Most often I am willing to pay a premium for a product or service that has excellent customer support. This is one (of many) reasons I buy Apple products. On a couple of occasions I have had a small issue with one of their products, I walk into a store, and they have immediately replaced it with a brand new product…it doesn’t get any better than that does it?
For the last several months I have been working on this web site as well as switching hosting providers. As I mentioned in, How We Got Here, I decided to use ExpressionEngine (EE) as the software that runs this site. Yes, there are plenty of free content management systems (CMS) out there and there is even a free version of EE, all which would have been capable of the task. However, I opted to pay the $99 for the personal license of EE.
Why in the world would I pay for something when I could get it for free? Well, I knew as easy as it was to use ExpressionEngine I would have the occasional question that I would rather ask someone about than to take the limited time I had to figure it out myself. This decision has most certainly paid for itself. I have already asked dozens of questions on EE’s support forum and have received prompt responses. Just yesterday one of the EE staff members took time out of his lunch break to log into my site and fix a problem because my hosting provider refused to help.
Which brings me to my rant about poor customer support. First a little background. I have been using WebHost4Life (WH4L) as my provider for years; first for all of my custom .NET web sites and then more recently a second (Linux) account for my PHP-based sites. My Microsoft account has always been top-notch: very little downtime, full control of my domains, and great customer support. However, my Linux account (which I believe they outsource) is absolutely horrible. Hours and hours and hours of downtime and urgent support tickets that go DAYS without being responded to…that is just inexcusable. Hence, the need for change. After reading this blog post and doing some quick research I chose AN Hosting. Granted, I didn’t do my normal, insane amount of research due to the fact that I wanted to get in on the Black Friday deal they had going. While AN Hosting is still light years ahead of WH4L’s Linux hosting, I still have a gripe. On day one of the transition I could not get my .htaccess rewrites to work…nothing complex, simply removing the unnecessary index.php from our URLs, which worked on WH4L. After many days of email exchanges they finally told me that their servers were configured differently than WH4L’s and that they were unable to assist customers with any software issues (including .htaccess). Even after explaining that THEY had the knowledge of their server configs and I did not, so how in the world was I suppose to fix the problem…they essentially said, tough. OK, maybe that is a bit harsh. There was one guy that did expend a BIT of effort, but got me no where. Again, it took someone from ExpressionEngine to say, “hey, I feel for you man…let me help you over my lunch hour”...and blam within minutes my nagging issue was solved.
It just so happens that EllisLab (parent company of EE) provide a hosting service as well, EngineHosting. I did look at it briefly before going with AN Hosting, but I decided NOT to pay the premium for their service…needless to say I won’t make that mistake again. After my contract is up with AN Hosting you can bet that I will be switching to EngineHosting. And why? SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT!
Note: In full disclosure the links to WebHost4Life and AN Hosting are linked to my affiliate account as some less demanding people will probably find their services just find and why not get a little something in return? Is that wrong?
There is no other consumer espresso machine that has a bigger customer base nor the cult following than the Rancilio Silvia (aka Miss Silvia). Just do a Google search on Rancilio Silvia or the more common name Miss Silvia and you will start to see what I mean. Arguably it is the best home espresso machine for the money. However, she can be a bit fussy at times.
In my previous post, Taming Rancilio Rocky, I mentioned how important the grinder is to making exceptional espressos. Another variable that is so very important is (consistent) brewing temperature…which Miss Silvia (out of the box) does not do very well on her own. Again, it’s possible to train Miss Silvia to behave so not all is lost. I have read dozens and dozens of in-depth tutorials on temerature surfing Miss Silvia, but I think most will be satisfied just following the simpler instructions in this video…
The key (at least for me) was to quickly let out some hot (steaming) water before pulling the shot. Very simple, quick step, but until I watched the video had no idea.
Like everything else to do with espresso there is A TON of information out there on frothing milk. Again, I think most will be just fine if they following the tips in the video below. However, if you have time and really won’t to be a frothing master I highly recommend you start here.
What surprised me in this step (other than the video abruptly ending) was to NOT let the orange “not ready” light go out when frothing milk.
If that is not enough for you, below is some bonus material that you may or may not find useful, but since I found them, I will share them.
Well, I think that about covers it. If you’ve made it this far maybe you now realize (like I did) that few will ever truly be espresso experts, but it sure is a fun journey!
As I stated in my previous post, I no longer possess Miss Silvia and Rocky…however, I still have plenty of friends that do own the duo so I wanted to share the knowledge I have gained in the last few years with them. First, I have to admit that I have learned more in the last month than I had in the past few years all because of one phenomenon: YouTube. So I will pass on my knowledge by using both videos that I have found along with some color commentary. Let’s get started.
Like speakers to an audiophile, the grinder is to a barista…I never realized that the grinder was the most important component. I read many fantastic articles, discussion threads, and reviews, but if you want to just read one, read this one from Home-Barista.com: Feature Spotlight on Espresso Grinders. One point I would like to share from the article:
...serious espresso fans emphatically agree on one point: The coffee grinder is a key factor separating ordinary espresso from the extraordinary.
If you are like me, this was a bit surprising. While I never wanted a cheap grinder, I didn’t realize it was more important than the espresso machine. The Rocky is a great grinder, not one of the top ones for the home barista, but not far away either. But fear not, with one simple trick you can give your Rocky a little help that will really improve your espressos…just watch this video.
Trust me, try this trick. As you are getting coffee grounds into your portafilter, mix it up a bit with chopsticks (or similar) and you will notice a positive difference in your shots. I was completely amazed when I first did this.
Next up, Taming Rancilio Silvia (aka Miss Silvia)
