Go with Shoretel support or private 3rd party support?

[paiutetribe]

How good is Shoretel support and what are the wait time durations that one has to endure when using Shoretel? Good/bad experiences?

[croldan72]

The real question should be how good is your reseller's support? I originally signed up with a reseller and the support was good in the beginning. However, they lost their best/ only tech and the new person would come in with the manual to try to fix our problems. Not to mention that they were a middle man for direct ShoreTel support. We switched to Enterprise support direct through ShoreTel and love it. Wait times are short/ non-existent. The fact of the matter is our questions/ issues/ concerns get resolved quickly and the first time.

[WiredNut]

The real question should be how good is your reseller's support? I originally signed up with a reseller and the support was good in the beginning. However, they lost their best/ only tech and the new person would come in with the manual to try to fix our problems. Not to mention that they were a middle man for direct ShoreTel support. We switched to Enterprise support direct through ShoreTel and love it. Wait times are short/ non-existent. The fact of the matter is our questions/ issues/ concerns get resolved quickly and the first time.

Agreed.

We have a 3rd party and I can recommend them highly but we had to fire our first two parties before finding the current, highly skilled outfit. I'd say look for a decent sized outfit that has several staff dedicated to ST.

[mattwray]

We have Enterprise support and are very happy with the service received.

[pathfinder_nick]

I have had some issues with enterprise support myself, but I think the managers are trying to work on them for me. At one time I was having trouble getting the techs to answer e-mails and take ownership of issues. ShoreTel seems to be growing so fast they are having trouble keeping up at times. I know how to escalate my issues up the chain now, so hopefully that will handle it. However since I last talked to the manager, I haven't had to contact support.

I can't speak for partner support, we've only ever had enterprise.

[PhoneGuy1108]

We use partner support and have excellent satisfaction with them. Rarely do they need to escalate to ShoreTel for assistance as they have several dedicated ShoreTel support staff in house. I don't generally like to publically advertise for vendors in formus, but if anyone is looking for a ShoreTel partner and is interested please PM me and I'd be happy to share contact info for them.

[blanning]

As an engineer for a ShoreTel partner I can give a slightly different perspective on the question at hand.

If you are looking to learn the ShoreTel platform yourself and do not mind doing a lot of troubleshooting and hardware replacement on your own, then the question of enterprise or partner support is really a matter of preference.

If on the other hand you are looking for your support provider to deal with phone replacements, programming changes (of a more detailed kind), and the like; then partner support is the way to go. I would add that when choosing a partner look for one who has some experience with the ShoreTel platform, at least 2 or 3 guys who have been to school and are comfortable on the platform, and, most importantly, has a great reputation for support on other product lines. (If they couldn't do a good job with other platforms why expect ShoreTel to be any different?)

ShoreTel's support is great, but they will not put someone on site in hours if something fails on your system, a good partner will, and a good partner will not need to turn to ShoreTel very often, though that option is always there.

[dsirek]

I've noticed a recent change in Shoretel's enterprise support over the last few months. In the past I could call in, wait in their queue and start talking with a rep. Now, I call in, I end up talking to someone who is really just taking a message and then I end up waiting 1-2.5 hours for a call back from an engineer. I can typically manage 98% of the ST issues I run into on my own or from their KB (or this wonderful forum :-) ), but when I'm actually calling in, chances are the issue is pretty critical. That's my only criticism of their current enterprise support model.

However, even with this minor aggrevation, I would suggest going with Shoretel's enterprise support if you organization's business model is one that requires minimal phone down time on account of the hardware replacement aspect. Last year we replaced 2 switches and in both cases Shoretel had the replacement onsite in under 24 hours, so I look at the enterprise support as an insurance policy, you hope not to have to use it, but when you do, you'll be glad you have it.

[blanning]

dsirek, the 24 hour replacement policy is ShoreTel wide irregardless of which type of support you have, so the only reason why that time would be affected by using partner support is if your partner provides bad support...in which case it is time to look for a new partner. (Note: phones ship ground, all other ShoreTel stuff ships overnight)

[pathfinder_nick]

I've noticed a recent change in Shoretel's enterprise support over the last few months. In the past I could call in, wait in their queue and start talking with a rep. Now, I call in, I end up talking to someone who is really just taking a message and then I end up waiting 1-2.5 hours for a call back from an engineer. I can typically manage 98% of the ST issues I run into on my own or from their KB (or this wonderful forum :-) ), but when I'm actually calling in, chances are the issue is pretty critical. That's my only criticism of their current enterprise support model.

I'm glad it's not just me! ShoreTel seems to be growing so fast that Support can't keep up.

[Miersk]

I actually had a talk with a few of the ShoreTel Support staff. It seems they understand that they need additional support engineers, and are in the process of hiring some additional personal.