Support on the forums is too slow

[openfire]

As the topics suggests.

If I post an issue at 6:00 am, and a staff member answers at 6:00pm (12 hours later) and I have a follow up question, do I really want to wait until 6:00pm the next day, another 24 hours?

I'm on my 3rd day now trying to resolve what should be a simple issue.

This is frustrating to no end, and should be addressed. I came to IPS because people on the Vbulletin boards are raving that IPS "listens" to their customers... Please beef up your forum support as it is badly needed.

A staff member mentioned that IPS has hired additional forum staff for forum tech support... I don't see it. It's now 11:00am and I see no staff answering questions in the forum at all.

[AndyF]

Which topics are you having issues with ? :)

A quick search for topics you started with no replies shows me one you started about 3 hours ago and an older one (but this one requires a custom modification writing to accomplish what you require, and you have posted it into the correct Modification Requests forum)

Although the currently 3 hours old topic is partly related to Wordpress too. I shall post some basic idea's into it to assist you though.

[openfire]

Although the currently 3 hours old topic is partly related to Wordpress too. I shall post some basic idea's into it to assist you though.

Fantastic. That would be greatly appreciated!

[AndyF]

Fantastic. That would be greatly appreciated!

Be aware though, Resource are not 'staff' , but I try to help where I can. :)

[Robulosity2]

As the topics suggests.

If I post an issue at 6:00 am, and a staff member answers at 6:00pm (12 hours later) and I have a follow up question, do I really want to wait until 6:00pm the next day, another 24 hours?

I'm on my 3rd day now trying to resolve what should be a simple issue.

This is frustrating to no end, and should be addressed. I came to IPS because people on the Vbulletin boards are raving that IPS "listens" to their customers... Please beef up your forum support as it is badly needed.

A staff member mentioned that IPS has hired additional forum staff for forum tech support... I don't see it. It's now 11:00am and I see no staff answering questions in the forum at all.

Additionally, if the response time is within Published SLO/SLA... IP.Board is keeping their support commitments. Unfortunately you are not their only customer, so they do need to provide support in order of Priority & License type and order of submission.

[Lindy]

As the topics suggests.

If I post an issue at 6:00 am, and a staff member answers at 6:00pm (12 hours later) and I have a follow up question, do I really want to wait until 6:00pm the next day, another 24 hours?

I'm on my 3rd day now trying to resolve what should be a simple issue.

This is frustrating to no end, and should be addressed. I came to IPS because people on the Vbulletin boards are raving that IPS "listens" to their customers... Please beef up your forum support as it is badly needed.

A staff member mentioned that IPS has hired additional forum staff for forum tech support... I don't see it. It's now 11:00am and I see no staff answering questions in the forum at all.

If I may, what is your ideal response time? Unless I'm missing another instance, it appears that you submitted the support topic and then 3 hours later started a topic complaining that forum support is too slow. I understand you were anxious to receive a reply, but I feel expectations must be somewhat realistic.

Forum support is new - we're making adjustments as necessary. Also note that it is not a guaranteed method of support - it's simply another layer of support for basic questions and issues.

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. Hopefully we'll be able to better meet your expectations in the future.

[Collin S.]

One thing to keep in mind about the new forum support is that we aren't "Technicians" - We do not have access to your account, cannot directly diagnose on your board, and aren't able to provide support for system modifications or 3rd party addons. It's a bit different from ticket based support. :thumbsup: Things that require a tech to look at files will usually require a ticket.

[openfire]

If I may, what is your ideal response time? Unless I'm missing another instance, it appears that you submitted the support topic and then 3 hours later started a topic complaining that forum support is too slow. I understand you were anxious to receive a reply, but I feel expectations must be somewhat realistic.

Forum support is new - we're making adjustments as necessary. Also note that it is not a guaranteed method of support - it's simply another layer of support for basic questions and issues.

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. Hopefully we'll be able to better meet your expectations in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to address my concern.

I wasn't "complaining that forum support is too slow", I was giving you customer feedback.

Just so you're aware and to be perfectly clear, I posted my feedback regarding slow support on the 3rd day of trying to find a solution to the same issue via your support forums. It's not as though I posted a question for the very first time and then came out guns blazing 3 hours later. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Please forgive my insensitivity, as I am a new IPS customer who just started posting here 3 days ago, and so I was completely unaware that your forum support is new and still making adjustments. I will definitely be mindful of this in the future.

In any event, my problem has been solved and you now have my feedback for what it's worth.

I look forward to enjoying your top-notch software for years to come.

Cheers

[bfarber]

For what it's worth, official support is guaranteed only through the client center ticket system, with an SLA of 2 business days (with a standard license type).

(I'm not directing this to the OP, but rather anyone else that may stumble across this topic)

[TCWT]

How many tech support people work on weekends? I'm planning to do the upgrade at around 2am EST on a saturday. I might need some help if the upgrade fails for whatever reason. :unsure:

[Collin S.]

How many tech support people work on weekends? I'm planning to do the upgrade at around 2am EST on a saturday. I might need some help if the upgrade fails for whatever reason. :unsure:

The client center support is staffed 24x7 :thumbsup:

[openfire]

Is it normal to not hear from support for 5 days after the initial ticket was opened? Yes, I had a response from support the same day, but the problem was not fixed as the tech was unable to track the problem and needed to forward it to another team...and I've heard nothing in the 5 days since. Maybe the ticket was lost in the pile somehow? Should I open a new ticket?

[Collin S.]

Is it normal to not hear from support for 5 days after the initial ticket was opened? Yes, I had a response from support the same day, but the problem was not fixed as the tech was unable to track the problem and needed to forward it to another team...and I've heard nothing in the 5 days since. Maybe the ticket was lost in the pile somehow? Should I open a new ticket?

Don't worry, tickets don't get "Lost in the pile". :thumbsup:
As you said, it was forwarded to the developer or Tier II team who will need to investigate the cause and fix. Please also remember that IPS's offices were closed the last 3 days in observance of a holiday, so there may be a backlog. If you post your ticket number here, I'm sure someone can shed some light on the situation

[openfire]

Don't worry, tickets don't get "Lost in the pile". :thumbsup:

As you said, it was forwarded to the developer or Tier II team who will need to investigate the cause and fix. Please also remember that IPS's offices were closed the last 3 days in observance of a holiday, so there may be a backlog. If you post your ticket number here, I'm sure someone can shed some light on the situation

Ah OK, never mind. If you were closed for 3 days for the long weekend, then the delay is totally understandable. That's what I had initially assumed had caused the long delay, but then I happened to notice that someone had mentioned earlier in the thread that support was 24/7 even over the weekends.

No problem, I'll wait for tech guys to clear the long weekend back-log. :thumbsup:

[Collin S.]

Ah OK, never mind. If you were closed for 3 days for the long weekend, then the delay is totally understandable. That's what I had initially assumed had caused the long delay, but then I happened to notice that someone had mentioned earlier in the thread that support was 24/7 even over the weekends.

No problem, I'll wait for tech guys to clear the long weekend back-log. :thumbsup:

Basic support (level 1) is more or less staffed around the clock. However, Tier II is assigned to specific developers who usually only answer tickets during working hours. Not all of the techs know the inner workings of IP.Nexus, for example. So if a ticket was submitted with a bug of Nexus, it would need to wait on Mark for a reply. And he could be out of town the week that was submitted. Catch my drift?

But no worries - I'm sure it will be looked at ASAP! :thumbsup: Sorry for the delay.

[openfire]

Yes, it's a tier 2 issue (must be dealt with by the guys who wrote the converter scripts). Thanks for clearing that up. No worries at all.

[.Ian]

Please also remember that IPS's offices were closed the last 3 days in observance of a holiday, so there may be a backlog. If you post your ticket number here, I'm sure someone can shed some light on the situation

Might be an idea to post closure times on the website, as not everyone is aware of USA holiday dates.

Might save complaints.

[Guest]

Might be an idea to post closure times on the website, as not everyone is aware of USA holiday dates.

Might save complaints.

The closure was posted at the top of our contact page. It may make sense to also have future ones on our homepage.

[AtariAge]

Regarding forum support, I started a topic a week ago asking for help on how to resolve a cache issue without access to the ACP and received a response from an Invision staff member within an hour that solved my problem:

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/320388-need-help-clearing-board-cache-without-acp/

Of course, this was during the middle of the day, but looking at this thread you can see various staff members posting at non-normal US business hours (Dan's post before mine was posted at 3am CST, for instance). From what I've seen here on the forum, staff do appear to be more aggressive in responding to support-related topics.

..Al

[Collin S.]

Regarding forum support, I started a topic a week ago asking for help on how to resolve a cache issue without access to the ACP and received a response from an Invision staff member within an hour that solved my problem:

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/320388-need-help-clearing-board-cache-without-acp/

Of course, this was during the middle of the day, but looking at this thread you can see various staff members posting at non-normal US business hours (Dan's post before mine was posted at 3am CST, for instance). From what I've seen here on the forum, staff do appear to be more aggressive in responding to support-related topics.

..Al

I'd like to point out the one key difference between Forum support and Ticket support - On the forum, anything that requires us logging into your board or modifying a file cannot be accomplished. For anything that need a tech's eyes on your board, it'll need a ticket. We aren't able to pull up account details on the forums, so not everything can be solved right away. However, for "lighter" support requests, the forum usually has a faster reply time. :thumbsup: