A support case is a request for technical assistance or help with a Google Cloud account, project, or billing issue. For more information, see the Technical Support Services Guidelines.
This document explains how to complete the following tasks:
- Manage support cases
- Enable case sharing
- View known issues
- Contact Customer Care
- Access additional services
To learn about the availability of Customer Care, see Language support and working hours.
Manage support cases
You can create and manage support cases in the Google Cloud console.
Writing a detailed support case makes it easier for the Customer Care team to respond to you quickly and efficiently. The best support cases are both detailed and specific. For more information, see Best practices for working with Customer Care.
Required roles
To get the permissions that you need to manage support cases, including viewing, creating, updating, escalating, and closing cases, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project, folder, or organization where the support case is managed :
-
To view support cases:
Tech Support Viewer (
roles/cloudsupport.techSupportViewer) -
To manage support cases:
Tech Support Editor (
roles/cloudsupport.techSupportEditor)
For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.
For more information, see Access control with IAM.
Create a support case
Before creating a support case, review known issues, and make sure that a case has not already been filed. In this document, see View known issues.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Support > Cases page.
Using the resource selector on the console toolbar, select the resource for which you'd like to create a support case.
Click add_box Get help.
In the Select a product list, select a product.
In the Describe your issue field, enter a description of your issue. You can edit this description and provide more details in a subsequent step.
In the Observed error message field, enter any error message details.
Select a priority and click Next.
For more information, in this document, see Support case priority.
Explore the resources that are listed and that might help you resolve your issue. If you still need to proceed, click Next.
In the Select a category list, select a sub-category that best describes your issue.
This ensures that your case is forwarded to the correct team.
Choose a support channel: Live chat or Email.
Live chat is available only in English. The transcript of your chat will be made available to you through email and can be viewed in the console by those who have the appropriate permission.
If you select email, you can also specify a supported language.
Answer the remaining questions and provide as many details as possible, such as timestamps, locations, and logs. You can optionally provide browser trace information.
Click Submit.
The Customer Care team responds to the case based on its priority and the support service that applies. After you submit the form, you're redirected to the Cases page.
To comment on the case, upload file attachments, or modify other case attributes, click View case.
Support case status
After a support case is created, you can view its status in the Google Cloud console. The following table provides a description of the different statuses:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| New | The case is not assigned yet. |
| Assigned | The case is assigned to one of our specialists. You'll see a response within the target response time mentioned in the priorities table. |
| In progress Cloud Customer Care | Customer Care specialists are working on the case. |
| In progress Google engineering | Google product engineers are investigating the case. Turnaround times vary, depending on the issue complexity and product component in question. |
| In progress Google other | Another Google team is investigating the case. Turnaround times can vary, depending on the issue complexity and product component in question. |
| Waiting on customer response | We need more information from you before we can proceed. |
| Waiting on customer action | We need you to do something before we can proceed. |
| Solution offered | A solution for the issue or request in the case has been offered. The customer can reopen the case if the offered solution is insufficient. |
| Closed | The case is resolved and closed by the Customer Care specialist. If the issue is still ongoing, you can reopen it within 15 days by replying to the last communication. After 15 days, you'll need to open a new case. In this document, see Create a support case. |
Support case priority
When creating a support case, it's important to assign it the correct priority. Per the Google Cloud Technical Support Services Guidelines, response times vary by issue priority and which support service applies.
The following table defines support case priorities. For more information, in this document, see Change case priority.
| Priority definition | Example situations |
|---|---|
| P1: Critical Impact—Service Unusable in Production | The application or infrastructure is unusable in production, having a
significant rate of user-facing errors. Business impact is critical (for example, revenue loss or potential data integrity issue). No workaround is available that can be quickly implemented (less than 30 minutes). Affected Google Cloud component or feature is marked as General Availability. Immediate attention from Google is required to resolve the problem. |
| P2: High Impact—Service Use Severely Impaired | The infrastructure is degraded in production, having a noticeable rate of
user-facing errors or difficulties in spinning up a new production system. Business impact is moderate (for example, danger of revenue loss or productivity decrease). A workaround to mitigate critical business impact is available and can be quickly implemented. Affected Google Cloud component or feature is marked as General Availability. Fast response from Google is required. |
| P3: Medium Impact—Service Use Partially Impaired | The issue is limited in scope and/or severity. The issue has no
user-visible impact. Business impact is low (for example, inconvenience or minor business processes affected). Case requires more in-depth investigation and troubleshooting and less frequent interactions. |
| P4: Low Impact—Service Fully Usable | Little to no business or technical impact. Recommended for consultative tickets where in-depth analysis, troubleshooting or consultancy are preferred to more frequent communications. |
Manage existing support cases
If you have the appropriate permission, you can update any support case for an associated resource (organization, project, folder), even if you didn't create the case.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Support > Cases page.
Using the resource selector on the console toolbar, select the resource for which you'd like to list support cases. For example, if you select an organization, all cases for the organization are displayed. If you select a project, only the cases associated with that project are listed.
Optionally, in the Filter list, select a property to filter support cases by.
To view a support case, click its title.
If the case is open, you can add comments, escalate, upload file attachments, or edit its attributes.
If the case was closed in the last 15 days, to reopen it, you can click Reopen case. Enter a reason and then click Reopen to confirm the action.
If the case has been closed for more than 15 days, you must create a new case. In this document, see see Create a support case.
To close a support case, in the General Information section, click Close case. Click Yes to confirm the action.
Create a linked support case
To automatically receive updates for a known issue, you can link a support case to it.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Support > Cases page.
Using the resource selector on the console toolbar, select the resource for which you'd like to list known issues.
Click the Known issues tab.
Click an issue to expand it.
To create a linked support case, click Create linked case.
Enable case sharing
Case sharing lets users in your organization, and outside of it, track support cases through email. They are able to comment by replying to messages without needing to access the Google Cloud console.
Note the following:
- Case sharing is disabled by default and the setting doesn't retroactively apply to existing cases. It only affects cases that are opened after modifying the setting.
- Case sharing must be enabled by a Support Account Administrator.
- When case sharing is enabled, any user with the
cloudsupport.techCases.updatepermission (available through the Tech Support Editor role) can add recipients by their email addresses.
Required roles
To get the permissions that you need to enable case sharing, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the organization where the support account is managed :
-
To manage a support account and enable case sharing:
Support Account Administrator (
roles/cloudsupport.admin)
For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.
Allow email addresses to track a case
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Support > Overview page.
Using the resource selector on the console toolbar, select the organization for which you'd like to enable case sharing.
In the navigation menu, click Settings.
To turn on the setting, click the Enable case sharing toggle.
To turn off the setting, click the Enable case sharing toggle again.
View known issues
The Google Cloud Support team publishes information about known issues affecting Google Cloud services as they arise. You can view these issues by visiting the public status dashboard, Google Cloud Service Health, or by using the Google Cloud console.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Support > Cases page.
Using the resource selector on the console toolbar, select the resource for which you'd like to list known issues.
Click the Known issues tab. You can link a support case to a known issue. In this document, see Create a linked support case.
If there are any open known issues that might be affecting your Google Cloud services, you will also see a notification on the case creation page. For more information, see the FAQ in Monitor Google Cloud Service Health incidents.
Contact Customer Care
All users can contact Customer Care with questions about Cloud Billing. You can also request support for technical questions about projects within your organization.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Support > Overview page.
Using the resource selector on the console toolbar, select the project for which you'd like support.
In the navigation menu, select your preferred communication channel:
- Billing support: gives you access to a live chat for billing support
- Phone support: provides a phone number that you can call to receive assistance in supported languages
- Community support: provides links to community discussion groups and mailing lists that can help you find answers or troubleshoot problems
Access additional services
If your support service is Enhanced or Premium, you have access to the following additional services:
- Change case priority
- Escalate a case
- Request follow-the-sun service
Depending on your support service and language, you might also be eligible to receive 24/7 support. For information on availability, see Language support and working hours.
Change case priority
If the service impact of a support case changes, you can change the priority of your case based on the urgency and the business impact. When you change the priority, Customer Care is notified and attends to your case based on the new priority. For more information, in this document, see Support case priority.
You can change the case priority in the Google Cloud console. In this document, see Manage existing support cases.
You can also change the case priority through the Google Cloud Support Center.
When changing the case priority, be sure to provide information about the reason for the change, and specifically, how the business impact has changed.
Escalate a case
If your support case has the appropriate priority, you can escalate it if the support effort or the provided solution is not meeting expectations.
When a support case is escalated, it is immediately assigned to a Customer Care Manager and you are notified within an hour. The Customer Care Manager owns the escalation until its closure. They identify and address the escalation root cause, and report preventative actions to avoid similar escalations in the future.
The following are possible reasons for escalating a case:
- Customer Care misses time commitments.
- Customer Care misunderstands the impact or the nature of the issue and doesn't comprehend even after you have made several attempts to clarify the impact or nature of the issue.
- The case might require additional expertise to resolve the issue.
- You think that the provided solution doesn't address the problem and Customer Care hasn't provided a sufficient explanation, even after your request for one.
- Your case is unresolved because you and Customer Care are not in sync, despite communicating several times with each other, and your case requires additional resources to analyze the issue and determine the next steps.
When requesting an escalation, quote the case number, and provide a reason for the escalation. You can make the request in the following ways:
- In the Google Cloud console, open your support case and click Escalate. In this document, see Manage existing support cases.
- Go to the Google Cloud Support Center, and click the Escalate case button, which appears 30 minutes after a case is created.
- Contact Customer Care. In this document, seeß Contact Customer Care.
- If you have Premium Support service, you can also request an escalation by contacting your Technical Account Manager during local business hours.
Request follow-the-sun service
Normally, a case is handled within one time zone by a single Customer Care specialist. Doing so allows Customer Care to offer personalized service in the time zone closest to you.
Due to the high impact of Priority 1 (P1) cases, they are defaulted to follow the sun, which means that the case is handed off between global teams to provide 24-hour support coverage. If you have Premium Support, you can also request this service for Priority 2 (P2) cases.
To request follow-the-sun service for a P2 support case, contact the specialist working on your case during local business hours.
What's next
Understand how to configure user access to manage support cases.