Support Matrix
Use this matrix to figure out which channel to use and what response time to expect. When in doubt, default to the support email — we'll re-route internally if it should have gone elsewhere.
At-a-glance
| Issue type | Contact | Expected response | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bug — something visibly broken in admin or buyer flow | support@podiumbase.io |
24 hours, weekdays | Include screenshot + browser + URL |
| Billing — payouts, refunds, fee questions | support@podiumbase.io |
24 hours, weekdays | Include order ID(s) where applicable |
| Athlete complaint — buyer-side issue you can't resolve | support@podiumbase.io |
48 hours, weekdays | Forward the athlete's email rather than retyping |
| Day-of-event P0 — race-blocking | Founder mobile sent at kick-off (call or text) | Real-time | See P0 definition below |
| Day-of-event P1 — important but not race-blocking | support@podiumbase.io |
4 hours during your event window | Use "EVENT-DAY" in the subject line |
| Account / org setup question | support@podiumbase.io |
24 hours, weekdays | We may schedule a 15-min call if it's faster |
| Feature request / roadmap question | support@podiumbase.io |
1 week | These shape V1, but we batch responses |
| "Is something wrong on your end?" | support@podiumbase.io |
Same-day during business hours | We'll confirm whether there's a known issue |
What counts as P0 (founder mobile, real-time)
Only these. Be ruthless about not over-using P0 — the channel works because we keep it sacred.
- Photo upload pipeline down for the entire roster for 10+ minutes during your race window
- Checkout completely broken — multiple athletes reporting "can't pay" simultaneously
- Mass complaints inbound — your inbox or social mentions lighting up about something visibly broken
- Suspected data leak — athlete sees someone else's order or PII
- Payouts visibly wrong in real time — a photographer flagging a wildly incorrect balance during the event itself
- Anything you genuinely can't tell is P0 or P1 — when in real doubt, call. We'd rather be paged for a P1 than miss a real P0.
What counts as P1 (support email, fast lane during event)
These get a 4-hour response during your event window, not 24-hour. Use "EVENT-DAY" prefix in subject so the queue routing picks them up:
- Single-athlete dispute or refund question
- One photographer whose uploads aren't flowing while others are normal
- Wrong sponsor or wrong logo on the public page
- Single mistagged photo
What is NOT an escalation
These are normal and don't need to be flagged in real time — note them down for the debrief:
- Athletes asking questions about photos that turn out to be self-resolving (they look again, find what they were looking for)
- Small visual quirks that don't block a transaction
- Photographer questions that the photographer dashboard answers
- General feedback ("the gallery could be faster", "I wish I could share to Strava")
Outside event windows
Between events, everything goes through support@podiumbase.io. The founder mobile is reserved for race-day P0s — if you text it about a non-emergency, expect a slower response than the email would have gotten.
Two exceptions where mobile is appropriate outside an event window:
- Pre-scheduled call (kick-off, debrief, check-in) — text to confirm or reschedule
- Suspected security incident (data leak, compromised account, suspicious activity) — same urgency as race-day P0
How we route on our side
Just so you know what happens to your message:
- Support email: monitored during business hours weekdays, plus during all scheduled pilot event windows. Triaged within 1 hour; substantive response per the SLAs above.
- Founder mobile: answered live during event windows. Off-hours, expect a callback within 2 hours unless you've texted "URGENT".
- Outside business hours, non-event: we don't promise same-day. We'll get to it next business day.
Escalation if you're not getting a response
If you've emailed support and haven't heard back inside the SLA:
- First: check your spam folder (real story — happens about 1 in 20 threads).
- Then: text the founder mobile with "Following up on support email re: <subject>" — we'll find the thread.
This is rare, but the path exists for exactly this case.
A note on tone
We respond like humans, not like a support template. You'll get questions back if we need them. If something is going to take longer than the stated SLA, we'll tell you that explicitly rather than letting you wonder. If we screwed up, we'll say so.
In return: tell us what's wrong in plain language. Tickets that read like incident reports are nice but not required. "Hey, this is weird, here's a screenshot" is enough.