I paid for the Lifetime membership. Even then it is hard to get an answer from support unless the answer is very quick and simple (IE there is already a link in the documentation someone can send over). Is there a tier I should be paying for on top of what I already paid to get support? I have “tickets” from other a month ago still not answered.
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Plex Pass has absolutely no impact on support and in no way entitles anyone to any support at all.
All Plex Pass does is give access to a few “special” features and a few “special” forums, nothing else.
These forums are the only support platform for Plex and, as poor as they are, the only support I have ever needed.
Also the Plex support documents are quite good but does require a bit of searching and reading.
Thank you for your response. Help from the community is also great.
@Elijah_Baley said:
Plex Pass has absolutely no impact on support and in no way entitles anyone to any support at all.
All Plex Pass does is give access to a few “special” features and a few “special” forums, nothing else.
There is a Plex Pass-only section of the forums. Before you say none of the Plex Pass-only sub-forums mention support I would like to point out that none of the forums anywhere mention support yet this is where we are all directed when we have a problem and support is some times provided. On top of that support for a service which I was asked to pay for is given-- and only given-- within these forums. It is not uncommon, as a long-standing and popular business model, within this industry to offer a free tier (Spotify, Pandora, Nginx, etc) with greater exceptions once money has changed hands.
These are not unreasonable expectations is my point.
@Elijah_Baley said:
These forums are the only support platform for Plex and, as poor as they are, the only support I have ever needed.
Also the Plex support documents are quite good but does require a bit of searching and reading.
Let us take my last issue as an example.If you have had this problem and solved it please let me know what you did and I will be more than happy to try that. If not I can let you know this is not in the docs.
I have had a large number of questions, almost all of which I found answers to in the docs. For the topics covered they are amazing (really and truly, I love them as much as one can love words on a page outside of my favorite fiction authors). I really appreciate the level of technical detail in some of those articles. When I missed one document a Plex employee was very helpful and very quick to point out the URL (although it is worth noting that when I had another related issue…). I was happy to have that, I just wish the experience was more consistent.
This is me asking for help for something I was asked to pay for. I never once expected anything for free nor did I ask for it (only posting issues once I paid). I am not being rude, I am trying to follow the unspoken rules of Internet forums in general, I have recommended Plex to all of my interested friends, and I have patiently waited for responses (for over a month at least once which I am still waiting on a response for). I am just very, very disappointed here and looking for help. I tried several times before I wrote this to do things “the right way” and now here I am. Please give me an actionable suggestion on which to act and I will do it.
Edit 2018.03.27
Was thinking about this and I would like to paraphrase but in a slightly different way.
I was asked to pay for something (which I did) and what I received some times did not function. If I stayed on the free tier I would not really have a leg to stand on but this was advertised to me for money and I handed over said money. I am not referring to a bug (that some times take time to fix which I more than understand) but a consistent issue happening across multiple versions coupled with a lack of communication.
Plex’s lack of support is incredibly frustrating. Particularly when competitors like Channels have AMAZING support, responding both to emails and forum posts usually within hours.
@nickwebha addressing the issue linked I have never had a slow loading or a transcoding issue with Plex on either my computer server or on my Shield TV server.
Of course I do not have anything else running on my servers except Plex because I do not believe servers should have other regular duties.
When you paid for Plex Pass (which is not required for 95% of what Plex does) not did not pay for support, you paid for access to those features and the extra forums, nothing else.
Plex Pass is a scam. You get the privilege of paying for features that do not work and get to wait for years for fixes to bugs. That is if they ever get fixed at all.
But with Plex Pass you get to use the new betas that offer new COLORS! Whoot! Hows that for getting your moneys worth!
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I want to thank Plex for getting back to me on one of the issues. Thank you, Plex.
There were several queries sent out to customers about a ‘paid support’ tier. The resounding reply was “NO”. It is for that reason no paid support mechanism exists. That’s the only reason. After all, why should Plex set up the infrastructure and staff for a service nobody wants?
Plex Pass provides extra features. The most notable are: DVR, Live TV, and Hardware transcoding. The somewhat lesser known is Premium Music Library which uses GraceNote premium tier subscription data.
As an added perk, Plex Pass subscribers can play with upcoming (soon to be released fixes or features). These are identified as the Beta (Plex Pass) downloads.
@ChuckPA said:
There were several queries sent out to customers about a ‘paid support’ tier. The resounding reply was “NO”. It is for that reason no paid support mechanism exists. That’s the only reason. After all, why should Plex set up the infrastructure and staff for a service nobody wants?Plex Pass provides extra features. The most notable are: DVR, Live TV, and Hardware transcoding. The somewhat lesser known is Premium Music Library which uses GraceNote premium tier subscription data.
As an added perk, Plex Pass subscribers can play with upcoming (soon to be released fixes or features). These are identified as the Beta (Plex Pass) downloads.
Out of curiosity how were those queries sent out? Email (In which case to how many because I certainly never got such an email.)
Or did I miss something here on the forums?
@HitsVille said:
Out of curiosity how were those queries sent out? Email (In which case to how many because I certainly never got such an email.)
Or did I miss something here on the forums?
I believe it was a topic (poll) on this forum…
EDIT: I think this was it.
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/280072/does-paid-support-sound-interesting-to-you-take-our-survey
I remember it took you to a survey page asking a series of questions about would you pay a one-time support fee, or monthly subscription fee, and how much $$ is too much, what your limit would be, etc…
@NewPlaza said:
@HitsVille said:
Out of curiosity how were those queries sent out? Email (In which case to how many because I certainly never got such an email.)
Or did I miss something here on the forums?I believe it was a topic (poll) on this forum…
EDIT: I think this was it.
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/280072/does-paid-support-sound-interesting-to-you-take-our-survey
Interesting!!
There are probably a handful of days over the last 3 or 4 years that I haven’t browsed the forums. Yet still I never saw that thread at the time.
For the type of users coming to the forums looking for support for the first time the chances of them ever having read that are about zero.
Add to that the claim that we who do frequent the forums on a daily basis are a tiny fraction of all Plex users. Think it was Elan who said that.
Overall it sounds like Plex carefully thought out the best way not to reach out to the “average users” and all the “power users” who would never need it decided it’s fate. 
@ChuckPA said:
After all, why should Plex set up the infrastructure and staff for a service nobody wants?
LOL… Plex does this every day!!!
What do you mean???
I am sure folks here could name a few… LOL
@Xhaka said:
@NewPlaza said:
@Xhaka said:
Out of curiosity how were those queries sent out? Email (In which case to how many because I certainly never got such an email.)
Or did I miss something here on the forums?I believe it was a topic (poll) on this forum…
EDIT: I think this was it.
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/280072/does-paid-support-sound-interesting-to-you-take-our-surveyInteresting!!
There are probably a handful of days over the last 3 or 4 years that I haven’t browsed the forums. Yet still I never saw that thread at the time.
For the type of users coming to the forums looking for support for the first time the chances of them ever having read that are about zero.
Add to that the claim that we who do frequent the forums on a daily basis are a tiny fraction of all Plex users. Think it was Elan who said that.Overall it sounds like Plex carefully thought out the best way not to reach out to the “average users” and all the “power users” who would never need it decided it’s fate.
Oddly enough it was listed on the front page similar to this info box.
or
Can’t remember which
It’s interesting to me when I see people complain about not getting help with there issues, and they never give the information needed so people can replicate and diagnose the issue. Everyone needs to keep in mind there are 3 server versions ( win, ios, ets), 12 or so clients ( andriod ios, smart tv’s, etc), and people don’t give the logs.
Then it becomes. I have a problem lets do charades, and then complain they don’t get answers. Some other members try and help either from experience with the issue, or they guess where the problem resides. Usually the post turns into a ■■■■■ session within 15-20 posts about how no one is there to help. It would be eye opening for everyone to know how many of these posts for help really contain logs. My guess it’s only about 20%.
If every problem that was posted included detailed system and device information along with the log files and explanation of the problem. You would get responses. They would love to respond, because they realize these problems need fixing, and fixing these problems makes Plex better faster. Allowing them to keep up with tech advances without having to over extend their resources (voice recognition, Hardware transcoding, H265, etc.)
So put your egos away, and pull your head out of the clouds. Remember you pay for the development end not support, but they will be glad to do it when you give the information needed to not waist their time.
@jeffddntdt said:
keep in mind there are 3 server versions ( win, ios, ets), 12 or so clients ( andriod ios, smart tv’s, etc), and people don’t give the logs.
And let’s not forget about the public versions and the PlexPass versions of those operating systems.
And of course don’t forget Plex releases are barely tested before released into the beta channel…
@jjrjr1 said:
And of course don’t forget Plex releases are barely tested before released into the beta channel…
LOL! Guinea pigs, we are.
@NewPlaza said:
@jjrjr1 said:
And of course don’t forget Plex releases are barely tested before released into the beta channel…LOL! Guinea pigs, we are.
I think of us more as little white mice trying, with varying success, to solve the maze that is Plex and hoping against hope to find the treat at the end.
@jeffddntdt said:
It’s interesting to me when I see people complain about not getting help with there issues, and they never give the information needed so people can replicate and diagnose the issue. Everyone needs to keep in mind there are 3 server versions ( win, ios, ets), 12 or so clients ( andriod ios, smart tv’s, etc), and people don’t give the logs.Then it becomes. I have a problem lets do charades, and then complain they don’t get answers. Some other members try and help either from experience with the issue, or they guess where the problem resides. Usually the post turns into a ■■■■■ session within 15-20 posts about how no one is there to help. It would be eye opening for everyone to know how many of these posts for help really contain logs. My guess it’s only about 20%.
If every problem that was posted included detailed system and device information along with the log files and explanation of the problem. You would get responses. They would love to respond, because they realize these problems need fixing, and fixing these problems makes Plex better faster. Allowing them to keep up with tech advances without having to over extend their resources (voice recognition, Hardware transcoding, H265, etc.)
So put your egos away, and pull your head out of the clouds. Remember you pay for the development end not support, but they will be glad to do it when you give the information needed to not waist their time.
I actually couldn’t agree more. Though you’re way out with the supplying logs estimate I reckon. I really doubt its as high as that.
Not sure I agree completely.
I have been involved in several issues where the only response from Plex is “Post Logs”
10s of logs get posted and the response is still post logs…
After pages of logs posted… No response ever!
