Automated support response

[svit]

Hello,

I would like to take this opportunity to mention one item which has been on my mind for a long time now and which I feel should be improved. The automated responses on Client's tickets. 

When a problem occurs on my presentation, usually after an upgrade, it is always an emergency, it may be that some hook stops displaying, or some links are missing etc. In such a case I raise a ticket immediately. Sometimes, due to the different time zones and when my tickets reaches the weekend, after 2 days of waiting a get a response. Guess what does the response say: "..thank you very much for you ticket.. and please make sure you have run the automatic repair utility in the ACP.. make sure you have provided the login credentials.." I have to admit I find this extremely disrespectful to the nature of the problem and to me as a Client. Please note, that the same text is already displayed to me when I am submitting the ticket and as such is completely useless. All I am left to do in such a case is to respond, that yes, I have run the tests and I haven't changed the credentials stored in the Client's area, and please proceed with addressing the problem. After another day someone from the support team starts actually working.

I strongly recommend this practice is abandoned asap, I have discussed it with other admins, and it is not only me who feels it is disrespectful. If it is so important for you, the Helpdesk team, to know that we have done the tests etc., please leave a tick on field which we can tick prior to sending my tickets. Shortening the support response time is our utmost priority and should be yours as well.

Hope this can be improved.

[Morrigan]

While I understand your plight I also understand this from the IPS standpoint as well. While it may seem disrespectful to advanced administrators such as you or myself it is not redundant to help you it's redundant to assist with people that may not know these things exist and clicked through to create a ticket.

Working in tech support myself, I know that redundancy is key. I have had to explain the same exact thing to 1 person in 15 different ways in the course of a twenty minute call because the "Have you done this" or "this is your problem" didn't make sense or get through to them the first time. Or things like "I can't access this one site so it must be my internet" is the answer to all questions instead of troubleshooting and determining it's an issue with the host/server.

Not all administrators that submit tickets are like you or I and know to run all of the troubleshooting and make sure that things are done before we submit that ticket. I'm sure that they are inundated with people that didn't know to run the support tool or "forgot".

[svit]

As I said, it can be solved by a tick box, and no time would be wasted.

As far as I remember for all the 10 or so years I am using IPS products, this was never required nor have I come across automated messages of this kind on any hot line helpdesks I am using.

[Woodsman]

Understanding what you are saying and feeling I have to agree with Morrigan. Even with a tick system you will still have those that will tick it in panic or expect tech support to jump for them at the drop of the hat. Then fold the proverbial page thinking it will be the shortest path from A to Z. Not everyone knows how to trouble shoot like those of us that have been around for some time. This method geared for those with less experience and patients while the rest get caught in the shuffle. As we can remember from the past with 3.0 the support tickets rose to a point where the tickets were gotten to much later than the intended 2 business days max. So I don't believe this automated system is really designed to be disrespectful but more of a sane method to weed out the easily fixed issues using the support tool leaving tech support the more in-depth issues.

[Lindy]

I'm really sorry for the frustration and completely agree with your assessment. That is actually not an automated response, which makes it even more frustrating to me. 

I'll be following up on this internally and improving our policy. Further, I agree with your suggestion on a checkbox. I can't promise there will not be any redundancy through the process as frankly, in spite of the big warnings, checkboxes, etc. we already have in place - 1 in 3 don't provide access information or appropriate details. We don't like our time being spent on gathering details that should have been provided with the original support request and likewise, I certainly wouldn't expect you to be happy waiting 24-48 hours only to get a reply suggesting that you do something you've already done. 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - I'm on it.

[darmok1]

So happy someone brought this up! I was feeling the same way. I have a ticket that's currently being worked on for the past week or so, and most of it was spent with what I considered "automated responses" for me to run this or run that, not actually getting anywhere. It has been a very disappointing support experience since the upgrade. I felt like no one has actually been reading my responses, as I just keep getting asked the same questions/told the same thing.

It seems like people just want to reply to a ticket now as quick as possible without doing any kind of investigation or troubleshooting of their own.

Very happy to hear you'll be looking into this Lindy!