Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
In the past 3 months there have been MANY changes in the BMC Support realm. I have talked to some of the staff and a manager or two and I think some of the changes will make us (the Remedy People) happy once they all get into the groove. Manager shifts, team member shifts, a more realistic view of the customer experience. (I think Warren will get the award for the longest thread this year! At the rate this one is going...) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Shellman, David Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:26 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC No they are not. This was several years ago. Different Changes have occurred since then. Dave On Jun 11, 2012, at 4:07 PM, richard@bwc.state.oh.us richard@bwc.state.oh.us wrote: I think the changes that have been made are what the discussions are about -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Shellman, David Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:59 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I have spoken to Jay in the past. She is a caring individual that listens to what I/we have to say. There were many changes made within support after those discussions many years ago. I look forward to speaking to her again. Dave -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I truly hope it is productive. I have worked with this product for to long. I've got a lot invested in it. I've seen Support at it's best and at it's worse. Currently, they have MUCH work to do. But they are not the worst I've seen it (dirty bird). I will continue to give feedback and work with BMC to help them improve. That was the whole point of this discussion. Sometimes, you have to stand on a chair and wave your hands around and hop up and down to get someone to notice! I've never been shy about things like that But it does take a while to push me to that point Thanks everyone for the comments and support. It's truly an enjoyable forum to be a part of. On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 1:50 PM, Tommy Morris tommy.mor...@pinebreeze.comwrote: ** This might earn the longest / most productive ARS thread at RUG this year. ** ** *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *matt.laurenc...@gmail.com *Sent:* Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:40 PM *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG *Subject:* Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** ** ** Thanks Claire, great to hear these words from you. The folks from Support I interact with are really playing ball, and want to improve Customer Experience. Warren, you spawned a very healthy conversation, that is heared at the highest level within BMC Support and BMC as a whole. Take care, ~ Matt Laurenceau Sr Community Ambassador, BMC Communities http://bit.ly/MattProfiles Skype: matt.laurenceau - Reply message - From: Sanford, Claire claire.sanf...@memorialhermann.org To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC Date: Tue, Jun 12, 2012 17:30 In the past 3 months there have been MANY changes in the BMC Support realm. I have talked to some of the staff and a manager or two and I think some of the changes will make us (the Remedy People) happy once they all get into the groove. Manager shifts, team member shifts, a more realistic view of the customer experience. (I think Warren will get the award for the longest thread this year! At the rate this one is going...) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Shellman, David Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:26 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC No they are not. This was several years ago. Different Changes have occurred since then. Dave On Jun 11, 2012, at 4:07 PM, richard@bwc.state.oh.us richard@bwc.state.oh.us wrote: I think the changes that have been made are what the discussions are about -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Shellman, David Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:59 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I have spoken to Jay in the past. She is a caring individual that listens to what I/we have to say. There were many changes made within support after those discussions many years ago. I look forward to speaking to her again. Dave -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris Sent: June 6, 2012 12:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Daniel, are you going to have security check for pitchforks and torches? -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of arslist Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:01 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi Jay, Would you be willing to stop by the WWRUG12 in October so you can talk in person to the folks having problems with Support? Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Jay Shankar Sent: June 6, 2012 1:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Uh, U... the person who is looking at BMC is not currently interested in what the customers think, But then sometimes I wonder about the current administration... but I digress, so I would not be keen on the thought the next purchaser will be better, because historically that really rarely happens. IMHO On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Ortega, Jesus A jesus.ort...@lyondellbasell.com wrote: Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -- Patrick Zandi ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris Sent: June 6, 2012 12:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Daniel, are you going to have security check for pitchforks and torches? -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of arslist Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:01 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi Jay, Would you be willing
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
It's nice that someone from BMC will be there, but then what? What commitment/assurance is there that anything will change for the better? Voices of dissatisfaction on ARLIST are hardly brand new -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I have spoken to Jay in the past. She is a caring individual that listens to what I/we have to say. There were many changes made within support after those discussions many years ago. I look forward to speaking to her again. Dave -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist
Re: [SPAM]Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Historically BMC Support presence at WWRUG (or previously RUG ), results in both understanding and change. The ARSlist is read by BMC, as you can tell by their welcome interjections into discussions, Having them in person gives both them and us an opportunity to have more in depth discussions of specifics and for all to leave with a better understanding We then take what we learn at WWRUG and feed it back into the ARSlist and BMC feeds what they learnt back into BMC, And good things happen. The first voice of dissatisfaction on the ARSlist probably dates back to 1993 within months of it starting, and not everything results in immediate change, but we know they have listened, and quite often can see the results quickly(as we did back then). They know they have an active vocal user base that love the underlying technology(ARSystem) and that love to have things made better (especially support, quality control and the ITSM suite itself). They also know the competition lurk on this list, always have, and that they can see what we are saying BMC can do better. Bottom line is: It has been improving for almost 20 years, past performance is the best predictor of future performance. Yes, I know someone will bring up what was the best buggy whip factory or something more recent, but that is Friday territory. Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of richard@bwc.state.oh.us Sent: June 11, 2012 3:31 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: [SPAM]Re: Support - An open letter to BMC It's nice that someone from BMC will be there, but then what? What commitment/assurance is there that anything will change for the better? Voices of dissatisfaction on ARLIST are hardly brand new -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: [SPAM]Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: [SPAM]Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: [SPAM]Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I think the changes that have been made are what the discussions are about -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Shellman, David Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:59 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I have spoken to Jay in the past. She is a caring individual that listens to what I/we have to say. There were many changes made within support after those discussions many years ago. I look forward to speaking to her again. Dave -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
No they are not. This was several years ago. Different Changes have occurred since then. Dave On Jun 11, 2012, at 4:07 PM, richard@bwc.state.oh.us richard@bwc.state.oh.us wrote: I think the changes that have been made are what the discussions are about -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Shellman, David Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:59 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I have spoken to Jay in the past. She is a caring individual that listens to what I/we have to say. There were many changes made within support after those discussions many years ago. I look forward to speaking to her again. Dave -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Francois Seegers Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi All; If I can bounce my 1 cent worth :-) I think we will all agree since the release of 7.6 to 7.6.4 SP3 there have been more issue than positive feedback to concentrate on resolving. I have been analyzing and trying to troubleshoot issues on these releases since its release together with BMC and just as you think the issue is resolve after applying a hotfix then something else occur...and so it continues... I would say that if BMC and us do not test version 8 properly then we will have further customer dissatisfaction and they will lose further interest/buy in or trust in the product. The question I would say is How can we turn this around in a positive way or approach? As Daniel asked Jay if he can be at the WWRUG, this will be first price because then all can share in the global plan to get the product support and releases back to its old stable standard/state competing on its own in the market :-) Regards Francois -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Ortega, Jesus A Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Back in the California days the level one support actually could help resolve some incidents. They had a knowledge of the product and good institutional knowledge. Now the call center in Pune, or wherever it is in India, seems to recruit college kids who know nothing about Remedy and read from scripts. I got so fed up with it that I pushed my organization to change support providers. We moved in September and it is nice to be able to call someone that I don't have to repeat myself to several times or resort to email to get my point across. However, when this new organization gets stuck we are sent back to Black Hole of BMC support , where our incident languishes for weeks waiting on an engineer to become available. They seem to have a huge shortage of level three engineers. I believe that is why they stall us by trying to get endless log files and asking that we perform tests in production, during work hours. My suggestion to BMC is to hire more level three engineers in the USA. I don't mind working with the Indians, but I have a much easier time working with someone who is on this side of the globe and is not fighting sleep and the language. Hopefully whoever ends up buying BMC in the near future will take this into consideration and devise a better support model for us. Jesus Ortega Senior II, Implementation Engineer LyondellBasell Industries -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of David M. Clark Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Jay, First, thank you for your reply. I'm concerned that you are focusing on this one incident. What I experienced yesterday has become indicative of support from BMC. 1st Level support is often times an exercise in futility. If you have been following this thread (as I am sure you have), then you will see that there have been many comments that reflect a general feeling of disappointment with the overall support experience. The problem is not the individual that I first dealt with. As I said, I have no doubt that he is a hardworking person. The problem is one of process. The very tool that many of the BMC applications is built around is not used in an effective manner by 1st level support. The SLA is designed with one thing in mind, speedy responses. The problem with that is they don't have to be effective responses. I personally would prefer to wait longer if I knew the first response I got back was one that indicated an understanding of my issue and environment (all information I try to supply). I do not want this to be about the tech in question. It is my belief that he did his job within the process that he and his co-workers have been following for some time. And there in lies the problem. I would like to point out on the positive side that I included his manager on my initial response and did receive a VERY quick response. He moved me on to a Senior Engineer, and I am hopeful that we will be able to resolve the issue. Again, thanks for the reply. I hope that this discussion leads to improvements within the support structure. Sincerely, -- Warren R. Baltimore II Remedy Developer 410-533-5367 ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I agree with Warren that SLA pinging is the rule rather than the exception, at least on initial responses. My experience is that the process you want cannot differ greatly from the process by which you compensate people, or you force them to choose between doing the best thing for the customers or for themselves. And it is hard to blame someone not making a lot of money for trying to legally maximize what little they can earn. But since I am completely unaware of any contractual penalties for BMC's SLA violations (without which, aren't they pretty much just guidelines, like The Pirate Code?), it is pretty much a moot point, isn't it? Rick On Jun 6, 2012 1:44 AM, Jay Shankar jay_shan...@bmc.com wrote: We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys?
I receive surveys regularly. On the last survey I gave everything a 1. It asked would I like to be contacted by BMC Support regarding my response, I replied Yes. Never heard from them again. I had escalated the issue to the manager, but nothing much happened anyway, so I just closed the ticket instead of wasting my time. Shafqat Ayaz From: David Durling durl...@uga.edu To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 4:24 PM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys? I've received several surveys. (I admit I've only responded to some, though.) David Durling University of Georgia -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Goodall, Andrew C Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 11:22 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys? On a separate but related note... On the ending sign off of all bmc support emails I receive it states: Customer feedback is very important to BMC Support and you may receive a survey request on this issue. I would appreciate your response to this survey based on the handling of this specific incident as your feedback is important to BMC Support and is used to assess my performance. But I have never received a survey, since the creation of my support id, BMC have closed 257 issues from me. Has anyone received one of these surveys? I was thinking that in the course of opening 250+ issues you think I might have received 1 survey :) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@arslist.org] On Behalf Of pritch Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 10:10 AM To: arslist@arslist.org Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We're kind of tied into having to pay for support in order to be able to get patches and upgrades. So they have us by the . There's absolutely no incentive (negative or positive) to improving their support. - Original Message - From: Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:02:11 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.com wrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer- based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting
Support - An open letter to BMC
Warren, Reference: Not paying for support and losing patches. At JSS, we provide access to updates regardless of whether a customer is paying for support. When politely asking if a customer wishes to renew their support, because we're always grateful for their business, we point out that support is optional. However, we'd like to think we've worked hard for a support renewal - by offering a personalised support service, regular updates, giving everyone an opportunity to shape the product direction - and most customers decide to renew. It's occurred to me that this is an interesting quandary for any company. If they believe their support service is valuable, they'll offer upgrades/patches to organisations that have purchased a license regardless of whether they pay for support, confident that their customers will always renew. But if the service is poor, the customer won't renew support. It's a great way to benchmark a business and the leadership offered by all those involved. John ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - where we are - where we should ideally be....
I second Warren on this.. Maybe a good start would be, to send out, or at least make a survey available to the customer to rate responses – especially or at least the initial response.. After all the initial response really decides where that ticket may be headed to through its lifespan.. And then use the information received from that survey to feed the SLA.. For e.g. in Warren’s particular case, if Warren was asked a couple of simple questions.. 1) Did our initial response meet your expectation (assuming that our expectation has not yet been disillusioned by the reality that we are currently facing).. Yes/No 2) Did we understand your problem and use all the information and data you provided to understand your problem? Yes/No I think the answers to these two questions would be very useful to validate both, the response time AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, the quality of that response. If both the answers are Yes, everyone's happy... If one is Yes and the other is No irrespective of which is yes or which is no, it could indicate a communication problem, either from the customers side, or from the support side, either of which is not a good thing. The SLA may not have been broken, but it might need a supervisor to be involved at some stage, to understand why that communication problem happened, and if needed get the customers supervisors involved too, in the event the customer is not relaying the problem correctly... If both the answers are No, AND there is no other response from your team within the defined SLA period, it pretty much means the SLA has got killed. This is the problem area that needs to be addressed. The AND clause is to eliminate a human possibility that some agent may have not seen something initially and 5 minutes or a reasonable amount of time after responding, realizes that, and responds back with a rejoinder, saying “Oops... Didn’t notice that.. my bad.. here’s my follow up response..” Perfectly acceptable to most of us... Another response rating for that second response and if you have at least one yes, we are good to go again... Maybe it may not be possible to implement this exact model in a real world, but the closer we get to a model like this, I think both BMC as well as its customers would have a lot to gain and a happier future together... Just my 2 cents... Joe From: Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:49 AM Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Jay, First, thank you for your reply. I'm concerned that you are focusing on this one incident. What I experienced yesterday has become indicative of support from BMC. 1st Level support is often times an exercise in futility. If you have been following this thread (as I am sure you have), then you will see that there have been many comments that reflect a general feeling of disappointment with the overall support experience. The problem is not the individual that I first dealt with. As I said, I have no doubt that he is a hardworking person. The problem is one of process. The very tool that many of the BMC applications is built around is not used in an effective manner by 1st level support. The SLA is designed with one thing in mind, speedy responses. The problem with that is they don't have to be effective responses. I personally would prefer to wait longer if I knew the first response I got back was one that indicated an understanding of my issue and environment (all information I try to supply). I do not want this to be about the tech in question. It is my belief that he did his job within the process that he and his co-workers have been following for some time. And there in lies the problem. I would like to point out on the positive side that I included his manager on my initial response and did receive a VERY quick response. He moved me on to a Senior Engineer, and I am hopeful that we will be able to resolve the issue. Again, thanks for the reply. I hope that this discussion leads to improvements within the support structure. Sincerely, -- Warren R. Baltimore II Remedy Developer 410-533-5367 ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Unfortunately this is just the modus operandi for BMC support.. You are lucky they didn't ask you to capture and package up every log you could possible find and send it to them for the 5th time for the same problem. And yes I'm not exaggerating .. 5 diferent times for a problem I eventually had to resolve myself. They've become useless. -Benny On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com wrote: ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! * ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my assessment! The term he used at the time to describe where BMC had found themselves was that the trigger had been pulled, the deed was done and there was no going back! So here we are, I am not saying that every time I have dealt with support that it is always a disaster, it isn't. As with any organization, there are bright spots. Every tech I deal with seems to have a genuine desire to help. But the process does not work, and the knowledge isn't always what it should be. And (perhaps the biggest sin in my mind), the tool that they should be using isn't utilized! Why do we take the time to fill out all of the data in the support request that they request if they are not even going to bother reading it What's the solution? I'm not sure. But the current system isn't working. Warren R. Baltimore II Remedy Developer since ARS 3.2 410-533-5367 _attend WWRUG12 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
That comes in subsequent followups. - Original Message - From: benny shell xosi...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 10:52:49 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Unfortunately this is just the modus operandi for BMC support.. You are lucky they didn't ask you to capture and package up every log you could possible find and send it to them for the 5th time for the same problem. And yes I'm not exaggerating .. 5 diferent times for a problem I eventually had to resolve myself. They've become useless. -Benny On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com wrote: ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @ bmc .com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my assessment! The term he used at the time to describe where BMC had found themselves was that the trigger had been pulled, the deed was done and there was no going back! So here we are, I am not saying that every time I have dealt with support that it is always a disaster, it isn't. As with any organization, there are bright spots. Every tech I deal with seems to have a genuine desire to help. But the process does not work, and the knowledge isn't always what it should be. And (perhaps the biggest sin in my mind), the tool that they should be using isn't utilized! Why do we take the time to fill out all of the data in the support request that they request if they are not even going to bother reading it What's the solution? I'm not sure. But the current system isn't working. Warren R. Baltimore II Remedy Developer since ARS
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Good going Warren, you're going to get this poor guy canned... Kidding! Sent from my iPhone On Jun 6, 2012, at 7:52 AM, Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com wrote: ** Jay, First, thank you for your reply. I'm concerned that you are focusing on this one incident. What I experienced yesterday has become indicative of support from BMC. 1st Level support is often times an exercise in futility. If you have been following this thread (as I am sure you have), then you will see that there have been many comments that reflect a general feeling of disappointment with the overall support experience. The problem is not the individual that I first dealt with. As I said, I have no doubt that he is a hardworking person. The problem is one of process. The very tool that many of the BMC applications is built around is not used in an effective manner by 1st level support. The SLA is designed with one thing in mind, speedy responses. The problem with that is they don't have to be effective responses. I personally would prefer to wait longer if I knew the first response I got back was one that indicated an understanding of my issue and environment (all information I try to supply). I do not want this to be about the tech in question. It is my belief that he did his job within the process that he and his co-workers have been following for some time. And there in lies the problem. I would like to point out on the positive side that I included his manager on my initial response and did receive a VERY quick response. He moved me on to a Senior Engineer, and I am hopeful that we will be able to resolve the issue. Again, thanks for the reply. I hope that this discussion leads to improvements within the support structure. Sincerely, -- Warren R. Baltimore II Remedy Developer 410-533-5367 _attend WWRUG12 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I would also add that they game the SLA system as a rule by trying to close things out for being open too long. On numerous occasions, either myself or one of my colleagues has had a ticket open with BMC Support where BMC made no progress on the issue and didn't respond to us, then after a week or two either emailed or called asking some variation of, This ticket has been open too long, do you mind if we close it? Another issue is how difficult it can be to get a support person to agree to do a webex session. The result is generally that a lot of the defects (and the majority of support issues we submit are defects in the product) stay open longer than necessary because the BMC support people basically refuse to do a webex until after a week or two have passed. This seems like it causes more time spent by BMC support and doesn't help customer satisfaction at all. The third major area that I've run into numerous times is how it seems like support people aren't communicating with each other or engineering well. Many times that I've submitted tickets with BMC against product defects, it turns out that there is a hotfix that hasn't made it to the knowledge base yet. Other support people may be aware of it, engineering may have it documented internally, but the support folks are reinventing the wheel almost every time with hotfixes for defects. There are certainly several areas that BMC support can improve upon, and I hope they make some progress on these issues. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:02 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** I agree with Warren that SLA pinging is the rule rather than the exception, at least on initial responses. My experience is that the process you want cannot differ greatly from the process by which you compensate people, or you force them to choose between doing the best thing for the customers or for themselves. And it is hard to blame someone not making a lot of money for trying to legally maximize what little they can earn. But since I am completely unaware of any contractual penalties for BMC's SLA violations (without which, aren't they pretty much just guidelines, like The Pirate Code?), it is pretty much a moot point, isn't it? Rick On Jun 6, 2012 1:44 AM, Jay Shankar jay_shan...@bmc.commailto:jay_shan...@bmc.com wrote: We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.orghttp://www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.comhttp://www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are _attend WWRUG12 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ Private and confidential as detailed here: http://www.sug.com/disclaimers/default.htm#Mail . If you cannot access the link, please e-mail sender. ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Hi Jay, Would you be willing to stop by the WWRUG12 in October so you can talk in person to the folks having problems with Support? Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Jay Shankar Sent: June 6, 2012 1:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Daniel, are you going to have security check for pitchforks and torches? -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of arslist Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:01 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi Jay, Would you be willing to stop by the WWRUG12 in October so you can talk in person to the folks having problems with Support? Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Jay Shankar Sent: June 6, 2012 1:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris Sent: June 6, 2012 12:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Daniel, are you going to have security check for pitchforks and torches? -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of arslist Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:01 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi Jay, Would you be willing to stop by the WWRUG12 in October so you can talk in person to the folks having problems with Support? Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Jay Shankar Sent: June 6, 2012 1:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
The 'being open too long' reason is new to me. I just recently (middle of May) had them close a ticket because I gave up on their support. The issue was relatively low in priority but I opened it in October! They asked for logs at least 3 times, had multiple webex sessions to re-demonstrate the issue, I escalated to the management once, and still they couldn't resolve/understand the issue. It was sort of a sick game on my part to see how long they would drag out actually helping me until I got tired of waiting. I would occasionally get a message with apologies about how long it's been etc etc. I always took those as oh, this has been sitting around getting old, I better make some token communication to reset the clock. In general, and I've told our account rep this before, I'm not aggravated by the lousy support, I've re-adjusted my expectations and just know that it is awful. It does cause internal confusion on the survey response when they ask if the issue was resolved within my expectations. As everyone else has said, it's clearly a systemic problem and not really an individual support person issue. It's also clear because of the amount of responses that are clear and well stated. The question is, will BMC do anything more than pay lip service to the community? From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Pierson, Shawn Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 8:53 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** I would also add that they game the SLA system as a rule by trying to close things out for being open too long. On numerous occasions, either myself or one of my colleagues has had a ticket open with BMC Support where BMC made no progress on the issue and didn't respond to us, then after a week or two either emailed or called asking some variation of, This ticket has been open too long, do you mind if we close it? Another issue is how difficult it can be to get a support person to agree to do a webex session. The result is generally that a lot of the defects (and the majority of support issues we submit are defects in the product) stay open longer than necessary because the BMC support people basically refuse to do a webex until after a week or two have passed. This seems like it causes more time spent by BMC support and doesn't help customer satisfaction at all. The third major area that I've run into numerous times is how it seems like support people aren't communicating with each other or engineering well. Many times that I've submitted tickets with BMC against product defects, it turns out that there is a hotfix that hasn't made it to the knowledge base yet. Other support people may be aware of it, engineering may have it documented internally, but the support folks are reinventing the wheel almost every time with hotfixes for defects. There are certainly several areas that BMC support can improve upon, and I hope they make some progress on these issues. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:02 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** I agree with Warren that SLA pinging is the rule rather than the exception, at least on initial responses. My experience is that the process you want cannot differ greatly from the process by which you compensate people, or you force them to choose between doing the best thing for the customers or for themselves. And it is hard to blame someone not making a lot of money for trying to legally maximize what little they can earn. But since I am completely unaware of any contractual penalties for BMC's SLA violations (without which, aren't they pretty much just guidelines, like The Pirate Code?), it is pretty much a moot point, isn't it? Rick On Jun 6, 2012 1:44 AM, Jay Shankar jay_shan...@bmc.commailto:jay_shan...@bmc.com wrote: We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.orghttp://www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.comhttp://www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are _attend WWRUG12 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ Private and confidential as detailed
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris Sent: June 6, 2012 12:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Daniel, are you going to have security check for pitchforks and torches? -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of arslist Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:01 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi Jay, Would you be willing to stop by the WWRUG12 in October so you can talk in person to the folks having problems with Support? Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Jay Shankar Sent: June 6, 2012 1:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
The old California Remedy HelpDesk was great. The off-shored BMC Call Center never was and still isn't. At this point I really don't see anything changing about that. Call me a pessimist, but history is what it is. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Sanford, Claire Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Honestly... if you get someone in Austin, Atlanta, or California, you will get your ticket resolved and in a manner that speaks to the old Remedy support ways! I've had fantastic support from Russ, Max, Dolly, Dan, Doug... wow! They have a lot of D names there! Paula is a top notch manager! She gets results! -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of d...@wwrug.com Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:18 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC I thought a cage match would do the trick :-) I think that face to face conversations add a lot. Even when Remedy support and quality were at their lowest (and I have heard arguments that that was still way above the bar at BMC up until now), and the VP of Worldwide Support was at the conference, metal detectors were not required. However, after listening in person, some attitudes changed and the results were win-win-win. Support and quality improved, they were perceived as improved, and everyone gained. For a few years Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris Sent: June 6, 2012 12:03 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Daniel, are you going to have security check for pitchforks and torches? -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of arslist Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:01 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC Hi Jay, Would you be willing to stop by the WWRUG12 in October so you can talk in person to the folks having problems with Support? Daniel -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Jay Shankar Sent: June 6, 2012 1:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Dan, I absolutely would love to do that. Please let me know the details in terms of dates and location and timeslot and I can definitely make it happen. ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Support - An open letter to BMC
Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built!* ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my assessment! The term he used at the time to describe where BMC had found themselves was that the trigger had been pulled, the deed was done and there was no going back! So here we are, I am not saying that every time I have dealt with support that it is always a disaster, it isn't. As with any organization, there are bright spots. Every tech I deal with seems to have a genuine desire to help. But the process does not work, and the knowledge isn't always what it should be. And (perhaps the biggest sin in my mind), the tool that they should be using isn't utilized! Why do we take the time to fill out all of the data in the support request that they request if they are not even going to bother reading it What's the solution? I'm not sure. But the current system isn't working. Warren R. Baltimore II Remedy Developer since ARS 3.2 410-533-5367 ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Wouldn't it be nice if BMC had all of their client's information on file so you wouldn't have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at mailto:@bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my assessment! The term he used at the time to describe where BMC had found themselves was that the trigger had been pulled, the deed was done and there was no going back! So here we are, I am not saying that every time I have dealt with support that it is always a disaster, it isn't. As with any organization, there are bright spots. Every tech I deal with seems to have a genuine desire to help. But the process does not work, and the knowledge isn't always what it should be. And (perhaps the biggest sin in my mind), the tool that they should be using isn't utilized! Why do we take the time to fill out all of the data in the support request that they request
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Tommy, I know your post is just DRIPPING with sarcasmbut the TRULY sad part is they already have ALL of that in place, but don't utilize it. I have filled out god only knows how many 'system information spreadsheets' for them over the years...just to get another request for another one the NEXT time I open a ticket... -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:00 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Wouldn't it be nice if BMC had all of their client's information on file so you wouldn't have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at mailto:@bmc.com @bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my assessment! The term he used at the time to describe where BMC
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Or…. They had a nice little form pre-installe into ARS that you opened to fill out a support ticket… It asks a few questions -- and then generates all the answers in a format that can be sucked into a program on the other side. (you could copy/pasted it into the support web site -- or auto push - if you allowed such a thing) That way - they get all the info they want... Such an easy problem to solve… Must not be much interest (or vision???) to improve support. BTW -- don't forget BMC did win an award for Best Support at WWRUG last year. -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Tommy Morris tommy.mor...@pinebreeze.comwrote: ** Wouldn’t it be nice if BMC had all of their client’s information on file so you wouldn’t have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H…. I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that.** ** ** ** *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Warren R. Baltimore II *Sent:* Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG *Subject:* Support - An open letter to BMC ** ** ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren,** Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. ** Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! * ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
How drunk were they when the voted Best Support to BMC? Or is it that our expectations are just so low? On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 9:05 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Or…. They had a nice little form pre-installe into ARS that you opened to fill out a support ticket… It asks a few questions -- and then generates all the answers in a format that can be sucked into a program on the other side. (you could copy/pasted it into the support web site -- or auto push - if you allowed such a thing) That way - they get all the info they want... Such an easy problem to solve… Must not be much interest (or vision???) to improve support. BTW -- don't forget BMC did win an award for Best Support at WWRUG last year. -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Tommy Morris tommy.mor...@pinebreeze.comwrote: ** Wouldn’t it be nice if BMC had all of their client’s information on file so you wouldn’t have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H…. I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that.* *** ** ** *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Warren R. Baltimore II *Sent:* Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG *Subject:* Support - An open letter to BMC ** ** ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren,** Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. ** Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built!* ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I shook my head when I heard that, too. Are people really paying attention? Rick On Jun 5, 2012 9:07 AM, Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com wrote: ** How drunk were they when the voted Best Support to BMC? Or is it that our expectations are just so low? On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 9:05 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Or…. They had a nice little form pre-installe into ARS that you opened to fill out a support ticket… It asks a few questions -- and then generates all the answers in a format that can be sucked into a program on the other side. (you could copy/pasted it into the support web site -- or auto push - if you allowed such a thing) That way - they get all the info they want... Such an easy problem to solve… Must not be much interest (or vision???) to improve support. BTW -- don't forget BMC did win an award for Best Support at WWRUG last year. -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Tommy Morris tommy.mor...@pinebreeze.com wrote: ** Wouldn’t it be nice if BMC had all of their client’s information on file so you wouldn’t have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H…. I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that. ** ** *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Warren R. Baltimore II *Sent:* Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG *Subject:* Support - An open letter to BMC ** ** ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren,** Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. ** Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built!* ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
It's all about the SLA. If I send an email regardless how stupid it sounds the SLA is met. I have occasionally played tag to which as soon as I get the email I immediately send an ok SLA starts again then in an hour or two send another email with what they want saving me wait times on their triggers! Sent from my iPhone On Jun 5, 2012, at 9:00, Tommy Morris tommy.mor...@pinebreeze.com wrote: ** Wouldn’t it be nice if BMC had all of their client’s information on file so you wouldn’t have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H…. I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my assessment! The term he used at the time to describe where BMC had found themselves was that the trigger had been pulled, the deed was done and there was no going back! So here we
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
I'd settle for them reading what is written (since some of us understand they don't look the information up and try to provide it on the initial ticket). - Original Message - From: John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 9:05:57 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Or…. They had a nice little form pre-installe into ARS that you opened to fill out a support ticket… It asks a few questions -- and then generates all the answers in a format that can be sucked into a program on the other side. (you could copy/pasted it into the support web site -- or auto push - if you allowed such a thing) That way - they get all the info they want... Such an easy problem to solve… Must not be much interest (or vision???) to improve support. BTW -- don't forget BMC did win an award for Best Support at WWRUG last year. -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Tommy Morris tommy.mor...@pinebreeze.com wrote: ** Wouldn’t it be nice if BMC had all of their client’s information on file so you wouldn’t have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H…. I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @ bmc .com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don't actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn't in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at mailto:@bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize that wonderful institutional knowledge they had, and the new support staff would be given all the training and support they needed to maintain a high level of support It hasn't worked out that way. 2 years after BMC pulled the trigger, support was so bad that I ended up in an hour long phone conversation with the individual who was tasked with managing that operation (I wish I could remember his name). I expressed my concerns and found that for the most part, he agreed with my
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.comwrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. ** ** For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) ** ** This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. ** ** ** ** Thanks, ** ** *Shawn Pierson * Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer ** ** *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Warren R. Baltimore II *Sent:* Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG *Subject:* Support - An open letter to BMC ** ** ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren,** Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. ** Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! * ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember sitting in a hall some years back (San Jose perhaps) and being told by BMC how it was going to be so wonderful when they offshore support. All of the domestic support people would be moved to different parts of the structure to utilize
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.comwrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. ** ** For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) ** ** This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. ** ** Thanks, ** ** *Shawn Pierson * Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer ** ** *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Warren R. Baltimore II *Sent:* Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG *Subject:* Support - An open letter to BMC ** ** ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: *Hi Warren,** Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com@bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. * My response was blunt: *With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. ** Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built!* ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay and little training. I remember
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
We're kind of tied into having to pay for support in order to be able to get patches and upgrades. So they have us by the . There's absolutely no incentive (negative or positive) to improving their support. - Original Message - From: Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:02:11 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.com wrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @ bmc .com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys?
On a separate but related note... On the ending sign off of all bmc support emails I receive it states: Customer feedback is very important to BMC Support and you may receive a survey request on this issue. I would appreciate your response to this survey based on the handling of this specific incident as your feedback is important to BMC Support and is used to assess my performance. But I have never received a survey, since the creation of my support id, BMC have closed 257 issues from me. Has anyone received one of these surveys? I was thinking that in the course of opening 250+ issues you think I might have received 1 survey :) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@arslist.org] On Behalf Of pritch Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 10:10 AM To: arslist@arslist.org Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We're kind of tied into having to pay for support in order to be able to get patches and upgrades. So they have us by the . There's absolutely no incentive (negative or positive) to improving their support. - Original Message - From: Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:02:11 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.com wrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @ bmc .com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys?
I've received several surveys. (I admit I've only responded to some, though.) David Durling University of Georgia -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Goodall, Andrew C Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 11:22 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys? On a separate but related note... On the ending sign off of all bmc support emails I receive it states: Customer feedback is very important to BMC Support and you may receive a survey request on this issue. I would appreciate your response to this survey based on the handling of this specific incident as your feedback is important to BMC Support and is used to assess my performance. But I have never received a survey, since the creation of my support id, BMC have closed 257 issues from me. Has anyone received one of these surveys? I was thinking that in the course of opening 250+ issues you think I might have received 1 survey :) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@arslist.org] On Behalf Of pritch Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 10:10 AM To: arslist@arslist.org Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We're kind of tied into having to pay for support in order to be able to get patches and upgrades. So they have us by the . There's absolutely no incentive (negative or positive) to improving their support. - Original Message - From: Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:02:11 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.com wrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer- based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @ bmc .com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys?
That's funny. It had gotten so that I was receiving a survey for almost every ticket closed. So much so that it was too time consuming to fill out the stupid thing. And take the inevitable call from the manager who would say that they were in a training cycle. Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on ATT - Reply message - From: Goodall, Andrew C ago...@jcp.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys? Date: Tue, Jun 5, 2012 10:20 am On a separate but related note... On the ending sign off of all bmc support emails I receive it states: Customer feedback is very important to BMC Support and you may receive a survey request on this issue. I would appreciate your response to this survey based on the handling of this specific incident as your feedback is important to BMC Support and is used to assess my performance. But I have never received a survey, since the creation of my support id, BMC have closed 257 issues from me. Has anyone received one of these surveys? I was thinking that in the course of opening 250+ issues you think I might have received 1 survey :) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@arslist.org] On Behalf Of pritch Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 10:10 AM To: arslist@arslist.org Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We're kind of tied into having to pay for support in order to be able to get patches and upgrades. So they have us by the . There's absolutely no incentive (negative or positive) to improving their support. - Original Message - From: Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:02:11 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.com wrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @ bmc .com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
This is exactly what I suggested to them on one of the tickets I had open to them.. Like Warren, I too have the habit of sending as much information as is sensible enough to do. I have the Environment Profile section loaded with the all information of my development, and other environments that I need to raise tickets on, for every customer I work for. To such an extent I copy paste the ar.cfg file and sometimes even the armonitor.cfg file on the description fields on that profile.. And I tend to keep that information up to date with every ticket that I raise. Yet invariably, I am used to getting that first time response that Warren got, so much so that now it no longer agitates me. I’ve almost reconciled to the fact that’s not likely to improve anytime too soon.. So I just view my preliminary effort to provide that information as time that I would save on my first response to their reply.. My first time response invariably is – please look at the environment profile, and the attachment section.. everything that you just asked for was already all there when this ticket was raised I am however slowly beginning to find that a very small percentage of them, do look into these sections of information.. I wish it was a little more consistent though.. I wouldn’t mind if 1 in 10 tickets if a personnel ended up asking this information that’s already out there, as I would attribute that to a new employee nervously performing his job functions on a new job, which is a human thing to err.. but when its 9 times out of 10 where they seem to not notice you have already give them enough information, then it does get a little aggravating.. Joe From: Tommy Morris Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 9:00 AM Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Wouldn’t it be nice if BMC had all of their client’s information on file so you wouldn’t have to list version, OS, etc? Maybe they could have a web portal where clients could log in and update their environment? Possibly the system could have a couple of different environment options such as Dev, QA, Prod and then a client created a support ticket they could select the environment that the issue is being reported upon? Oh! I know! Maybe, just maybe the data could be stored in some sort of configuration management something or other so that the data could be managed easily. H…. I wonder if BMC could find a useful tool that could handle that. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
They should have a cash back for every-time they do not respond within the agreed time frame or if their first initial response can be deemed void on the basis of its content, as in the case of Warrens complaint earlier on this thread.. That kind of response does not comply to what can be considered as a meaningful, valuable, sincere SLA. Its barely even qualifies as a sincere greeting. Just a response to dirty the ticket, is not a response. It has to be meaningful.. I think they need to define what can be considered a valid response.. Joe From: Pierson, Shawn Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 9:49 AM Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you with an excellent customer service experience. If for any reason you feel this issue is not progressing properly, please discuss it with me or feel free to contact our Support Manager * at @bmc.com I am ** and I shall be assisting you with this issue. This mail is regarding Issue ISS03967224with issue summary as: I am unable to search for a join of 3 forms utilizing the Request ID field. - Thanks for the initial information. I tried to call you unfortunately reached VM. In order to fully understand the affected environment and narrow down the possibilities, please address the following for me: 1) What is the AR Server version Patch level? 2) What is the OS and version that the Remedy environment is installed on? 3) What database and version does the AR Server use? Is it local or remote to the AR Server installation? 4) Have you upgraded your environment? If yes then from which version please specify? 5) Have you done any customization? Please explain? 6) When you are getting the error? 7) What is the exact error message you are getting - Please send me the information at your earliest, it will help me to investigate issue further. Kindly let me know if you have any concerns on this issue. My response was blunt: With the exception of question 5, I answered EVERY question in the ticket. Question 5: we have not upgraded. As to customization, lightly. You will notice that this is a join I built! ___ This has been indicative of support for about the last 6 or so years (whenever it was off shored). Support techs seem to read from a script. Based on what I was seeing, I suspect that this particular tech was reading only the description in a notification and not from the actual support request. I don't think I blame the techs. I suspect that they are all hard working people who get lousy pay
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys?
Yup, I always answer to those surveys, although I have a few opinions about those surveys as well as some of them tend to have questions that contradict each other in a way.. One could potentially argue that those were intentionally designed that way to separate honest opinions from someone who just fills up a survey cause they have nothing better to do at that time.. Even so I think that beats the purpose of such a survey as mostly support driven surveys are usually answered by those who do want to provide with meaningful responses either because their experience had been horrifying or just simply the best that they wanted to say something about it.. Having questions that contradict each other in these surveys beats the point of these surveys.. Joe -Original Message- From: Goodall, Andrew C Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 11:22 AM Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC - surveys? On a separate but related note... On the ending sign off of all bmc support emails I receive it states: Customer feedback is very important to BMC Support and you may receive a survey request on this issue. I would appreciate your response to this survey based on the handling of this specific incident as your feedback is important to BMC Support and is used to assess my performance. But I have never received a survey, since the creation of my support id, BMC have closed 257 issues from me. Has anyone received one of these surveys? I was thinking that in the course of opening 250+ issues you think I might have received 1 survey :) -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@arslist.org] On Behalf Of pritch Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 10:10 AM To: arslist@arslist.org Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC We're kind of tied into having to pay for support in order to be able to get patches and upgrades. So they have us by the . There's absolutely no incentive (negative or positive) to improving their support. - Original Message - From: Warren R. Baltimore II warrenbaltim...@gmail.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:02:11 AM Subject: Re: Support - An open letter to BMC ** And there lies the problem. If we don't pay support, we lose so much. As consumers of this product, we are between the proverbial Rock and a Hard Spot! On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Sundberg john.sundb...@kineticdata.com wrote: ** Until it hurts the pocketbook - NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!!. So - question is -- how do you make it hurt the pocketbook? -John On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Pierson, Shawn shawn.pier...@sug.com wrote: ** Perhaps a good alternative would be if BMC somehow made a volunteer-based support forum that could take the place of their offshore support. They could somehow anonymize the contact data to where you don’t actually know who the person you are dealing with is, and they could use this new gamification trend to pay the volunteers based on what happens. For example, pay a small fee to people who resolve a certain type of issue quickly by leveraging the knowledge base. You get paid more if you solve an issue that isn’t in the knowledge base and you submit a knowledge base entry that is approved by a BMC technical rep of some sort. Identifying new defects in the product (also requiring a technical approval) results in a certain amount of pay, while solving that defect with a working hotfix results in a larger amount. There would also be customer support surveys like BMC used to do, which would also be used as a factor in how much the individual makes (which should also ensure the person working on the issue is timely and courteous.) This would allow BMC to mostly get rid of Tier 1 for web-based non-critical tickets, and it would get them access to better people who may otherwise have day jobs that just want to solve issues for a bit of extra cash after hours. Thanks, Shawn Pierson Remedy Developer | Energy Transfer From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG ] On Behalf Of Warren R. Baltimore II Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 7:43 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Support - An open letter to BMC ** Once again, I have submitted a ticket that has an abundance of information regarding my problem. It lists the ARS version and patch It lists the Server type and OS It lists the Db and version It gives a succinct description of the issue I then received a response almost 45 minutes later (which I was quite pleased with! Quick Turn around!) After reading the response, I was tempted to buy a ticket to wherever the hell support was and deliver my feelings in person! Response follows: Hi Warren, Thank you for contacting BMC Remedy Support. Our goal at BMC is to provide you
Re: Support - An open letter to BMC
We understand your frustration and apologize for the poor customer experience regarding this issue. Our process is to validate with you the information in your customer profile and we did not do that in this case. We are working with our team to better utilize the information provided and ask only the necessary information to troubleshoot issues. We always want to hear how we can improve our support services, so please continue to fill out the surveys and provide feedback directly. Jay Shankar Vice President Customer Support - Americas BMC Software ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: Where the Answers Are
