A few question that never seem to be asked, let alone answered with any authority :
(1) ZENDESK
Who runs and operates the ZenDesk for MSFS ?
ASOBO ?
Some unidentified MSFS Team ?
Part of the Community Management team ?
Some other entity ?
(2) How is ZENDESK used to support bug reports for MSFS ?
(3) If there is an identified BUG, who decides if it will be addressed ?
ASOBO ?
Microsoft ?
Some mechanism where both discuss the issue, and some JOINT decision is made,
Really, none of my Business, and there is no reason why Asobo or Microsoft should explain anything about how the conduct their business, and it would be of no interest to me, IF MSFS was not such a God Dam Disaster in terms to Bugs, and instability.
A support company relocated in india? Or at least so it would seem , based on current bug reporting facts and their effectiveness.
Maybe too much.
Let’s say that the ability to transpose issues and bug reporting between the submitting form and the development team is currently proving to be inefficient.
The real question should be “does it work for MSFS?”. Because it’s pushed as a customer support portal for when we have issues. And it’s pretty clear that at least for customers, it doesn’t work at all.
I think Zendesk and this forum are payed (or were aquired ?) by Microsoft, as a tandem together. We are encouraged to put tickets to this Zendesk software, Microsoft/Asobo gets info about urgent matters via Zendesk customer access… and if there are solutions, they put it on Zendesk article page, like this famous one about the download repeater… you get Zendesk url’s when you have set up a blog in Zendesk… So when you want to find Zendesk info, google “zendesk MSFS2020” or “zendesk flight simulator”. Zendesk in itself is nothing, just an intermediate…
Zendesk seems like a waste of time as I have reported several bugs and the team mark the ticket as solved but nothing in the sim changes even after a few months of updates.
I seem to remember that Zendesk is essentially an intermediary and the MS/Asobo pull this out to internal tools/planners. I think i saw this on a Q&A video.
I don’t know who is going though Zendesk tickets and dealing with them. My guess would be a team of support personnel at Asobo, or maybe it’s the job of some of the community managers, but that seems less likely.
My understanding of how it works is that someone goes through them, follows up asking for extra information if they feel they need more, they may provide basic support if it’s a common issue with a known solution.
Once they have the information they need to file the bug into their private bug tracker they mark the Zendesk ticket as solved.
Solved doesn’t mean the bug as been fixed just that it’s been properly logged.
Sure it’d be great if they were using Zendesk internally or if it were linked somehow to their internal bug tracker so we could see if our bugs were actually fixed or not but I have to assume that the 2 systems don’t work together and that Zendesk or any other public bug tracking software doesn’t fit with their development process
I don’t think it’s for answering specific questions or solving a specific problem. It looks like it’s just used for pareto charts to look for high flyers of problems. Those they may investigate further. Your problem would have to be something that many other people are also experiencing for any chance of it being looked at. Mainly because, if you are the only one reporting a certain issue, the problem is likely something with your hardware or something you’re doing wrong. They are not going to waste resources on that. If 25,000 people are reporting an issue, there is something wrong with the software and it needs to be looked at.
Zendesk is run by the support team at Asobo. When someone submits a ticket to Zendesk, a support agent first checks to see if it’s a known bug, then the team looks up if there is a current workaround to help the user. If not, they will create a ticket for the MSFS development team (using a separate bug tracking system) to investigate and prioritize accordingly. The Zendesk ticket is then closed out.
Are bug reports sent via Zendesk still logged by the team? All those that I’ve sent in the past ~40 days have not been marked as “Solved”, and I haven’t received any e-mail confirmations as I used to (according to the FAQ that should still be the case).
If there was an issue with these tickets I’ll be happy to resend them.
Translation: Someone checks the bugs, makes sure that it is true, then certifies that there is no solution at the moment without official fixes,after that is dumped in the “years unsolved\non graphical bugs” bin, hoping that sooner or later someone will take care of it or that people forget, fascinated by the fantastic visuals the game offers, in the meantime it must be renewed the general interest with some “nonsense” such as challenges or achievements or junk of this type , rinse & repeat until all the knots come to a head and even the most passionate will notice that something is wrong.
However, the work that is done at the level of public relations or trying to keep them, in the forum at least, is appreciable.
Zendesk!
The who’s, the why’s and the how’s.
An altogether interesting line of enquiry.
Perhaps a little transparency would would even go some way towards assuaging
a lot of seemingly pent up ill feeling.
I personally, would like to see Zendesk shift from the ineffable to the accountable.
So, I hope this thread results in the production of good, reliable information.
After all, knowledge is power!
Addendum:
By the by, I disagree with you when you say that Zendesk is: “none of my business.”
Zendesk is MS/Asobo’s mechanism of choice for MSFS 2020 customers.
And as such I feel it is very much the business of you, I and every
other paying customer.
