Meraki Support - Experiences?

[Dave_Kell]

I was wondering what the general feeling was around the community regarding the day to day support available after raising dashboard cases?

My experience:
After spending in excess of €500,000.00 in the past 12 months on Meraki kit and licences, I would expect the level of support to be first class. I have been a Meraki customer for more than 6 years and have taken several Meraki exams so am no idiot when it comes to configs etc. When I do get a problem which needs me to open a case, it tends to be a little more complicated than usual so I expect there to be a bit more time between me reporting a problem and it being fixed, especially if it has to go to the US for a resolution.

However, although my expectations I think are reasonable, the support I receive is way too often hugely inadequate and frustrating. As an example, I have a case open at the moment running for nearly 3 weeks. The first 3 days of the case being open, communication with the first line guys was fine but after that, nothing. We had to chase several times over the next few days and were eventually told that our allocated support engineer was off sick. That was 10 days ago and despite repeated requests for an update, nothing....

In my experience this is all too common. Anyone else have a different or similar view?

[DarrenOC]

Hi @Dave_Kell , I’ve seen the Meraki support experience ebb and flow over the years.  Like yourself they’re always a last resort for me but my personal experience has for the majority been positive.

Have you dragged your Cisco AM over the hot coals?

[Dave_Kell]

Hi Darren,

That's another bit of a bugbear. When there is money to be spent / made, the AM is very communicative but once kit and licences are sold, communications are far less easy to initiate. I will ping off an email if the current case drags on unanswered into next week.

[PhilipDAth]

I tend to agree with you.

When your support engineer is away, you can contact support and ask to have someone else assigned.

The support process often fails when it has to be escalated to somewhere else in Meraki.  Cases seem to get stuck when this happens.

[Dave_Kell]

I half agree.

The thing is, 11 days ago when we got a reply from a different support engineer, we were assured that the issue was being worked on and informed that the assigned support engineer was just sick. We have done no different than to chase for updates as we did before (when we got a reply) but now..... silence.

[BlakeRichardson]

One would assume that support managers are reviewing open cases and if staff are away for more than 1-2 days then the cases get allocated elsewhere. If a support agent is leaving good notes then transferring a case to another agent shouldn't be a problem. 

My team and I use a ticketing system with multiple tiers of support and I am reviewing open tickets daily especially if someone is away sick. I understand Meraki support is a much larger scale but there should be multiple levels of line managers one would expect. 

[Dave_Kell]

Indeed,

The products are awesome, I think we can agree. The support just does not match that at all. Many of us have worked in support for decades and so can relate 100%. Hence why I am frustrated as I know it could and should be better.

[RaphaelL]

I have at the moment 26 active open cases. When I need quick answers or I need some deeper explanation I always contact my CSM first. He is responsible for all our escalations. 

[Dave_Kell]

Understood. Although, that's a pity don't you think?

Surely tech support should be able (and expected) to provide tech support without the need for the AM / CSM being involved. I have been around the IT service industry long enough to remember CD Drives being new tech and in my experience, if an AM or CSM ever got involved in a tech support ticket, its because something has gone wrong with the service provision.