Only Auth'd Contacts can view cases now!

[SanfordWhiteman]

I've just been informed by Support that only Authorized Contacts can even view existing company cases now.

In the past, although (by definition) only Auth'd Contacts could open cases, any user CC'd on a case could view it and also add follow-up comments.

IME authorizations are typically given to less-skilled users and/or distributed along corporate-political lines. It was invaluable for an admin user to open cases that other developer/IT/advanced types could then access using their own Marketo accounts.

This change creates a significant impediment for us, and is a disheartening step backward. What does the Community think?

[Kenneth_Law · Accepted solution]

Hello all.  Apologies for the confusion on this, but anyone from the account who can view the case in the CaseConnector can post replies and comments to the active cases.  The authorized support contact is able to create/submit a case for the account, but one the case is created anyone from the account that is able to access the CaseConnector (basically need to have access to the community) can view the open case and add comments or files to the active case.

This is a feature that was present in the previous community and one that we made sure was available in the Marketing Nation.  There was slight miscommunication internally, but that has been corrected. If you are encountering issues with this, please let our team know and we can investigate why you do not have visibility into your account's cases.  Email us at supportfeedback@marketo.com and we'll be happy to look into things for you.

[Casey_Grimes]

This is actually rather annoying and something I've seen enforced more strictly lately. However:

1. I do not put my name on the vast majority of clients I work with—I use other language to make it clear that I'm not a standard employee.

2. Moreover, because a good percentage of work is project-based, not services-based  it doesn't make a lot of sense to ask the Marketo "owner" (which the majority of companies cannot correctly identify) to set us as an authorized contact (and often they don't know/haven't updated their contacts in years anyway.)

Couldn't this just as well be "only admin-level users can access support cases"?

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Courtney,

If only the number of admin users was controlled Depending on your Marketo license type, a instance will get between 2 and 4 authorized users. More with the premier support. But often less than the number of admin users...

We have a different practice on this, although we usually work on project-based mode as well: we often end up having to call the sales rep to ask support to reset the support admin user because the initial person has left the company. And we often ask to be added as a support user and we create the tickets, after having checked that this is really a support issue. And when the project ends, we show the customer how to reassign out support slot to someone else. This is the basic reason why I end up with so many profiles in the community, although recently, I tend to do as you and avoid using my first/last to create the user.

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

I'm not usually entitled to an AC slot even when I have an long-term engagement with a client, because they're uncomfortable giving such a rare commodity out to a consultant. Even when I have full UI and API access, this is still true.

There are also relationships where I must share a single "agency account" when working as a subcontractor. And others where I'm forced to share an internal user's account because having any non-employees in the user list is viewed as less than kosher.  My individual email address is not typically CC'd on cases, for the same reasons.

Still, I've been able to interact with My Company Open Cases... until now. Despite what Mike said above, there has recently been a very significant change, or I wouldn't have started this thread.  I've been able to submit bug reports and highly technical questions by proxy for the past couple of years, then view and add updates using the web interface as a civilized person expects. This has now been taken away, even if was an accident that it was given out.  I don't like what this recent action suggests.

[Mike_Reynolds2]

I've edited my comment here to give corrected information.

• Only Authorized Support Contacts can create cases through the Support Portal.
• Anyone CC'd on a case can reply to the email notification they receive when a comment is posted to reply back to the case, and the comments in the email go directly into the case.
• Any contact on the account that has access to the case connector in the Community can contribute to the cases that are already opened.
• If you're unable to access the case connector or are unable to make comments to those cases, email SupportFeedback@marketo.com to get that corrected.

[SanfordWhiteman]

So now it's email only, and we can't see the current case status + history unless we keep every single email in the chain.

And whenever I respond via email, my clients' lengthy legal disclaimers are appended, which promptly get added to the case.

I suppose it's better than nothing.  It's still a significant backslide quite obviously designed to keep questions from being followed up (otherwise, why turn off an existing feature?).

[Mike_Reynolds2]

There hasn't been any change. This is the same functionality as it's always been.

[SanfordWhiteman]

No, it's not at all the same. I have been updating cases on the web as a CC: only, both under the old SFDC-based system and the new Jive/SFDC system, for the past 2 years. Are you saying this was some kind of accidental permission that has now been "fixed"?

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Thx Mike for clarifying.

I have logged a case today and indeed some un-authorized contacts have beed able to contribute by email.

-Greg

[Geoff_Krajeski1]

Wow!!  This will be quite frustrating moving forward!!

Is Marketo offering a way to "up" your subscription of Auth'd users?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Is Marketo offering a way to "up" your subscription of Auth'd users?

Don't know.

This is possibly the worst Customer Service backslide I have experienced from an enterprise platform. In one fell swoop, they've ensured that critical questions will never be answered.  I hardly ever need a case opened myself, but if I do, it's because I've found a bug. Now those bugs will not get fixed.  Guess they can only get documented here, like the Forms and API bugs that have been highlighted in the past couple of months.

Official word from Support:

Only authorized contacts will have access to cases in the support portal. It's possible that this was not the situation in the past, but it is true for how the support portal works now.

"It's possible": gotta love it.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

That's incredibly frustrating if it's the case! We utilize the addition of others via cc so that they can respond and provide feedback/answers as well. This means that everything will have to go through me now, instead of allowing others to interact as well. A huge step backwards.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Preparing to that new role of transferring messages in and out, I just ordered my postman outfit

-Greg

[Dory_Viscoglio]

I know! As if we don't have enough other things to do!! Now we also have to be the middleman?

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Sanford,

Fully agreeing on this.

-Greg