Ticket # 111039
Occurrence is frequent, but definitely too inconsistent to find a repeatable scenario without trying dozens of entry/exit points in the app over and over again.
The error is relatively benign if just trying to active a Switch. When trying to install a SmartApp (or Dashboard Solution SmartApp) that has a lot of configuration options, it is a bigger pain because the configuration effort is lost – SmartApp is not installed.
Ticket open - actually nasty scenario for me is it occurs when adding a device, which then shows up as a “Thing”, I have to get it into exclude mode, exclude it, and, then add it (hopefully).
I’m glad I was given a chance to rate Tech Support with a binary choice (“Good - I'm Satisfied” vs. "Bad - I'm unsatisfied“), as it saves me from trying to decide on a 1 to 5 Star rating.
I’m definitely “unsatisfied” and commented:
Tech Support unable to resolve the problem and
closed the Ticket without promising followup.
(This rating based on their closing response:)
I appreciate all the input. Once we are able to determine the cause, we will most likely push out an update.
Until then, keep your eyes open for our new user interface. We are hoping to release it by summer’s end.
Thank you again for the help. If you ever need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact me anytime!
Anyone here have a “satisfactory” resolution?
Is this typical of the Tech Support experience? If so, then I can understand why any Customer would hesitate to contact Tech Support for similar “inconsistent” problems, especially when already posted on the Community.
I appreciate the polite “thanks for my help”… But what about saying: “Sorry we were not able to resolve the problem that is persistently inconveniencing you”?
I believe the expression is… I’ve been left hanging with a bad taste in my mouth. Very disappointed. 
How do you know the ticket is closed ?
I have several tickets which I would give “unsatisfied” response.
My biggest is that polling isn’t working on any of my devices. That’s pretty big. But support doesn’t care. First they blamed it on the fact that I use Pollster. I explained that pollster is a fix (unreliable but works better then ST polling) and I even took pollster off my devices to prove that polling doesn’t work.
Support then replied that the developers could not find the problem and suggested I just keep using pollster. Assuming ticket closed.
I then opened a ticket some time later about pollster not working because of well know issue that timed events sometimes just stop working. Support response, pollster is not supported. Assuming ticket closed.
That said I thought support was getting better but maybe not 
Good point… I don’t know exactly what ZenDesk “status” the Ticket is in. In some help desk systems, it is actually impossible to add details or re-open a “closed” ticket.
I have emailed back and asked for the Ticket Status.
But I assumed closed based on:
I really don’t want to be a jerk, so I won’t bother quoting specific references… But, we were assured that Tech Support would not just drop Tickets without follow-up with the Customer.
I am a Customer Service freak. I believe that customer-facing employees can and should be an empowered team that can significantly remediate occasional service or product issues.
ST Tech Support probably does an excellent job with the majority of non-poweruser / non-developer issues. For the rest, the job is much tougher, and I can only relay the unsatisfactory experience I had… AND, frankly, I think they could do better (i.e., apologize, promise and do personal follow-up, escalate, no finger-pointing, and acknowledge problems that multiple Customers are experiencing…
Where is this problem on http://Status.smartthings.com?
No incidents, All Systems Operational
).
This is a huge Customer Service opportunity.
Ah… I logged in to ZenDesk and the Status is “open”… Perhaps because I triggered that with an email?
Try this syntax to access some of your old tickets?
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/requests/111039?intention=bad
Terry,
Just wanted to let you know that while your ticket was marked as solved (it was reopened when you replied), it is linked to a known trending issue in our bug tracking system. Because your ticket was linked, you will hear back from us once the root issue has been resolved by the engineering team. We did a poor job explaining that in the ticket, and I understand the confusion—so apologies there.
Because the “Unexpected Error” issue does seem to be picking up steam, I’ll discuss the possibility of adding it to our status page. As you know, not all known issues make it there–It’s a judgement call based on our understanding of customer impact.
I have been promised this by support many times but it has NEVER happened. I only find when issue are resolved by following up myself or by seeing something on this community board. Just so you know I think your bug tracking system is not sending out these notifications when issues are resolved.
Hey Ron - it’s not a system generated email, it’s a (new, in the last month) manual process where we go to linked tickets and follow-up if appropriate given the email exchange.
OK cool, but again I was promised followup in the past and never received it so I will wait and see. I have an open ticket on this very issue and one other which is waiting for release.
Understood. Can you shoot me the ticket number so I can make sure it’s linked?
I super appreciate your attentiveness to my concern, explanation of the status, and your apology acknowledging that the tickets status and Technician response is rather ambiguous. Thank-you!
Having a portal where Customers can view “trending issues” would be super helpful, as it can provide some relief for open-ended worries.
While I know your team never intendeds to appear “dismissive” of unresolved Customer reported issues, you can see how that impression is unfortunately too easy to accidentally convey.
Without overly elevating the value of our contributions, I’d like to emphasize that Community members like myself push harder… not only on the Platform quality, but also with the genuine sharing of our “informed experiences” with Support to perhaps help you tune these for the benefit of all Customers and SmartThings’s reputation.
Excellent initiative, Tyler. Glad to hear of this new process. I know that folks will really appreciate the follow-up.
Don’t hesitate to perhaps follow-up on unresolved issues from time to time either, if there is any positive progress to report. It feels good to be assured we’ve not been forgotten.
That said… I can’t repeat enough that when I see an issue trending in a Forum Topic like this, it’s really not my first instinct to open an additional Ticket. Particularly as a developer, my environment is bound to contain various unsupported Devices and quirks, and the Support Technician is typically going to ask for these to be removed or isolated for diagnosis. That’s some non-trivial effort I’m willing to do… rarely, unfortunately.
For fair public disclosure… My sincere compliments to @tyler1 and @ryanh for their immediate follow-ups with me regarding the ambiguous state of the unsatisfactory “Resolved” Support Ticket. Truly instills confidence that they are great leaders and coaches for the Support Team. Thanks!
We’ve tweaked some things today that we believe will reduce the frequency with which these errors are occurring. Can you guys let us know how things are working now? The feedback would be very helpful. Thanks!
@ryanh and @Tyler, I’ve been out and about the last couple hours and on wifi and 4G. I haven’t experienced the red bar error yet… Keeping my fingers crossed. I was support request #111020.
Seems to be working now…don’t want to jinx it…
Mine too.
I did have one fatal crash as I paged aggressively through various pages, SmartApp configs, etc., trying to provoking a “red bar” error. Officially I’ll consider that crash an unrelated anomaly.
Thanks! Anyone else here still experiencing the issues?