Paul thank so much. They were set to open via helpcenter admin BUT when you save it OPEN , it saves closed. There is no way to force it to save as open.
So I uninstalled everything, product and php files. Reupped the files and the product.. no fix it is worse than before, now there is no where to click on at helpcenter.php page to submit a ticket in the left column, even after opening 2 departments which will not save open.
So I uninstalled and reinstalled again. Still the same. All plugin hooks were active. All files uploaded properly and to the right place.
Helpcenter admin settings all on.
I really would like to use this

There must be a glitch in the code somewhere though I'd have no idea where to look.