Handling trials for GitLab.com

Maintained by:

Bronze and Silver trial subscriptions

GitLab.com only offers the self-service ability to trial the Gold subscription. With manager approval, GitLab.com support can assist with trials of other plans. Ask the user to create the GitLab.com Gold trial, then change the plan via the CustomersDot admin GitLab Groups page.

Extending trials

Sales will often request that we extend the duration of GitLab.com trials on behalf of their prospects. These issues will always have the Trial Extension label applied to them and the following workflow should be followed to service them.

If any fields in the issue description were filled out incorrectly by the submitter apply the Status::Blocked label and mention them in the issue asking them to supply any missing information.

NOTE: Due to customers #973 and customers #1643, these issues are currently marked for those engineers who have access to resolve them through CustomersDot console. Once those issues are resolved, these requests should be done via CustomersDot admin.

Assign yourself to the issue.
Check over the request and ensure that we've been provided enough information to action the request. To do this check that:
1. The GitLab.com Link to Namespace: field contains a valid GitLab.com link to the namespace that holds the active trial. This should not be a Salesforce link or email address.
2. The Extend Until: field contains a future date.
Use the Update Trial form processor to process the request.
1. If successful, this should create a new internal request issue documenting the change action. Link this new issue to the one where the extension was requested.
2. If there is an error while taking action, locate the error in sentry (see Searching Sentry if needed) and file an issue, or comment on an existing one.
If namespace needs to be adjusted manually, then add the ~Admin Escalation label, and if you do not have GitLab.com admin access, ping gitlab-com/support/dotcom.

Applying a trial to a namespace with an active subscription

At present, a namespace cannot have a trial and an active subscription run concurrently. A customer may request this if they wish to give a higher-tier subscription a trial.

There is an open feature request #12186 requesting to implement this functionality in GitLab. In the meanwhile, use the Update GitLab Subscription form processor to directly modify the customer's subscription:

Submit the form processor with the appropriate information filled out. This will create an internal request issue if the change is successfully applied.
Set a reminder for yourself at the end of the trial period to submit the form processor again to downgrade the namespace back to its original plan.
- You can use the issue due date functionality for this.

Workflow diagram

graph TD; A[Issue Created]-->B[Assign Yourself]; B-->C[Issue Actionable?]; C-->J[No]; J-->K[Apply Status::Blocked and Inform Submitter]; C-->D[Yes]; D-->E[Adjust Namespace via Customers Portal]; E-->F[Did it Work?]; F-->G[Yes]; G-->H[Note Issue and Close]; F-->I[No]; I-->L[Locate Error in Sentry or comment on existing issue]; click L "/handbook/support/workflows/500_errors.html#searching-sentry" "Diagnose Errors on GitLab.com" L-->M[Adjust Namespace Manually]; M-->N[Apply Status::On Hold, Set Due Date];