Is Support always this bad?

[Tony Frey]

Let me start out by saying that I'm not trying to start a flame war or any long winded discussion. I'm just trying to get an answer to what I perceive as a problem.

I had read in other forums that support from Kayako was not that stellar, but after evaluating the software, decided to sign up anyways, because it met my needs.

After signing up for the hosted solution, I went about customizing it for the needs I had. Shortly, are customizing, I logged out and attempted to login as one of the staff users. Immediately, there was an issue, as I could not login with any user accounts or with the admin account now.

That was 2am CST on Saturday. I immediately dispatched a support ticket as this was a hosted solution and I needed this system operational by Monday.

I didn't receive a response all day Saturday or Sunday. Finally, on Monday morning I received a single reply asking if I had changed a cookie. Nothing since then.

I could understand a delay of a business day or two if I had bought the software and had it installed at my location. This, however, is not the case. This is a HOSTED solution. If Kayako cannot provide real hosted support, they should more clearly spell that out. It is important to me to know that I have adequate support available when I have issues with a hosted solution.

My support needs dictate reliable 24/7 software. I hope that I can get some resolution soon.

[Digital Mayhem]

okay but clearly shows in several location on site and throughout forums that Kayako doesn't work on Weekends. So Saturday and Sunday no response hmm go figure... Monday you get a response.. Sounds good to me

[Wheemer]

Why anybody would choose any host at all that didn't have weekend support is questionable. Or rather how any company could offer hosting without having weekend staff is the real question.

[supportskins]

Also to add, Kayako will not support any customization issues other. There is a good possibility that you broke the software while trying to customize it. Restoring the templates should fix the issue.

[Chow]

We are using the hosted Kayako. Since the recent weeks we noticed the server missed to parser a significant number of emails. We are using the Kayako to capture paypal's payment notices, so if any mails are missing we know very soon.

Kayako, is your server overloaded???

It is very annoying as nearly everyday our customers are complaining order not processed. Then we have to check the parser log against our paypal list. Adding with other missed regular correspondences we are coming to a stage to consider whether we should keep using Kayako or not.

We use Kayako to keep emails, not to lose emails!!!

[Digital Mayhem]

Kayako is not a webhosting company. 85% of their clients have owned licenses or yearly license that they install on their own server.. So I would put them in the same class as a actual webhost and require them to have Support Staff 24/7..... Granted they should have a setup to allow paging of a "On-Call" tech if a Server is Down.... come on now ENom and a bunch of the Domain Registrars dont work on Weekends or Holidays either... So if your domain stops working you gonna tell them they need better support hours to make you happy??


All I can say is log a support ticket and when its your turn in line they will get to your issue...

Also how you know Kayako is losing emails... Maybe its one of the ISP's along the way.... You know how many thousands upon thousands of emails ISP's lose each day? So I wouldn't go blamming Kayako until you or kayako investigate and determine what the issue is......

[vineethshyam]

Kayako Support should understand that ,They are providing a solution which is a real time trouble resolving system.So If that system fails then who is held responsible ? The client asks this questions.Should we say kayako or ourselves to our kayako


Kayako your support is very bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Digital Mayhem]

Kayako does understand that and thats why they work as hard as they do and have opened new offices and hired more support staff and got ticket responses down too one business day.. Which is a good turnaround time.

Kayako your Support is very good keep up the great work!!!!!!!!!

[Racked Hosting]

Stephen is right. The response times are perfect now. Tickets being responded within 24 hours is the usual business practice and they are living upto it. I also notice the near 24/7 livesupport.

[Tony Frey]

Just as an update. I still have not received a response to my issue. Maybe you guys are lucky and happen to get a 24 hour response, I sure haven't. Having opened it Friday night (Saturday morning at 2 am) and still not having anyone attempt to solve this hosted problem just seems insane to me.

I hope they are hiring more support staff, because as I've seen, they can't handle Monday through Friday and as a hosted solution, they really need to have 24/7 support.

[kykane]

Originally Posted by Tony Frey

Just as an update. I still have not received a response to my issue. Maybe you guys are lucky and happen to get a 24 hour response, I sure haven't. Having opened it Friday night (Saturday morning at 2 am) and still not having anyone attempt to solve this hosted problem just seems insane to me.

I hope they are hiring more support staff, because as I've seen, they can't handle Monday through Friday and as a hosted solution, they really need to have 24/7 support.

Absolutely horrible. I can't tell you how bad my experience has been... without writing a 3 page novel.
I cannot recommend this company. I'll start another thread and explain my experience with their sales/billing department.

[Varun Shoor]

Originally Posted by Tony Frey

Just as an update. I still have not received a response to my issue. Maybe you guys are lucky and happen to get a 24 hour response, I sure haven't. Having opened it Friday night (Saturday morning at 2 am) and still not having anyone attempt to solve this hosted problem just seems insane to me.

I hope they are hiring more support staff, because as I've seen, they can't handle Monday through Friday and as a hosted solution, they really need to have 24/7 support.

Hi Trey,
Please forward your Ticket ID at team AT kayako.com and I will see to why it hasnt been replied to by now.

Please do understand (Also mentioned before submission of ticket) that any tracing issue might take us 2-5 business days to diagnose, replicate and resolve. There are some complex potential bug reports which can also take 1-2 weeks.

Regards,

Varun Shoor

[triller]

Ok, share my experience
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Day N
Agent A: Hi, How can I help you today?
Me: Hi, is it possible I can contact Varun by IM, ex. MSN ?
Me: I have 2 problems has been pending over 6 months, maybe we can solve it efficiently via IM
Agent A: No, This is not possible.
Me: However, I feel most of tickets will be 'lost' without update even not closed
Agent A: Can you please provide me with the ticket id's?
Me: Everytime, I got promise the tickets will be updatd shortly, but actually not
Agent A: Okay.
Me: CMG-373301 and EWI-302664]
Agent A: Please provide me with the ticket id to look into it.
Me: I have reminded another agent of this, and again, I had a promise, but usually nothing happen tomorrow
Me: and even get a reply, it seems to me just a short answer and finish, wait for another long cycle, as customer who renews the support contract, it's really painful
Me: I also have to face my customers, if this product can not satisfy my customers, how could I be happy ?
Agent A: Haijiao, I have forwarded both your tickets to Varun and he will update it shortly.
Me: All right, let me try one more time to see whether it's effective, thanks, Ritika

Day N+1
Agent B: Hi, how can I help you?
Me: I need you to tell me how soon my tickets will be updated ?
Me: CMG-373301 and EWI-302664
Agent B: Please provide me with the ticket ID.
Me: It's my 4th time to require udpate, everytime I got a promise, but eventually nothing happens
Me: Really disppointed with your support, please tell me what's going on ?
Agent B: Please Wait.
Agent B: I am going to forward the ticket IDs tot he manager
Agent B: He will update it soon.
Agent B: Haijiao, I have forwarded both your tickets to Varun and he will update it shortly.
Me: what's the difference with the actions done yesterday ?
Me: Do you have vacation or holiday these days ?
Agent B: The tickets will surely get updated today.
Me: Why you are so confident ? No offense, but I have heard it so many times
Agent B: No, it is not so.
Me: ?
Agent B: I am going to forward the ticket IDs again.
Me: What can I say ?
Me: You wrongly manage customer's expectation
Agent B: I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
Agent B: But I assure you that they will get updated very soon.
Me: Today ?
Agent B: Yes, I will try my best. All I can do is forward the tickets to the manager because your issue is technical and I can not comment about it.
Me: I believe my tickets have already sit there for days, it's just nobody takes care of that
Me: Please orally informs supporters, I am running out of my patience
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[triller]

OFF COURSE, till now, I still get no response.

To me, there are a couple of issues in Kayako Support,

1> Overcommit and manage customer's expectation improperly
If you can not make sure you are able to fulfill your commitment or not, DON'T make a promise. Otherwise, you just lose your credit and piss clients off.

2> Even SS is for 'Helpdesk', but Kayako seems not following the rule, lots of tickets sink down even not closed, and actually replied by clients, there's no escalation path for these long-pending tickets

3> Very very limited support resource, the reply to my ticket just a short explanation, sometimes, it's not clear and helpful which makes things worse as the whole ticket update cycle is so long.

P.S, the SS is a rich-feature product, but I do suggest Kayako to concentrate the limited resource on the major bug fixing instead of new feature development, becasue the latter could make your support even worse. There are still 64 critical bugs logged in your system, believe me, lots of them are very critical to some customers.

[sureshkumar.mr]

You will quite often see the following excuses from them.

1. New Office, we will improve it soon. (The development centre is in India, where getting a right resource is not at all a problem)
2. Tracing will take few days
3. We will implement in the Next CVS Build
4. Tell me your ticket ID I will personally look into it
5. Bla... Bla... Bla...

I am really fed up looking at those.

Who is worried about the Response time, clients are worried about the resolution time which really matters.