cannot access github support

[rob-zeno]

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I upgraded my organization to the paid "teams" level so that I could file support tickets, but when I go to support, it will not let me open tickets -- it just kicks me to discussion. I'm trying to report a problem with github that I believe is preventing other aspects of github from working for me, but there's no way to get there.

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[samus-aran]

@rob-zeno Are you able to share the problem here on your discussion?

[rob-zeno]

I encountered three problems.

1. My use of REST APIs was failing for a common reason: insufficient privileges for a token, returning 404. However, as best I can tell, fine-grained access tokens are just useless. The documentation for "if you want to list workflows, then your FAT needs these privileges" is plainly wrong -- setting up a FAT with those privileges still results in errors. So far, I've only been able to get PATs to work.

2. Thinking maybe there was something wrong in our organization's settings, I tried clicking the "Authentication Security" link under "Settings" for our organization -- only to have the GitHub service return the "500" error page, telling me that the GitHub team would be informed of the error but offering no help to resolve the ACTUAL issue.

3. Frustrated, I upgraded from free to "Team" tier so that I could get support. When I did so, I now had a "My Tickets" option on the "Contact" page, and clicking it would bring me to a page with a "New Ticket" button. However, clicking that "New Ticket" button just brought me back to the generic "How can we help" page that had no way to open an actual ticket. It is possible that it takes time for the membership upgrade to make its way for the system --or I suppose it's possible that bug fixes have been deployed -- because now the "How can we help" page has a new option to "open a support ticket" which is what I wanted.

Luckily, someone on the web had similar problems for #3 and had a link that allowed me to open a support ticket directly. Using that, I was able to file a ticket to get #2 addressed -- which GitHub did resolve within 24 hours (kudos), although I don't know if they fixed the website or my organization.

I still have issues with #1, although judging by discussions in forums, I am not the only one who finds FAT so frustrating that they're practically unusable. The concept behind them is very appealing -- give only the access necessary. But the permissions necessary for APIs are not well documented or are documented wrongly -- or maybe I was seeing an actual bug? -- and there's not a good way to get traction on figuring that out.