# Raising a support case

> How to sign in to Gladstone Support with your Operator account, raise a case, choose a severity, attach screenshots, and follow or close it in My Cases.

HTML version: [Raising a support case](https://support.gladstonesoftware.cloud/guides/raising-a-support-case)

## Overview

Gladstone Support lets anyone at your organisation who uses Operator raise a support case with
Gladstone, follow the conversation with our support team, reply, and close the case when it is
resolved — without leaving this knowledge base.

Support is at `https://support.gladstonesoftware.cloud`, alongside the rest of this knowledge
base. You sign in with the Operator account you already use at work; there is no separate
account or password.

Support is only for customers whose Gladstone system is hosted in the cloud. If your Gladstone
system is installed on your own premises, raise cases through the
[customer helpdesk](https://gladstonemrm.my.site.com/legacy/login) instead, as described in
[How to Submit a Support Ticket Using the Gladstone Customer Portal](../kb/how-to-submit-a-support-ticket-using-the-gladstone-customer-portal.md).

## Signing in

Support needs to know which organisation's Operator to sign you in to. It works this out from
your **account identifier**: the first part of your GoPlatform address, the web address you use
to open Gladstone Operator. This can be different from your 360 and Signature addresses.

Example: if you work for Gladstone Leisure, the address would be something like
`https://gladstoneleisure.gladstonesoftware.cloud`, and the account identifier is
`gladstoneleisure`.

**Sign in**

![The knowledge base assistant panel, which asks you to sign in and use My Cases to raise a new support case](../content/assets/guides/raising-a-support-case/image1.png)

**Account identifier**

![The Sign in to Gladstone Support page, with the Account field for the first part of your GoPlatform address](../content/assets/guides/raising-a-support-case/image2.png)

**Log on**

Use your usual login, the one you use to log in to Gladstone Operator,
[G360](glossary.md) and [Plus2](glossary.md):

![The Sign in to Gladstone Support page asking for your Operator username and password, with a link to change organisation](../content/assets/guides/raising-a-support-case/image3.png)

To sign in directly:

1. Choose **Sign in** at the top right, or open **My Cases**.
2. Enter your account identifier and choose **Continue**. You can paste your whole GoPlatform
   address instead; Support takes the first part.
3. Enter your Operator username and password. If your organisation uses single sign-on, choose
   **Sign in with single sign-on** instead: it opens your Operator sign-in, and once you are
   signed in there, you are signed in to Support too. Come back to Support, or choose **Support**
   in Operator's profile menu.

Support remembers your account identifier in this browser once you have signed in successfully,
so next time you go straight to step 3. If you work for more than one organisation, choose
**Not your organisation?** on the sign-in page to enter a different one.

If you are already signed in to Operator in the same browser, you are signed in to Support too.
Signing in to Support also signs you in to Operator, and **Sign out** signs you out of both,
because it is the same session.

If Operator asks you to set a new password, the sign-in page links to Operator's login page on
your own GoPlatform address so you can do it there. You finish in Operator, not back here; once
you are signed in there, return to Support and you are signed in too, because it is the same
session.

If you mistype your account identifier, you are not signed in, and Support asks you to check the
account as well as your username and password. Check your GoPlatform address, or ask a
colleague.

Two things can stop you using Support after signing in:

- **Your company is not set up for support cases yet.** The header says so instead of showing
  My Cases. Contact your Gladstone account manager.
- **Your Operator account does not have access.** Support needs the same front-of-house access
  that Operator itself uses. If you see a message saying your account does not have access, ask
  your Operator administrator to grant it.

## The knowledge base assistant

Every page of this site, except My Cases, has a knowledge base assistant. Choose the tab on the
right-hand edge of the page to open it. You do not need to sign in.

Ask it about Gladstone's products, the API, or anything in this knowledge base. Its answers are
generated by AI and can be wrong, so check them before you act on them. It cannot see your
organisation's data or your support cases, and it does not raise cases: to raise one, use
My Cases.

The conversation stays open as you move between pages, and ends when you close the browser tab.
Choose **New chat** to start again. A long conversation eventually reaches a limit, and you are
asked to start a new one. If the assistant is busy or unavailable, it says so; try again later.

## My Cases

Open **My Cases** from the header. It lists your organisation's support cases,
newest first, with each case's reference, subject, severity, status and dates.

Two filters narrow the list:

| Filter | Options | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Open, Closed, All | Open is the default. |
| Whose | Company, My cases | **Company** shows every case raised by anyone at your organisation. **My cases** shows only cases raised against your own support contact — the one matched to the email address on your Operator user. |

An open case shows who it is waiting on, from the last reply on it:

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| With Gladstone | The last reply was yours, or nobody has replied yet. Our support team has the next step. |
| Awaiting your reply | The last reply was from our support team. We need something from you before we can continue — reply on the case. |
| Resolved | We believe the issue is fixed. |
| Closed | The case is finished. You can no longer reply to it. |

If you reply to us by email rather than on the case, the case may still show **Awaiting your
reply** until our support team responds.

## Raising a case

Choose **New case** on the My Cases page. The form has three steps.

### 1. Describe your issue

- **Product** — the Gladstone product the issue relates to.
- **Description** — what is happening, what you expected, and anything that helps us reproduce
  it: the site, the member or booking concerned, and when it started. At least 10 characters.
  The first line becomes the case subject, so make it a good summary.
- **Severity** — see [Choosing a severity](#choosing-a-severity).

**API cases need the request and response.** If the product is the API, include the full
request and response, headers included — but remove any secrets such as API keys or tokens.
API cases raised without them will be closed.

The case is raised against your support contact, matched by the email address on your Operator
user. If we cannot find a contact for that address, or your user has no email address, you are
asked for one, and a contact is matched or created from it.

### 2. Get help

For every severity except Critical, an AI assistant reads your description and suggests an
answer first. You can ask it follow-up questions. Its answers are generated by AI and can be
wrong, so check them before you act on them — and raise a case if you are unsure.

You can attach screenshots to your follow-up questions (not to the description in step 1) —
see [Attaching screenshots](#attaching-screenshots).

- If it solves the problem, choose **This solved it**. No case is raised.
- If not, choose **I still need help — create a case**. The conversation is attached to the case,
  so you do not have to repeat yourself. Any screenshots you attached in the conversation are
  added to the case too.

Critical cases skip this step and go straight to our support team.

### 3. Done

You see the new case's reference. Open it from here, or find it later in My Cases.

## Choosing a severity

| Severity | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Critical | The service is inoperable, or you cannot use material features. |
| High | Key parts of the service are badly affected, or material features are degraded. |
| Medium | Medium-to-low impact. The service can still be accessed and used. |
| Low | A question, or an issue with little or no impact on using the service. |

**Only choose Critical for a genuinely critical issue.** Critical cases skip the AI assistant and
go straight to our support team, so you are asked to confirm the issue is critical. Critical
issues raised that are not deemed critical may result in additional charges to your account.

## Replying to and closing a case

Open a case from My Cases to see its full conversation, oldest message first. Messages from our
support team and from your organisation are shown differently.

- **Reply** — type in the box at the bottom and press Enter to send. Shift+Enter starts a new
  line. You can attach screenshots to a reply, or send screenshots on their own — see
  [Attaching screenshots](#attaching-screenshots).
- **Close case** — if you no longer need help, close the case yourself. You can add a reason,
  which is recorded on the case's resolution. A closed case cannot be reopened from Support;
  raise a new case and mention the old reference instead.

You cannot reply to a case that is resolved or closed.

## Attaching screenshots

A screenshot is often the quickest way to show a problem. You can attach one to a message to the
AI assistant, or to a reply on an open case.

- Choose **Attach image** under the message box and pick the files, or paste a screenshot
  straight into the message box. A pasted screenshot is named `pasted-image-1.png`,
  `pasted-image-2.png` and so on.
- Each image you add is listed under the message box by name and size. Choose the **×** next to
  one to remove it before you send.
- You can send images with or without any text.

| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| File types | PNG and JPEG only (`.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`). Other types, such as GIF, PDF or HEIC, are refused. |
| Size | 5 MB per image. |
| Number | 3 images per message, and 7 MB in total per message. |

Files are checked when you add them, and again by Gladstone when you send. A file that is not
really a PNG or JPEG — for example a GIF renamed to `.png` — is refused when you send it, with
a message saying why. If a message is refused, your text and images stay in the message box so
you can fix the problem and send again.

Support shows the **name** of each attached image, on your messages and on the case, but not the
image itself. The images are stored on the case, where our support team can see them.

**Images from the assistant conversation go onto the case.** If you then choose
**I still need help — create a case**, the images you attached in the conversation are added to
the new case, after the conversation itself, so you do not need to attach them again. The
conversation on the case notes each image, as `[Attached image: name]`, under the message it was
sent with.

Up to 10 images from one conversation are carried over, and only if you create the case within
12 hours of attaching them. If the conversation expires and the assistant starts a new one
(Support tells you when this happens), images you attached to earlier messages are not carried
over; attach them to the case as a reply instead.

Before you attach a screenshot, check it does not show anything you would not otherwise send us,
such as passwords, card numbers or members' personal details. Crop or cover those parts first.