As of July 2020, HRD Software made some system and/or platform changes to better support our customers. The purpose of this FAQ is to explain how customers will interact with our support staff and systems.


Prior to July 2020, HRD Software had the following three systems supporting customers:

  • UltraCart is the main website and webstore; no change was made to this system (we love it)
  • osTicket for a help desk system (tickets created from online creation, email, and voicemail messages)
  • Grasshopper as a virtual phone system
  • vBulletin running our peer support (community) forums; beta testers collaboration
  • MediaWiki serving up our online user guides

There were many challenges with this approach. One of them was that all these systems were separate from each other and customers had separate authentication credentials for each. The registration process was difficult. It frustrated customers.


AS of July 2020, HRD Software moved to the following systems:

  • Freshdesk, Freshcaller, and Freshchat; these are one integrated system by a company called Freshworks
    • Freshdesk is used as a help desk system, its community forums, and the online manual; alone, it replaces 3 of the previous systems
    • Freshcaller replaced Grasshopper
    • Freshchat was acquired as a chat support system, but we haven't opened it up yet
  • Slack is now being used for collaboration between the beta team, the developers, and the support team


The benefit to customers is the following:

  • The number of systems they would access has reduced to 2 (www.hamradiodelxue.com and support.hamradiodeluxe.com).
  • Customers who create tickets online (on the support site) are very likely going to get the answer to their support question before they submit their support request. This is because all the content that the support team used to email customers, all the information from the online user guides, and any information posted in the community forums are searched while the ticket is being created. Potential answers are presented in real-time. Since we moved to this system, we have received many complements about how good it is. After all, if you need a quick answer (which is where 90% of our support calls come from), why wait?


Methods for Contacting Support


You are welcome to contact support using our online portal (support.hamradiodeluxe.com), emailing us, or call us by phone.

  • Online portal - Service requests made on our online portal have the fastest service. The team typically responds to those within 1 business day. If the response doesn't satisfy the request, the support team will schedule a time to call the customer back.
  • Email service requests are the next best thing. Responses typically in less than 2 business days. If the response doesn't satisfy the request, the support team will schedule a time to call the customer back.
    • Non-technical questions regarding sales, orders, or software activation keys should go to [email protected]
    • Technical questions regarding Ham Radio Deluxe should go to [email protected]
  • Phone calls are not very effective. There are a few reasons for this:
    • The sales and technical teams are spending most all their time on scheduled outbound calls.
    • The team can respond to 20 tickets entered online or received via email in the time it takes to handle the average phone call.
    • Some customers were already in queue from online or email requests when the call was received. We seek to take customers on a "first-come first-served" basis.
    • When the team is not available to accept a call, a voicemail message can be left. That voicemail message comes into Freshdesk. It's either transcribed automatically, or someone will listen to it and direct it to the right department.
    • We understand that some people don't like to type (either online portal or emails). That's perfectly fine. Please do leave a voicemail if we don't answer the call. The voicemail turns into a ticket. Most of the time, you should expect a response via email.


About 90% of the time, our first response to customers satisfies the request. Thankfully, the software doesn't have a lot of problems these days. So 90% of the requests are answered quickly and easily. For the other 10%, if we can't solve it through the dialog, we schedule appointments at a time that is mutually convenient.


After making these changes, we are able to increase the speed with which we satisfy customer requests. The feedback has been very positive.