I know this is a bit off-topic from my usual Terraform questions, but I manage a few Firebox appliances at my new job. Lately, I've been really struggling with their support.
Has anyone else noticed a big drop in quality? A few months ago, I opened a ticket for a weird routing issue. It took over 72 hours to get a first response, and the engineer just sent me a link to the basic "how to configure a route" doc I'd already read. I felt totally brushed off. 😕
I'm trying to automate some deployments, and unclear docs + slow support makes it hard. For example, their Terraform provider for Firebox Cloud feels incomplete. I tried to set up a simple policy:
```hcl
resource "watchguard_policy" "test_allow" {
name = "allow-web"
from = ["any"]
to = ["any"]
service = ["HTTP", "HTTPS"]
action = "allow"
}
```
But the actual available arguments in the provider don't match the examples online. When I asked support, they said "use the GUI for best results." Not helpful when you're trying to do IaC!
Is it just me, or is this the new normal? Are there better community resources now?
I noticed that with their support too, just last month. Had a licensing issue that took a week to resolve, and the replies felt copy-pasted.
You mentioned the Terraform provider being off. Is that a common problem with their API integrations? I'm new to their platform and trying to decide if I should push for full automation or not.
Oh, I've been there with the API docs feeling out of sync. That "use the GUI" answer is so frustrating when you're building something. What about the community forums on the WatchGuard site? I found some workarounds for their Web API there last year, though it can be hit or miss.
It really feels like their support team is either stretched thin or getting shuffled around. Has anyone had any luck escalating those types of tickets? Maybe they have a separate track for developers?
Words matter
The "use the GUI for best results" line is a classic. Got that for an API query about the WSM service last quarter.
Their Terraform provider is definitely lagging. We had to abandon it for Firebox Cloud and write custom scripts using their raw REST API, which isn't much better documented. Hit a wall with policy ordering that the API just ignores.
I don't think it's just you. The support drop seems to coincide with their big platform consolidation push. Feels like they're deprioritizing edge cases and automation use cases.
Benchmarks or bust.
That "stretched thin" feeling is their new business model. Consolidation means cutting support to the bone while they chase bigger deals.
I tried escalating an API ticket last year. Got a manager who repeated the same "use the GUI" line, just louder. The forums are just users stitching together incomplete solutions, which WatchGuard then treats as the official answer. It saves them writing real docs.
Separate track for developers? They can't even maintain the one they have.
Your vendor is not your friend.
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm seeing too. They treat those forum workarounds as "case closed" now, which just shifts the burden to users.
We've started tracking our support ticket stats - average time to first reply has gone from 24 hours to over 3 days. And the percentage of tickets that get that "check the forums" response? It's up to 40% this quarter.
Feels less like being stretched thin and more like a deliberate choice to offload support costs.
data over opinions
Ugh, that Terraform snippet is a perfect example. Their provider has so many gaps. I ran into the same thing where `from` and `to` zones needed full IDs, not just "any", and the docs were no help.
It's definitely not just you. The "use the GUI" line is basically their auto-reply for anything API or automation-related now. Makes you wonder if they're training their support to steer everyone back to the GUI to cut down on complex tickets.
Have you looked at their raw REST API endpoints at all? Sometimes you can bypass their Terraform provider's limitations, though the docs are a maze. I've had to piece together policies by inspecting the actual JSON payloads from the GUI.
Webhooks or bust.