Hey c300e,
Thanks for sharing how much trouble you had getting through to support. Certain aspects of the system you've described are relatively new, and we're happy to pass along the feedback if you're not able to get through or have trouble finding where to proceed.
That said, I did remove a portion of the post directing others to bypass certain aspects here. It's much appreciated that you're trying to make things easier for anyone else that may need to get in touch with support, but the options selected when going through that process absolutely do matter.
There are certain topics that the support team just won't be able to assist with. For example, if you're trying to contact support to report a bug, they will refer you back to the forums. That's where we directly gather and escalate information about various bugs, and would be the best way to bring anything new of that nature to our attention.
Generally the assistant you're mentioning would provide information relevant to what you're describing, so in the case of a bug report that would likely mean providing the link to this bug report article and/or the forums, rather than a support option. That's to save not only your own time, but also to make sure people that absolutely can't proceed without support (such as not being able to log into their account) can get through in a timely manner.
When you're being asked additional questions about the issue beforehand, that's also giving the eventual advisor extra information about the issue you're experiencing so they can be more prepared for the issue once the chat begins. That helps to hopefully make it a smoother and faster experience for both of you, rather than having to re-explain everything from scratch.
I'm happy to hear that you were able to get through. As not all issues are able to be handled the same way however, it's best to at least start with as much accurate information as possible so we have a clear picture of what you're running into and can get a head start on taking any necessary steps to help out from our side.
It's definitely worth noting that if you are directed to an article that does not address your issue, you can absolutely scroll down to the bottom and use the Contact us option to start the process of getting in touch with support. Feel free to let us know here if there's a situation that does require support and you're unable to get in touch, so we can fix the options that should be allowing people through rather than forcing everyone through the wrong option. Thanks!
