One of the vendors we deal with has the type of support system where when customers have issues, they call in to open a case, upload logs, and wait for a return call. Their stated policy is that critical issues will receive a call back within one hour, and non-critical issues will receive a call back within four hours.
I used to have problems getting responses. I complained to various people up the chain and told them that if this keeps happening, I want a steep discount on our annual support fees, because what we're paying for, we're not getting. I got an escalation path for issues where I have trouble, including an email address that alerts the Blackberry of a district manager, and I got a promise that things would get better. Surprisingly, things have been better since then, and they've been in compliance with their stated policy.
So yesterday, I had to open a ticket for a non-critical issue. I got a call back within the four hours, but I was on another call at the time, and I asked the gentleman if I could call him back. He gave me his direct number. I finished my call, called him back, and left a voice mail. This was late afternoon, yesterday.
As of 2pm today, over 20 hours later (we pay for 24/7 support), I had not received a call back. No voice mail, no email, nothing. I called back and they told me that everyone was busy, and I would receive a call back shortly.
I did receive the call shortly afterward, from the same person who called me yesterday, and for whom I had left voice mail. I asked him if he received my voice mail yesterday, and he said yes, but he didn't offer any reason as to why he had not called me back or emailed or anything. And he had not yet reviewed the logs. I dropped the issue, we went on with troubleshooting, and he fixed my problem rather quickly. He was polite, knowledgeable, and efficient, and expedient.
If you were in my situation, would you complain about the fact that 20+ hours had gone by with no response and no review of the logs that had been uploaded? |
