Using a forum for technical support

Al Hart

We have a client who feels rather strongly that a forum should not be used for technical support:

Why is this so hard for you to understand. A forum is not tech support. I sent a message and a private file to you so that you could supposedly fix the problem. ... I didn't ask that my words be put on your forum, and in fact doing so violates the privacy of the email I sent to you. I don't want the response posted on the forum.

Here was one of our responses:

@unknownuser said:

When we receive an email request, we often post it to our forum, so that others may learn from the responses and also help with the solutions.

I am sorry that this method does not work for you.

We respect your privacy by not listing your name on the forum.

I am going to ask other forum users what they think about using a forum for support, and also post this on the SketchUcation forum so I can get opinions from their users.

What do you think? Is it appropriate to use either the SCF forum, or our own forum to provide technical support?

(You can see what we posted on our forum here: RPS Forum

PeterCharles

What's the cost of the software?
What's the cost of support for the software?

These factors are likely to colour my thinking on the subject.

honoluludesktop

He is absolutely correct. It is my understanding, and one I support even when I think otherwise, that here on SUcation's forum, one should not publish a pm. IMO, removing, and hiding the senders identity is OK.

Jim

You just did it again.

Forums are great for tech support - many people will even volunteer to help out. But many people are lurkers and this guy would not have emailed if he felt comfortable posting on the forum. Respect that, or at least ask first.

jeff hammond

emails and PMs etc are private and should only be made public with permission.

[not speaking laws here and i don't know what the actual laws on that are but i'm talking more of the general understanding of the internet.. ie- you might not get into any real trouble by reposting but it's discourteous and unprofessional]

Mike Lucey

Al,

How about this approach?

'....... Mmmmmm ....... now isn't this strange! We just had the very same question asked an hour ago and we are answering it on the forums ..... blah blah blah ......BTW an excellent question '

Mike

honoluludesktop

Mike, That's a great idea. After discussing the problem with his client, Adam could restate the problem, and post its solution on the forum. He can then refer him to that solution. This way everyone benefits.

Bep

A FAQ or a questons & answers tread with no names mensiond would be te solution

Bep van Malde

Al Hart

Thanks for the replies.

There seem to be two related sub-topics in this thread:

Is a forum a good place to do technical support?
(In this case it is a forum only for technical support. so there is no confusion.)
Is it OK to quote from a email when starting a forum posting.

Here is a recent example. I received an email with this question:

@unknownuser said:

I have a photograph of an existing house that we took with a camera. I drew a house with sketchup that I need to insert onto the site photo, and I need to remove the existing house from the photo. Is this something that renderplus can help me with?

I responded with:

@unknownuser said:

I'll post this on our forum and see if any users have any good ideas

I placed the query on the SCF forum, and got some very valuable responses.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=30163

Since we prefer to do support on-line rather than by email, if I wanted to ask each person who sends an email whether it was all right to place their request (with no identifying information) on our forum, it would slow down the response process.

I do respect PM's as private. Since the person is already on the forum, and chose to use a PM, I respect their request for privacy. However, when a person send me an email, and does not request privacy, I am more willing to quote from it to start a forum message.

I guess I kind of resented the particular email, which prompted me to start this thred, which started out:

@unknownuser said:

I would say that I was surprised, but I am not [..] that your program, that I paid for and you don't provide online support for,...

We, of course, we do provide on-line support on our forum. So his tone got me off on the wrong track.

jeff hammond

hmm. yeah, i guess if you're quoting emails anonymously with no identifying info and/or files such as skps or pictures etc. then it shouldn't really be a problem to do sans_permission.

personally i'd be ok if you did that (the anonymous thing) with a mail of mine but at the same time, i can understand someone else being upset by it.

Al Hart

Especially someone who's email reads like this:

@unknownuser said:

Your company makes the [...] software and yet you post the [...] message to a forum instead of giving me a solution. This is [...].
I don't want a [...] discussion. I want a solution so that I didn't waste my money and my time with your software.

@unknownuser said:

personally i'd be ok if you did that (the anonymous thing) with a mail of mine but at the same time, i can understand someone else being upset by it.

mitcorb

If the ellipsis in brackets [...] represents some impolite, profane terminology and comes from someone in a professional context, then I have a problem with that. Plain and simple- that is not very professional. They appear to be taking out all of their frustrations, including those from other sources, on you.
I cannot address the matter of publish or not publish an email. This would either be a stated policy or not.

Al Hart

@mitcorb said:

If the ellipsis in brackets [...] represents some impolite, profane terminology and comes from someone in a professional context, then I have a problem with that. Plain and simple- that is not very professional. They appear to be taking out all of their frustrations, including those from other sources, on you.
I cannot address the matter of publish or not publish an email. This would either be a stated policy or not.

Yes - the [...] represent the worst imaginable profanities. I decided to reply to each email politely.

I will add a note that we reserve the right to publish support questions on our forum to our support page. But I suspect this person never found our support page. However, it does protect me when someone gets mad about seeing their words in print.

olishea

Al its very simple, just ask first if it's OK. 95% of people will agree unless they are feeling particularly selfish.

Now you are copying and pasting his emails again which will surely piss him off even more!! just stop!! step away from the keyboard!

jeff hammond

there's somewhat of a mixup in this thread though.. the thread is basically talking about right vs. wrong in posting emails on a support forum..

the customer complaint has nothing to do with that though. (if i'm reading it correctly)

he's saying " i paid for this [...] product and i want the [...] attention i feel i deserve.. i demand some [...] help by you, the owner and/or company representative.. not some [...] [...] on a [...] internet forum"

i don't think he/she really cares that his email was made public.. he's bummed that he feels he's being ignored (and hey, maybe rightly so.. but i don't know all the particulars to say that as fact)

[edit] -
it's like buying a computer that won't boot then asking the company for advice on dealing with it but they tell you to go ask someone on the internet how to fix it.

Al Hart

I think I will change the word 'forum' to 'help desk'.

If forum has more of a social con nation, then 'help desk' may sound more professional.

(The thread was originally started to ask if it was ok to provide a forum for support.)

For the record, we immediately responded to the original query and asked for a .SKP file so we could try to reproduce the problem. We received a file, and have reproduced the problem. However, with the time pressures oh the SketchUp Basecamp and the long weekend we may not be able to resolve the problem until next week.

@unknownuser said:

there's somewhat of a mixup in this thread though.. the thread is basically talking about right vs. wrong in posting emails on a support forum..

the customer complaint has nothing to do with that though. (if i'm reading it correctly)

he's saying " i paid for this [...] product and i want the [...] attention i feel i deserve.. i demand some [...] help by you, the owner and/or company representative.. not some [...] [...] on a [...] internet forum"

i don't think he/she really cares that his email was made public.. he's bummed that he feels he's being ignored (and hey, maybe rightly so.. but i don't know all the particulars to say that as fact)

[edit] -
it's like buying a computer that won't boot then asking the company for advice on dealing with it but they tell you to go ask someone on the internet how to fix it.