Do PAN TAC even read the content of the ticket?

[dtran]

This has happened more time than I can count, and I have Platnium support.

I work in the US Eastern time zone 8am-5pm ET and every time when I open ticket with PAN support, I always put in this line at the beginning of the ticket:  "I would like to work with a TAC engineer in the US Eastern timezone 8am-5pm ET".

Yet, sometime the ticket gets routed to Central European, sometime to Asia.  What the hell?

Don't they guys actually read the content of the ticket and have the assign properly to the right TAC?

[reaper]

I understand your frustrations with TAC, but is reassigning to your timezone really necessary? (just playing the devil's advocate here)

Tickets first need to go through triage, i.e. someone needs to look at the ticket and see if there's a need to reroute to another TAC center or if they can already provide you with the first feedback. Most of the time your ticket will probably have a low priority (?) which means TAC has anywhere between several hours to several days to get back to you

Redirecting tickets for anything that's not urgent is usually counterproductive as that also resets the timer for your next update

[BPry]

@dtran,

@reaper is going to know more about the inner-workings of TAC than anyone else on this forum, but I'll just toss out that Platinum support has a pretty aggressive SLA. While your ticket may request a certain timeframe to work the issue, initial response times are absolutely an SLA item and PAN needs to attempt communication within that period. Not sure about responses, but I can almost guarantee those also have an SLA associated with them.

I think these requests sometimes put TAC into an impossible position honestly. Do they follow what you've input into the ticket and call you at your requested time, harming their own numbers and potentially breaking SLA, or do they attempt to contact you to make their numbers look good? 

[dtran]

This is what I usually get back from TAC on the first feedback:

Dear customer, my name is xxx from PAN platnium support.  I understand that you're having issue.  I will get back to you at the earliest convenience.

You sound like a PAN TAC engineer, LOL...

[wedens01]

Just bumping this for 2024, we rarely need to use platinum support. For a while, it seems responses improved. Our most recent support request took 6 days to complete. The actual issue needed only 30 minutes to resolve. The rest of the time was spent getting responses to my queries after working hours. I'd ask for an update. I'd get a generic response with a request for even more documentation - after business hours (EST). I'd provide the information requested. Then get a confirmation the following day, after business hours ... rinse and repeat. Once I successfully got an engagement, the engineer was more interested in how to disqualify the request from support instead of actually supporting the request. The engineer we worked with was extraordinary in his arrogance, rude in his communication, and left several seasoned engineers unimpressed. But ultimately, we demanded an escalation and the issue was resolved.

[Brandon_Wertz]

This thread is a bit old, but I've found that using the support portal "Manage Your Case" is a good way to get movement on the case.  

As with anyone the TAC resource you get will have their own experiences and greater abilities in certain technology areas.  The more information you provide at the start of the case the better.  I always upload a TSF, detailed explanation of my issue, what I've done to troubleshoot and any screenshots additional traffic log files which help the engineer get to where I think the issue might be.  TAC is manned by people too and giving them attitude will probably only hinder your interaction with them.