Why can I not add more users?

[Cody]

I want to get more users on our site, but evidently I can't because we are using the cloud based product and not hosting ourselves.

I submitted a request- but I haven't heard back from anybody. Are we just stuck until someone reads the email? How do I escalate?

You would think that purchasing more seats of a product would merit a more responsive reaction... or, that doing it in the first place wouldn't' be so encumbered...

[Daniel Eads]

Hey Cody,

Thanks for bearing with us - as you might imagine, we have a high volume of incoming requests due to work changes and COVID-19 related issues. I see you got a response to your question about adding more users within 24 hours.

It looks like you've opted for annual billing, which makes it difficult change your bill (for instance, adding users) until the bill comes up for renewal (next year). In this case since you're within 30 days of purchase, we usually issue a refund and create a new quote at the user tier you want. The monthly option is more flexible in scaling up/down across user tiers - based on your comments here, the monthly billing option would provide the experience I think you're after.

Unfortunately I'm not able to fix this for you immediately, as the Atlassian staff that works on Community (such as myself!) is technical support oriented and doesn't deal directly with billing. I've made some internal notes on your issue though to help speed things along. The customer advocate you're interacting with should be able to get things rolling for you early next week!

Cheers,
Daniel | Atlassian Technical Support

[Mikael Sandberg]

Hi @Cody,

Welcome to Atlassian Community.

Are you using an Atlassian partner that you purchase all your Atlassian licenses from? If not and you are on a monthly plan you should be able to just add more users and your bill will be automatically updated to reflect that change. If you are on an annual plan, you have to make a formal request by contacting Atlassian's licensing team here.

[Cody]

Hi Mikael,

I am not- I don't even know what an "Atlassian Partner" is though...

I am on a yearly plan, cloud hosted. I'm not sure why that means I have to jump through extra hoops to purchase the product... 

In any case, the same day I submitted this, I sent a request in to Atlassian. I finally got a response from Atlassian several days later- who sent me a link to pricing estimates... not the ability to actually purchase it- what I asked for.

argh.

[Cody]

@Mikael Sandberg , I just clicked the link you provided. Thank you for that. 

When it loaded, it appears that this is the same form I used to ask to purchase more seats several days back. The one to which she provided answer to permissions, and a link to estimate cost... but still no  way to purchase...

For reference, this was:

"CA-987877 Purchasing and Licensing Request: Update user tie"

It sorta insane that nearly a week after attempting to purchase the product, I still don't have any ability to do so.

She left a phone number in her email- I will try that. 

[Cody]

... and no dice. I was instructed to leave a voice mail.

related questions:

1. Why am I not able to automatically just log in and pay them for their service?
2. Is there a place to send the invoice for the literally hours of time I have spent trying to purchase these services from Atlassian?
3. Why is the cost for doubling the number of people (10 to 20) 12.5x the cost?
4. What is the alternative to atlassian? Is it still only sharepoint or are there some others I should consider?

Our contractors swore by this system for collaboration, but my experience leads me to believe that their tools must be just as shoddy as this user experience. Am I wrong?

[Mikael Sandberg]

I am so sorry for all the trouble you have had, I will ask someone from Atlassian to take a look at it.

I have used an Atlassian Partner for well over 3 years now I believe to handle all of our licenses. At my previous company we used server so using a partner allowed us to co-term all the licenses. It might be worth contacting one of the partners to see if they can help you with the licenses as well.

[Cody]

Hey Mikael, 

I appreciate your concern for our issue and for helping us get this sorted. I will reach out to the Atlassian partner and see what that process looks like. Thanks for helping us elevate our problem- it's very appreciated.

I've also asked the developers to give me feedback for alternatives to Atlassian. I'll report back how that process goes. I understand that confluence/jira/etc. may be somewhat ubiquitous, but Cisco Webex used to be the only real show in town too... until Zoom came along. When I evaluated video conferencing options it was a similar situation and you can imagine the one I picked for our business. Large, old, slow-moving companies with process paralysis, ridiculous pricing tiers and abyssal customer support sometimes blaze the trails for other more nimble, customer focused companies. Hopefully I can find a similar parallel to Atlassian. If I can, I'll almost certainly switch to them.

In speaking with the folks who are waiting to get access to our confluence. They shook their heads when I told them story- 3 of them, from 3 different organizations, all said "Oh yeah- they're (Atlassian) are just horrible." So, I guess there is a brightside, in that the folks waiting for access could commiserate with us.  /shrug