Even nowadays, websites and web applications offer poor usability experiences to both users and developers. I’m getting increasingly frustrated with sites and plugins which you sometimes even have to pay for, but don’t provide (extendable) functionality which is actually usable. As a developer, I sometimes just cannot understand software behavior that has been coded deliberately that way. This ever-growing blog can be seen as both a rant, as well as a note to self how NOT to do it.
Fortinet support website
Have you ever had an answer “Please check our website for any outages” on calling a helpdesk of an ISP asking if there’s an outage because all of a sudden your internet connection doesn’t work? I have!
Needless to say it’s kind of hard checking a website when you have no internet connection. The Fortinet support website does something similar: they provide hardware (routers) and seem to associate your account with the IP your router is using. So if you have a problem with your router, you can only log in to the support panel from the IP you’ve been using.
So you just have to start the hassle of moving cables and putting a spare router in place for accessing the internet through that particular IP address, just so you can create a support ticket. Once you’ve done that, you will probably not stay there all day and night waiting for some Fortinet employee to respond to your ticket. Chances are you’re not at the place where the router is (e.g. data center, client’s office), so you cannot view any updates on support tickets. Next to that, they just send you an e-mail that a support ticket has been updated. Thanks for nothing!