DWW - DWW HELP DESK

Why a DWW help desk?

A help desk is a means of communication for customers and fans. More and more good companies are using a help desk to communicate with their customers quickly and precisely.

Why not good old email?

Email has been ruined by spam, junk and viruses. We're now receiving 3000+ spam/junk emails every day with the result that our spam filters are set at the highest level. This causes some genuine emails to be filtered out. In the other direction, some customers and fans block our emails with their own spam filters, so that we can't answer them. To top it, AOL now locks out most European providers so we can no longer send emails to those using AOL addresses.

To continue our high standards of effective customer service we are removing our email facility. In its place we are pleased to introduce the DWW help desk. From now, on please do not send us emails but use the help desk only for all communications. Like email, it's easy to use, except that it isn't email. If you like, DWW help desk will still send you an answer as an email. The only difference in handling your communication is that instead of typing your request into your email program you must now type it into the help desk while online.

What is so good about the help desk?

1. By bypassing email it ensures (as far as a computer can) that we receive all your requests.
2. It helps us select the incoming comunications by priority and themes and thereby gives us an opportunity to give you quicker and more effective answers.
3. It helps us to create a knowledge base of similar questions so you can first check to see your answer already exists.

How do I use the help desk?

1. Enter your own email address (make sure you type it correctly!)
2. Select the priority of your communication
   (yes, we know, every question is of the highest priority and you may know how important it is compared to other questions, but finally we shall determine what priority it really needs, LOL)
3. Select the category which suits your question
   If you do not select a category we shall still answer your communication but it might take a bit longer to answer than if you preselect the right category and hence the right recepient.
4. Write your message.

Help desk asks you for a user ID and a password. Why?

Because you don't need to rely on receiving our email to get the information you need. You can read our answers - and in fact the whole thread - in the help desk.

To ensure that only YOU can read your own thread, help desk asks you for a user ID and a password. You may choose any user ID and password (including your Web Club user ID and password if you like). Write down your user ID and password somewhere safe so you can find it later to follow your thread, in case you cannot receive our emails.

You can instruct your browser by checking the icons to remember your user ID and password automatically. This process places "cookies" - small segments of communication software - on your hard disk. If your cookies get deleted or if you lose data from your hard disk, your browser may not find the stored cookies. So make sure to write down your help desk user ID and password. For the next communication with DWW you can use this user ID and password again or you can invent a new one. However, the more different user IDs and passwords you use, the more difficult it will be to remember which one you used for which communication. So we recommend to use only one for all your requests.

How to ask a question

1. Enter the help desk
2. Check the "ask a question" icon. You'll be asked for your name and for your email address. Make sure you enter the correct email address or you won't receive any emails as an answer. In that case you'll only be able to follow our answers online in the helpdesk by opening the thread you started.
3. Give the question a title (headline). Enter a URL if you have a technical problem on a specific sub-website. Usually this entry will stay empty.
4. Give your email a rational priority compared to other important questions.
5. Select a category. If you do not know which category check "other", but if you select a specific category you'll probably receive a quicker answer.
6. Enter the text of your question. If you type a long text we recommend to type it in your word processor first and then copy/paste it into the box.
7. Enter a username and a password (see above) to be able to follow your thread and our answers online.
8. Submit the communication and we'll receive it.

How to follow up your question and our answers

If you entered a valid email address you'll receive our answers by email as well as being able to access them in an online thread. If you want to access your question and our answer online, check the "my questions" icon and enter your user ID and password. You will see a list of all the questions you sent to us with that user ID and password.

How long will it take to receive an answer?

Usually DWW is available online during weekdays and you should receive your answer within 24 hours. However, we do not always work at weekends and so it might take longer then. Sometimes we're busy filming or on vacation; then it might take a few days. But often we can answer high priority questions in less than three hours after we received them, so long as they were sent before midnight Central European Time.

Your help desk request always shows one Status out of the following:

Status NEW

means we have received your help desk message but have not yet answered it

Status PENDING

means we answered your request and are waiting for your reply. If we don't receive a reply within 6 weeks, your help desk request will be set to status: "Closed". Your reply should please either contain more information for us to deal with your request or an indication that your problem has been solved.

Status UPDATED

means we have received your reply but not yet answered it.

Status CLOSED

means that we have read your request and either no answer is possible or you did not respond to our reply within 6 weeks.