This is part 2 of my blog article “Basic Steps to Try Before Calling Support”. In my last article, I outlined some basic troubleshooting steps that anyone can do before they contact support. In this article I will give you tips for submitting a support request.

1. Submit your support request through the proper channels. Emailing support@eonesolutions.com or calling 888-319-3663 option 2 are the best ways to contact support. Either one of these methods ensures that your issue gets put into the support queue and addressed in a timely manner. If you send an email to someone’s personal address, they may be on vacation or working on other projects. If you send an email to the sales team, they are just going to turn around and put it in the support queue when they get around to it. Sending emails anywhere else other than support@eonesolutions.com is just going to delay the response because then you are relying on other people to put it in the support queue for you.


2. Give us information about who you are, or who you work for. If your emails do not include a signature line, sometimes we can guess what company you are with by looking at your suffix on your email address. For example, if your email is XXX@eonesolutions.com we can generally guess you work for eOne Solutions. However if your email is someyoungguy@hotmail.com, we have no idea who you are, and what company you are with. Additionally our support database always uses the registered GP site name as the company identifier. So if your email suffix is different than your registered GP site name, include your registered site name in the email.


3. Specify the product you need assistance with. eOne has eight products available for download on our website. Simply saying “I can’t install the application”, doesn’t give us enough information to even make an educated guess about which product you are using.


4. Give us the exact version of the product you are using. Most of our products have various service packs and hot fixes available, so knowing the exact version of the product you are using is extremely helpful.


5. Give the exact error message you get, and don’t paraphrase. We will get support requests that say “It says my registration keys are bad”, and the actual error is “[ODBC Excel Driver] General error Unable to open registry key Temporary (volatile) Ace DSN for process”. Having the exact error message goes a long way to helping us diagnose the issue. If the error message is too long to retype, a screenshot of the error message is perfectly acceptable. If you send a screenshot make sure that it is large enough for us to read the error message without a magnifying glass. We will receive screenshots that include a picture of 4 monitors all running 1920×1080 resolution, and the error message is 4 tiny pixels in the corner of the 4^th screen. Depending on how high a resolution the actually screenshot is, sometimes we can copy it into paint and zoom in, however most of the time that results in a pixelated mess.


6. Tell us exactly what you were doing when the error occurred. I will get support requests that have a screenshot of an error, and nothing else. While the screenshot is appreciated, I need to know the context of the error message in order to start troubleshooting it. Did you get the error while you were installing the product, did you get the error when you were posting a transaction, did you get the error when you were attempting to setup a security task? Exact reproduction steps are extremely helpful, however even some basic information about what was happening when the error appeared is better than just a screenshot.


7. If you want a support call, call in and talk to someone. We get email support requests that say “Call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx” with nothing else attached. We need to know more information about what the call is about before we can decide who is best to call. Some support techs support SmartList Builder exclusively, some know only SmartConnect, some know SmartConnect and Extender, etc… If you simply say “call me”, and your problem is SmartConnect, you might get a call from someone that knows only SmartList Builder.