Actinic Support

[cbarling]

An update.

Three new support people joined on Monday 8th September. Of course, it will take a while for them to get up to speed. We are still looking for a further three people and are up to our knecks in CVs and interviews.

We believe that we solved the phone problem last week. This problem was where people got to the front of the queue and then went to the answerphone. I didn't want to report this progress as we wanted to see if there were any further problems reported. We need to check on this latest information, but it is different from the previously reported problems.

We don't give out the geographic number for two reasons:

- our disaster recovery will only re-route the 0845 number, so if everyone starts using the geographic number and we have to invoke DR, people will still be calling the burned out (or whatever) office

- 0845 is local call so everyone gets reasonably cheap calls whatever their package and wherever they live

Nilesh, I would like to apologise for your poor experience. I think (hope) that your dropped call was just one of those things that occasionally happens on the phone. Having said that, the 25 minute wait is far too long. I don't know about today (I wasn't in the office) but yesterday we had holidays, paternity leave and three people off sick, which is obviously hard to plan for.

In the previous couple of weeks we have answered the phone as follows:

01-September to 05-September
Average ring duration (sec): 70.8
Longest wait time (mins): 11.9
Performance of SLA: 81%

26-August to 29-August
Average ring duration (sec): 100.8
Longest wait time (mins): 16.02
Performance of SLA: 78%

The SLA is to answer 95% of calls within 2 minutes, and we have been missing this which isn't good enough. However, it is a big improvement from results a few weeks ago.

So can I just re-emphasise that we are taking this extremely seriously. Our actions will address the issues, but it will still be a while before we are at the service level that we want. Our peak for calls is in October, so it is likely to remain difficult for the next few weeks.

Chris

[nileshpa]

Chris - Many thanks for your swift reply.

To help with any investigation, my call was between 3:50 pm and 4:20 pm. and I know it got picked up before it dropped off. Perhaps its one of those phone things. I also made a couple of calls in the afternoon but gave up after about 5 or 7 mins as I was needed on the shop floor. What I'm saying is that guys like me who are also on the shop floor cannot hide away in back office for too long. Now, aiming to achieve 2 mins to answer 95% of calls is good. If thats the case, then i think we can live with 0845 number but I still believe 0800 number should be for Actinic Cover customers.

With regards to getting the new guys upto reasonable support levels, this will take time which is not what everyone has if its going to impact their own business. I do believe you when you say everything is been done so lets hope things improve asap. Actinic has a good following which should not be lost.

Nilesh

[Darren B]

0845 is local call so everyone gets reasonably cheap calls whatever their package and wherever they live

I had been taught by members of the forum that a geographical number was better for business

IMHO i hate these numbers, and your right Chris it is only a few pence for a call maybe around £1.20 for 30mins but if your someone that has been calling on a regular basis chasing issues then this £1.20 becomes alot more. Not a huge amount but if you are getting free calls to national geographic numbers then it becomes a bug bare.

On a side note im glad you have more staff and are still interviewing, It has definately been noticable that actinic have a staffing issue across the board. i wish you well with your training and keep my fingers crossed that they are all up to speed soon.

[chris ashdown]

How about a update on V9.0.3 chris

This is getting rediculous, we have been told its two weeks away for nearly two months, Many of us are desperate to update our sites but scared to touch them in 9.0.1-2, we know the multi updates were a pain and you are trying to corrwect everything in one go, but there must be a better solution than two months

How about a firm release date and spec of 9.0.3 and leave the minor bugs to 9.0.4

[george]

Things are tight if we're bothered about dialling an 0845 number these days.


*If this is some sort of wishlist can we have a normal landline number, and support open till say, 10 at night and all weekend, that way I can use my free minutes after 7pm.


Cheers the noo, George.

[george]

Many of us are desperate to update our sites

Why are you so desperate to update Chris? I assume the sites you have are working fine as it is? (What are your sites on anyway fella, v8 or 9?) Is there a feature you are waiting for?


I'd rather see Actinic release things when they are as damn near reliable as they can be, rather than have stuff that does not work properly or can give new `issues`.

[Sean Williams]

Hello Chris
could you respond to the issue raised that those of us who pay for support should have a direct/fast track through to an experienced support person?
I would have thought that this would be to your advantage in the long run as if we receive what we pay for, we will renew our support contract.
As things stand, we will not be renewing our contract as we have not received any benefits or service worth paying for.
The support has been mostly poor and we dropped v 9.0 immediately as it was almost unusable without a lot of extra work - so why should we keep paying for something we simply don't receive ie; decent support and free updates and new releases?

Thanks

[chris ashdown]

Why are you so desperate to update Chris? I assume the sites you have are working fine as it is? (What are your sites on anyway fella, v8 or 9?) Is there a feature you are waiting for?


I'd rather see Actinic release things when they are as damn near reliable as they can be, rather than have stuff that does not work properly or can give new `issues`.

Hi George

We are working on 9.0.1 with a mod that solves the sync problem until recently and now returns on one computer, waiting to install new design in next week or so but rather update to 9.0.3 before importing new design

Understand everyone wants the perfect software, but this is a major update so we are lead to belive so a few minor bugs for the next release would not go to far astray

From what I understand 9.0.2 was a quick botch so rather wait for this big one, but for how long, only comments ever given are about two weeks time which never comes

[pinbrook]

could you respond to the issue raised that those of us who pay for support should have a direct/fast track through to an experienced support person?

that would be everyone then. if you don't pay for support you don't have telephone support regardless of the person at the other end being experienced or not.

check the certificate you have detailing your cover subscription - use the phone number on it.

peeps who haven't got cover can only use email support

[Sean Williams]

I didn't realise that - thanks Jo.
I don't know whether this makes me feel better, or even more depressed - that this is all we can hope for until 'things improve'

[Darren B]

check the certificate you have detailing your cover subscription - use the phone number on it.

That be the certificate i have never received then And have mentioned this to both CB & CD

I came to the conclusion that as i have been paying for so many years that this was a new thing and perhaps when i started they did not do them. To be fare i have hardly ever rang support never found the need to, And the worst call que i think i had was position 4 which took about 10 mins to get answered. (this was within the last few months)

Things are tight if we're bothered about dialling an 0845 number these days.

This is true, i just dont like them, but you here so many stories about the costs of these i prefer not to use them incase.

Maybe if i was ringing on a daily basis spending £5 a day i might get the arse.

D

[RuralWeb]

Personally I think support is very cheap for what you get. Now correct me if Im wrong but I seem to remember that having support entitles you to a limited number of requests but some are treating it almost as a free design service ringing constantly and taking more of the time support is available.

I may be wrong but if people used it as intented then more people would get a share of the cake.

Also there are several warnings when using the software that support will not be given if certain mods are made eg perl - but these seem to be ignored and of course Actinic crashes.

I have seen posted on the forum that some people do whatever they want with the software knowing that if they break it they will simply send it to support to fix. Imagine if Ford worked on that principle ie smash the car into a wall but dont worry just send it back and we will sort it for free.

[Mark H]

The problem we and others have with the delay to 9.03 is that we are waiting for it to arrive before we move to V9 at all, this is not an issue about upgrading from an earlier version of V9. We are still on V7, and really want to move on now, and don't want to go to V8 then V9.

[RuralWeb]

we are waiting for it to arrive before we move to V9 at all

Well - I would not wait to be honest. Unless you have some really odd setup with your current site then IMO V9 is working OK - I have now converted/built many V9 sites and they are all working well.

You need to decide now ie the next few weeks or wait until after christmas.

[RuralWeb]

We are still on V7

Missed that bit - remember you will need to start from scratch using V9 as upgrading from 7 to 8 or 9 is not recommended unless your site is pretty much standard Actinic which by the looks of it it is not. SO its going to take you a while