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Why do solved tickets change to a closed status?

Zendesk Team
  • Edited

Question

28 days after a ticket is submitted as solved, the ticket moves to a closed status category. I would expect the ticket to stay in a solved status category until I manually close it. Why is this happening?

Answer

Zendesk comes with the default automation called Close ticket 4 days after status is set to solved. This automation is required and gives end users 4 days to respond to a solved ticket before the ticket moves to closed status. You can set this automation to run anywhere between one hour and 28 days.

Automation close ticket 4 days after status is set to solved

As a best practice, leave a ticket in the solved status category for 3-5 days before moving to a closed status category. This creates an opportunity for end users to re-engage with you in the same ticket.

After 120 days of being in a closed status category, Zendesk automatically archives tickets.

For more information, see the following resources:

Note: If you have custom ticket statuses enabled, tickets retain their custom ticket status even after they are Closed. For more information, see the section: Solving a ticket with a custom status.
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7 Comments

  • Óskar Ómarsson

    Hi,

    I just wanted to shed some light on how this is affecting our business.

    The cause:

    • Tickets are force closed after 28 days
    • Tickets can't be moved back from closed status
    • Follow-up tickets can't refer to previous message history

    In my opinion Zendesk must do either of the following:

    • Give users control of when tickets are closed OR the ability to move tickets back from closed status

    OR

    • Give users ability to create follow-up tickets with copy of the message history.

    I'm actually amazed that this hasn't been fixed properly.

    In our organisation we have groups leaving tickets in either Pending or On-hold status so they can have the ability to have a conversation in the correct context with our customers after 28 days of ticket being solved.

    This obviously limits significantly how we can use statuses, an already rigid and limited system. Both affecting workflow and reporting significantly.

    Regards
    Oskar

    P.s. workarounds already discovered, neither of them are something I would like to have to depend on in my environment.

    • Misuse pending or on-hold different status
    • After less then 28 days move temporarily from Solved to another status and back to Solved. Can I get a confirmation that this resets the timer and also is there a way for me to see the value of the counter?
    2
  • Or Malka

    Hi Francisco,

    I checked now and my UI also looks normal :)

    I would like to know if it is possible to choose to put other fields in the same line, as priority and type appear together?

    In addition, today tickets are closed after 4 days using the automation "Close ticket 4 days after status is set to resolved."
    I would like to know how I can edit the closing time to 7 days or according to my needs?

    Regards,
    Or

    0
  • Sabra
    Zendesk Customer Care

    Hey Or Malka! It is not possible to edit the UI for the fields in the Support interface. As for your second question, I will open a ticket on your behalf to look into this further. Please check your email for an update!

    0
  • Stephane Vorasarn
    • Edited

    Is there a way to override the 28 days closure ? ie extend it to 6 months

    0
  • Nacho Santana
    Zendesk Customer Care

    Hi Stephane Vorasarn,

    It is not possible to prevent a ticket from changing to a closed status after spending 28 days in a solved status. This is a system rule that can not be adjusted or altered through the use of automations and triggers.

    On the other hand, you can keep a ticket "on hold" status for as long as you need. 

    0
  • Joshua Bentley
    • Edited

    Hey there, Nacho Santana!

    I'm trying to find a link for any existing requests to improve statuses and status behavior. Can you help?

    The way Closed tickets are currently handled has a pretty major business impact for us. One example: we regularly have organizations that change their name and/or domains because of company merges, rebranding, etc. 

    Because Closed tickets cannot be changed and do not automatically update when that kind of information changes, I can't do any reporting on previous years' ticket counts unless I remember the previous organization data (like name and domain). 

    0
  • Nara
    Hi Joshua - you are correct in that Closed/Archived tickets cannot be updated/changed once in those Statuses in Zendesk. If you are trying to report on different fields that are saved in divergent states than tickets less than Closed, you are correct in that you would need a database of previous organization names to ensure accuracy given this design.
    0

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