close ticket

[floyd]

I would like to have the option to permanently close a ticket. I do not want the client to be able to open it again sometimes. If needed I can merge tickets myself of course.

[b.ahmed]

I don't understand why you want this feature ?

 

The advantage of reopening a ticket by customer is that you can see the previous history regarding that issue within same ticket.

 

You can always delete the ticket if you want.

[floyd]

I did not want to have to explain it. The bottom line I want the option to be able to prevent the client from reopening a ticket that may be months or years old. I am not saying I would do this all the time. But I have some clients who are idiots and reply to previous emails to support to report a different issue. All emails to support open or reopen a ticket. That I like. But when they reply to emails with different issues they reopen a ticket that is not even remotely related to the current issue.

 

If WHMCS wants more information as to why I want this I will be happy to give it to them.

[websavers]

Ah, so instead of a permanently close option, I think the behaviour of re-opening should change.

 

If a ticket has been closed for a certain interval (configurable but defaulted to 60 days[?]), a reply to it should open a new ticket rather than re-opening the old ticket. The admin notification should probably show a link to the old ticket (or at least the old ticket ID) in case there are references to the old ticket in the reply.

 

I think this behaviour would feel more natural anyway.

[floyd]

That would work too. The admin always has the option to merge the 2 tickets if they are indeed related.

 

Or even if they did reopen an old ticket maybe the admin should be able to split the ticket. Maybe be able to select the message and click "Create New Ticket" then it splits away from the one that is in reality a different issue.

 

Sometimes I get a reply just two days later with a message like "I have another problem" and really this should be a different ticket not part of the original.

[WHMCS John]

You could create a custom ticket status, then use an if command in the ticket reply template to hide the text area and submit button if the ticket is in that status.

[floyd]

How does this help the problem of when a client searches through their email for the last email sent to them from support and replies to that even though what they plan to write has nothing to do with the last email they received?

 

We need something that will automatically create a new ticket when a client sends an email with an old ticket number in the subject.

 

I would like the email import to ticket feature to be able to look at the current state of the ticket number and make a decision based on that. If the ticket number in the subject is closed or old then create a new ticket and don't use the old one.

[WHMCS John]

It doesn't help in that situation, but you didn't mention it before

[LaceHost-Ishan]

How does this help the problem of when a client searches through their email for the last email sent to them from support and replies to that even though what they plan to write has nothing to do with the last email they received?

 

We need something that will automatically create a new ticket when a client sends an email with an old ticket number in the subject.

 

I would like the email import to ticket feature to be able to look at the current state of the ticket number and make a decision based on that. If the ticket number in the subject is closed or old then create a new ticket and don't use the old one.

 

This would require a very intelligent algorithm which does not just check the number of days since it was closed. What if a client has the same issue which he had 2 months ago and the ticket history had notes regarding how to resolve it ? It makes sense to reply to that ticket instead of opening another and explaining everything again.

 

Also, I would refrain from calling names (for clients) as they might come across your post in the future and realize you are talking about them.

 

Ishan

[floyd]

It doesn't help in that situation, but you didn't mention it before

 

I did mention it before. Post #3.

[floyd]

What if a client has the same issue which he had 2 months ago and the ticket history had notes regarding how to resolve it ? It makes sense to reply to that ticket instead of opening another and explaining everything again.

 

As mentioned before the admin always has the option of merging the tickets. Post #5.

 

The issue does not have to be explained again since the new ticket will reference the previous ticket number. Post #4.

 

All I am asking for is 1 of 2 things: Option to permanently close a ticket and force a new ticket when an old email reply comes in or split a ticket.

 

I am not going to argue about it. If nobody wants it then fine I will figure out how do it myself.

[websavers]

I think my description in post #4 is still the best way to resolve this kind of problem. It also seems to cover all of the complaints that people have responded with (while apparently ignoring the post).

 

This is one of those features where people don't realize how helpful it would be, but would very likely benefit from it greatly and feel like it is just 'how it should work' if it ever is implemented.

 

Jordan

[disgruntled]

I think this would be as simple as checking how old the ticket is nothing more complicated, no need for status checks.

 

The exception would be having a very short ticket close time of say an hour, but i don't think that is practical unless you have a dedicated support team that answers each and every support request in less time than that. but even the best teams can get back logged. 6 hours allows for overlooked tickets, then the above would fit well.

 

I know from experience that the client normally wants all issues sorted in record time so will normally respond in the same record time lol.

[ukcompany]

This feature request, though likely best as a configurable option, should be easy to implement. You would just have the mail parser check to see if a ticket is closed, and if so, log a new ticket rather than add the email as a response.

 

As a side note...

 

The exception would be having a very short ticket close time of say an hour, but i don't think that is practical unless you have a dedicated support team that answers each and every support request in less time than that. but even the best teams can get back logged. 6 hours allows for overlooked tickets, then the above would fit well.

Closing out a ticket within an hour is not practical? Eek! WHMCS is used by legitimate companies that have in-house staff...

[Nexxterra]

I would like this to be a feature that can be turned off. I do not want to ever add an extra step for my clients to get the service they desire. if they open an old ticket or create a new ticket, as long as the system lets a staff member know there is a ticket in the que, the syetem has done the job.... new we need to do ours.

To have the client wait and get a message that says sorry, your ticket is not even sent yet would drive me nuts from a user level!

[stumblrmonk3]

I would love to see this feature implemented. I agree with Floyd. If a customer is responding to an issue from 2-3 months ago, I can always search tickets by that user and see if it has been addressed earlier so I would either merge the 2 tickets OR use the solution from old ticket on the new one.

 

Either way, his feature request is legitimate and is something that will seem natural if implemented.

[malfunction]

+1 We also know exactly what floyd means here. For us it's about authentication - example: we don't want people who may no longer be authorized to make account changes to dig out some two year old ticket, reply to it and maliciously have a site deleted or something. We can lock people out with password changes but if we can't stop them reopening a ticket then they are never truly locked out.

 

Our current system has a simple (and optional) setting for this:

 

"Number of days that a customer is able to reopen a closed ticket. Leave blank to always allow a ticket to be reopened."

[laszlof]

It would be fairly easy to code a hook to do this using the TicketUserReply action hooks. Just check for the open date, and the date of the reply. If the reply is older the X days, send a reply back informing them that a new ticket has been opened, and write the code to open a new ticket using the API.

[CavalloComm]

Malfunction - do you have the above implemented? Is it a mod?

[malfunction]

Malfunction - do you have the above implemented? Is it a mod?

Sorry, no, I was referring to a competing product that we were using at the time. Seems like a simple thing for WHMCS to incorporate into the core code though: "dont allow tickets to be reopened if they have been closed for >nn days", and if set to an infinite number would not affect those who do not care for the feature.