FAQs for getting support

How do I check for planned maintenance?

You can check for upcoming maintenance from your dashboard in the IBM Cloud® console at least one time every 24 hours. Use one of the following options:

• Check out the Planned maintenance widget on the Dashboard, and click View all.
• Go directly to the Status - Planned maintenance page.

What steps can I take before I open a support case?

Before you open a support case, explore the following resources:

• Review the documentation.
• Review the Featured FAQs on the Support Center.
• Go to the FAQ library.
• Go to Stack Overflow to ask technical questions about developing apps with the IBM Cloud platform and services.

How do I open a support case?

Go to the Support Center in the console, and click Create a case from the Contact Support section. After your support case is created, you can follow its progress on the Manage cases page. For more information about creating a case, see Creating support cases.

What are my options for contacting IBM Cloud Support?

From the IBM Cloud console menu bar, click the Help icon > Support center. The Contact Support section provides the options for getting in touch with a support representative: start a live chat, contact by phone, or create a support case. The options that are available to you depend on your support plan. For more information, see Getting support.

Lite and Trial account support is limited to non-technical support issues that are related to account access and billing. Users with Lite or Trial accounts can view the IBM Cloud documentation, chat with the Virtual Cloud Assistant, use the IBM Cloud Community, and use Stack Overflow.

How do I escalate support cases?

As an IBM Cloud customer, you can escalate support cases to surface critical issues. To escalate a case, go to the Support Center and contact IBM Cloud Support by phone or chat. Provide your existing case number, the business impact of your issue, and a request to escalate the case.

If you have a Basic support plan, access to support is through cases only. If your support inquiry requires a more immediate response, consider upgrading to a Premium or Advanced support plan.

For more information, see Escalating support cases.

How do I change my email preferences for notifications?

You can change which email notifications you receive for planned events, unplanned events, and announcements in your profile settings. To change your email preferences, choose one of the following options:

• Go to Notifications in your profile settings.
• For control.softlayer.com, you can change your email preferences by going to Account > Users > Email Preferences.

How am I charged for support?

If you have Advanced or Premium support, you can track your monthly support costs. In the IBM Cloud console, go to Manage > Billing and usage, and select Support costs. Each support plan has a minimum monthly support price for your cloud workload at the stated service level. Beyond this starting price, any additional costs for support are based on your resource usage. The higher your resource usage, the higher your total support cost.

Charges for support of third-party services are not included in the Advanced or Premium support charge calculations. These non-IBM programs are licensed directly by their providers.

To view your support costs, you need an access policy with the Administrator role on the Billing account management service. For more information about access roles, see IAM access.

How can I upgrade my support plan?

If you want to upgrade your support plan, contact a IBM Cloud Sales representative. For more information on the different support plans, see Basic, Advanced, and Premium support plans.

Why can't I see my support cases? 

To access your support cases, from the IBM Cloud console menu bar, click the Help icon > Support center, and click Manage cases. If you're unable to view your cases, try clicking View classic infrastructure cases.

If you still can't view them, you might not have the required permission. Ask your account owner to add you to the support case access group. For more information, see SoftLayer account permissions.

How do I get support for non-IBM Cloud products?

Some cloud-based IBM products are not offered in IBM Cloud. These products, such as Aspera on Cloud, are offered by IBM but aren't supported by the IBM Cloud platform. For support for these products, go to IBM support.

Support for third-party services is provided by the service provider.

Does IBM Cloud provide support for resources available through the IBM SkillsBuild Software Downloads?

The IBM SkillsBuild Software Downloads is an IBM corporate program that provides access to the IBM Cloud Platform for faculty, students, and researchers at accredited academic institutions. Acceptance decisions, length of participation, awarding of credits, and any possible extensions are made by the IBM SkillsBuild Software Downloads Team and not IBM Cloud Support. IBM Cloud Support also does not provide technical support for accounts that are part of the IBM SkillsBuild Software Downloads Program.

How do I ensure that users in my account get updates for a support case?

As the account owner or as an administrator or editor on the Support Center service, you can add users in the account to the watchlist. Users on the watchlist can view and follow the support case's progress. For more information, see Updating your support case's watchlist.

Can I find support cases that are created by specific users?

You can download a list of created support cases and view the cases that are created by each user.

To download a list of created support cases, use the following steps:

1. From the IBM Cloud console menu bar, click the Help icon > Support center.
2. Click View all from the Recent support cases tile.
3. On the Manage cases page, click Filter by status and select the case status that you want to view. You can select more than one status.
4. Click the Download icon .
5. Sort, filter, or search in your spreadsheet to view the cases for a specific user.

If your account has classic infrastructure cases, you can download a list of created support cases by using the following steps:

1. From the Manage cases page, click View classic infrastructure cases.
2. Click Filter by status and select the case status that you want to view. You can select more than one status.
3. Click the Download icon .
4. Sort, filter, or search in your spreadsheet to view the cases for a specific user.

Can I create a support case if my account was deactivated?

If your account is deactivated, you have 30 days to log in to the console and create a support case. If you can't access your account, you can create a support case by completing the Create an Account, Login or Billing Request form.

Do watchlists apply account-wide or to a specific case?

Watchlists are specific to each case. You must manually add a user to each individual case. You can't configure an account to have a list of users that are added to the watchlist for all cases.

How can I chat with support?

You can chat with support if you have an Advanced or Premium support plan. Go to the Support Center and click Chat with IBM. Or, call the number provided in the Contact Support section. To upgrade your support plan, contact a IBM Cloud Sales representative.