Has MS 365 (exchange online) support gotten worse ?

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1101

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#257440 3-Oct-2019 10:33

Has MS 365 (exchange online) support gotten worse ?

Their support used to be excellent.
My recent experience was less than stellar, I would say verging on lazyness .

Not ringing back 2 hours later as arranged (was over a day later)
When support staff finished their shift, the support ticket is left as is, no follow up, open support ticket not move on to the next support shift

Basicaly, open (urgent) support jobs wernt followed up and 'fixed' , just left as is, unresolved .

This was a shock, as they used to be very good.
So , anyone else notice MS 365 support getting worse ?

Dynamic

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#2328898 3-Oct-2019 10:41

As a partner, we've had all positive experiences with 365 support, as best I remember. There can be a bit of frustration with repeated questions when jobs are handed from one tech to another, and accents can be tricky at times, but that is about it. As a partner, we may be 'lucky' and skip the first level techs that you may be getting. I don't think any of our clients have gone straight to Microsoft for any queries, so I've not heard any feedback from them at all.

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gehenna

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#2328900 3-Oct-2019 10:42

Consistently positive experience here too. Make sure you communicate your displeasure if you get poor service, they're great at responding to the feedback.

1101

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#2328914 3-Oct-2019 10:53

Its not their technical skills I'm concerned about

Its the lack of follow up, on open jobs . Support tickets just being left open, unresolved and unloved . :-(
I shouldnt need to wait untill the next day when that tech starts the next days shift and hope he actually checks the jobs status.

I only had the issue resolved buy INSISTING , several times, that the tech hand the job over to someone else when his shift ended and INSISTING that next
tech then ring me with an update .

I guess the lesson here is ask when the support techs's shift ends, and making sure that open support ticket is handed over to the next shift to follow up on. And insist the
next shift ring you with a update .

Dynamic

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#2328920 3-Oct-2019 11:02

I don't know what they promise around support. We've had urgent items resolved in one call, and non-urgent items take a few days with one follow up call from them to us per day, so no handover from one shift to the next required.

Perhaps part of the problem is SLA (Service Level Agreement) expectations? Do you know what SLA applies to your 365 subscription? 365 services are very good, with pretty reasonable pricing (in my opinion). They are not premium services with premium pricing and premium levels of support unless you upgrade.

https://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-for-business-support-options

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#2328939 3-Oct-2019 11:30

I've only had to deal with them once a few years ago - it took them that long to actually understand what we needed, it ended up exceeding the time window O365 has for recovering files that we just told them to forget it. Informed our Global CIO who tore strips off MS for stuffing us around after all their promises that our requests would be managed promptly.

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#2329001 3-Oct-2019 12:15

Generally when I've dealt with them they've been decent. The one time I can remember where we were getting the first level run around we got our TAM involved and within 30 minutes had a senior engineer on the phone who could fix our issue.

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1101

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#2329430 4-Oct-2019 09:14

Dynamic:

Perhaps part of the problem is SLA (Service Level Agreement) expectations? Do you know what SLA applies to your 365 subscription? 365 services are very good, with pretty reasonable pricing (in my opinion). They are not premium services with premium pricing and premium levels of support unless you upgrade.

https://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-for-business-support-options

from that linked site
Office 365 Business plans
"Events that prevent you from accessing or using your services or data, severely impact deadlines or profitability, or affect multiple users or services. "
Available: 24/7
Response time: one hour

The initial response time was very good ,as it allways has been so far , about 15-20minutes.
The issue was support not bothering to follow up on an open unresolved support ticket .

Dynamic

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#2329444 4-Oct-2019 09:33

I can quite believe that is frustrating.

Perhaps consider buying your licenses via a CSP partner (like us) who can escalate this stuff easier. The monthly license cost to you would be the same, though license additions and removals form your account would need to be done by the CSP partner.

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Jogre

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#2331781 7-Oct-2019 11:19

1101:

Dynamic:

Perhaps part of the problem is SLA (Service Level Agreement) expectations? Do you know what SLA applies to your 365 subscription? 365 services are very good, with pretty reasonable pricing (in my opinion). They are not premium services with premium pricing and premium levels of support unless you upgrade.

https://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-for-business-support-options

from that linked site
Office 365 Business plans
"Events that prevent you from accessing or using your services or data, severely impact deadlines or profitability, or affect multiple users or services. "
Available: 24/7
Response time: one hour

The initial response time was very good ,as it allways has been so far , about 15-20minutes.
The issue was support not bothering to follow up on an open unresolved support ticket .

As a first step, I'd let the agent know you're upset with service. Second step, their manager is usually in their email signature to drop them a line/email with the fact that arranged callbacks are being missed and end-customer satisfaction is being impacted. I need to check what the local option for making us aware so we can investigate is.

Jono Green

Microsoft New Zealand

allan

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#2331896 7-Oct-2019 14:10

Frankly my whole experience with Microsoft support has been abysmal. I have an issue that has not been resolved after 10 attempts to have it dealt with. The experience frustrated me so much, that I've just been putting up with the issue over recent months. It's not a straightforward issue to resolve because a trial I embarked on, has created an Office 365 business account when I don't really have one and that has caused most of the confusion at their end.

However, in attempting to get this dealt with, the main reason for my annoyance is that Microsoft have no internal process for handing a case from one team to another, which means you need to start over when referred elsewhere and requests for escalation to a level where someone could deal with it cross-teams have just been ignored.