I get the sentiment everyone is expressing here. Keep in mind that for every sub-optimal interaction you have with any random support person, that I have to have many more sub-optimal interactions with those same support people. Everyone’s goals are the same–best overall experience between you and Epicor in general, Support in specific. Just trying to provide a path that one can use to influence that in a way that actually has an impact.
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- It is something that the right resources are aware of, but, in order to pull it off, massive changes to the entire development change request process would have to be implemented with additional resources needed to quality control double-check that everything that gets published is ok to provided externally. Right now it’s pretty simple–SCR (Jira number), short description, fixed release/update only if “publish externally” is checked on the SCR. It is something that product management / product ownership are aware of and are working on ways to make it happen. They don’t involve people of my station in those ongoing discussions so I couldn’t speak to timelines or the like. More information is good, and that is our goal.
- We used to, but, since we moved from our in-house usage of an ERP instance for development to Jira, we haven’t reimplemented the integration that used to be there. It’s on their list of things to do. That being said, just like the old system, the plan is to provide SCR, short description, fixed release/update, BUT with a link to the epiccare problem which contains the repro-steps from the perspective of the support resource–not the changes made by the dev team.
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Just to make sure we are on the same page… For example some of these in yellow / orange would be ones we would want more info on, since they are important to the business to be functional, yet the Description doesn’t reveal much:
The 1st one is self-explanatory.
We’re on the same page.
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That being said, if someone has a problem on version.release.ancient_point_update and a description sounds interesting / like it might address a problem, the best way to know if something will address an issue is to upgrade to version.release.latest_point_update and actually see if it does–more context won’t confirm if it will actually resolve it or not.
That doesn’t help in situations that you don’t know if you don’t have a problem, but, not to be the deliverer of bad news, but, every update we provide has issues so applying point updates whether or not you think you need to or not should really be done on a regular basis whether or not one feels they need to or not (IMO).
Thanks guys. I don’t mean to sound so negative and I appreciate the feedback that some of these items are on the docket and/or currently in the works. It is just surprising and painful how many times I submit the original ticket with very detailed info and often times a multiple page Word doc with screenshots walking through the process, and then the first tech response I get back is something that I already provided in the original ticket notes. It just makes me want to /facepalm every time.
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I think its a healthy discussion. We are all in this together Customers get frustrated. Support staff gets frustrated. Together with feedback and some collaboration we can make it easier for both ends of the spectrum 
#SnappleFactOfTheDay Derek did you know that @aidacra is the only one on the forum with the “Rubber Duck Enthusiast Badge”
I didn’t take it as negativity and I completely understand. I am pained when I see interactions like you expressed as well and do what I can within my sphere of influence to correct/improve.
I was put in charge of onboarding a new tech team in another office to be my team’s front line almost a year ago, and I take this stuff seriously. Where they fail, it reflects on me and I don’t like failing.
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yes agreed. Our implementation team is on a roughly 2 week cycle where we review the release notes and then as a team agree to apply the latest software release to our test environment. this gives us a chance to review what was fixed in that version and run our own tests before applying the software release to production. Again, sometimes the release notes are just very poor that we dont even know what to look at or go test. Example noted above: “Scheduling, fixed pending issues”. From a customer standpoint its the same argument you stated with regards to the support survey. Release notes like that just doesnt give me as the user of the software enough valuable information or context to proceed with any type of action item or take-away activity.
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I think we all feel that way - even Nathan lol. Speaking of Nathan, since he took the brunt of this thread I’d like to offer:
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Nice sparkles.
I can’t imagine Nathan couldn’t do his job without thick skin. I know I couldn’t do it!
The irony was not lost on me when I posted my comment I assure you. Support would love it if no one ever contacted us ever for any reason as everything was perfect and you have every piece of info you want/need/desire. Just know that those of us that can influence the direction of the company are striving towards that goal understanding that is it an impossible destination and it is impossible to make everyone happy all the time 
The entire Support org management team takes Support interactions very seriously and speaking for myself, am pained/frustrated when I see it done poorly. Asking who, what, where, when, why, and how in a context-appropriate and time-sensitive manner, then following up after doing whatever needs to be done with that info, isn’t rocket surgery from my perspective. I correct as much behavior as I can get away with, but, survey feedback for those interactions outside of my perview go a long way for my counterparts elsewhere.
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People don’t talk to me because everything is going well–a lot of times, it is the worst day of their professional life (damn ransomware viruses and those that don’t have a usage backup of a backup to restore from… my 7th circle of Hell). As long as the conversation is productive, even if overtly negative towards/at me, is just fine. I sleep just fine at night regardless of bad attitudes as I have narcolepsy so nothing keeps me up at night 
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@hkeric.wci
Thanks very much for raising this, and @aidacra thanks very much for your responses. Like many I have been burnt/worn down by the sheer lack of initiative that some support staff have provided. Having a stint working for a VAR in Support and being a customer. I can feel the pain on both sides.
What I can say is I do believe Epicor is getting better at this and my latest interactions appear that the person I am working with on an issue actually knows what they are doing, which, at times can be half the battle. Having the confidence in the person at the other end who can get a result and get it as quickly and as painlessly as possible is the best thing.
You could argue that one of the reasons that sites like e10 Help exists, is the glaring need for users to get answers in a more direct amd timely fashion without all the guff and having the results of the issue out there for all and sundry to peruse when they run into a similar issue. I don’t know how many times I have come here first before going to Epicare looking through the TIps or Answerbooks on Epicweb.
This brings us to another question. If people are using other sites and not logging them with support, how can Epicor improve product?. Support Cases are the other piece of the puzzle for product improvement and one of the reasons maintenance exists.
Whilst this might sound a bit discriminatory, perhaps there should be a reverse rating system for customers. The more detail you provide to support to help aid in the quick remediation of the issue the higher your rating. The higher the rating you have your are directed to a more qualified resource, hopefully that translates to getting your problem resolved more quickly.
I’m not sure if it is a good idea or not, but it is just a thought bubble I had.
Let me reiterate I agree I have seen an improvement. If I was not so busy I’d love to be contributing more.
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Good job on this topic! I agree with many of the points, but I have also had very good experiences with support. The biggest thing I do not like with support is it can take a day or two for them to respond to a rather complicated issue. However, when they do respond they expect you to provide more information superfast. Then, if they send you a proposed solution they expect you to process quickly. If you have already found a way around the issue, or it is not critical, and you take a few days to respond. The call will be closed automatically. That is crazy, because it is not always easy to get it opened again. Recently I was able to open a call back up and continue working it, so hopefully this has changed.
Good job to all! Keep improving Epicor!
Thanks!
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Epicor is using Jira for their dev’s internally. They have a Github repo, a developer website and probably a plethora of other tools that I don’t even know about.
What is preventing them from moving the bug reporting, tracking, and closing to an open forum where we can shorten the feedback loop between user and dev?
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@aidacra since you guys moved to JIRA does that mean that the little info available on https://scrs.epicor.com/ees/CMV/search.htm is no longer up-to-date?
I too have had issues reporting bugs (they tried to spin it off as billable consulting services even though I was providing info to them). And the issue mentioned where the tech completely ignores what you sent and then asks the question that you already answered? I get that too, many times.
Frankly, I am surprised to hear anything positive about Epicor support here. I have had consistently bad experiences, even when I’m trying to help them fix a bug in their own software. I too am to the point where I no longer report bugs. It’s simply too difficult and time consuming, and the techs don’t listen or care anyway.
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Yeah, I thought I hit the jackpot today with support actually saying something converted wrong and that it looks like a bug. But that was short lived…passed it back. I don’t have time to go back and forth with them so closed case and just re-created what needed to be fixed. UGH.