The confirmation email for a public service request or a message sent by the person handling it may include a link to the request's reply page. You can use this page to read the conversation and send additional information and attachments to the person handling the request.
Open the link to your conversation
Open the reply link in the email in a browser. You do not need a Spotilla account or to sign in. Use the link for that particular request so that your additional information is added to the correct conversation. On Android and iOS phones, you also reply through this browser link. A service request comment in the app is a separate internal processing note.
Anyone with the link can access that conversation and send messages to it. Keep the link for your own use and share it only with someone you want to give this access to. The reply page does not let you browse all of the organization's service requests.
The original confirmation email does not always include a reply link: a service request type setting may omit it. If you need the link or the email address is incorrect, contact the person handling the request.
Check the request and previous conversation
At the top of the Communication page, check the service request title, Status, Created at date and time, and Description of service request. The statuses shown on the page for an open request are Open, In progress and On hold. The status indicates the stage of processing the request, rather than whether an individual message has been sent.
The page language is determined by the language of the most recent conversation message from the person handling the request. If they have not sent any messages yet, the page is in Finnish. This guide uses the English equivalents of the Finnish field and button labels.
Read the conversation below the request details. If there are no messages yet, the page displays No messages have been left yet. To open a previous attachment, select the image or file icon shown with the message. The attachment opens in a separate browser tab.
The page shows the messages and attachments in this conversation. It does not automatically include the request's internal comments or all files saved to the request. The email from the person handling the request and the message on the reply page may contain different information. If the email directs you to the reply page, open the link to see the actual message and attachments there as well. You cannot edit or delete messages you have already sent on this page.
Send a message or attachments
- Select Send a new message to the responsible party below the conversation. The button opens the message window.
- Check Your email address in the window. The address is prefilled and locked; you cannot change it here. The email notification of a reply from the person handling the request uses the address associated with the conversation. If an anonymization replacement address is shown, email notifications will not be sent to it.
- Enter the additional information in the Message to the recipient field. Clearly explain what new information you are providing or which question from the person handling the request you are answering.
- Add any necessary attachments using the Add files button in the same window or by dropping files into the Or drop files area below it. Check that the selected files appear in the attachment list.
- Select Send a new message to the responsible party at the bottom of the window and wait for confirmation that it has been sent.
You must include at least a message or an attachment. You can send text only, text with attachments, or an attachment only. An empty submission is blocked with the message You cannot send an empty message. Add a message or attachment. The Cancel button closes the window without sending anything.
The file picker offers common image, document, audio, video and archive formats, such as JPG, PNG, PDF and ZIP files. The attachment area's instructions state a maximum size of 100 MB per file, but the size checks do not consistently match this text. A verified maximum size in practice therefore cannot be given. Keep attachments small and check that they have been saved after sending. The attachment limits for the public form used to submit a new service request should not be applied to this reply window.
Check that your reply has been saved and watch for a response
After a successful submission, a confirmation page opens with the message Thank you for filling out the form. The information has been sent to the recipient. This confirms that your reply has been sent, rather than that the work described in the service request has been completed.
Then reopen the original email link and check that the new message and all attachments appear in the conversation. Open the attachments to check their contents as well. Attachments may be saved after the message, and the submission confirmation does not guarantee that they have finished saving. A reply containing only an attachment may appear only after the attachment has been saved. If an attachment is not yet visible, wait a moment and refresh the page. If it remains missing, contact the person handling the request.
If Something went wrong appears when you send your reply, success has not been confirmed. Check the conversation through the original link before sending again so that you do not send the same message twice.
Your reply is saved to the conversation. It does not change the service request's status, mark maintenance as performed or close the request. An email notification of your reply is sent only if the notification setting is enabled and there are recipients in the manager role responsible for the service request type. Viewers are not recipients of this notification. Confirmation that your reply has been saved therefore does not guarantee that the person handling the request has received an email or read your reply.
When the person handling the request sends a reply to the conversation, the associated email is sent to the conversation's email address, unless it is an anonymization replacement address or sending email to it has been blocked. Keep the emails and use the link in them to continue the conversation.
If the email address has been anonymized
The personal data retention period configured by the organization may replace the conversation's email address with an anonymization replacement address. For a Finnish-language customer account, this is gdpr.tyhjennetty@spotilla.com. The retention period is based on the request's creation time, so the change may also affect a request that is still being processed. Addresses that match a user account's email address are excluded from anonymization.
Email notifications of subsequent replies from the person handling the request are not sent to the replacement address. However, anonymization does not itself invalidate the old reply link: the link may still open the conversation if the request exists and its status allows it to be opened. The message window shows the conversation's current address. You can check for new messages by reopening the old link.
Anonymization does not delete the conversation's messages or attachments or remove personal data from their contents. A notification of your reply may still be sent to the people responsible for handling the request under the notification conditions described above. If you need to continue communicating by email, contact the person handling the request. The administrator setting and its effects are described in How do I set the retention period for a service request sender's personal data?
If the link no longer opens
The reply page cannot be opened when the associated request has been marked as Completed or cancelled. A missing request or an invalid link also prevents the page from opening. In these cases, contact the person handling the request and provide the request title and explain what your additional information concerns.
The effect of forwarding depends on the conversation. If it does not yet contain any messages, the conversation can be reassigned to a new service request using the same link. In that case, check the new request's details on the page. If the conversation already contains messages, it is not transferred, and the page associated with the old, forwarded request can no longer be opened. If necessary, ask the person handling the request for the new request's conversation link.
If the page was left open before the request was completed, cancelled or forwarded, refresh it before continuing the conversation. Sending from an already open page does not recheck the request's status in the same way as opening the page. An old view or a submission made from it therefore does not show that the request is still being processed.
Instructions for reporting a new issue are provided in How do I submit a service request using the public form? The communication functions for the person handling the request are described in How do I add a comment to a service request or send a message?