[cpx] tech support and CPX issues

[Brian White <bwhite@xxxxxxxxxx>]

(cross posted from the business@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx list - meant to do 
this with the original post and forgot)

------------------

Recently there were threads on the Provider talk lists about both CPX 
and its long time issues, as well as certain issues regarding tech 
support. Because I know that some Verio employees that both care 
about and can possibly help with these issues from a larger 
perspective monitor this list, I'm going to explain something that 
just happened to me that involves both of these issues. Also, maybe 
another reseller reading this will be able to save some time and 
headaches if they encounter the same thing in the future. My intent 
is NOT to complain about any individual at Verio or a specific 
support rep, it's simply to help these issues come to light because 
they both need addressed/fixed.

A Linux VPS client contacted me the other day with two separate email 
related issues:

1. No one could connect to their POP accounts, Outlook returned an 
error indicating that the connection was being rejected because there 
were "multiple devices" trying to connect at the same time. We 
quickly ruled out quota issues and malformed email files as the 
cause. We also verified that email was still arriving on the server 
correctly, it wasn't bouncing or being rejected for any reason.

2. At the same time, each user that logged into CPX and tried to view 
their email via that interface was shown a message by CPX stating 
that their inbox was "empty" (even though it wasn't), and looking at 
the folder display list showed zero folders (which also wasn't true).

After some initial troubleshooting I called in to support and the 
first tech 1 that I talked to tried for about 15-20 minutes to figure 
out what the problem was before passing me off to a tech 2 (I think 
it was a tech 2, I admit my notes don't indicate that).

After explaining the issue to him, suddenly we got cut off. No 
problem, I thought, since they always ask for "your callback number 
in case we get cut off", he'll call me right back. Nope, never 
happened. (HELLO, someone at Verio in management, am I wrong in 
thinking/expecting that I SHOULD have gotten a call back?)

So after waiting a little while I called back in and got another tech 
1 (3rd support rep I've talked to at this point), who while he was 
waiting for some info to come up asked me to explain the problems, 
which I did (again), and he too tried to figure out what was going on 
and couldn't, and he then told me he'd need to "escalate the issue" 
to the tech 2 queue.

So the issue gets pushed into the tech 2 queue and I wait. About 4-5 
hours later I haven't heard anything or received an email from 
support, so I call back in and get the 4th different tech rep for 
this case. He looks at the issue and tells me that no one at tech 
level 2 has looked at the case yet (hello Verio management again - 
just so I know, is tech level 2 so overloaded that a case where no 
one on a VPS can get their email should have to sit and wait that 
long? What if I hadn't called back in then, how much longer would it 
have been?), but he'd be happy to look at it for me. So I once again 
explain what's going on, and he puts me on hold and comes back a few 
minutes later and the problem is fixed (!). Major kudos to that 
support rep.

Unlike the 3 other tech reps that looked at it before, he knew right 
away what to look for (a CPX/dovecot memory error that was preventing 
any email connections from being made, the Web site itself on the 
server was unaffected) and he simply rebooted the server and 
everything was back to normal.

Granted, maybe you can say I should have thought of just rebooting 
the server myself (like when I unplug my HD cable box so it will 
reboot as soon as I notice the picture starting to break up, but 
that's another tech support story), but if so, why didn't the first 3 
support reps think of that 4-5 hours earlier? For whatever reason, 
this 4th support rep was familiar with CPX memory problems (and the 
others weren't?), and as he said: "*especially* on the Linux servers".

Unfortunately, as many resellers have known for a long time, this 
kind of hoarded specific knowledge is all too common in the support 
dept. overall. I know they have their own knowledgebase, and maybe 
sometimes it does help them, but it's been my experience over the 
years that how fast you get a support case resolved often depends on 
the luck of the draw on who answers the phone or first reads your 
email, and many, many times there's been cases like this where it 
seems like what should be common knowledge (or at least easily 
discoverable) is not, and that's not even getting into the issue of 
why CPX is still having these problems in the first place.

One last question for Verio management: I certainly realize that in 
any tech support dept. everyone can't know everything, but this kind 
of incident is not uncommon, so do you at least agree that it should 
be uncommon? Understand that my frustration comes from how many times 
over the years something like this has happened, not just this 
individual case. Maybe I'm wrong about something, or simply just have 
a misunderstanding involving expectations, but if so, I welcome the 
education.

Regards,
Brian White
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