Please consider these guidelines for sending support requests via e-mail and our support request form.

get support

urgent situations

Be sure to clearly let us know that your problem is urgent and needs immediate attention.  If you mark the e-mail as urgent we will treat it as such.  Knowing the urgency of your problem will greatly assist us in prioritizing your request.  If the issue is especially critical, be sure to indicate that in the subject of the e-mail .

If you are sending the e-mail outside of normal support hours (Mon- Fri 01:00 PST to 17:00 PST or 09:00 GMT to 01:00 GMT the next morning), and you need an immediate reply, please follow up by leaving an urgent message on the support hotline. Call 415-777-2922 and choose option 4.  Also, please do not hesitate to follow up with another e-mail or a phone call to the support line if you have not heard back from us in what you believe is an appropriate amount of time.  It is possible we are busy on requests and did not properly identify the urgency of your problem.

If you did not get our auto-reply then it is likely that we did not receive your e-mail for some reason and you should either resend the e-mail and/or contact us through other means.

attachments

If you are sending attachments, be sure to not send us any of the following file formats files as they will be stripped off by our virus protection software (sending any of these types of files inside of a zip or tar is fine):

• .bat
• .exe
• .html
• .bmp
• .js

information and files to include

If this is a request for us to figure out why something is not working, you will likely need to send supporting files.  However, first and foremost, always send:

A complete description of the problem.  Be sure to include the program name(s) that you are using, all error messages and any other relevant information about what was going on at the time of the problem. If you are not sure if something is pertinent or not, go ahead and include that detail in your e-mail .  We can easily ignore anything we do not need, but if you did not send pertinent information the first time, we will have to request more detail in a follow up e-mail.  Also, putting something in the subject line that briefly describes the problem, helps us distinguish your e-mail from others we receive.  Including a screen shot or a cut and paste of the error messages will make sure that we get the proper information contained in the message.

System information. We will need information about the version and compile # you are running, along with operating system and environment information as well.  You can get the version and compile information from the top of any Mentor list file or by just running Mentor to your screen.

The version information will be on the top banner line, 7.6.1S below, and the compile version number will on the system versions line where it says comp=1855 below.

 

Supporting files

Please refer to the items below to ensure you are sending us all the supporting files according to your problem.

SURVENT questionnaire logic problem or compile problem:

The spec file (eg. .QPX) with a comment marking where you think the problem is. Any other files needed to compile the questionnaire which includes any files brought into the compile with an ampersand filename reference, call questionnaire specs, or disk based recode table specs. The "list" file (listing of errors specified on the command line or at the "list file" prompt).  It is also often useful to send us the .QSP file as it will have all of the information that was in the files that were brought in with ampersand references.

SURVENT Sample file problem:

The files above, plus a subset of the sample records converted to ASCII with Foneutil (option C). An ASCII phone header file created using Foneutil's "header" option.  If numbers are not coming up when you  think they should be or they are coming up when you think they should not be, also include all the Foneutil "P" screens.

SURVENT under the CfMC Server:

The same files as above and the server log files for the time in question: (L?DDHHMM in the cfmc/super directory). A complete description, include date/time, interviewer station, interviewer ID, and study name, along with a detailed description of what happened and any error messages that may have been on the station.

WEBSURVENT

The same files as for SURVENT under the Server as above, along with any template files, java scripts, etc that you might also be using.  Also provide us with a link with a username and password so we can see the problem from here.

SUPERVISOR, SERVER or DIALER problem:

The server log files for the time in question: (L?DDHHMM in the cfmc/super directory). The files /cfmc/control/parmfile and  /cfmc/support/suprinit (if supervisor problem). A description of the server screen at the time or the file cfmc/super/log.serv.

UTILITY like FREQ, SCAN, LIST or REFORMAT problem:

Rerun the utility using the same set of options you just used, but make sure to use the "S" option on the last screen to save the underlying spec file. Then send us that spec file, along with any other files needed to reproduce the run. This usually includes the data file, QFF and/or DB files.  If this does include either the QFF or DB, please send us the questionnaire spec file that was used to create them.

MENTOR problem:

Spec/command file with a comment marking where you think the problem is. Any other files reference by the spec file including the data file(s) if the problem is related to the data in anyway. Questionnaire spec file (eg. .QPX file) if it made the .DB file being used. The "list" file (listing of errors specified on the command line or at  the "list file" prompt) The "print" file if building tables or reports where the result is incorrect (usually XXXX.PRT)

 

Please note that due to the dynamic nature of CfMC software bugs sometimes arise and are fixed in later versions, so we may ask you to upgrade.  The support staff member responding to you may also ask for additional files to diagnose the situation.