was mostly looking to convey the message rather than their intentions which would have been the termination of WP related support for those who still are with SG. WPX seems to be one of their many competitors and uses this article to promote themselves. I couldn't care less about them tbh. It just happened to be the first source Google News showed me about SG terminating WP support.

bikegremlin · October 2020

As I was notified today, they have also "stopped affiliate program for your region" (Serbia? Europe?).

vyas · October 2020

@bikegremlin said:
As I was notified today, they have also "stopped affiliate program for your region" (Serbia? Europe?).

Asia too. As someone posted in fb group . Getting ready for a sale ( as in selling the company) looks like

SiteGround to drop all WordPress-related Support

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