Uploads to support cases after case clusure

[Frank Muffke]

Hi

just got the info in a follow up case:
I am not able to the the attachments from the old cases (they mayhave been removed after closure).

looked into some closed cases - the uploads are not available there.

I am curious if this is a bug or a feature ?

cheers, Wolfgang

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Support Info:
if you are using one of the latest version of UC4 / AWA / One Automation please get in contact with Support to open a ticket.
Otherwise update/upgrade your system and check if the problem still exists.
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[Carsten Schmitz]

Hey Wolfgang.

You might want to post that one to Watercooler​ or Customer Care for a better chance at one of the Broadcom ppl picking it up.

Best,
Carsten

[Diane Craddock]

Hello Wolfgang,

For security reasons, we do remove attachments 30 days after closure.  Have these cases been closed over 30 days?

Thanks
Diane

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Diane Craddock
Community Manager, Broadcom Enterprise Software Division
Broadcom Inc.
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[Carsten Schmitz]

Hi Diane,

Apologies for interjecting in Wolfgang's thread, but this worries me. Because in the past we had tickets closed aggressively and then had to revisit them, and in some instances that took longer than 30 days. Previously and in response to customer backlash over the SalesForce migration back then, Automic promised to keep tickets available for review for, I believe, six months?

What security threat do attachments that are already stored on your servers represent beyond 30 days, and can that possibly be reconsidered to a more customer focussed stance once more?

Thanks!

[Diane Craddock]

Hello Carsten and Wolfgang,

This is not a new policy and not just because we have a new ticketing system.  This is our standard practice when holding on to customer data.  Not necessarily a security risk, more about holding on to customer data for too long.

Thanks
Diane

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Diane Craddock
Community Manager, Broadcom Enterprise Software Division
Broadcom Inc.
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[Frank Muffke]

Hi 

not the most customer-friendly behavior.

Especially when creating a follow up because the previous one was "suddenly" closed and the support agent did forget everything about the old case and seems to have no possibility to search in the ticket system....

kr Wolfgang

------------------------------
Support Info:
if you are using one of the latest version of UC4 / AWA / One Automation please get in contact with Support to open a ticket.
Otherwise update/upgrade your system and check if the problem still exists.
------------------------------

[Carsten Schmitz]

​I concur, this is not customer focused at all.

Just a few minutes ago, a ticket has been closed on an undisputed software bug. Broadcom has not said when they will fix the bug (only that it will happen at some unspecified time in the future). Broadcom has not told me a bug tracker ID (even though they said they would). But I have been told that I can open a new ticket at any time to inquire on the status of the bug. For any interrested insider parties, that ticket was number 20276857.

If I were to open a ticket a year from now to inquire on the status of the bug as suggested, both the original ticket will be inaccessible to the support rep, and the attachments doubly so. We've been though that already. I see no recourse as all avenues have been tried and this subject has been discussed ad absurdum already in the SalesForce and CA eras, and as a client I am very frustrated by what I perceive as a very sad state of affairs. How do I communicate such lack of any commitment down stream to our user base, where this bug reports originated?

I expect a company that proclaims best practices and being an industry leader in such fields to do better: Purging every customer-facing record before the actual issue is likely to be resolved goes against any standard (such as ITIL), but also against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the clients. The FOKUS 2019 survey had a specific question on the customer's wishes in that regard and has very clearly told us this.

Pinging @Tim Quakulinsky, @Joerg Eichler for the FOKUS mention.​​​

------------------------------
These contain very good advise on asking questions and describing supposed bugs (no, you do not need to go to StackExchange for Automic questions, but yes, the parts on asking detailed, useful questions ARE usually relevant):

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html

I will not respond to PM asking for help unless there's an actual reason to keep the discussion off of the public forums.
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[Diane Craddock]

Hello Carsten,

I'm sorry if I misrepresented anything.  We have 2 systems, Support ticketing and Development tracking.  In this case, the Support ticket was closed, but a defect ticket was opened in the Development queue with all the relevant information passed in to it.  I have reviewed your issue and see that there is a defect opened in our Development queue with enough details for the bug to be fixed.  The defect number was not provided because you do not have access to see that system so you may continue to use your support ticket as your defect reference.  As was stated, you may call in referencing that issue and the Support Engineer will be able to review the defect to see if there have been any updates.  You should also watch for your bug to have been fixed in the release notes of new product updates.

I hope this helps,
Diane

------------------------------
Diane Craddock
Community Manager, Broadcom Enterprise Software Division
Broadcom Inc.
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[Carsten Schmitz]

​Hi Diane,

Thanks for your response.

But I respectfully disagree. Automic originally used to provide a defect IDs to it's clients. There's essentially three levels of operation with this:

• by the book / client focused / perfect:
  
  a defect is filed and customer is told the ID, and can see the information on the defect online via e.g. public Bugzilla or other web bug tracker. That way, client can monitor progress and add new info if needed. I'd also consider this industry standard.
  
  
• reasonable for companies who demonstrate in practice that this is a workable process (and that would not have been CA ...):
  
  a defect is filed and customer is told the ID. Customer can use the ID to get updates, but does not see into the internal bug tracker. The record for that bug ID exists in the company at least until the bug is fixed.
  
  
• Broadcom, now, apparently:
  
  a defect is filed and customer is never told the bug ID. Customer has no convinient handle by which to track things. Customer may refer a year later to an old ticket. Customer is not even ensured if the bug ID can be found in that ticket at all for the support engineer to find even if the ticket is still accessible. Beyond that, after some time ticket will be purged or otherwise made inaccessible to support engineer (previous statement by CA: tickets are kept for 6 months max, and attachments apparently three months).
  
  So if my bug fix does not show up in due time in the change notes (which is by the way often times hard to determine in the first place, because the change note titles are often times very badly written), the conversation will, only slightly exaggerated if at all, go like this:
  
  "I had a ticket, number 20276857, what about the bug fix in it?"
  "Sir, I can't look into that ticket, it's more than six months, it's gone. Please explain your original issue to me again.
  
  I've literally been there (back with CA), and others have been there too.

I really appreciate your response and that you are truly trying to help but every six months at a convention, every escalation to upper management we're hearing how Broadcom (and predecessors before) will improve customer service. And then every time every little advance, if any, inches backwards and clients have to point out (to me at least) glaring problems with the basic support operation policies.

In the survey among 151 clients, 88% of respondends agreed, or strongly agreed, that they do not wish to have their support cases vanish after only a few months, as is presently the case (including three months for attachments). The general consensus on Support policies also wasn't what I'd call great back then (*cough* very favorable euphemism). The only way to regain trust for Broadcom is to change the policies to be customer focused, not keep trying to sell them on us.

Kind regards,

Carsten

------------------------------
These contain very good advise on asking questions and describing supposed bugs (no, you do not need to go to StackExchange for Automic questions, but yes, the parts on asking detailed, useful questions ARE usually relevant):

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html

I will not respond to PM asking for help unless there's an actual reason to keep the discussion off of the public forums.
------------------------------

[Diane Craddock]

Hello Carsten,

I will bring this up to Support Management for you.  I do want to clarify that cases are never deleted.  Attachments are deleted from cases 30 days after the case is closed, but the case will remain available to you through the support portal in it's closed state.  The Development defect tickets have the root cause and all information needed to fix the defect and remain open until resolved.  Instead of the defect number, you can reference your case number so you do have a tracking number of sorts.  

Thanks
Diane

------------------------------
Diane Craddock
Community Manager, Broadcom Enterprise Software Division
Broadcom Inc.
------------------------------

[Carsten Schmitz]

Hi Diane,

I will bring this up to Support Management for you​

Thanks! Much appreciated.

but the case will remain available to you through the support portal in it's closed state

Okay, this is good to know! This is a new thing with Broadcom however (and knowing cases won't vanish anymore is also much appreciated).

Prior to Broadcom, we lost our support cases over various migrations, and CA announced they'd be purging them (at least from customer view) after six months. I'm still clinging on to an Excel table with old case data from the CA days that some kind soul generated for me before stuff got wiped :)

Best regards,
Carsten