Virtual Imager Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 Good morning everyone! Those of us who live here in the forums already know what's expected of us if we experience a server issue. And we get really tired of hearing people who do not know the correct procedures ask questions that have been answered over and over again. But the fact is that some people do not live here. They come here only when they have a question and they do not want to read the entire forum to find their answer or even find the proper channels for posting or getting help. They just want to ask a question and get an answer. It's annoying, but it's a fact of life. In the server issues forum it is a particular problem because 1) Bill's post is way down at the bottom of the page, and 2) people are all excited because their websites (which perhaps constitute their livelihood) are on the blink. Their excitement (aka anger), along with the repetitiveness of the entire situation, also causes those charged with answering their questions to react in kind. Then you have an unhappy customer who is willing to post again and inform the entire world that you guys do not exactly rock. That's nonsense, of course, but not for him at that moment. I wonder if the following might help (and I know it involves an extra step for staff/mods, but maybe it will be worth it in terms of goodwill): When an issue needing a ticket is raised, the post should be emailed to the help desk. No one there really needs to do anything at that time though. Then the mod or other responder on the forum could post the following response: "I've forwarded your post to the Help Desk. In order to help you, they need more detailed information. I am providing you a link to facilitate getting your issue resolved as soon as possible, Please Click Here to fill in the requested information and submit your question to our technicians. One of them will immediately look into this and respond to you very shortly. Thank you for bringing this to our attention." I think that will keep any customer from feeling slighted, ignored, or insulted. They'll feel, instead, like action was taken immediately and you guys are all about helping him through his crisis. Just my $.02. VI Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 (edited) As I see it, there is 2 problems... 1) I wonder if emailing post can be done. (Havent checked that) 2) Wouldnt there be risk of a mess for the techs, one ticket/email from the mods with the forwarded post and then one with the requested info. I think about the work it will be for the techs to match those both tickets/emails. Edited September 9, 2004 by Jikrantz Quote
Virtual Imager Posted September 9, 2004 Author Posted September 9, 2004 Actually Thomas... they wouldn't need to be matched. Emailing the post to the help desk would only serve to make the customer feel that something was being done, action was being taken. In practice, the help desk would not do anything untill the ticket was received. As for your first item.... there's a button at the top of every thread that says "email this topic." I do it all the time. Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 I know about the email link but I thought it only sent the topic heading and a link, not the actual content. Quote
JesseD Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 I think that some issues could be avoided if the TCH support page were reorganized and reworded. It seems to me that it's misleading to people who are new to the forums. It lists the forums ahead of the Help Desk and says that you can find the support team here, which implies that it's a place you can get tech support from TCH. If I were having a problem and came upon the forums for the first time via the support page I would probably think that it was the preferred avenue for technical support, and not think twice about posting here instead of submitting a ticket. Quote
GroovyFish Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 I am curious, I don't know if this would be possible: When you click on a link to start a topic in the Server forum it gives a message that you don't have permission to start a topic. Someone that hasn't read the recent message from Bill wouldn't understand why they are not able to post a topic there. Maybe another message could be placed there instead like: This forum is only for Staff to announce server known issues, if you are having a server issue please enter a Help Desk ticket. Or something to that effect. That way, a customer would know right away what their next step is. It might keep someone from posting an issue in another (open) topic. Quote
Ninepatch Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 GF - good idea, if it's possible to modify the error message. Cooler still if a direct link to entering a ticket could be placed in the message. Even without a link, the instructions alone would be terrific put right in front of a user's nose. Thumbs Up You get the extra gold stars today! Quote
TCH-Dick Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 All good ideas, I'm doing some research to see if/how we can implement some of them. Quote
TCH-Rob Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 What about under each link where it says "Issues with server x will be posted here" We put instructions to open a ticket there as well for a start while looking into other options? Quote
woesap Posted September 10, 2004 Posted September 10, 2004 Cool, a family meeting Great initiative VI! I noticed that the replies from Bill (and others) were getting more irritated. Which is understandable. I'll await what gets implemented.... Keep up the good work Quote
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