Working Support Ops Tickets

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6. Working Support Ops Tickets

On this page

• Overview
  • First time setup
    • The user is not associated to an organization
    • Using ChatOps
    • Using workbench
  • Manage my organization's contacts
  • Maximum contacts limit issues
  • Shared organization requests
  • Setup a contact management project
  • Support portal questions
  • Support portal issues
  • Other
    • Incorrect initial form tickets

Overview

Support Operations has a public form that end-users can use to submit tickets. These go directly to us. Currently, we have 6 problem types:

• First time setup
• Manage my organization's contacts
• Shared organization requests
• Support portal questions
• Support portal issues
• Other

First time setup

This is for user's who have not been setup in the support portal previously. Here they should detail what user's they'd like setup and any important details we should note for working with their organization.

There are two types of situations these can involve:

• The user is not associated to an organization
• The user is already associated to an organization

The latter simplifies the process and should mirror Manage my organization's contacts.

The user is not associated to an organization

To begin with, we will need to have the user prove their support entitlement. To do this, use the macro Support::Support Ops::Proof of support entitlement.

Once the user has replied with the requested information, we need to locate them in cDot:

• For Self-Managed customers
  • If given a license ID:
    1. Navigate to https://customers.gitlab.com/admin/license/xxx (replacing xxx with the license ID)
    2. Copy the Email on the license and search cDot using that (via the customer page).
  • If given the license email. search the licenses (via the license page). The use the information detailed above (If given a license ID).
  • If given a license file:
    1. Download the file to your computer and copy the contents of the file
    2. Validate the contents via the Validate License page.
    3. Grab the license ID from the output and use the information detailed above (If given a license ID).
• For SaaS customers
  1. Locate the top level namespace the user is a member of
  2. Determine the namespace's ID (see Using ChatOps)
  3. Locate the Zuora Subscription object in Salesforce by searching Zuora__Subscriptions__c.NamespaceID__c (see Using workbench for details on doing this)
     • You might find multiple subscriptions. Locate the one matching what is currently present from your results in step 2
  4. Go to the Salesforce Account and grab the Account ID (the 18 character one)

Note: This can be tricky and some nuisances can occur. If you encounter issues locating an account, please reach out to your fellow Support Operations Specialists for assistance.

After locating them in cDot, click the Edit tab to go to the customer edit page. On this page, copy the Salesforce account value. You will then use this to search in Zendesk for the organization in question (use salesforce_id:xxx for the 18 character values and sfdc_short_id:xxx for the 15 character values).

Once you have located the organization via search, you can then associate the user to that organization (pending no organization notes specifying otherwise).

After doing so, the process should then mirror Manage my organization's contacts.

Using ChatOps

To get the namespace ID via ChatOps, DM GitLab ChatOps the following:

/chatops run namespace find PARENT_NAMESPACE

Replacing PARENT_NAMESPACE with the parent namespace's path. Running this will produce results that include the namespace's ID.

Using workbench

To use workbench to locate the Salesforce Account ID:

1. Navigate to https://workbench.developerforce.com/query.php
2. Run the following query:
   • SELECT Account_ID_18__c, Zuora__SubscriptionStartDate__c, Zuora__SubscriptionEndDate__c, GitLabNamespaceID__c, GitLabNamespaceName__c FROM Zuora__Subscription__c WHERE GitLabNamespaceID__c = 'XXXXX'
     • Replacing XXXXX with the namespace ID
3. Review the results to locate the row that aligns with expectations
4. Copy the Account_ID_18__c value

You might need to review the account in Salesforce specifically to determine if you have the correct one.

Manage my organization's contacts

This is for user's wishing to setup their organization within the support portal and are not using a contact management project. They should only be coming from users who are already associated to their organization. If they are not associated, please see First time setup.

• For requests to add users:
  1. Check the organization in question and review the number of support contacts they have currently.
     • If adding the requested changes would put the organization over the maximum allowed 30 contacts, switch over to the Maximum contacts limit issues workflow.
  2. Search Zendesk to determine if the user already exists but is not associated to the organization
     • If they do exist, associate them to the organization
     • If they do not exist, make a mental note you had to create the users for the requested changes.
  3. For requests to add users who did not already exist in Zendesk:
     • Go to the organization page, click the dropdown arrow to the top-right of the page (on the same line as the organization's name), and select Add user option. A pop-up modal will appear asking for the name and email of the new user. Enter the relevant information and click the blue Add button (the User type will always be End user).
     • If you do not know the user's name, as only an email was provided, use the full email address as the name.
• For requests to remove users:
  1. Locate the user in question (either via the Users tab on the organization page or via search). From there:
     • If the user in question has a non-closed ticket, make a mental note of this. As there is a non-closed ticket, we should not remove them at this time. The requester will need to specify what they want done about this (close out the ticket, keep the user, etc.)
     • If the user in question was one mentioned in an organization note specifying users approved to request changes, make a mental note to adjust the organization note via the organizations project.
  2. Remove the association to the organization on the user (done by setting the organization to -).
  3. Add a note on the user with the following:

     User was de-associated from the organization as per TICKET_LINK

     • Replace TICKET_LINK with the link to the request.

After doing the above, you need to reply to the requester confirming the state of their request. To assist in this process, we have some macros you can use:

• Support::Support Ops::Users added to organization
• Support::Support Ops::Users removed from organization
• Support::Support Ops::User has non-closed tickets
• Support::Support Ops::Users need to perform password reset

These can be used in combination of one another, as they are not full response macros (but instead pieces of a full response).

Maximum contacts limit issues

When a organization not using a contact management project exceeds 30 support contacts (or a request to add more contacts would do so), we need to intervene to address that issue. For these types of issues:

1. You should first use the macro Support::Support Ops::Maximum contacts reached. This will require you to attach a CSV of the current contact list for the organization. To get a CSV:
   1. Go to the Advanced Search app, click the Users tab, enter the organization's ID in the Organization field, then click the blue Search button
2. Click Columns and deselect all checkboxes except for Name and Email
3. Click the blue Download CSV button and wait for the download to complete
   • We suggest renaming the file to something less vague for the customer, such as their organizations name or something involving the ticket ID.
4. You will then work with the user to help determine what users to remove (see Manage my organization's contacts for more info). This can vary in what exactly will be done, so use your best judgment or ask for assistance in the support operations slack channel.

Remember, once the maximum contacts limit issue is fixed, you might need to review the ticket and go back to a previous issue that the ticket was raised about.

Shared organization requests

These are requests for shared organization setup/management. See the Shared Organizations workflow for more details.

Setup a contact management project

These requests are a bit more complicated to do. Please see Contact management projects for more information on doing these.

Support portal questions

These are were general questions about the support portal should go. Do your best to answer the questions presented in a timely manner.

Support portal issues

These are reports of issues within the support portal. While each issue can present unique challenges, the common troubleshooting guide for these would be:

1. Ask the user for commonly needed info:
   • Ask the user to confirm their browser is not blocking third party cookies
   • They might need to whitelist these values:
     • [*.]zendesk.com
     • [*.]zdassets.com
     • [*.]gitlab.com * Ask the user to confirm they have deleted all cookies and cache (and re-logged in). * Ask the user for the browser type being used. * Ask the user for the browser version being used. * Ask the user for a list of browser plugins being used. * Ask the user for a list of browser themese being used. * Ask the user for a list of browser extensions being used. * Ask the user for the JS Console output. * Ask the user for a HAR file.
2. Speak with the rest of the Support Ops team about the ticket.
3. Escalate the issue to Zendesk Support.

Other

This is a catchall field, meaning there is no specific workflow for requests using this problem type.

Incorrect initial form tickets

When a ticket is filed using the incorrect form, agents will use the General::Forms::Incorrect form used macro. This will change the form to our form, tag the ticket, and leave an internal note. From there, we are expected to review the ticket and resolve the problem.

To do this, the best approach is often to create a new ticket for the customer using the correct form. When doing this, review the original ticket to best determine which form to use (if you are unsure, reach out to a Support Manager or Support Ops Manager for assistance).

Notes:

1. If the ticket needs to undergo the Needs-Org process, please do that in the original ticket first. We want the new ticket to be as ready to be worked as possible, and starting a new ticket we created for an end-user with the Needs-Org process is not a great customer experience.
2. If you determine the ticket is from a free or community user, there is no need to create a new ticket. Instead, simply change the form to the appropriate support form and ensure the SaaS/Self-managed Subscription is set to 'Free User'. This will ensure the ticket will have no SLA and will be visible in the Free user tickets view.

Once you determine the correct form, you should review what ticket fields that form uses and what information is missing. In the original ticket, leave an internal comment saying which form needed to be used and what data is missing. Any of the data you can determine based on the original ticket is a plus, as it will skip needing to ask the customer to reply with that information in the new ticket. An example note could be:

The correct form should have been Self-Managed.

The missing data is:

• Self-Managed Problem Type
• GitLab Install Type
• GitLab Version

Once you have noted the original ticket, create the new ticket using the correct ticket form. Make sure to file the ticket using https://support.gitlab.com/hc/en-us/requests/new (you may need to use a different browser or an incognito window) so the first reply is from the original requester and not an agent (this ensures it gets the FRT SLA). Make sure to fill in as much of the information as is possible. For any information you do not readily know, do your best to guess for the time being.

Some notes to help in filing the ticket properly:

• The subject of the ticket should be the exact same as the original ticket.
• The description should be in the format:

  Greetings ,

  Recently you filed ticket # with us. Sadly, it was using the incorrect form and was filed incorrectly on our end. To help clear that up and get you working with the correct team, we are filing this new ticket on your behalf.

  During our review of ticket #, we did find some needed information was missing. Please comment back as soon as possible with the following information:

  While we review your ticket, here is some other data you could also send that is often helpful to us: * A GitLabSOS report (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/toolbox/gitlabsos/) if you are using Omnibus * A KubeSOS report (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/toolbox/kubesos/) if you are using Kubernetes Your original request's ticket description was as follows:

• Markdown does not work for customer filed tickets. Try to limit the markdown used to markdown that will still render properly in plaintext

Once the new ticket is created, notate the original ticket and send a reply using the Support::Support-Ops::Response to original ticket using an incorrect form macro.