Look how old this is! I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 19 years 11 days ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.
Almost 5 years ago, I wrote an article called “How to call tech support”, and I still think it’s relevant. However, there’s one thing I left out. If I were writing it today, I would add a section about email communication. So…I’ve added that portion here, and added it to the full article as well…
E-mailing tech support
E-mail support has become the way things get done, but sometimes it can be overwhelming to follow a history. The best way to keep a support ticket alive or (keep track of any email about a subject) is in a chain of email replies. Back and forth emails keep a full record to easily reference for both parties, and there’s no reason to keep multiple old messages.
It’s frustrating to have to sift through 20 emails about the same topic to find something said earlier under another subject line. An e-mail reply that quotes all the previous text is a great way to keep two or more parties up to date about any specific issue, not just tech support. If you have your case ID or incident number in the subject line, you’ll always have it when you need it.
For those that have a sense of humor, this is another list of tips to look at!
