Dedicated Support Options: Flat-Rate & Token-Based |
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Flat-Rate Support
Flat-rate support (for all users) is provided to all Shared Hosting
customers. It is also an option for Dedicated Server customers. There are
two types of flat-rate support:
- Support for all users: Flat-rate support for all users is
included in all shared hosting accounts. Any user can request support
directly from LuxSci's support team (unless the account administrators
restrict this) via telephone or support ticket. Emergency 24/7 support is
available to account administrators only.
- Administrator-only support: Flat-rate support for account
administrators only is an option for Dedicated Server Accounts. Emergency
24/7 support is available to account administrators.
Both options offer essentially unlimited technical support by support
ticket and telephone. The actual response time on each individual support
ticket is based on:
- Whether the ticket is specified as an Emergency or not by the
Customer
- The priority assigned to the ticket by LuxSci Technical Support
- The relative workload of LuxSci Technical Support at the time the ticket
was received.
A best effort is made to address all support issues as quickly as
possible with respect to the relative priorities of the issues at hand.
Generally, this means that non-emergency issues are answered in one hour or
less during standard support hours (9am to 11pm Eastern Time, USA).
However, unlike Token-based support, there is no guarantee on the response
time of support for individual issues.
Token-Based Support?
 Token-based technical support is an option for
customers using LuxSci Dedicated
Servers or for those who have chosen our Platform software solution. It is not
available to customers with LuxSci shared email and/or web hosting
services.
With token-based support, customers pay for support on a per-question
basis. The priority of the issue, assigned by the customer, determines the
price of support. Token-based support is available to account
administrators only. Account administrators are responsible for providing
all direct communications, and therefore support, to their end users.
Additionally, with token-based support, inbound telephone support is
not included. LuxSci may call token-using customers back as part of
the followup to an issue, but LuxSci will not provide support on demand via
inbound phone calls -- unless it is for an emergency issue and the customer
authorizes the creation of and payment for an emergency support ticket.
LuxSci Dedicated Server customers may choose token-based support to
eliminate recurring technical support fees. I.e., instead of paying
$1000/mo for administrative support for 10,000 users, a Dedicated Server
customer has the option of "token-based" support and only pays for support
on an as-needed basis. Depending on a customer's technical resources and
acumen, token-based support may offer cost savings in the long run.
LuxSci Platform customers' only option is token-based support.
Platform customers have full administrative access to their servers, as
well as to the LuxSci software, and generally provide routine support to
their users. When additional assistance is required, token-based support
is available.
Compare Flat-Rate and Token-Based Options
| Option |
Flat-Rate / Users |
Flat-Rate / Administrators |
Token-Based |
 Price for Dedicated Server customers
| $0.30/user/mo |
$0.10/user/mo |
Pay-as-you-go, $25 minimum per issue |
Direct support to administrators? |  |
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Direct support to end users? | |
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24/7 emergency support to administrators? | |
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24/7 emergency support to regular users? | |
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Non-emergency support, 9am-11pm ET (GMT-4/5) | |
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Support via support tickets? | |
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Emergency support via phone? | |
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Non-emergency support via phone? | |
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Guaranteed support response time? | |
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Private Labeling Required? | |
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How Much Does Token-Based Support Cost?
Tokens:
- Cost $25.00 each and can be purchased in multiples of 5
tokens.
- Do not expire if they are unused.
- There are no refunds on unused tokens.
The price of a support issue/ticket depends upon the kind of issue and
the priority that the customer assigns to it. The possibilities
include:
| Informational: |
Informational tickets allow administrators to ask one or several
informational questions on a single topic. Response time is within 3 days.
Informational questions are designed to help administrators fill in the
gaps in their understanding of LuxSci software usage, services, or configuration.
Informational tickets are designed to supplement training sessions, not
take the place of them; questions covered in an informational support
ticket may be responded to with suggestions to take the respective
training class.
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| Billing-Related: |
Support tickets regarding billing questions related to payments
for services and for selected types of account upgrades. Examples include:
addition of DNS or domain registration services for a new domain,
provisioning or deprovisioning of Premium Email Filtering services for a
domain, ordering and installing an SSL certificate, asking questions about
a billing statement, making account upgrades or downgrades.
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| Standard Support: |
Ask LuxSci support staff to assist you with a single issue that
your staff is unable to resolve themselves. These types of requests usually
require some type of action or research to be done by LuxSci or are
informational questions to which you require an answer sooner, rather than
later. LuxSci guarantees that work will begin within 24 hours of the
request and will resolve it or have a plan for resolving it within 48
hours.
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| Urgent Support: |
LuxSci will begin working on the request within 4 business hours
and will resolve it or have a plan for resolving it within 24 hours.
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| Emergency Support: |
LuxSci will begin working on the request within 1 hour and will
resolve it or have a plan for resolving it within 4 hours. Emergency
support requests are limited to issues which are "mission critical".
Mission critical issues are defined as those which affect the ability of
your business to run or function on a minute-to-minute basis.
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*"Business Hours" are those between 9am and 11pm, Eastern Time USA.
Actual Token Cost Per Ticket
| Ticket Priority |
Dedicated Server Customers |
Platform Customers |
| Informational |
Free |
Free |
| Billing |
Free |
Free |
| Standard |
1 Token |
2 Tokens |
| Urgent |
3 Tokens |
5 Tokens |
| Emergency |
10 Tokens |
15 Tokens |
Platform customers have full administrative access to their servers and
software and are able to perform common (and perhaps even uncommon)
support tasks themselves. When they do have questions, these questions
are usually more complex and require higher-tiered support assistance or
more time to resolve than the support questions of a typical Dedicated
Server Customer. For these reasons, the cost of Platform support is
higher.
What happens if the designated time for the ticket response is not
met? In that case, the support ticket is free -- any Tokens used for it
are credited back to your account.
What is an Emergency?
LuxSci provides Emergency support 24/7, 365 days per year to both
Token-based and flat-rate customers. Emergency support is for "mission
critical" issues only. Some examples of issues that may be mission
critical include:
- Server or service failures that affect people in multiple locations
- Domain-wide or account-wide email interruptions that are not
due to circumstances such as domain registration expiration,
unexpected DNS
changes by third party DNS service providers, or misconfigurations.
- Restoring web sites or databases from backup
Some examples of issues that are not mission critical include:
- Configuration or setup of an individual user, web site, or domain
- Updating or resetting individual user service limits
- Restoring individual email folders, WebAides, or files from backup
- Recovering lost passwords
- General assistance with using any particular LuxSci software or
services.
- Network configuration, firewall, or routing issues specific to
one customer location or ISP.
Requests for emergency support which LuxSci determines are not "mission
critical" shall be demoted to "Urgent" priority.
Tokens: Examples of Free vs. Paid Support Issues
The following are common examples of issues that are either free or
which need tokens to be covered.
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Free Issues
- Questions about billing statements
- Account upgrades and downgrades
- Adding/removing DNS services for a domain
- Adding/removing Premium Email Filtering services for a domain
- Adding/removing Premium Email Archival services for a domain
- Asking general questions about the use of LuxSci software and services,
where a very prompt response is not needed.
- Issues involving actual violations of LuxSci's Service Level Agreements.
- Issues resulting from actual bugs in LuxSci's software or services.
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Token-required Issues
- Restores of data from backups
- Administrative assistance in creating or managing users,
web sites, databases, domains or other account components.
- Investigation of email routing or delivery issues
- Investigation of service issues that are not the result of an actual violation of
LuxSci's Service Level Agreements.
- Troubleshooting POP, IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, or WebMail issues
- Troubleshooting database, FTP, WebDAV, or web hosting issues
- Troubleshooting issues with email filters: premium or basic.
- Assistance with password reminders or recovery for non-administrative users
- Questions or issues of any kind where the response is required in a
short period of time.
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If an issue is created using tokens and it is determined that it is a
free issue, then those tokens will be credited back to your account.
LuxSci management is the final decision maker in all determinations as to
what is or is not "free support".
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Flat-rate support (for all users) is provided to all Shared Hosting
customers. It is also an option for Dedicated Server customers. There are
two types of flat-rate support:
Token-based technical support is an option for
customers using 
Price for Dedicated Server customers
