How Fast is Your VAN Support? Why Response Time Matters

When something goes wrong with your VAN, you need answers fast. But getting support from some providers can feel like calling an airline's customer service line: endless hold music, repeated transfers and the creeping sense that you may never get an answer. Meanwhile, your orders are stuck, your trading partners are waiting, and a carrier pigeon starts to look like a faster option.

So it is worth asking: How fast is your VAN support, really? And why does response time matter so much?

The cost of slow customer support

Imagine this: a critical order transmission fails, and your trading partner is waiting on a shipment. You submit a support ticket, and instead of a real response, you get an automated reply saying a representative will respond within 24 to 48 business hours.

You wait the full two days before following up, only to find your request seems to have vanished. Maybe it is sitting in an abandoned inbox, or maybe it was never received at all. Meanwhile, your supply chain stalls, your customer grows impatient, and you are left in limbo.

Here is what slow support can cost your business:

• Missed deadlines and chargebacks: If EDI transactions are not processed on time, you risk compliance penalties from retailers and other trading partners.
• Lost revenue: Delays can mean lost sales and unhappy customers who may turn to competitors.
• Wasted time and resources: Your team spends hours chasing support instead of focusing on higher-value work.
• Frustrated IT teams: When support is slow, internal IT teams are left building workarounds instead of getting expert help.

What customers tell us about support elsewhere

Customers who come to BOLD VAN from other VAN providers often describe the same frustrations:

• Long wait times: Some say they waited days just to get an initial reply.
• Tiered support: Instead of reaching an expert directly, they were routed through several levels of support before reaching someone who could help.
• Limited availability: Help was not available when they needed it most.

How BOLD VAN handles support

At BOLD VAN, we understand that businesses cannot afford to wait. That is why we prioritize support:

Support Feature	What You Get With BOLD VAN
Response time	Typically within a business day, often much faster
Support hours	8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET, with on-call support 24/7 for production-down issues
Who helps you	US-based EDI specialists who know your account, with no tiered support and no extra cost
Monitoring	Performance monitoring to help identify potential issues early

• Fast response times: We typically answer support requests within a business day, often much faster. Support hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET, and on-call support is available 24/7 for production-down issues.
• Direct access to experts: No tiered support. You work with EDI specialists right away, at no extra cost.
• Proactive monitoring: We monitor performance to help identify potential issues before they affect your business. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Spotting problems early means fewer disruptions and smoother operations.

Customer example: a fast fix for a key partner

One of our customers, a major consumer goods supplier, had persistent delays with its previous VAN provider. Every time it had an issue, it took at least 24 hours to get a response, and sometimes longer to resolve the problem.

After switching to BOLD VAN, the company ran into an urgent issue: a key trading partner was not receiving its order acknowledgments. Within two hours, our team diagnosed and resolved the problem. The company estimated that the quick fix saved it thousands of dollars in potential chargebacks and lost orders.

Questions to ask about any VAN's support

• Response time: How quickly do you typically respond, and how is that measured?
• Availability: What are your support hours, and what happens when production goes down after hours?
• Who answers: Will I reach an EDI specialist directly, or go through tiers of support first?
• Cost: Is support included, or is priority support an extra charge?

Tired of slow support?

If you are tired of waiting on slow, unresponsive support, it may be time to switch. With BOLD VAN, you get:

• Responsive support from US-based EDI experts, typically within a business day and often much faster.
• Pricing by trading partner, with quotes built for high-volume programs.
• A planned migration: For a transmission-only move, give us about two weeks' notice. You keep your existing IDs, and your trading partners don't need to do anything differently.

Frequently asked questions