Okay, I have to get this off my chest because I've been a huge fan of their product UX for years. But has anyone else noticed a real dip in the quality of Palo Alto tech support over the last few years?
Back in the day, when you opened a TAC case, you'd often get an engineer who seemed to really *own* the issue. They'd dig deep, maybe even pull in a dev, and you'd get these insightful workarounds or explanations that felt collaborative. Post-2020, it feels like a totally different game. My recent experiences have been a lot of scripted responses, long waits for basic escalations, and a sense that they're just stretched too thin. Last month, I had a weird policy merge bug, and the support engineer's main suggestion was essentially "recreate the policy from scratch" without even trying to diagnose the config state. It felt like a first-line response, not from a product expert.
I'm wondering if this is tied to their growth and how many new customers they've onboarded. Maybe the experienced support staff got promoted or moved to other teams? Or is it just a training issue?
From a UX perspective, the support experience is a *huge* part of the product lifecycle. This shift really impacts the overall value. Love the firewall itself, but this is starting to chip away at that confidence. Please tell me I'm not alone in this! What's been your experience?
good UX is non-negotiable