How to handle a support request: GitLab

The same way as I complain when someone does a lousy job, I want to give props to a company that seems to do it just right.

I am a GitLab user by choice. A while ago I moved most of my repositories there. The initial reason for the move was that, at the time, GitHub did not allow private repositories for free users and I like to keep my projects private until I am ready to publish them.

Since then, I have not found a reason to move, it just works. Admittedly, I am a very light user, but I like what I see. As a security professional, I also like that they offer an on-premises solution and an open source one so you can fix issues if you find them.

A couple of days ago I got a GitLab invitation to a group I had not heard about. It sounded suspicious but I am currently waiting for a couple of technical tests to come my way and thought that it could be related and, in any case, there should be nothing that could attack my computer on the locked-down browser I use, so I accepted.

When I got into the group, there were over 180 users in there, but no other content. I dug out a bit more and all of the users had joined in the last 3 or 4 hours or were pending. At this point, I was sure that there was something wrong with this group, so I left and went to report it.

I sent an email to the support email (readily available in multiple places) and an email address that I guessed for the security team (no bounce, so it may actually have reached them) and got a receipt notification at 15:24. So far, so good.

At 16:34 I got a confirmation email to let me know that someone was looking into the reported issue.

At 16:38 got another confirmation email telling me that the user that invited me had been identified as a spammer and was being dealt with and a link referring to a ticket about a similar issue.

So, in less than 1:30 they read my report, performed an investigation and sent me a reply with the actions they were taking. Colour me impressed, specially because this is for a free account and I have never paid them a penny.

I have seen GitLab representatives in multiple technical sites. Whenever someone mentions any issue with the product, there will be one asking for more details and I have not seem them been rude or anything like that.

They have also been increasing the capabilities of the free version of the software as people requested them, while keeping obviously enterprise-related features for the paid one.

I was obviously pre-disposed to use them professionally before but now, after this experience, I am even keener. If they provide this level of support and responsiveness for free customers, I expect them to be great for paying ones.

Well done GitLab!