Now, working in both a development and support function, I can appreciate that everyone is busy and that trying to debug faults in my application isn't the job of support. However, I do get a little tired of the support process going like this:
But it's the next request that often follows - "Please supply example project" that is sometimes irksome. It's going to take me several hours to try and and build a sample standalone project and at the end of that, it's not guaranteed I'll be able to reproduce the fault. It could be that it only happens in a very specific situation that a sample project can never reproduce. I once had to resort to sending you a complete VM so you could see the fault as when stripped down to basics, it didn't happen. It turned out in that case to be a localisation bug.
In situations like this, it would be preferable to discuss the problem conceptually with the developer. Wearing my development hat, the support people here often go "Can you think of any reason why XYZ should happen?". As I know the code and they don't, it's often very easy for me to glance down the code and go "Ahh, yes - that could happen if XYZ".
So the plea is to not always bounce the support call straight back at me. I'm not in the habit of making up issues just for the hell of it :-)
Cheers, Rob,
PS. The DELETE key doesn't work in this editor. Backspace is fine.
I am so in agreement with Rob!! As a priority spport customer, I hate to get the run around when trying to solve a problem. Tell you the truth, I hate using the support all together. The reason we call tech support is cause we have an issue implementing your tool with our existing app, not a skeleton app. To date, I think tech spt has helped me resolve just one of my issues (it was really a hack, hard coded the spell checker id). I would never recommend this suite just becasue of the support. I currently have an issue, lets see how this gets resolved...I swear I want a refund sometimes!!!!
ustesgreenridge said: I hate to get the run around when trying to solve a problem. Tell you the truth, I hate using the support all together.
I hate to get the run around when trying to solve a problem. Tell you the truth, I hate using the support all together.
Things like this annoy as well:
Hello,
Hope you are doing well. (what?? you want to know about the pain in my neck?) I was wondering if you need further assistance on this case. We have not heard back from your side for the last three days.
So how come we have to wait months for a resolution but you expect us to respond to your messages within 3 days? Another sign of an out-sourced support function where one of the metrics is getting jobs signed off ASAP.
Cheers, Rob.
I should mention that I'm a priority support customer too - but I wouldn't recommend it as it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference for reporting bugs (which is all I use support for). It does provide access to "live chat" but all they do here is file a request with the contents of the chat, and it gets dealt with in the usual way! There's also telephone support but I find technical issues are best written down.
> Another sign of an out-sourced support function where one of the metrics is getting jobs signed off ASAP.
I've had the same thought before. I had a request which had an associated development issue, and I prefer to keep these open until the development issue has been fixed so that the request doesn't get lost among my collection of closed ones. However, the support engineer insisted that the request should be closed since their job was done (even though from my point of view the request was far from complete). Eventually they had the cheek tell me they would be closing it, and promptly did so! I wondered if this engineer had a target to meet.
There's a noticable lack of recent replies from Infragistics on this thread. Where are you?
Hello Jonathan / All,
I am available to speak to you about your thoughts on Support. We are always open to suggestions and comments. It is the goal of support to assist in the most efficient way possible. Having a sample allows us to have an isolated example, most developers can do this easily - therefore this allows us to get a resolution to you faster. If this is not the case, we have other methods (one mentioned above). We also are researching a tool that will come with our controls to help in this very senario.
We take all of the feedback we are given seriously. I have given my email in the first response that I responded to. I am always here for you. You can speak to me directly on your cases anytime.
In case you missed it, please email DSManager@infragistics.com.
Thank you,
Stephani Dowd
Stephani "]I am available to speak to you about your thoughts on Support.
Hi Stephani,
I'm sure you're aware that I've e-mailed you before about problems with Infragistics support. While you have escalated particular issues that I have mentioned and ensured that these are resolved, the tedious support process never changes.
Perhaps you will be able to make some changes based on the comments made in this thread.
Thanks,Jon
Hi Jonathan,
Yes, we have resolved some issues for you. If you or anyone ever has a deadline, the Developer Support Engineer can work with you on meeting that. Our customers can attest to that. All of our processes are made with you, (our customers) in mind.
All feedback is taken, reviewed and acted upon. There have been changes made based on past feedback, and we continue to listen and make changes to benefit our customer base. One being the solution we are working on for helping you debug.
I am happy to speak with you anytime - and can call you if you want. We can discuss our changes and anything you have to offer.
Thanks again,
Stephani
Hi Rob,
This is by no means typical and should not be expected. I have sent you seperate emails to discuss this if you wish to talk about this or anything else.
Again - you can always reach me at DSManager@infragistics.com.
Sincerely,
>I have duplicated your issue and will submit it for bug report review..
Time for a party!! Except a) this issue was raised on 4th April - yes, that's THREE months ago and b) I'm only at the stage I expected to be three months ago.
I have also requested support on several occasions and to date, have not had a resolution or workaround. I am too busy meeting my deadlines to waste my time with a support group that doesn't give me answers. I no longer use your controls because of that.
At this office we don't have time to wait for a fix and we are not allowed to send out our code (to anyone), we need resolutions quickly as we do work on serious deadlines. Every project we undertake has a deadline and we had hoped your tools would assist in meeting those deadlines. That has not proven to be the case. As, I'm sure you know, in our industry timely and knowledgeable support, we can't justify using your tools or services.
I am the one that recommended Infragistics controls for our company and I am now recommending we not renew or agreement with Infragistics. It's faster, for us, to write my own controls than wait for a resolution from Infragistics, which often doesn't come.
Jim