Licensing policy changes and Meraki needing to do better

[Aquatoes]

I am not sure who needs to hear this but I need to shed some light on my experience today, because this is absolutely unacceptable on all counts.

I am a CMSP and we manage over a hundred different organizations and as a CMSP we own the licensing for the clients with Meraki.

We keep all clients separated by Organization and over a year ago transitioned to Subscription licensing.

4 weeks ago we installed a new client and 3 weeks ago after install we ordered their License. This is pretty standard and how we do every install where we wait until successful install before ordering licensing incase a client cancels, utilizing the grace period.

Our order was confirmed 2 weeks ago and in over 2 weeks Meraki has not touched the order. I called today for licensing support to get assistance / extension until I receive my license.

Licensing support confirmed they see the order and that they have not finished provisioning it and that the issue is fully on Meraki's side and that my order was submitted within the necessary timeframe outlined in the ordering process guide.

Management on Meraki's licensing side REFUSED to give us an extension after the agent requested it multiple times stating we did everything correct and told me I am pretty much out of luck and that my client is set to be disconnected tomorrow. They then had the galls to recommend that I move the firewall to another clients organization as a temporary fix. I am sorry but in a world with us putting as much emphasis on cyber security how could Meraki support even consider recommending that we move equipment to a completely different client organization even briefly. This was the most ridiculous recommendation I have ever heard.

I fought back for another 30 minutes until finally they gave me a 1 day extension.

In over 3 years of working with Meraki the process has always been if I could provide proof of purchase for a new license and they have not provided it they would just provide an extension, well apparently this policy has changed and they do not care if clients equipment goes offline even when us the partners did everything correct.

[PhilipDAth]

I can feel your frustration.

Let me share how we do it.  When we sign up a new client (for subscription licensing), the customer agreement has a start date.  When you place your subscription order, you can specify the start date.  We make the licensing and customer agreement dates start and end at the same time.

It is very tidy this way.

Another thing caught my attention in your post.

>Licensing support confirmed they see the order and that they have not finished provisioning it

Provisioning does not start until the "start date" of the subscription has been reached.  Prior to that, it goes into a hold state.

If I had to take a guess, whoever placed the order on Cisco (possibly your distributor) has keyed a start date.  If this is the case, contact your distributor and have them amend the start date to "now".  Then the order will get actioned.

I have had an order go on hold due to a mis-keyed start date before.  Once.  Then I learned about it, so I know to get that checked when there is an issue.  🙂

Can I also offer a potential workaround?  If you keep a spare licence in your main MSP org, you can transfer it to a customer org.  Once the customer org has a licence, you can open a support case, quote the Cisco order number, and get a 30-day extension.

Don't abuse this trick.  Save it for emergencies.