Fix the problem of another expert being able to lock on your question while in chat mode
Stop allowing other experts to lock onto your questions. I can be in the middle of typing, (after conversing back and forth for 20 minutes with a customer), and the question unlocks and someone else locks me out. Bad set up.
Have you been able to screenshot and document your experience? The next time it happens, it would be really helpful if you could try and take a screenshot immediately when you’ve been kicked out (if you’re getting an error message, or does it just dump you onto another page?) The more information the better, then Tom in our Bugs forum can help diagnose the problem.
-
Anonymous commented
I am new to the JA system and this has happened a few times and is very frustrating and confusing for the expert and the customer. This has also happened where I have received a notice to answer a phone call request and then to find out there was already an expert engaged in the conversation. Talk about ******* someone off!!
-
TV Tech1 commented
Part of the problem I see is that the public questions that other Techs are working on are still accessible at all times, so other Techs "Fast Click" it until the timer runs out. Why not make it disappear off the public list first, let the expert that first clicks it NOT have to press the timer relock 2 times as he switches from Chat to Posting, and also extend the initial Lock to 15 minutes....Maybe even have a Red Warning clock pop up so that people that are actually researching would be notified instead of typing in another 10 minutes, then pressing Info Request only to find out that someone else already posted, or is posting.
That's the real issue I've had on numerous intial questions.
I want to ask questions with good detail to them, not whip out a robotic "how old is your xxxxxx, and what model is your xxxxxxx."
-
BeBoo commented
The problem I have with this is that when I respond to a customer in chat, I will leave the chat tab open but unlock the question so I can work on something else. The customer replies and when I see the tab title changing that they responded, I go to the tab and it's locked by another expert. To me, it seems that these experts are purposely stalking the All list to see the questions that are replied to and look at them, in hopes to steal them. This sucks for me as I now have to reload that chat in order to continue with my customer. It would be nice to see that if the customer replied, you are instantly granted at least a 1 minute or even a full 5 minute lock to prevent this.
The only reason this is a bother is because at times when I refresh the chat, it will just sit at "Loading data..." - It happens on three different computers (two Windows-based and one Mac) and in every browser. If this didn't happen, I wouldn't care that I just had to refresh.
-
Anonymous commented
I appreciate James W's and John's comments. What can we do about hoarders? This is more than frustrating...it feels downright unfair to the customer who is waiting and for the rest of the Experts.
Can we get some help with this issue?! -
CConsultant commented
I can also confirm this is a real problem in the computer categories and have had this happen to me numerous times. I don't think it's necessarily a 'bug', because the times it's happened to me the 5 minute timer has run out while I was either working on a reply or the customer was waiting on a scan, installation, etc... I step away to use the bathroom, grab a bite to eat, or whatever and find that some... overzealous expert has IR'ed the question even though it's obvious the issue was being actively worked on. I realize a fast answer is one of the goals of Pearl/JA, but that is only one component to customer satisfaction. A quick answer is no help if it doesn't fix the problem and I can tell you from experience that customers will become FAR more irate when presented with one or more quick answers that don't fix their issue than they will if you have to work with them for several hours on a stubborn problem. However, when one of these drive-by experts IRs the question simply because it has unlocked, knock it out of chat... they turn what should have been a 20 minute fix, into a multi-hour (if not multi-day) ordeal that is frustrating for both the customer and the expert.
-
Nalosin commented
I can confirm this. Question is unlocked after 5 minutes regarding that we (Experts) are waiting for customer to respond. This is a little bit odd and time consuming.
-
Anonymous commented
A screen shot shouldn't be necessary because when you are in chat, the same 5 minute lock/re-lock mechanism is in place in chat as in Q&A mode. If you are chatting and not watching that timer, it will time you out and another expert can lock it. Ditto if you step out of the chat to do some research, then it can time you out. I think that the timing out should be removed from the chat window so that you can't lose your lock while you are engaged with the customer until either the "Save & Exit" or "Switch to Q&A" is clicked.
-
James W commented
Many experts who would complain about this are the same ones that would lock 5 or 6 questions and try to juggle many questions at once.
Then they actually get engaged with a customer who wants more information, and three or 4 of the questions that they had locked went over the 5 minutes....We want to be careful not to reward question horders by making it easier for them to "Tag questions" which Locks out other experts originally.
Be careful "fixing" this bug, because it may not be a bug at all. It may just be the "punishment" for taking the risk of trying to juggle too many chat questions at a time.
I am not saying everyone that this effects ir hording questions, but I have seen Many a time when it does happen.
When there is a shortage of questions in a category, it is very frustrating to see one expert locking 5 questions, when other experts can not even get to ONE or them.
Again, be careful not to fix what is not broken.
-
John commented
This is not just about locking error/bug.some experts wait for the customer to respond or for providing more information so they leave the chat as it is and sometimes forgets to re-lock,by this time the other expert intentionally locks it and answers this question.most of the times these answers were incorrect because of lack of information from the customer also the customer gets confused when 2 experts responds.i know there is a policy which allows experts to answer any question which is not locked this policy had done some harm to me couple of times.instead of "any expert can answer the unlocked questions make it as any other expert can answer the question if the other expert who took the case first is offline and the customer responded to the first experts question" i hope that will help
-
Eric M. Bright commented
Agreed!