Anyone happy with Cisco TAC support?

adamscottmaster2013 · ‎07-06-2022

TAC support has gotten really bad for the past few years. I've many cases opened and it just drags on for months without any resolutions. The TAC engineers are not very responsive. For example, I opened a TAC case on 06/24 for an issue. I got a response back on the same day, provided the engineer everything he requested. I haven't heard from him since. The SE support the account is any better, completely clueless.

Anyone experiencing the same issue?

derek.andrew · ‎07-06-2022

I have seen Cisco TAC support be less that what it was in the past (mostly due to hiring of contractors), but a quick call for support to another vendor in Redmond Washington quickly shows me that Cisco TAC is still gold and just needs a bit of polishing.

Aref Alsouqi · ‎07-06-2022

I think the main "issue" that would cause TAC to delay with their responses and to provide "unsure" responses sometimes is the amount of new technologies they are dealing with. Many times it happened that TAC asked to give them some time to lab things up to trying to replicate the exact environment to reproduce the issues. Personally, I do still think TAC is still good, but they defo seem to be much much busier than before, and sometimes struggle to give answers due to many software bugs that we are seeing on a few products. If you feel the tickets are taking longer than expected, you would try to escalate the case to engineer leader, nothing wrong with that, it just sometimes would be the only way to move things faster.

Marvin Rhoads · ‎07-06-2022

I've been seeing the same across multiple product lines and with multiple geographic TAC locations. I have brought it up via multiple Cisco venues and not seen any positive outcomes to date.

From what I can tell, Cisco has decided that the "old" TAC model was too good and is now pushing customers to buy higher cost support packages to get what used to be included with regular Smartnet.

ahollifield · ‎07-06-2022

agree with @Marvin Rhoads here.... But Cisco TAC is still great compared to the competition.

travisss · ‎10-13-2022

True that.

ammahend · ‎06-27-2023

TAC needs some improvement for sure as a whole, may be a better hiring strategy to find people who love to solve problems and their approach to learning something new than just certs, customer skills can be built, I hope Cisco is listening and taking measures.

-hope this helps-

Leo Laohoo · ‎06-27-2023

@ammahend wrote:
Don't know how you came to conclusion to see Agent region and re queue the case, you must have had some terrible experience I guess

A few days ago (June 2023), I raised a TAC Case with TAC Asia on a Wednesday. When I open a TAC case, I always provide the output for "sh tech", "sh run" and crashlogs. Always. Without fail.

An hour in, I got an email from the TAC agent in Asia asking for the output to "sh tech", "sh run", & crashinfo. And the case went into "Cu Waiting". Anticipating this sort of response from TAC Asia, I responded with a screenshot of Support Case Manager (SCM) which specifically states that I have already uploaded said files. Case goes into "Cisco Pending".

On Thursday, I did not get any response from TAC Asia.

Friday was a "long weekend" (public holiday on Monday) and I got an email from TAC at around 18:46 (Australia time) asking for more output (Case Status: Cu Pending). I replied with the requested output under five minutes. (Case Status: Cisco Pending), however, I immediate received an out-of-office response from the TAC Agent.

On Monday (public holiday), I got the case re-queued to NAM/LATAM. Within three hours, the TAC Agent (LATAM) was sending us relevant updates and is adept in troubleshooting.

This is not a "one off" event. I encounter this most of the time when I have case(s) with TAC Asia. Getting the case re-assigned to another TAC agent in the same region does not guarantee an improvement, however, getting a stagnant case re-assigned to NAM/LATAM or EUMA always result in some "traction".

Customers in NAM and EUMA, please prove me wrong: Assign case(s) to TAC Asia.

ammahend · ‎06-27-2023

well sorry to hear that man, I hope Cisco is listening and making necessary changes.

Honestly I too provide most of the info in advance and had these experiences, but for Sev 3 cases they have 72 hour SLA and sometimes we get template emails which might seem to ask redundant information.

May be its just me but I do give benefit of doubt and just go with it, but if its serious issue and I wont hesitate to increase it to Sev 1 and copy manager in communication exchange, not matter what region.

-hope this helps-

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-06-2022

@adamscottmaster2013 wrote:

The TAC engineers are not very responsive. For example, I opened a TAC case on 06/24 for an issue. I got a response back on the same day, provided the engineer everything he requested. I haven't heard from him since.

The initial email where the TAC agent introduces themselves always contain the email address of their supervisor. I would recommend either doing the following:

Email the TAC agent and CC the supervisor and request for an update.
Contact Cisco TAC over the phone and request for the case to be re-queued to another engineer.

NOTE: There are three TAC "regions": North America/LATAM, Europe (ME & Africa), Asia (Asia, Australia/NZ).

WARNING: Have the TAC Cases are assigned to NAM/LATAM, and Europe (ME&A) regions only (and nowhere else).

adamscottmaster2013 · ‎07-07-2022

I replied to the email and CC's their supervisor(s) on it. Nothing. Re-queued to another engineer? Same result. I am glad I don't use Cisco Firewall anymore in the environment.

Marcelo Morais · ‎07-07-2022

Hi @adamscottmaster2013 ,

in this case, the ONLY solution is to talk to the TAC Duty Manager (please take a look at How to Engage with Cisco TAC).

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-07-2022

@adamscottmaster2013 wrote:

I replied to the email and CC's their supervisor(s) on it. Nothing. Re-queued to another engineer?

Get it re-queued to another engineer. Make sure the cases stays on NAM/LATAM or Europe desk only.

Philip D'Ath · ‎08-07-2022

I'm with @Leo Laohoo , have the case re-queued to another engineer.

Marcelo Morais · ‎07-06-2022

Hi @adamscottmaster2013 ,

I would like to add just one thing from what @Leo Laohoo said:

For options 1. and 2.: request a change in Case Severity from P4 to P3, P3 to P2 or P2 to P1 !!!

Note: remember that you can always count on us at Cisco Community : )

Hope this helps !!!