Report a service problem on behalf of a customer - including when and how to do so

  • Article

Applies to: Partner Center | Partner Center for Microsoft Cloud for US Government

Appropriate roles: See GDAP role guidance

If your customer has a service problem you can't resolve, you as an Advisor, Indirect Reseller, CSP Direct or Indirect Provider (Disti, CSP Tier II) can file a support ticket for the customer.

Service requests should be filed through Partner Center. They're available for Azure, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and Enterprise Mobility Suite. As a partner participating in the Cloud Solution Provider program, you can expect your major issues to receive priority for a response.

Support for your own partner tenant isn't included as part of the CSP support benefit. However, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and Enterprise Mobility Suite don't charge a separate support subscription fee for partners or customers. Azure does charge a fee but if you're entitled to Signature Cloud Support or other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program benefits, you can use those benefits to pay that fee. This benefit applies to all partners participating in the Cloud Solution Provider program, whether paid or during a trial period. Billing and subscription management support is also included as a free component of this package.

Perform administrative tasks for your customers

As a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner, you have Delegated Admin Privileges that give you access to your customers' environments. These privileges provide you with the ability to directly support, configure, and manage your customers' subscriptions.

In Partner Center, you can:

  • View customer service health
  • View customer service incidents
  1. From the Partner Center menu, select Customers. Choose your customer from the list.
  2. In the customer menu, select Service management.
  3. In the Administer services section, choose the service you need to work in to open the management portal for the service.
  4. If you find a problem with a customer's account, like services being down or a degraded experience, start by checking the service health. See Check service health.
  5. To escalate an ongoing problem to Microsoft, file a service request. See Report problems on behalf of a customer.

How quickly will I get an initial response?

Initial response times depend on the severity of the incident submitted. The severity of an issue is determined by your indication of business impact when you submit a service request.

Initial response times for technical break-fix incidents:

Impact Severity Time for initial response *
Critical A: Significant loss or degradation of services. Production services down. Two hours
Moderate B: Moderate loss or degradation of services. Production services partially affected. Four hours
Minimal C: Minimal loss or degradation of services. Services still available or nonproduction services affected. Eight hours

*Initial response times are for English-speaking support only. Local language support is provided during business hours. For incidents that fall within the boundaries of the support entitlement but aren't considered break-fix incidents, the initial response time can be up to one business day.

Submit a service request in Microsoft Azure

Important

Indirect resellers and/or Advisors can't open support requests in the Azure portal on customer's behalf for issue-types that are not Technical, even if they have a support contract. Only the provider of the Azure Subscription (either CSP Direct or Indirect Provider) can create a support request in this particular case.

To submit a service request for a customer in Microsoft Azure:

  1. Select New support request.
  2. Enter the required information in the request.
    • In the Basics section, be sure to select Cloud Solution Provider in the Support plan field.
    • In the Contact information section, enter your contact information, not your customer's information.
  3. Select Create.
  4. Later, you can review your customer's service requests at the Microsoft Azure portal by selecting Manage support requests.

*Submit a support request in Microsoft Azure when you don't have administrator permissions for the customer

Create a service request in Office 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

To create a service request in Office 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online:

  1. In the Create a service request section, choose the appropriate support category.

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  2. Complete the service request form and select Submit.

    Tip

    Be sure to enter your contact information on the form, not your customer's.

  3. Later, review your customer's service requests by going to the Microsoft 365 admin center and selecting See all support tickets.

Support for commercial marketplace products

Microsoft doesn't provide product support for commercial marketplace products. You need to contact the independent software vendor (ISV) who published the product to get support.

To find an ISV's contact info:

  1. On the Marketplace page, select the product that you need help with.

  2. On the product's page, you find support contact info. This information might be in one or more of the following forms:

    • A link to a support entry point on the ISV's website
    • A support email address
    • A support contact phone number

What happens if I sign into Azure or Microsoft 365 admin center portals and bypass Partner Center?

When you sign into Microsoft Azure or Microsoft 365 admin center portals directly, you're viewing those experiences in your own context, not a customer's context. For that reason, the only time you should sign-in to the Microsoft Azure portals directly is when you're a creating a service request for your own subscriptions.

Your CSP program support entitlement doesn't provide support for your own partner subscription. Because of this limitation, you need to provide your valid support plan entitlement when you create a service request that concerns your own partner subscription. Examples include Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program contract ID, Premier, or an Azure support plan. For more information, see the Azure Support FAQ.