I did contact SmarterTools about this as I was sure this had to be a "bug", but apparently it's considered a feature (?)
We're using SmarterTrack Enterprise 10.5
I'm reporting this as a problem. There are many scenarios in which a future follow-up date has not been reached yet, but a user replies to their ticket and so an agent replies back to the user. The act of replying to the ticket deletes the follow-up (with no warning)
If the agent did not realize that there was a follow-up set or remember to take a note of the follow-up details before replying (date/time and which department and agent it should follow up) they may not remember to set a new follow up or remember what the original follow-up details were.
This also conflicts with the documentation which states that Smartermail would only remove a follow up if a ticket is closed, locked, or deleted:
(I can't paste URLs but this is in the v10 docs):
“Note: SmarterTrack also removes any follow-ups assigned to a ticket if the ticket status is changed to closed and locked or if the ticket is deleted.”
With the current way this "feature" works, we're relying on the agent to notice that there's a follow up and take note of the details so when they reply they use "Send and Schedule Follow-up" and re-set the original follow-up back.
This leaves too much room for "human error".
At a minimum, there should be a warning that the follow-up is being removed. Or better yet it should just not remove the follow-up automatically just because an agent replied to the ticket.