Not returning support tickets so we can add comments

[#1]

I have a long, ongoing broadband fault, which has been going on for nearly 4 weeks. Lots of correspondence back and forth. You can read about it in http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,68241.0.html.
One of the thing about PlusNet procedures that really bugs me is that they fail to return support tickets to me, to allow me to add a comment. It means that there is often an open issue and I need to add some information, and I can't. This has happened very frequently during this case. About 6 or 7 times, I would guess.
PLEASE *ALWAYS* RETURN A SUPPORT TICKET TO YOUR CUSTOMER SO THEY CAN ADD A COMMENT
My only option in this situation is to open another ticket. So now I have 3 tickets all running on the same fault. And it gets very confusing for everyone.
To cap it off, today I received the following message from a support member:

Quote

Dear Mr hayes, Can you please add all updates on to the ticket ref 26310741? This will allow the details to cmoe to the attention of the faults team as they may be overlooked by adding them to an alternative ticket. Kind regards, <Agent name removed>

Yeah, right. That really made me laugh... sort it out guys!
[Moderator's note by Barry Zubel: Removed CS Agent name as per the link:rules]

[#2]

That is most odd as in my fault reports I always received an email advising that a comment had been made by Plusnet - latest one was started on the 22nd September and is almost due to be closed
If it doesn't fall over in the next few days 

[#3]

AFAIR you *should* be able to add a comment to a ticket at any time by going to the "My Questions" section of the portal, unless I've missed something new, and viewing your open tickets. There should be a box at the bottom of the ticket for you to "Add a comment for the Support Team". You shouldn't have to wait for it to be returned (I've done this a couple of times with tickets where I've missed something off).

[#4]

I've just checked this out, and it is as I suspected (and as Jim and Paul both say).  On my open tickets that are with Plusnet (including one I opened seconds earlier), I get the 2 attached buttons underneath.  Clicking on the 1st one (Add A Comment for the Support Team) lets me add as many comments as I like.
Phil

[#5]

Yes, you get the buttons at the bottom (on the 'My Questions' page), but only if the ticket is returned to you. Many times (in my experience) I only see a single button that says "Close this ticket". The other button (the green one) is missing. This is because the support staff have failed to return the ticket to me, I think. It is sort of stuck on their side.
Here is a screenshot of one of my questions, to show you exactly what I mean.

[#6]

How very odd - I haven't noticed that before - Mand's cricket bat perhaps 

[#7]

This actually initially looks like a problem to me and I will try and login shortly and check it out further. I do suspect one possible cause, given the name of the ticket pool this fault is actually in.
We don't return tickets to customers (faults specifically that is), unless the fault is confirmed as resolved or we are unable to get a response (a minimum of one in office hours and one out of office hours callback).
In all other circumstances (pending speaking to the customer, monitoring period or whilst we await a response from our suppliers), they ticket must remain with our support team.
If this wasn't the case, we would have no way to review the fault. You have to remember that fault types includes authentication and no syncronisation issues. These types of fault often mean the customer does not have the access needed to respond online.

[#8]

To confirm, this is a broken ticket. What broke it is another matter, though it is one of two things, or both.
1: The fault checker was started and completed, but it did not update the ticket correctly to reflect this. As such, a record is out of sync that we cannot change.
2: James B broke it by escalating it between teams but using the customer as the target, when the current location of the ticket was the customer.
If either is the case, we have open problems on both, though in the case of #2 the desired results are slightly different to normal (I suspect the fault it is a fault report caused this).
As a result, I can only advise to continue with the new ticket route for the time being. I would loath right now to close this report and generate a new ticket, with the details of the existing fault (a new ticket will allow you to respond). Doing so would risk one of the analysts missing  crucial item of information that may be present in the current ticket.
As such, at this moment there is now a note on your account asking analysts not to ask you to update the existing fault ticket, stating you cannot. As much as a burden it may be, I would suggest raising new tickets if you have any info (or updating an existing one if there is one open enough to do so).
It's your call on me closing the old one though and generating a new one with the relevant references for you.

[#9]

Hi, it's not a huge issue, to be honest. This is more of a rant because it seems so silly to have to have so many open tickets for the same subject, and I was a bit annoyed when your staff member told me directly I must reply to the correct ticket when I was unable to.
Just to be clear, this is not a one-off situation affecting 1 ticket. It has happened at least 3 (and I think more) times during this fault. I clearly remember having 2 open tickets at the same time and not being able to add a comment on either of them.
What I am much, much more concerned about is my ongoing broadband fault, which has been reported for almost 4 weeks and no one seems to be doing anything. Anyway... such is life. Stalled in the big black hole which is the relationship between BT wholesale and Plusnet.

[#10]

Just to be clear, this is still happening to my tickets. Right now I'm unable to respond to open ticket 26310232, for example, which has just been updated by PN staff with a message to me. It seems to be a systemic problem (has happened to me 4 times recently), and maybe PN could look at sorting it out in the long term.

[#11]

Hi there.
I've had a look at this and can see the problem.
I've re escalated the ticket back to you to see if it changed anything. It didn't. I'll raise it as a problem and get it looked into. In the mean time if you need to respond to the ticket I'll happily take that response by PM and get it added for you. We can still action the ticket internally.

[#12]

In fact, scratch that. We've sorted it and you should now be able to respond.
The system isn't broken. What happened was the way James B escalated the ticket whilst still going through the automated checks. In doing so the ticket failed to generate correctly. We have made the ticket believe the auto checks have completed and you should be able to action it as normal.
Apologies for the hassle and I'll educate James accordingly

[#13]

Heh. Round and round we go.
Back when I first started having this problem, I continually explained it to the PN staff and asked that they 'return' the ticket to me. They kept saying it was impossible and instead I should start a new ticket when this happened.
Now it seems that I was originally correct and it is a problem 'returning' the ticket to the correct status, and that it can be done...

[#14]

Yip. Although it was the all knowing Dave T who explained the situation. I reckon it wouldn't have been common knowledge in the CSC. I'll ensure the message gets through though.