What is a "Support Incident"? Chargeable vs. Non-chargeable Support Incidents

Here's a definition of what a support incident is and where to make a request online.

Defines the difference between Chargeable and Non-Chargeable incidents.

A support incident is defined as a single support issue and the reasonable effort needed to resolve it. A single support issue is a problem that cannot be broken down into subordinate issues. If a problem consists of subordinate issues, each shall be considered a separate incident.

Technical support incidents initiated with support professionals are considered chargeable unless the support professional determines it to be not chargeable during the life of the incident.

If further assistance is needed on the issue brought up in the initial conversation, it is considered an ongoing incident.

Multiple calls or e-mails may be required to solve an ongoing issue, which is assigned a specific case number. Any additional calls or e-mails required to solve an ongoing issue with an assigned case number are included in the initial charge.

If any new support issues are raised while working on an ongoing issue, those will be considered a new incident and will be assigned a new case number and charged appropriately.

Chargeable Incidents

The following are some examples of chargeable incidents.

Troubleshooting assistance—you will be charged for troubleshooting assistance. An example of troubleshooting assistance may include a situation where accounts are not in balance or do not match. Occasionally, you may initiate a support incident, and later discovers the solution by himself/herself. These situations are still chargeable unless the Microsoft support professional has made no effort to assist the customer.

Mission-critical help—you will be charged for emergency support. A severity-one support issue involves a mission-critical operation that is halted. Mission-critical operations include system-down situations as well as situations where an operation vital to the customer's success cannot be performed, resulting in potential threats to the financial or legal obligations of the customer. An example of mission-critical help includes recovering your system after a hardware or power failure, or you are wondering what to do if your computer crashes while posting a batch.

System or implementation problems—you will be charged to help overcome system or implementation problems. Examples of these types of problems include asking what is wrong if you are unable to launch your solution from one of your workstations when you are installing your solution. Or after installing on a new workstation you just added to your network, you are unable to launch your solution from the new workstation and are wondering what could be wrong.

Non-Chargeable Incidents

The following are some examples of non-chargeable incidents:

Ongoing incidents — Additional calls or e-mails needed to solve an ongoing issue are not considered chargeable. Ongoing incidents are assigned a case number. You can avoid additional charges by entering your case number to bypass the credit card request at the beginning of the call. If you have more information about a support incident, you can log into Support for Business and update your incident. To view or update all open cases your organization has submitted, log in as each individual user on your account and then add up the cases to review them.

Incidents related to software problems — Incidents caused by a confirmed software problem in a Microsoft product are not charged. This includes reporting software problems to us and obtaining assistance in determining if there is a possible workaround or temporary solution to the issue. There are no charges for obtaining any available service packs to correct the problem, as long as you are enrolled in a Service Plan. After additional research, if an incident that was previously charged is determined to be a result of a software problem, the original charge will be reversed. A call or e-mail requesting that a customer's name be added to an existing problem report is also not charged.

Language of Support

All Services will be provided in English language, unless otherwise noted.

Support Information

For technical support questions, contact your partner or direct your questions to the Support for Business hub: https://serviceshub.microsoft.com/supportforbusiness/create