I got a phone call Friday in response to the message I posted here, informing me about the 11:45 time.  We've made calls to the number late at night before, but this is probably the first one after midnight, which explains why I had never run into this before.  Those hours sound reasonable.  And I was assured that off-campus and campus-based calls get treated alike.

It sounds like ITS is willing to look into getting a better automated message put on the DLS line so as to inform callers that this is really the right number and that the people there really do intend to take your support line calls.  

In my case, after hanging up on the DLS line, I also filled out the on-line contact form and sent a personal message to the service provider.  The problem was taken care of early enough in the morning that none of our own people noticed the outage, or at least didn't complain to me about it.

I also learned why the regular ITS support line has better quality front-line support the past couple of years.  There have been a couple of cases where I was very impressed with the person. I remember one student who understood a complicated problem without having to be told anything twice, and who remembered all the details from one conversation to the next during the same incident.  That was better than I could have done. I'm pretty sure I expressed my appreciation using the online form for evaluating a call.   That's not the kind of service we used to get in olden times.   Anyhow, I learned that a year or two ago ITS increased the pay scale so as to attract better people for the support line.   Mission accomplished, I would say.

When my calls was answered by the DLS automated message, I was afraid things were going back in the wrong direction.  But maybe it's all OK, especially if better information could be put on the DLS automated answering machine.

John Gorentz

At 03:42 PM 6/28/2013, Leo Sell wrote:
Thought I sent this to the list this morning.

The IT Services Support line at 432-6200 is attended/answered by help desk consultants from 7:00 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and until 7:45 p.m. on Friday-Saturday. After those times the line trunks over to Distance Learning. DLS staff in many cases can help because it is a simple matter such as a password reset. In other cases, the matter is something that can wait for IT Services personnel to handle in the morning, so an after-hours ticket is filed.

When a more serious outage occurs, a full-time HD staff member like me may be called to triage the matter and where called for per service protocols, contact Network Engineering or some other service owner to try and get the matter resolved asap.

/L

--
Leo Sell
IT Services
Technology and Network Support (formerly ATS Help Desk)
help.msu.edu
tech.msu.edu
517-432-6200




On 6/28/13 6:34 AM, Aldrich, Dakharai wrote:
The ITS Helpdesk is only open from 7am to 5pm every day.  Distance Learning is the overflow.  They can assist with some issues, and will create tickets for other issues so that the appropriate team gets your request and can call you back.

Dak Aldrich
Information Technologist
Support Services
Infrastructure Planning and Facilities
Michigan State University
Phone: 517.432.0239
[log in to unmask] | ipf.msu.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: John Gorentz [ mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 1:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MSUNAG] What happened to the help line?

About a half hour ago I tried calling the 517-432-6200 number to report that one of our web sites had gone down.  The phone was answered by  a machine identifying itself as "Distance Learning Services."  It is never a good sign what that entity answers the phone.  I don't expect the quickest response after midnight, even from ITS, but after staying on the line for several minutes and waiting for a human, I hung up.

Sometimes there is a plausible justification for Distance Learning Services taking our calls, e.g. about library services, but it is never a sign that we're going to have our problem dealt with quickly and efficiently.   I'm calling from the Battle Creek area, so I'm wondering if I'm being treated specially.  Is this what happens when students on campus call late at night?  The ITS web site says the 6200 number is attended 24 hours a day.  What happens when people on campus think they're calling the support line, and instead they get "Distance Learning Services"?  Or do they? Or did I miss a memo?

I'm building up to go on a rant about this, but am trying to line up some information first.

John Gorentz
Computer Services Manager
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
Michigan State University
Hickory Corners MI 49060


--
Leo Sell
IT Services
Technology and Network Support (formerly ATS Help Desk)
help.msu.edu
tech.msu.edu
517-432-6200