I wouldn't rebut that webassist has been responsive and helpful for the most part. And I'm well aware of the benefits of a forum. However, I'm running a business and need to have guidelines established with respect to support, that I can predict, otherwise I will look elsewhere for the solution. My experience so far with Webassist response on the forum has been reasonable except for this one issue still outstanding after 5 days, that wouldn't have happened with the old system.
There are still issues I have with the current implementation of the forum:
First there is no way to prioritize a issue. I'm all for a donation system, which I use extensively with other forums (I know this is not a model for all businesses, but it works for those who need immediate assistance and are willing to pay for it). When a support specialist responds in a timely manner and is able to save me hours of work, I respond in turn with a donation.
My other complaint is that there is no private message area (unless I'm missing something) where I can speak directly to the support specialists and resolve an issue such as an unresolved ticket or additional information that I don't want public. I don't think its appropriate to post a public reply that says "it's been 5 days, why haven't you answered my question?".
I would recommend taking a look at the structure of forum.bytesforall.com/
