SENShelp

SENS is typically staffed during normal business hours, 8:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. We are on call for emergency situations, but most requests will be processed on the next business day.

Please check Who and What We Support for more information on how we can best assist you.

To submit a support request, please send an email from a University at Buffalo email account (e.g., username@buffalo.edu) to senshelp@buffalo.edu. It will help us process your request more quickly if you provide the information we need in your message. Here are some of the things that would be good to include:

• Your complete name, office or lab location, and telephone number;
• The name and location of the computer you were using when you had the problem, or for which you are submitting a support request;
• The date and time that the problem occurred (if applicable);
• The operating system you were using (if applicable);
• The software you were using (if applicable);
• A detailed description of what you were doing when the problem occurred; and
• Any error messages that you think are related to the problem.

If you are unable to contact us via the above procedure, please call (716) 645-3797 or visit us. Our offices are located on the first floor of Bell Hall, next to the Bell 101 public computing site. If you have difficulties obtaining assistance please contact the Director, Jason Lasker, by either calling him at (716) 645-4690 or visiting his office, 104 Bell Hall.

SENS uses a support ticket system to process support requests. We realize that many of the people we support like to talk to a real live human being when they're asking a question. Trust us, you will get to talk to a person, but submitting your request through SENShelp will make sure that it's addressed in the most quick and effective way. Here's why:

• When you send in a SENShelp request, it goes directly to our automated support ticket tracking system. A designated person in SENS is checking the system frequently from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. That means that your request will be looked at and assigned as quickly as possible.
• The person checking the system is aware of SENS staffing — who's out sick, who's in an all-day meeting, who's already got a backlog of tickets to process, etc. They also know the expertise of our staff. That means that the person with the appropriate expertise who can get back to you the soonest is the person who is assigned the request.
• Tracking the kinds of requests we receive as a department helps us make sure that we have adequate staffing in the areas that our users need support.