Support

A ticket that reaches someone who can read the logs

There is no outsourced first line here working from a script. The person who replies to you can log into the server your site is on, which is why the first response is usually an answer rather than a request for more information you have already given.

Where each kind of request should go

Sending it to the right place is the single biggest factor in how quickly you get a useful answer.

Something is broken

Client area, marked urgent

Site down, email failing, suspected compromise. Urgent tickets jump the queue and are worked on around the clock.

Open a ticket

A general question

Client area, standard

Configuration help, how something works, a change you want made. Answered in order, usually well within a day.

Open a ticket

Not a customer yet

Contact page

Sizing questions, migrations, anything you want settled before spending money. Same working day in almost all cases.

Ask a question

Billing or invoices

billing@hostelevate.com

Payment issues, invoice queries, cancellations. No retention pitch if you are leaving — we will just process it.

Email billing

Getting a fast answer

What to put in the ticket

Most slow support threads are slow because the first message was missing something, and every round trip costs hours. Six lines here usually saves a day.

The exact domain
Not "my site" — the full domain, including whether it is the www version or a subdomain. Accounts often hold several.
What you did
The steps that led to the problem, in order. "It broke" is a symptom; "it broke after I updated the theme" is a starting point.
What you expected
Sometimes the behaviour is correct and the expectation was different. Knowing both tells us which one to address.
The actual error text
A screenshot or a copy-paste of the exact message. A paraphrase loses the part that identifies the cause.
When it started
Roughly when it began and whether it is constant or intermittent. That narrows the logs from days to minutes.
Anything you already tried
So we do not repeat it. This alone often saves a full round trip.

If you are not sure what is relevant, send too much rather than too little. We would far rather read a long ticket than ask four questions to get to the same place.

How support works here

The practical answers about getting help.

A site that is down, email that is not delivering or arriving, a suspected compromise, or anything actively losing you money. Mark the ticket urgent and it moves ahead of general questions. Please do not mark routine requests urgent — the queue only works if the flag means something.
Open the ticket from the client area rather than emailing, so it arrives with your account and server attached. Include the exact domain, what you did, what you expected and what happened instead. Screenshots of error messages help enormously; descriptions of error messages rarely do.
Within reason, yes. A broken plugin or a DNS record at another provider is not our responsibility, but if we can see the problem and fix it in a few minutes we generally will. For anything substantial we will tell you what is wrong and quote if you want us to do it.
Someone who can log into the server your site is on. There is no outsourced first line working from a decision tree, which is why the first reply is usually an answer rather than a request to try turning it off and on again.
For custom builds, larger accounts and migrations we will arrange a call. For most technical issues written support is genuinely better — it leaves a record, it reaches whoever is best placed to answer, and nothing gets lost in a verbal description of an error message.
Pre-sales questions go through the contact page and are usually answered the same working day. Ask before you buy — that conversation is more useful to both of us than a refund later.

Sizing a server is easier with someone who has done it before. Tell us what you are running and we will suggest a size — including a smaller one, if that is the honest answer.

Ask before you buy