Support Through App or Web Portal

[KachinaShadow]

Been working on an issue with Support and have had great success being able to use the "Support Center" on both the app & web portal, especially with being able to communicate directly with L2 Support on a specific issue where you wouldn't want to start over with a phone support person who knows nothing about what you and Support have been working on for months.

My latest case had been going on for almost a year and I was able to have great success communicating with L2 support, and to somewhat compensate me for all the hassle I was given a code for free months. In an update to the case, I sent a message (January 20th) on that specific case (where I had been communicating for months), I noted that this was a time sensitive question as it regarded the free months and my renewal date was coming up on February 3rd...TODAY (February 10th) I FINALLY RECEIVED A REPLY!  Note that I had, by taking a shot in the dark, taken care of it myself.

Now here's the big problem...The Support Center, on both the app & web portal, NOW HAS NO PLACE to type in any message to update the case, but only a place to attach a photo and send it (you can imaging which finger I wanted to send a pic of 😠). The only other option that's shown is "request a call" or "chat"...neither of which would be any help if you were working with L2 support on a specific issue.

So I was forced to choose "request a call" and within a couple of minutes I received a call from India and had to spend 10 minutes trying to explain the issue of the reply feature being gone.

I'm not sure why there's always a new issue with Arlo but it can be quite frustrating at times.

Paul 🤔

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN @JamesC 
Maybe one of you can get this Support Center issue fixed (please see my first post)

Here's what support sent me in regards to my call this morning about the problem with the Support Center. As you can see there's no place to update or reply to this case (as there has been in the past)...only the option to "receive a phone call", "chat" or send a picture, none of which does any good if you've been working with an L2 support person (or anyone else) with back and forth text conversations regarding whatever issue the case would involve.

Also, you can see that this says nothing about what the issue was and says that there's some KB articles (there are none) to resolve my query. Of course I can't imagine any KB articles that address the fact that the ability to respond is no longer there.

This is messed up 🙄

Paul

[KachinaShadow]

I forgot something...a while after I had the call with support was when I received the email that was referred to above.
I also missed a call from Arlo, who left a voice mail telling me to call back at the number that had called about that case. When I tried that, I got a recording that said that the number was for outgoing calls and to reach them I could go to the "Support Center" on the app or web portal and leave a message...YOU'RE KIDDING RIGHT!!! The entire case was about NOT being able to do just that.
Paul

[BrookeN]

what device are you using? I am on an iPhone and I still see that option. Have you tried to uninstall and reinstall the app to see if that helps?

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

This issue is on both the app (Android) and the web portal (PC). When you go to "Support Center" on either and select an open support case, then go to the last entry of that particular case (I currently have two), you used to have a place where you would type a response/update to that particular case which is how I communicated back and forth with L2 support on a case that was ongoing for most of last year...email updates of a case also tell you to go there to update your case.

Note that yesterday afternoon I spoke with another phone support agent to try and clarify the issue (she had no way of seeing it on her end 🤔 ???) but we did try having me attach the same pic that I attached above, so that she could see what I was talking about, but all she got was the JPG file name with no pic to view or open.

The attached pic, in the second post above (which is from the web portal), shows what now shows up at the end of the last case entry and you can see where there's no place to enter any kind of reply to that case. Below is a screenshot from the app and there is also no place to enter a reply like there was in the past...interesting that it has the "Arlo.jpg attached successfully" on there (which is the pic I attached yesterday while talking to support) but there's no image. Also, clicking anywhere on there, except "add file" does nothing. Note that the web portal now shows that same "Arlo.jpg attached successfully" but still no place for any reply/update to be included.

[BrookeN]

You will need to use the phone or chat feature for support. 

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

No disrespect to you but that makes no sense at all. I just spent months working with an L2 support tech on an issue that required continuous back and forth conversation (such as when they changed something and wanted me to try it and report back to him) and to have to chat or request a call each time, which would come from someone who knew nothing about what was going on, is just ludicrous...why would they expect that to benefit anyone?

When I called the second time yesterday, after seeing that the first support person didn't understand the issue (as shown by her case update), I spent the first ten minutes trying to explain to the second person what had transpired with the first person, and the next 15 minutes getting her to understand what the issue was.

When Arlo included the new Support Center access through the app & web portal, it was promoted as an accessible way to communicate with support...now that's gone.

None of this makes sense...maybe it could be suggested that someone rethink this and return Customer Support to actually be effective instead of having to talk to different people about the same issue.

Paul

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 
Hi Brooke,

Here's what I was talking about (pic at bottom).

These are the emails that you receive when support posts something regarding your case and requests an update from you that they need regarding the case. When you click on the "Update Case" button it takes you to the "Support Requests" page of the app or web portal, where you can read the update from support and reply to it...directly to the person who sent it.
As you can see it says to "click on the Update Case button to update your case" along with "if we do not receive a response from you within 4 days, your case will be automatically closed". Well good luck with that...since, in the past, you could actually update your case easily and directly with the person that you've been working with all along, but now you have to request a callback and try to explain the case and your updated reply, hoping that a first level support understands, 10 minutes later, what you've been talking to a L2 support person about...which is who they turned it over to when the case was created because they couldn't figure it out.

This is why it makes no sense to take away the text box while leaving only the attach pic function, which for the life of me I can't figure out what they expect you to attach. Relaying important info on an issue between multiple people can only lead to confusion, and that's not what is needed when trying to solve a problem.

Could you please forward this to whoever might be in charge of it?

Thanks a bunch,
Paul

[BrookeN]

You will now need to start a chat or call. And the agent will be able to look at in previous notes and be able to assist you from there. 

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Hi again Brooke,

Sorry, I got so wrapped up in writing that I forgot to attach the pic of the email 🤔

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN

---

@BrookeN wrote:

You will now need to start a chat or call. And the agent will be able to look at in previous notes and be able to assist you from there. 

---

So me having called (or waiting to have someone call me) twice the other day for well over 20 minutes each time (actually the second time was closer to 30 minutes), because I saw that what the first person had put in the update was information that wasn't even close to what the issue was or what we had discussed...that doesn't seem like any way to provide adequate support for a product that we have already spent a lot of time and money on.
Don't get me wrong, I know it's not you (you're great at what you do for us) but there's got to be someone at Arlo who can read this entire post and make a decision about putting this back to the way it was.

It would be really great if you could possibly get it to someone that could take look at it

Thank You,

Paul

[BrookeN]

I appreciate your feedback and I will pass this onto the appropriate team. I can help you as well within the community, so please reach out any time you have a question. 

[KachinaShadow]

Thanks Brooke...you're the best 😁

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Hi Brooke,
I know you've already referred this Customer Support fiasco on to the appropriate team, but I thought I'd share just how bad this has really gotten...

Today I got an email (pic below) asking me to take a survey and when I click on the "take survey" button, it immediately goes to a white screen with "Thank you for the feedback" in the middle of it (second pic below).

So along with not being able to "Update" a case, now you can't even let them know how you feel about that ☹️

[BrookeN]

It appears to be working on my end. Can you try clearing the cache and cookies by chance?

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 
Hi Brooke,
Thank you...clearing the cache & cookies worked 😀 and I was able to take the survey.

Here's something for you...I know you already forwarded the "unable to reply or update a support case" to the appropriate team but I thought I'd share something I just received from support with you, regarding this case, so you can see just how confusing and discouraging it is to work with first level support on a case...

The first pic (below) shows the email I received about the case "requires additional information" which, as you know, it no longer allows you to provide.

The second pic (below) is where it becomes really confusing and is discouraging that someone in support would actually post (to the case) something which makes no sense at all...note that I added the highlight, underlined & bold...
As you can see they seem to understand that I am unable to reply and need the case open "to give you more time to work on it"...what does that mean? It's not my job to work on an issue that I opened a case on!
Then they actually tell me to REPLY to keep the case open...this is after they acknowledge that I can't reply and infer that they are leaving the case open (for me to work on).
Of course the last thing they say is that if there's no activity the case will close in 7 days.
This is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen from any support and questions whether they really know what they're doing.
Paul

#1


#2

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 
Hi Brooke,
Today I received another "Action Required: Update your Arlo Case" email and this time, when I clicked on the "Update Case" button it opened a webpage (pic #1) that had a text box where you could actually type in a response (note that the case in the support center does not show this) so I wrote that the case was opened due to no longer being able to reply or update a case, and if this was going to be a regular thing then I would consider this case closed 😁
Being excited that this was resolved, I clicked the "submit" button and to my disappointment the page that I had submitted disappeared and an error page opened (pic #2) so now I don't know if it sent my reply or not 🙄
Maybe if you have a way to check on this, that would be great. I will try to send it again later, like the error says, and hope that it is fixed.
Paul

#1

#2

[BrookeN]

Were you able to respond or did you get the page unavailable message? 

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Tried last night with same page unavailable response but I just tried it this morning and it actually went through just like it should 😀

Hopefully this is now fixed so that we can actually reply/update when asked to do so.

Thank you for all your help on this 😊

Paul

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 
Hi Brooke,
I've found that if you take too long writing a response/update, the "page unavailable" will come up every time you click the submit but if you hit the back the previous page comes up with your response/reply and then clicking on submit, without letting it sit too long, will work.
Paul

[KachinaShadow]

---

@KachinaShadow wrote:

@BrookeN 
Hi Brooke,
I've found that if you take too long writing a response/update, the "page unavailable" will come up every time you click the submit but if you hit the back the previous page comes up with your response/reply and then clicking on submit, without letting it sit too long, will work.
Paul

---

After trying to submit a fairly lengthy update multiple times, and getting the "page unavailable" every time, I now find that when you get the "page unavailable" window you do need to hit the back arrow...copy the text that you just tried to send...close the page...open a new page...paste the text in the text box and hit submit right away and then it will go through.

Sometimes if you are sending a short/quick update, then it will go through the first time.

This is crazy 🤔 🙄
 

[BrookeN]

I have been passing all your feedback on this onto support. Have you tried a different browser at all?

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Same thing on both Chrome & Edge

[KachinaShadow]

@BrookeN 

Brooke,

Today I had a lengthy conversation with L2 Support, referred him to this community discussion and I sent him pics of the issue. He acknowledged that they had received numerous complaints of this issue and was happy to see some pics to clarify just exactly what the issue was. He noted that they are already in the process of returning it back to the way it was so that you could actually update/reply to a support case.

Paul

[BrookeN]

Thank you for providing that update. I will be closing this since you are currently working with L2 on the behavior you are seeing.