Six months ago we ran a “phone support test” on US-based domain registrars, to help determine their responsiveness to customer phonecalls.
It’s now time for an update to gauge the efficiency of domain registrars when it comes down to providing support over the good old phone line.
The results might surprise some folks, as much as they did for us.
A total of 10 US-based ICANN accredited registrars were tested, and we followed the same, non-scientific process as before:
We called their support helpline and timed how fast the call kicked in, and how quickly we reached a human operator. Once that was achieved, we opted to be rude and hang up. Our apologies!
Here are the “end of 2013 domain registrar results in phone support efficiency”, in the order that we conducted the calls. 😀
Hi! Like, do you offer, like, phone support?
GoDaddy – GoDaddy.com – Phone: 480.505.8877 – Grade A
It took 10 seconds for the call to be answered. The tech representative answered the call at 1 minute and 30 seconds. We had plenty of time to take a few sips of our Mimosa drink and read Shane’s list of dropping names. Impressive improvement, as the previous ranking for GoDaddy was a “C”.
eNom – enom.com – Phone: 425.274.4500 – Grade F
After just 3 seconds the line engaged. And that’s where all the good stuff ended. We chose the technical support option and were repeatedly asked to enter our pin number, or visit the web site if we didn’t have it. There was no option to escape this operator hell. This is the biggest drop of a registrar in our test, from the previous ranking of “A”. Now, that’s a disappointing shock.
Network Solutions – Netsol.com – Phone: 877.628.8686 – Grade B
After 5 seconds we got through. It took a total of 2 minutes and 16 seconds until we got a female operator on the other end of the line. Despite her sexy voice, we had to hang up in order to maintain the validity of this test. Consistency at Network Solutions, as the previous ranking was also a “B”.
Register.com – register.com – Phone: 888.734.4783 – Grade A
The line connected in 6 seconds. We had a human on the other end of the line in a record-shattering 30 seconds. That’s hardly enough time to send a “screw you!” email response to the usual Chinese domain spammers. Register.com maintains its previous ranking of “A” as well.
Dotster – dotster.com – Phone 800.401.5250 – Grade B
In 3 seconds we were connected. Took a total of 2 minutes and 20 seconds to get to a support person on the other end, plenty of time to read a UDRP decision, as pasted by Mike Berkens from the NAF newsletter. Dotster improved their time by several seconds, all while maintaining the previous ranking of “B”.
Name.com – name.com – Phone: 720.249.2374 – Grade A
After 2 seconds we made contact, now that’s a record. We received a message that warned us of a potentially long waiting; the message itself was 25 seconds long, so that needs to be trimmed, guys! We had a human being on the line in 1 minute and 50 seconds; plenty of time to lookup a couple of domain names on DomainTools. Name.com thus retains its prior ranking of “A”.
Dynadot – dynadot.com – Phone: 866.262.3399 – Grade A
The call took 33 seconds to engage. We could not believe it, but exactly at that time we also had our call responded to, by a female that wasn’t a speech-synthesis android. This is the biggest improvement since our last domain registrar phone test, as Dynadot had a ranking of “F”. That’s impressive!
Namecheap – namecheap.com – Phone: 404 not found – Grade F
Namecheap continues to not offer phone support. It’s clearly ridiculous, and we will drop them from our next test unless they add a phone line, for Alexander Graham Bell’s sake!
Moniker – moniker.com – Phone: 800.688.6311 – Grade A
In 3 seconds we were greeted by an automated message welcoming us to Key Drive, and we chose the Moniker/support option. In 39 seconds we had a human operator. We hardly had any time to hit refresh on Domaining.com for Owen Frager‘s numerous updates! Moniker’s improvement, up from an “E”, is impressive.
NameBright – namebright.com – Phone: 303-893-0547 – Grade A
NameBright was listed yesterday as the biggest domain registrar surprise in 2013. It seems that they are also committed to providing good support over the phone; in 3 seconds we were connected and at 38 seconds we were greeted by a human operator. An impressive new entry to our charts!
So, overall, we are seeing an improvement in phone support efficiency, and that’s good news, despite the test being conducted the day after Christmas. We are also seeing consistency, and a couple of absolute shockers.
Hopefully, in 2014 those domain registrars that scored low will improve as well – all it takes is the identification of the issues and bottlenecks and proper addressing. We look forward to our next phone test in the new year.
TGIF! 
Very interesting test.
But I would love to hear what comes next because my calls with register.com support regarding a simple thing such as an invoice was torture.