Working tickets

Note This is for Zendesk Global tickets only.

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
• Contact management project setup/questions
• Support portal issues
• Support portal questions
• 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.

It will largely concern associating a user to an organization and setting up their list of support contacts.

Please see User Association for more details on associating users to organizations.

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.

Please see User Association for more details on associating users to organizations.

For removing the association from a user:

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 handling the associations and de-associations, 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.
2. 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 Organization management 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 issues

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

1. Ensure your browser is allowing third party cookies. These are often vital for the system to work. A general list to allow would be:
   • [*.]zendesk.com
   • [*.]zdassets.com
   • [*.]gitlab.com
2. Disable all plugins/extensions/addons on the browser.
3. Disable any themes on the browser.
4. Clear all cookies and cache on the browser.
5. Try logging in again to the Support Portal.
6. If you are still having issues, obtain the following:
   • the browser’s version
   • the browser’s type
   • your operating system (and distro)
   • any other identifying information
   • the complete contents of your Javascript console for your browser
7. Send all of that to support

At the point you get the ticket, the user may or may not have done all of that. If they have not, point them to trying all that out first.

If they have, you will need to analyze the details of what is sent to determine next steps.

Support Portal Questions

This is specifically related to questions related with information related to Support Portal related inquiries like how to change Name or Profile Picture etc. This information is publicly available on https://about.gitlab.com/support/portal/

Adding Secondary Email

Sometimes a customer will raise issue stating they want to add a secondary email to their support portal account. Secondary emails are used to tie submitted tickets to a specific account, although only the primary email address will be used as the submitter (and thus receive notifications).

To add a secondary email to a support portal account, we need following information:

• For GitLab.com Users:
  • The GitLab.com account associated to the requester’s email address should have listed the secondary email as verified. You can check this via the User Lookup app. To add secondary email to GitLab.com account, they can follow this documentation
• For Self Managed and GitLab Dedicated Users:
  • The ticket needs to be submitted from the email address they wish to have added to their existing profile
  • The customer will need to provide proof of support entitlement again via this secondary email address
  • The customer will need to CC the primary email address of the support portal account and have that email reply on the ticket confirming the request to add the secondary email address to their support portal account.
• For Partners:
  • Most Partners do not have paid subscription. If they have a paid subscription, follow the above as per their subscription selection i.e. GitLab.com or Self Managed.

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 Support Ops, tag the ticket, and leave an internal note. From there, we are expected to review the ticket and determine the next steps.

As the ticket was initially created using an incorrect form, it is likely that it will not have a first response yet from the correct team. In such cases, we should set the Ticket Stage to FRT before correcting the form.

graph TD;
  A-->B;
  B-->C;
  C-->|Yes| D;
  C-->|No| E;
  D--> E;
  A(Ticket comes to Ops due to incorrect form)
  B(Ops determines the correct form)
  C{Will the ticket breach<br>FRT SLA if moved<br>over currently?}
  D(Add the tag `transferred_breached`<br>to the ticket)
  E(Move the ticket to the correct form)

Notes:

1. If you determine the ticket is from a free or community user, make sure to set the GitLab Plan to Free before moving the ticket to another form.
2. When moving tickets to a new form, do your best to fill out the ticket metadata as much as possible for the team that will work the ticket.