---
title: Tickets in the Client Portal
description: This is what your customers see when they use the support desk from the client portal. It is worth knowing in detail, because it explains several questions your agents will be asked — why a customer cannot reply to a…
url: "https://rackhelm.com/documentation/customer-ticket-view/"
updated: "2026-09-24"
category: Support Desk
---

# Tickets in the Client Portal

This is what your customers see when they use the support desk from the client portal. It is worth knowing in detail, because it explains several questions your agents will be asked — why a customer cannot reply to a closed ticket, why they cannot change a priority after opening, and why a sub-account can see the account owner's tickets.

## Finding tickets

Customers reach their tickets from **Support → My Tickets** in the portal navigation, which lands on `/tickets`.

![The customer's My Support Tickets page listing ticket number, subject, department and status with a Show closed switch and an Open New Ticket button](/wp-content/uploads/rackhelm-docs/support-customer-ticket-list.png)
The customer's ticket list, newest activity first, 15 to a page.

The list shows the ticket number, subject, department and status, with a **View** button on each row. Closed tickets are hidden until the customer turns on **Show closed**.

> **Note:** Tickets belong to the *account owner*, not to the individual login. A sub-account signed in under a customer's account sees — and can reply to — all of that account's tickets. Bear that in mind before putting anything account-sensitive in a reply.

## Opening a ticket

**Open New Ticket** leads to a short form:

| Field | Notes |
| --- | --- |
| **Subject** | Required, up to 191 characters. |
| **Department** | Required. Every department you have is offered. |
| **Priority** | Low, Medium or High, defaulting to Medium. The customer sets this themselves and cannot change it afterwards — only staff can. |
| **Message** | Required. A rich-text editor, sanitised on submission. |
| **Attachments** | Only shown when attachments are enabled, with the allowed types and size cap printed underneath. See [Ticket attachments](/docs/ticket-attachments/). |

A captcha appears above the submit button if you have enabled one for the ticket forms. The ticket opens immediately as **Open** in the chosen department, the customer is taken straight to it, and your staff are alerted.

> **Tip:** The subject can be pre-filled by linking to `/tickets/create?subject=…`. That is how a "get help with this service" link can arrive on your desk already labelled.

## Reading and replying

![A customer's ticket showing the collapsible message thread on the left and a Ticket Details panel with a Close Ticket button on the right](/wp-content/uploads/rackhelm-docs/support-customer-ticket-view.png)
The customer's ticket view. Messages are collapsible, newest first, with the latest one already open.

The thread is a list of collapsible messages, newest at the top, with the most recent expanded. Each is labelled either **Support Team** or **You** — customers never see which individual agent wrote a reply, only your ticket signature if you have set one. Attachments are listed under each message with their size, and download under their original filename.

The reply box sits below the thread and accepts the same rich text and attachments as the original message. Customer replies are stored as the customer's own words: the staff signature is never appended to them.

> **Warning:** Internal staff notes are never shown here, but everything in the message thread is. A reply typed into the composer's **Reply to customer** tab goes to the customer, whatever it says — the **Internal note** tab is the only private channel.

## Closing and reopening

The right-hand panel shows the department, priority and opening date, plus a **Close Ticket** button. A customer may close their own ticket at any time; doing so sends the usual closure notification.

Once a ticket is closed the reply box is replaced by "This ticket is closed. Please open a new ticket if you need further assistance." There is no reopen button in the portal.

> **Note:** A customer replying by *email* to a closed ticket does reopen it, provided the subject still carries the ticket reference and the reply comes from the ticket owner's own address. So the same person can end up with either a reopened thread or a brand-new ticket depending on which route they took. Agents should check for a recent related ticket before answering a new one.

## What customers cannot do

- Change the department, priority or assignee after opening a ticket.
- See who is assigned to it, or any internal note.
- See another account's tickets — including tickets belonging to a different account owner.
- Reopen a closed ticket from the portal.
- Delete a ticket or an attachment.

## Guests

Someone who submitted through the public contact form gets a guest account with a random password, so they have no portal login and follow the conversation entirely by email. If they later become a customer on the same address, the account and all of its ticket history carry over. See [Guest tickets and the contact form](/docs/guest-tickets-contact-form/).

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Cause and fix |
| --- | --- |
| "I can't find my ticket" | It is closed. Ask them to switch on **Show closed**. |
| A customer cannot reply | The ticket is closed. Reopen it from the admin side with **Send & reopen**, or ask them to reply to the last update email. |
| A customer sees tickets they did not open | They are a sub-account of the account owner. Tickets are held at account level by design. |
| Their reply appears under someone else's name | Same cause — the reply is attributed to the sub-account that posted it, on the owner's ticket. |
| No attachment field in the portal | Attachments are switched off in [Ticket settings](/docs/ticket-settings/). |
| A customer asks to change priority | Only staff can. Change it on the ticket's properties panel. |