Stay away from Canonical support

[Yann2]

TL;DR: Got 1 year Canonical support in January, Canonical changed their plans in March and told me I wasn't supported anymore.

So: I purchased Ubuntu Advantage Support Desktop in January:

Date Ordered: Tuesday 29 January, 2013

Products
------------------------------------------------------
1 x Ubuntu Advantage Standard Desktop - 1 Year (CANSUP16) = £74.28

Mind you that the reason I got that support was that I was having random crashes leading to loss of data on a laptop that was Certified for Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/.../201202-10634/ (Yes, the laptop certification process is pretty useless too). This was about the 4th year I was paying for support, since 2009.

The 6th of July I received this mail from Canonical:

Dear Yann, 

Your current support contract with us is coming up for renewal ,  we hope that you have been happy with the level of service you received from our support team over the past year and hope you are considering renewing your current contract!

The easiest way to renew your contract is through our online store.  All you need to do in order to renew your contract is click on the following url: 

Ubuntu Advantage Standard Desktop Support
http://shop.canonical.com/index.php?cPath=41_38

To ensure that there is no disruption to your support service, please renew your contract before the expiration date of 21/07/2013. 

Please note:
As of  June  2012, Canonical has discontinued the Home/Personal support product.  The replacement product is Ubuntu Advantage Standard.

As of March 15, 2013 the minimum order for Ubuntu Advantage Desktop support is quantity of 5.  

If you have any questions please do get in touch!

We look forward to continuing to work with you. 

Kind regards, 

Corporate Services

When two weeks later I asked a support quesiton though, I received this reply:

Hello Yann,

   As of September 2012 we discontinued the personal/home support product. You can have support for free at http://www.askubuntu.com/

As of March 1, 2013, Ubuntu Advantage Desktop can be purchased in blocks of 5 subscriptions.

If you have less than 5 desktop systems, support is already available for you at http://www.askubuntu.com/

If you have 5 or more desktop systems, you can continue with the renewal through the shop for a minimum order of 5 desktop subscriptions, in multiples of 5.[1]:

Let me know if you have other questions,

Kind Regards,

-Greg

I pointed what I first thought was an error to them about a month ago. They stopped replying to my mails since then though.

**** me, right?

[Yann2]

Alright, problem finally solved after I reopened a new ticket in the support portal. Part of the problem was on me, as I replied to emails that clearly said "Do not reply directly" so some of my mails got lost. My last unanswered mail to them (that actually arrived) was on the 16th, and that's clearly not that long ago.

Here is part of their reply:

First and foremost I'd like to apologise for our miscommunication with you about the service you're entitled to - you are still supported and will be until 29/01/2014 because you purchased your support package before we stopped selling single desktop subscriptions. Due to some error or miscommunication we believed that because you had a 3-year personal support contract which was due to expire in mid-2013, you would be unable to renew, but you had already purchased a new support subscription by this time so this wasn't actually the case.

(I actually remembered paying three years support a long time ago but had no idea it was still active when I renewed)

Problem solved then!

[TheFu]

If true, this is very concerning. When a company sells a product they need to stand behind it for the agreed-to period. I've been on both sides - trying to get support and trying to give it. I've also had to refuse support to someone who's business was going to fail because they didn't maintain support for many years. That was a sad realization.

You've never tried to get support from Microsoft as a home/smallbiz? In 20+ yrs of using MS products, I recall trying to get support from them once for a real problem. It was impacting our business and we were a customer with paid support. In the end, they did nothing, so we moved off that platform for that specific purpose - hello Sun Microsystems (it was in the late 90s).

Heck, even for enterprises with 100+K licenses, getting real support can be hard when the vendors just doesn't have a good answer. Most of the time, they say that "feature" just needs some customization, so 3 consultants at $300/hr for 6 weeks should be a good start.

At least with Linux vendors/distros, we have a place where with a mix of vendor and outside support options. These people will not say "it is difficult" for things that are nearly impossible ... unlike what I've seen in some cultures.

BTW, when I've paid for vendor support, I expect them to remote into my system and "fix it" - not send me to a forum for help by other users.

[vasa1]

I found this interesting:

Hello Yann,

As of September 2012 we discontinued the personal/home support product. You can have support for free at http://www.askubuntu.com/

As of March 1, 2013, Ubuntu Advantage Desktop can be purchased in blocks of 5 subscriptions.

If you have less than 5 desktop systems, support is already available for you at http://www.askubuntu.com/

If you have 5 or more desktop systems, you can continue with the renewal through the shop for a minimum

[mastablasta]

Yes, the laptop certification process is pretty useless too.

indeed it is especially since you can't really buy most of models on that list.

I found this interesting:

Same here. especiall this part:

If you have less than 5 desktop systems, support is already available for you at http://www.askubuntu.com/

i interpret this as that official Cannonical support for home users can be found on that address (community support is on forums). i guess i should direct a few quesitons to askubuntu then and i can expect official cannonical support. i use Kubutnu but the issue is with kernel drivers. and kernel is the same in Kubuntu as in Ubuntu.

[codingman]

So, if I had 5 computers that all run Ubuntu, I would violate a rule by asking for help on AU?

[tgalati4]

I see a market for reselling single PC support subscriptions (with a small markup). A small PC business could buy 20 support licenses, use 5 for the office and then sell 15 for their clients.

[vasa1]

...
i interpret this as that official Cannonical support for home users can be found on that address (community support is on forums). ....

I haven't come across anything that categorically states that AU is the place for official support from Canonical. That's why I find the mention of AU without mention of other support options "interesting". It seems to be part of some sort of trend.

[cariboo]

I haven't come across anything that categorically states that AU is the place for official support from Canonical. That's why I find the mention of AU without mention of other support options "interesting". It seems to be part of some sort of trend.

Mark Shuttleworth is well aware that this forum is a support option just like Ask Ubuntu, what I find frustrating, is that most of the rest of the Canonical staff don't seem aware of the fact.

[mastablasta]

yes the forums link missing "fiasco"

@vasa1 they told him that if he has less than 5 computers help is available at AskUbuntu. it is sort of implied that is where official help is for users with less than 5 ubuntu maschines

also their support is expencive. that price should be for support of LTS for its full life period.