support.esri.com very hard to get support

JaminShanti · ‎12-30-2013

Why is support.esri.com so bad at support? I can't really comment on the quality of support, because I never get any? There's so much red tape wrapped around this site it's unbearable. Authorized Callers, Levels of service, response times that are really bad(industry speaking)

I have been working with Cloudbuilder for AWS designed for ArcGIS 10.2 for a few months now, and other then links to web documents that look like they support demo projects I can't say I have found much that is helpful.

Why is my impression so bad of this site, and how do I find the tricks to navigate this support model?

I have used Many other supported products from large companies (50,000) to small(under 100) and this could be the worst I have ever experienced.

support.esri.com, only looks helpful. Half the screens can't be edited. and the other half are ignored by the techs. What's the point of contact info when they don't even use it?

RichardWatson · ‎12-31-2013

If you are not happy with the service you receive from ESRI support then my advice is to escalate the problem until you are.

I can tell you from personal experience that not all analysts are equally qualified. When you get the right analyst then things work well. When you get the wrong analyst you tend to waste a lot of time playing the email/phone game of "tag your are it".

ESRI does have the concept of premium maintenance. I have had that at a previous employer and things move with premium because you get more experienced analysts. Of course, I know that the counter argument is going to be "why should I have to pay more". In the end it all comes down to how much you value your time and energy.

Best of luck!

JaminShanti · ‎12-31-2013

I can tell you from personal experience that not all analysts are equally qualified. When you get the right analyst then things work well. When you get the wrong analyst you tend to waste a lot of time playing the email/phone game of "tag your are it".

Best of luck!

Hey thanks for replying, and those are good suggestions.

I have to say I am not a normal customer, I work for a company trying to sell a service on the arcgis marketplace, so it's not me that they are helping. They are indirectly helping their own ARCGIS customers. But for some strange reason they want us to buy premium service.

Our internal use doesn't justify premium service with the price tag that comes along with it, but this red tape that has been patched onto their lower service, in my opinion to motivate customer to move to premium, is unjustified for our company because we don't need premium service internally, we need it to sell this arcgis service.

All that this red tap with authorized callers and single site contacts accomplished is bad experience for their own end customers.
It's like this re-seller design is really just an attempt to extort more money out of companies they are asking for help?

"here sell this for us", but we need more money if you have questions on how our software works?

I would be happy if I had good contact with the arcgis 10.2 support team, and the cloud builder support team. Then I could get some real work done.

JaminShanti · ‎12-31-2013

I got another go ask someone else response.

"I've taken ownership of this incident and will be able to assist you in how to apply a patch to ArcGIS Server. Regarding your question on exporting a service from one machine to another you will need to create a separate incident with the Server Usage team as this deals with a different aspect of the software which I'm not trained in, I apologize for this inconvenience."

These aren't bad individually, but I have gotten several.

NidhinKarthikeyan · ‎12-31-2013

I got another go ask someone else response.

"I've taken ownership of this incident and will be able to assist you in how to apply a patch to ArcGIS Server. Regarding your question on exporting a service from one machine to another you will need to create a separate incident with the Server Usage team as this deals with a different aspect of the software which I'm not trained in, I apologize for this inconvenience."

These aren't bad individually, but I have gotten several.

Applying patch for ArcGIS Server and exporting Map Service from one machine to other are not related (support). According to ESRI�??s incident management/policy, separate incident should be created for both the issues/topics.

Members of the ESRI Technical Support team are specialists who focus on specific aspects of Esri's product. There is different groups/team in ESRI Technical Support (ArcGIS Server Implementation, ArcGIS Server Usage, ArcGIS Desktop Implementation, ArcGIS Desktop Usage, Geodata, SDK). The response which you had received was from ArcGIS Server Implementation (group) Analyst. They assist users for installing ArcGIS Server. It is entry level position and doesn�??t require prior knowledge of GIS. Someone with strong communication and problem solving skills is fit for it. It�??s just about installing the software. This doesn�??t mean that none of the Implementation Analyst doesn�??t have idea about AGS Usage or other aspects of ESRI�??s product. In your case, separate incidents should be created according to ESRI�??s Incident management/policy. Regarding �??Exporting Map Service from one machine to other�??: ArcGIS Server Usage Analyst will assist you once the incident is created.

If you are not happy with the support from analyst, you can request to escalate the incident through email or phone and a Tier II Analyst will assist you in resolving the incident.

NidhinKarthikeyan · ‎12-31-2013

I can tell you from personal experience that not all analysts are equally qualified. When you get the right analyst then things work well. When you get the wrong analyst you tend to waste a lot of time playing the email/phone game of "tag your are it".

True. I agree.

JaminShanti · ‎01-03-2014

So how do i get support on problems using the current case submission system?

Should I just give up and use an open source geoserver? The open source community is more responsive.

GeoServer (server) and Google Earth (client) look easier to use and their forums can provide some great answers.

http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/GeoServer-f3786387.html
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/earth

BubbaHey · ‎01-22-2014

I've had good experience with support. True you may get someone inexperienced sometime, but all you have to do is request
the issue be escalated - then you get a senior analyst. Actually now, I pretty much just post questions on the Forums. Either a forum member will help or I'll get a senior ESRI analyst or an ESRI developer.