I have questions about unRaid

[guiri]

Guys, I'm interested in buying an unRaid but I have questions and they will hardly be answered here because I have a really hard time with written instructions.

 

Is there a phone number I can call the unraid people at or is there someone here that wouldn't mind talking to me over the phone (you can call or I can call) to answer a few questions?

 

I currently have  ReadyNAS NV+ but I'm looking for something else.

 

Thanks

 

George

[Rajahal]

This is an odd request.  I can answer some general questions about unRAID (its function, how to set it up, different add-on options, etc.), but I don't know much of the technical nitty gritty.  If you think I can answer your questions, PM me your phone number (to PM me, click the small chat icon under my name).

[guiri]

Yeah, if you knew how bad I am at reading instructions, you would know why 

 

PM sent, thanks

 

George

[guiri]

Thanks for the help brother Rajahal

 

George

[Rajahal]

My pleasure.

[guiri]

Now, if the Lime people got a support phone number, I would strongly consider one of these units. I like what I see but I'm way too stupid to do one without phone support 'cause I KNOW I'm gonna need help and I know I can't handle the written instructions in the forum so people at Lime, if you ever get a phone one can call for questions, please email me as I AM interested.

 

Thanks and thanks again bro

 

George

[William]

Now, if the Lime people got a support phone number, I would strongly consider one of these units. I like what I see but I'm way too stupid to do one without phone support 'cause I KNOW I'm gonna need help and I know I can't handle the written instructions in the forum so people at Lime, if you ever get a phone one can call for questions, please email me as I AM interested.

 

Thanks and thanks again bro

 

George

I may be wrong but I think Lime Technology is more of a part time one man (maybe a few others) garage company born and run out of passion.  I don't see Lime Tech as having the resources, demand or desire for a phone support center.

[guiri]

Yeah, I just threw it out there to show that there is at least ONE customer that is interested. You know, maybe some others will show interest enough to warrant some kind of phone number. As it is, I'm too damn stupid to do this without phone support. I hate to admit it but hey, the truth hurts 

[Rajahal]

My conversations with guiri have gotten me thinking, perhaps a few of us forums members could band together and start our own 'unofficial' unRAID phone support network, with Tom's blessing of course.  I would be more than willing to participate, or even head the project, if there's enough support.  Obviously, the phone support would be geared towards 'appliance' type users who are attracted to easy-to-use solutions like Drobo, and not towards the do-it-yourselfers who are more commonly attracted to unRAID.  The forums and the wiki already offer a staggering amount of information and support for unRAID, but there are always going to be some users whose time is too valuable to do the research necessary.  Its these type of users to whom I would like to cater.

 

My only caveat with this idea is that I would need to charge money for this service.  My time is too valuable to do phone support work for free.  I generally charge $50/hour for any computer-type work, and I don't see any reason to make an exception here.  Considering that most unRAID maintenance (replacing a dead hard drive, changing settings, etc.) could be done in 30 mins or less, I think this is a very reasonable price.

 

Another, possibly related, thought I had was to make a series of video walkthrough/tutorials for basic unRAID maintenance.  It seems to me that most basic unRAID operations shouldn't even require phone support, as long as the user is willing to follow along with a video's verbal and visual instructions.  I haven't yet decided if these videos should be part of a 'for hire' unRAID support service, or if they should be freely available to the community, like the forums and wiki are now.

 

What are your thoughts, fellow unRAID users?

[prostuff1]

I like both ideas personally... but... we need Tom to chime in on this.  He has been noticeably absent for a while now on the forum and there has not been any update as to the status of the 4.5 beta runs.  The community is one of the strong points when it comes to unRAID.  I think the videos are a great idea.  Perhaps releasing some of the videos for free while charging for others is a way to go.

 

that’s just some quick thought and probably needs to be better thought out, but I will leave that for later.

[WeeboTech]

My only caveat with this idea is that I would need to charge money for this service.  My time is too valuable to do phone support work for free.  I generally charge $50/hour for any computer-type work, and I don't see any reason to make an exception here.  Considering that most unRAID maintenance (replacing a dead hard drive, changing settings, etc.) could be done in 30 mins or less, I think this is a very reasonable price.

 

I think that is steep for phone support.

$20/hour with a minimum of $20 per incident is a little more in line for help desk type support.

If there is custom programming involved then this jumps from $25 to $100 an hour.

 

If you were walking into someone's home to build a server and provide complete turnkey setup and support, that's a different story.

These range from $25/hour to $150/hour.

 

 

Another, possibly related, thought I had was to make a series of video walkthrough/tutorials for basic unRAID maintenance.  It seems to me that most basic unRAID operations shouldn't even require phone support, as long as the user is willing to follow along with a video's verbal and visual instructions.  I haven't yet decided if these videos should be part of a 'for hire' unRAID support service, or if they should be freely available to the community, like the forums and wiki are now.

 

This is a nice idea. my thoughts are, It should be funded by limetech or given to the community in lieu of support you get from free limetech updates and/or free community support.

Everyone goes through the cycle of requesting support and contributing support. One of the purposes of the online manual & Wiki is to present answers to the most common questions so people can tackle the newer situations without wasting time on common situations.

[Rajahal]

Perhaps releasing some of the videos for free while charging for others is a way to go.

 

I think that is a great idea.  Video tutorials for the most basic unRAID maintenance, such as replacing a dead hard drive, could be free, whereas more involved video tutorials, such as configuring unRAID as a torrent server, or setting user-level security, etc. could be available for a reasonable fee (maybe $10 - $20 each?).

 

Or, perhaps all 'official' unRAID operations should have free videos, and only videos for the user-contributed add-ons (BubbaRAID, unMenu, etc.) should cost money.  Just ideas.

 

My only caveat with this idea is that I would need to charge money for this service.  My time is too valuable to do phone support work for free.  I generally charge $50/hour for any computer-type work, and I don't see any reason to make an exception here.  Considering that most unRAID maintenance (replacing a dead hard drive, changing settings, etc.) could be done in 30 mins or less, I think this is a very reasonable price.

 

I think that is steep for phone support.

$20/hour with a minimum of $20 per incident is a little more in line for help desk type support.

If there is custom programming involved then this jumps from $25 to $100 an hour.

 

You may be right, but I'm just saying outright that I won't work for less than $50/hour.  However, I'm willing to break it down into 15 minute segments and enforce only a 30 minute minimum, like this:

30 minutes or less = $25.00

30 - 45 minutes = $37.50

45 mins - 1 hour = $50

1 hr - 1 hr 15 mins = $62.50

...and so on.  So most customers would be able to get away with paying only $25 for 30 mins of phone support.  Considering the specialized nature of unRAID, I think this is quite reasonable.  But hey, if someone wants to lowball me, I have no right nor method of stopping them.

 

I also justify the somewhat higher costs (at least to myself) like this: we phone support techs aren't some massive company that can outsource all their help desk personnel to India.  We are individuals who have put our own time, money, and effort into learning about unRAID and how to support it.  The higher costs of our services reflect the quality of indiviualized support we can offer....we aren't just reading scripts off a screen, we are actual users of the product, and can answer many questions that may arise even during the most banal of unRAID operations.  I think many potential phone support customers will appreciate talking to people who are helpful and intelligible, not just dumbly reading text on a screen, and they will be more than happy to pay the extra premium for the individualized support.

 

Another, possibly related, thought I had was to make a series of video walkthrough/tutorials for basic unRAID maintenance.  It seems to me that most basic unRAID operations shouldn't even require phone support, as long as the user is willing to follow along with a video's verbal and visual instructions.  I haven't yet decided if these videos should be part of a 'for hire' unRAID support service, or if they should be freely available to the community, like the forums and wiki are now.

 

This is a nice idea. my thoughts are, It should be funded by limetech or given to the community in lieu of support you get from free limetech updates and/or free community support.

 

I agree that ideally the videos would be financially supported by LimeTech.  However, realistically, I don't see LimeTech having the resources for this kind of endeavor, so that's why I'm pitching charging a small fee for access to the videos to compensate those who put their own time, money, and effort into creating them.

[WeeboTech]

This seems like a justification to charge more.

We are individuals who have put our own time, money, and effort into learning about unRAID and how to support it "to use it."

There are users and programmers here who do what they do because they love it. They've learned and can help.

 

I've always felt some forum members should get a kickback from limetech for the outstanding free support they give on the forum.  One of the reasons they are able to do this is because limetech pays for the forum and people gather here to communicate, contribute and request support.

 

I think paid personal support is a nice idea. Just not at level suggested.

Most places I've seen is based on incident and/or a very reasonable hourly rate.

I'm talking phone technical Advice/Support.

On site support is something different and usually is based on minimum incident cost plus an hourly rate.

 

I would really like to see what other people think about this type of support and rate.

Maybe I'll jump into the fray