In messenger-based support (e.g. Telegram), tickets often originate from chat groups or channels and may remain open indefinitely if the customer stops responding. Zammad currently lacks a native mechanism to automatically close such tickets after a period of inactivity (e.g. 24h, 3d).
This creates clutter, increases workload for agents, and makes queue management harder — especially when working with Telegram chats where “new topics” are not clearly separated unless previous ones are manually closed.
Proposed solution:
Allow defining a time-based automation that:
- Checks if there was no customer reply for N hours/days;
- Optionally checks current ticket state (e.g. waiting for customer);
- Then changes ticket state to closed or a custom one.
This can be a new condition in “Automation → Scheduler”, similar to how OTRS or Freshdesk handle it.
Use case example:
- Telegram ticket opened at 10:00.
- Agent replies at 10:05, waiting for customer.
- No response after 48h → ticket auto-closed.
- A new message from customer later → new ticket is created (Zammad handles that).
Why it matters:
- In chat-first support, customers rarely close tickets themselves.
- Helps keep Telegram-based tickets clean and atomic.
- Reduces manual workload and human error.
- Prevents bloated queues with stale, inactive tickets.