What happens when I open a case online?

1. The case is assigned to a queue and ranked according to the targeted response time for the subscription and or account level, as well as the case severity.
2. The case is assigned to a representative appropriate to your hours of availability and preferred language. Critical, Partner, and End Users with Gold or Platinum support levels have higher priority.
3. The representative changes the case status to Working.
4. The representative posts an update to the case, with a solution, troubleshooting steps, or request for further information.
5. The case status changes to Customer to Follow Up and waits for your response.

What happens when I call to open a case?

1. A Customer Care or Technical Support representative answers and identifies an authorized caller.
2. The representative gathers information about the issue and creates a case.
3. The case is queued up for appropriate assignment based on the customer language and hours of availability.  If possible, the representative will work with you immediately, or transfer you to an available representative.
4. The representative will work to identify and resolve the issue. This may require multiple calls or posts to the case, research time, and/or escalation to another team.
5. The representative assigned to your case will monitor and update your case personally. When your case is updated, an email is sent to the email address on your contact record, as well as any additional email addresses you add to the case.

If at any time you have a critical situation, please call WatchGuard to request immediate assistance.

Will I receive live call support with my WatchGuard Support subscription?

Customers with a Basic Security, Standard Support, Gold Support, or Total Security subscription may at peak times have their cases queued for a call back from a representative.

WatchGuard Technical Support strives to provide immediate support for critical cases, but this is not always possible. Critical cases that are queued for callback will be given the highest return call priority. For all other non-critical issues WatchGuard Customer Support response times will be based on the following criteria:

• The order in which the case has been received
• Priority, based on the issue reported
• The Targeted Response Time for the device or account.

What is a Targeted Response Time?

Targeted response times are not observed in the same way as a Service Level Agreement. It is always the goal of WatchGuard to resolve your issue quickly and efficiently. The WatchGuard Technical Support and Customer Care teams are not always able to contact each customer within the Targeted Response Time, and this will vary based on our current case volume.

Can a WatchGuard Technical Support representative make changes to my device configuration? 

To ensure your ownership of your network environment and security, WatchGuard Technical Support is not permitted to make changes to a customer device. If an emergency arises or debugging attempts must be implemented, a senior Technical Support representative or Support Engineer might ask your permission to make a specific change on your behalf.

Can a WatchGuard technician assist with a 3rd party or non-WatchGuard product?

WatchGuard Technical Support representatives might make recommendations related to your network or third-party software. However, WatchGuard Customer Support does not provide technical support assistance for non-WatchGuard products or network environment issues unrelated to the WatchGuard product.

Will WatchGuard Technical Support walk me through setup?

WatchGuard Support provides troubleshooting support to all customers. If you have tried to set up your WatchGuard product using the available online documentation and it is not working as expected, then a technician will help to review your configuration to determine the root cause and resolve the issue.

If you need setup assistance that goes beyond troubleshooting, then WatchGuard can help you with our Remote Installation Services.

When will WatchGuard escalate my case?

Cases will be escalated to a higher level support representative if necessary to solve the problem.

You can request escalation through the support case, or during a phone conversation with a representative. The decision to escalate is based on the technical issue and the best path to resolution. If you are not satisfied with the handling of your case, you can request a review by our management team to determine whether your needs would be met best by an escalation or transfer to a different representative.

What happens when a case is idle, or I am not getting a response?

The best way to determine the state of a case is to view the support case through the WatchGuard Support Center.

A case in the state Support to Follow Up is open and active but is waiting for the representative to update the case. WatchGuard Support will make every attempt to update the case in a timely manner.

A case in the state Customer to Follow Up is waiting on a response from you. If we do not hear from you, we will remind you at roughly this interval:

• Day 1: The representative updates the case with a public post. The case status changes to Customer to Follow Up and an update email is sent to the address on your contact record.
• Day 5: The case has waited for your update for five days. A second email is sent to the email address on your contact record, as a reminder.
• Day 12: Case has been in a Customer to Follow Up state for twelve days. A final notification email is sent to the email address on your contact record, and the case status changes to Closed After Suspension. At this point if you post to the case or call WatchGuard Customer Support, the case becomes active again.