Yes, thanks I read that when I looked for premier support. We only have a few products from SolarWinds and I've used them for over ten years. I'm just comparing the support I get now vs the support we used to get. They still fix stuff it's just not the same level of customer service I became accustomed to.
Yes, I agree their regular support has gone downhill a lot in the past few years. When a case is opened , I generally spend a lot of time making and adding notes, screenshots, and logs that I think would be relevant to the case. Most of their Tier-1 techs just send generic canned requests for information that was already sent, so it seems like they haven't bothered to look at what was sent.
Fixes - Often (not always) when they find a canned fix that vaguely resembles they symptom, they just send it, and try to let auto-close trigger without verifying the fix worked.
Contact- I have learned that when SW sends an email etc., you need to respond quickly, by >BOTH< email and entering notes on the website, to thwart the auto-close process. They don't like to call on the phone, and often email in the middle of the night. However, if I find something that seems like it may have fixed the issue, they are suddenly happy to call quickly, to close the case.
We are considering adding on US-based Federal Premium Support (similar to regular Premium support) , both for improved levels and to keep sensitive data in the USA, but it is a LOT of extra $, and I need to be able to justify it. Their salespeople and webinars say all sorts of wonderful things about it, but that is their job. So far, Mato1964 made the only review I have found about Premium/Premier support (thanks Mato ) . Is there anyone else who has used it any version? Does SW actually follow their published SLAs for response times, support tier levels, support locations, and escalation processes, or does the customer need to need to take extra steps to make sure these happen?
What I've noticed: In the past year or two, SolarWinds has done internal restructuring. That restructuring has caused a bunch of divides in the company which is affecting the customers directly. Management personnel at SolarWinds may or may not see the divide, but as a customer, it can clearly be seen.
My organization has premium support. The SolarWinds technicians are polite and hard working. The work ethic of the SolarWinds technicians is good. Sadly...our issues aren't being resolved. We have been working with their techs almost every day since October regarding failed software upgrades. At least 4 hours a day is spent on the phone with a tech. As of today, we still haven't successfully completed a single upgrade.
It boils down to a product that is flawed for how our network is built. The SolarWinds techs are working hard, but the SolarWinds techs and SolarWinds engineers aren't on the same page. Our servers don't use the internet. SolarWinds has to send us licensing. We've been sent the wrong or corrupted licensing multiple times. Techs have us look for folders on the server and those folders don't exist. Techs have us look for 100's of logs and the logs don't have the information they want, then the next day they have us go to a new file and find logs or information, or coding. As a technician, I'm learning A LOT about the product (which is great) but should that be the case? You learn from problems, but should you still have issues without resolution for 7 months? It's to the point that we are exploring other options/products. Based on the fact that my section is working with the SolarWinds techs daily, there is a clear picture that there is a disconnect in documentation, techs, & engineers.
There is a similar disconnect between the instructor's curriculum and test writers. Have you taken any SCP exams? SolarWinds Boot Camps are supposed to help prepare you for the test. The key word is "prepare" (not to be construde as spoon feed test information). Since COVID, I do not know a signal individual that has taken a bootcamp and passed an exam administered by PSI right after the bootcamp. Not everyone should be able to take a bootcamp and pass a SolarWinds exam; however, if you talked with 7 others that took an exam after the bootcamp and they all failed...maybe training and tests aren't in alignment. If techs have experience, 2 or 3 out of 7 passing would seem a more reasonable ratio than 0 of 7.
I've found most of the problems I encounter can be resolved without SolarWinds support. The only issues i've had that i've had to go to support about are licensing issues. Post your issues on THWACK and we can work together to sort them out.
