The knee-jerk assumption by any technical support department upon receiving a user reported bug is that the user did something wrong. In the majority of cases, they're right. But that's a problem for those other losers out there, not you! When you find a real honest-to-goodness problem, there are things you can do to help speed the problem resolution process along and make the tech support group take you a little more seriously.
Here is a basic template you should be ready to fill out when submitting a bug report. If you don't tell the vendor this information up front, they'll just have to come back and ask you anyway, so you might as well cover it in the initial write-up:
- Your operating system. Get specific, like "Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)" or "Windows 7 Professional 64-bit."
- If you access the software from a browser, which browser you used. Get specific, like "Chrome 51.0.2704.106" (all browsers have an "About" command, often buried under Help, that lists the version in use).
- Which anti-virus software you have installed.
- Version of the vendor's software being used (try to find an About command with a version number).
- Brief summary of the problem symptom in 1-2 sentences. You need a shorthand way to describe the bug.
- Full description, including the operations you were doing when you noticed the problem.
- Is it repeatable/reproducible? Have you made the same bug reappear? Is it consistent or sporadic?
- Have you tried the same steps using a different browser or different computer? Have other users seen the same problem on their computers?
- Any situations where the problem doesn't appear, even though you would expect it to.
I realize that is more work than writing "The registration report didn't list all our users." But it's the way to get your issue resolved.
By the way… Your feedback to your web conferencing vendor is vital. Please go back and read this post from the archives on why your voice counts more than you think.
