Feedback about Kayako

[Xaman]

Hi,

We purchased Kayako in the beginning of January, as it was recommended by other companies we know and it seemed the best solution for a ticket/support system.

The installation went fine and soon we were working with Kayako.

However there are a few things that we must say we were disappointed to find out.

First of all, Kayako doesn't seem to use their own software properly, I try to look up information on the Knowledgebase and it has little useful information. I must say the KB is quite weak.

Second, the support sometimes seems quite unorganized and lacking. One time I contacted the support using the chat and reported that a user was harassing us and we wanted to prevent him from sending additional tickets or replies to tickets. I was asked to ban that user's email, which I had already did and said so when I first contacted the support, they simple ignored that part. I then explained again that the email ban wasn't working if the user sent replies directly from the support center, instead of using email. Since there's no option to ban users, only emails, I asked how could I do it.

This time I was suggested to change the user's password, so he couldn't login anymore. First of all this is not a propper solution to present to anyone. Changing the user's password? Come on, what kind of solution is that? Secondly it doesn't work, the user can just request a new password. Changing the user's email and password won't work either, because then the user will be able to make a new account with that same email.

Realizing the support knew less than me I went and tried to figure out a solution myself, which I might add was to set the user on "Not validaded" and that way he couldn't login anymore nor request a new validation link, so it worked and the tickets stopped.

Also, in the beginning we reported a problem with the signatures. When we set a signature for a staff member, his own signature would overwrite the department's signature, instead of only using it when there was no default signature for the department. Kayako informed it was a bug and that we should post it in bugs.kayako.com. Well, when we tried to access that site it was down. Support said it was under maintenance and to try in a day or two. Well, it was down for two weeks at least (how can they not know about this things???) so after complaining they informed the bug was already reported and should be fixed on the next build.

A more serious problem was when our site went down due to Kayako's incompetence. We had purchased the leased version to try it for a month and after realizing we liked the software, we bought the owned version. Kayako seem to have missed that small detail and our site went down saying the license had expired. Fortunately the support was quick to solve this issue, but it's still embarrassing to us to have our customers go to the support center and read a message saying we didn't renew our license...

Currently we have another problem.

We reported a bug in the templates. We were trying to make some changes on the Email autoresponder, but they weren't showing. Kayako support checked and said they were experiencing the same issue, so they proposed to update the software to it's latest version.

They were kind enough to remind us to backup the templates and some folders before they proceeded, but forgot to close the support center while doing the update, so any user in the support center would see some error messages on the top of the page, which again is quite embarrassing and unnecessary.

But the worst is that now we have a new bug. When we change the department of a ticket, the status becomes null, and we can't see that ticket anymore anywhere. The only way to see the ticket again is if the user replies to it, setting it automatically to open status, or if we know the ticket number by heart.

At this moment we are still waiting for this issue to be solved, but we already have a few tickets which have the status null and we can't find them. We consider this to be very serious as there are tickets waiting for a reply that won't receive any until we can fix this.

In general, I think Kayako is a strong support software and we are pleased with it's functions. However we are a bit disappointed and surprised to find how unorganized the company seems to be. considerings that many companies in the world use this software we were expecting something more... professional and organized?

Please don't take this criticism the wrong way, we don't regret purchasing this software, but your service needs some serious improvement. I'm sure others felt the same surprise when they saw such disorganization in a such well known company as Kayako.

Even to open a support ticket it's complicated. I have to login to the members area and select "Get Support", but when I fill out all the fields, it just sends me back to the normal support for sales and stuff, no tech support. Probably because I use my own email when submitting the ticket and not the email registered for Kayako, but if I'm already logged to the members area it should still work. Nevertheless the problem is exactly that, I don't know how it works as there is little or no information about it, it's just too complicated for something so simple as opening a support ticket, specially if you have a serious problem and need a quick response. I was left no choice but to just reply to an old ticket and reopen it...

Thank you for reading this.

[craigbrass]

1. Jamie (Operations Manager) has said himself the knowledge base is poor and is currently working to improve it.

2. There is no IP ban feature but it certainly would be handy. Currently you have to do it using .htaccess or via your hosting control panel software.

3. I agree with you about the bugs server. It was down for an insanely long amount of time. Apparently it was due to them waiting on a new server being setup by the data center but that is not really an excuse. The server they were moving it to should have been sitting waiting there before the bugs portal was shut down. This way it would only take 2-3 hours max.

4. This is because you never uploaded the new key.php file after upgrading. This must be done otherwise it will expire when the key is set to. I do agree this should not be shown to customers however and it should simply tell them the help desk is down for maintenance.

5. Starting the upgrade wizard should automatically close and reopen the help desk in my opinion to avoid this. For the actual issue that has arose for upgrade, how long have you been waiting for an answer?

6. I agree about having to go into the members area. You should be able to do it on the help desk and it should detect if you have active support.

[Xaman]

Originally Posted by craigbrass

4. This is because you never uploaded the new key.php file after upgrading. This must be done otherwise it will expire when the key is set to. I do agree this should not be shown to customers however and it should simply tell them the help desk is down for maintenance.

As far as I'm concerned we never received that indication when we bought the owned version.

Originally Posted by craigbrass

5. Starting the upgrade wizard should automatically close and reopen the help desk in my opinion to avoid this. For the actual issue that has arose for upgrade, how long have you been waiting for an answer?

Since yesterday. Considering the problems the new bug is causing us, it's already too much time. I have risen the ticket priority in the meantime, hoping to have a faster response. For now all our staff is unable to change tickets to different departments.

[craigbrass]

Well I have never upgraded between versions so don't know what it actually tells you but if it doesn't, if definitely needs to both after purchase and in the email and it needs to be clear.

Kayako do not work weekends so it will be Monday before it gets looked at I imagine.

[Xaman]

Now to make it worst, the mail parser stopped fetching emails from the mail server for some unknown reason. The other tasks keep running, but it just won't fetch the emails...

[Kristie]

do a test emailfrom your self too the sytem if it comes back with a error then try and resetup the pipeing thats the best i can say

[Xaman]

Originally Posted by Kristie

do a test emailfrom your self too the sytem if it comes back with a error then try and resetup the pipeing thats the best i can say

There's no error message, the emails are in the mailserver, I can see them through webmail or IMAP, but Kayako just isn't fetching them as before.

We didn't change anything, it just stopped fetching. Already tried rerunning the task, doesn't work.

Also, we checked and the cron jobs are working fine. It's just the POP fetching that isn't work.

[supportskins]

Try running the URL - domain.com - Get online with a domain name and web hosting in the brower and check what message appears in the browser window. This will help in solving the issue.

[Kristie]

Originally Posted by Xaman

There's no error message, the emails are in the mailserver, I can see them through webmail or IMAP, but Kayako just isn't fetching them as before.

We didn't change anything, it just stopped fetching. Already tried rerunning the task, doesn't work.

Also, we checked and the cron jobs are working fine. It's just the POP fetching that isn't work.

make sure the /cli/index.php is chmoded 755

[Xaman]

Originally Posted by supportskins

Try running the URL - domain.com - Get online with a domain name and web hosting in the brower and check what message appears in the browser window. This will help in solving the issue.

Off-topic, but would like to appreciate the support we received from SupportSkins in installing our new customized skin for Kayako. They even helped us with issues which were not related to the skin, since Kayako failed to. 5 stars service!

I wish Kayako would take your and a few other software companies we work with as an example on how the service should be. Quick, efficient and professional.

[supportskins]

Thank You for the kind words! We are more than pleased to offer any support you would want.