I've been using Softlayer as my server provider since 2006, back when they were The Planet. And I've always been exceptionally happy! Rarely did I have any server problems, I had a sales rep that I could work with regularly to get the best price, and when I did have an issue their tech support has always been fast and helpful. Average response time from tech support has always been about 30 minutes.

But recently they changed... something. I don't know if they were bought out by IBM or what, but everything took a HUGE downturn!

I'm currently having a software issue, not super urgent still pretty important. I submitted a ticket at 10pm last night, and in that ticket I pointed out that I have a specialized port number for them to use when SSHing in.

Three hours later, I received an auto-reply.

Another hour later, I got another auto-reply that the ticket had been assigned to someone, but it didn't seem as if English was the writer's first language.

Two hours later (now 6 hours after I submitted the ticket), I received a reply that they couldn't SSH in to the standard port (remember that I gave the correct port when submitting the ticket), then pasted in "possible solutions" that had nothing to do with the problem at all.

So now here I sit, 17 hours after submitting the ticket, and I haven't had anything close to actual help.

If this is the new standard then when it comes time to upgrade to a new server later this year, I'm going to be shopping around :-(