Fastmail was Down and now everyone is squabbling... - Page 4

jsamuelson · 6 Dec 2010, 08:16 PM

My IMAP back up…phew. Thanks.

I second using Twitter for blow-by-blow status updates. Easy way to broadcast.

CyberDyne · 6 Dec 2010, 08:22 PM

Seems fine now, thanks for all your hard work guys.

CyberSaint · 6 Dec 2010, 08:29 PM

My FM is working here now -- thanks guys for the quick response! I'll be curious read exactly what happened to cause the outage when the details are posted!

Ladrillo · 6 Dec 2010, 08:30 PM

Yahooooo

rabarberski · 6 Dec 2010, 08:34 PM

Good to see the service restored, thanks for the hard work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadams

If you can't fix the techie problem (understandable, sympathetic) at least fix the communications/customer service problem (easy to do!).

@sadams: Non-tech communication has always been FM weakest points (my opinion).
Don't keep your hopes up high on this one ...

azmal1 · 6 Dec 2010, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberSaint

My FM is working here now -- thanks guys for the quick response! I'll be curious read exactly what happened to cause the outage when the details are posted!

No offence - but I am STAGGERED by the response to this serious outage. It was Monday morning in the UK and to have email down for more than an hour - especially for a service I pay for - is totally out of order (no pun intended).

The lack of communication (via the status blog and twitter) is utterly pathetic and my faith in fastmail has been shattered by this incident. I was due some critically important emails during the outage - and I know that emails that were sent to me during this time are not there now.

Where are they? How could they have got lost?

Fastmail? Any answers? Or do you hope that everyone will be so grateful for your efforts in getting the service back that they will let this situation pass without comment?

shenton · 6 Dec 2010, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ladrillo

Yahooooo

Nope.... "Fastmaaaaaaaaail!!!!"

brong · 6 Dec 2010, 08:41 PM

I'm not a twit

AliBabNet · 6 Dec 2010, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by azmal1

No offence - but I am STAGGERED by the response to this serious outage. It was Monday morning in the UK and to have email down for more than an hour - especially for a service I pay for - is totally out of order (no pun intended).

The lack of communication (via the status blog and twitter) is utterly pathetic and my faith in fastmail has been shattered by this incident. I was due some critically important emails during the outage - and I know that emails that were sent to me during this time are not there now.

Where are they? How could they have got lost?

Fastmail? Any answers? Or do you hope that everyone will be so grateful for your efforts in getting the service back that they will let this situation pass without comment?

+1
I'm missing e-mails too.

sadams · 6 Dec 2010, 08:44 PM

@rabarberski

Thanks for taking an interest :-)
Agreed.
Interestingly.. combined with the specialist offerings (techie features & functions), availability (not being ironic - I've found them really reliable for several years) their BIGGEST differentiator to the BIG GUY competitors (Google, hotmail, yahoo & likely Facebook sometime soon) SHOULD BE their ability to communicate with users/customers in a

"Big enough to cope - small enough to care" kinda way.

That they don't recognise this is a weakness and a missed opportunity IMHO and makes users like me (discerning, a bit geeky, yet small time in terms of usage and revenue) more likely to be seduced away to gmail eventually.
I respect that I am likely not (no longer, were we ever) an important sector for FM and that they have a different perspective.
That said.. if I were a supplier/reseller/integrator for small-biz customers myself.. i would have had FM at the top of my list if I thought they would actually provide "customer service" when needed.

Anyhow..
glad to see the service restored.. i'll take an interest in the explanation/outage-post-mortem :-).

Cheers, Steve.

brong · 6 Dec 2010, 08:45 PM

we don't have a big "PR staff". I'll talk to Opera about having someone allocated to communications during outages, beacuse I know we're not good at that. Funnily enough, the techs who happened to be awake were all busy trying to fix the problems.

My general attitude, and I'm pretty sure it's shared by the rest of the staff, is that getting things fixed 5 minutes sooner is more important than breaking out concentration to send update messages - so they tend to happen when we get a moment's break in things rather than frequently. I know how much it sucks to be on the opposite end of that.

I'm sitting on my couch at home, and I'm sure Rob is somewhere similar at his place - this hit us 9pm Melbourne time, 5am New York Time - and we're still not even sure exactly what happened. Now that some of the non-night people at NYI are awake we're trying to get answers.

azmal1 · 6 Dec 2010, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AliBabNet

+1
I'm missing e-mails too.

It's not so much the missing emails - as they are supposedly being queued to be delivered - it's the fact that they weren't delivered to me when I needed them most. It's caused huge embarrassment to me with my clients and Fastmail''s apparent lack of knowledge as to what caused the situation is worrying - if not incompetent.

I know I sound irate - but like I said before, this is not a free service for me and as such I expect certain levels of service - and communication - which was sadly lacking during the incident.

NJSS · 6 Dec 2010, 08:49 PM

Azmal1 wrote:-

Quote:

The lack of communication (via the status blog and twitter) is utterly pathetic and my faith in fastmail has been shattered by this incident. I was due some critically important emails during the outage - and I know that emails that were sent to me during this time are not there now.

FM please DO NOT communicate via Twitter; it would be helpful though if the Status Blog could be regularly & frequently updated during outages.

I was sent a number of e-mails during the outage, and all were safely delivered to my FM account, & my back-up account (which is how I know).

Bron - thanks for sorting things, I look forward to more news on the Status Blog, when the dust has settled.

NJSS

vivil · 6 Dec 2010, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AliBabNet

+1
I'm missing e-mails too.

Please wait several hours before explain some criticism of this kind.
actually it is 12h50 GMT the MX is not overloaded...

azmal1 · 6 Dec 2010, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brong

we don't have a big "PR staff". I'll talk to Opera about having someone allocated to communications during outages, beacuse I know we're not good at that. Funnily enough, the techs who happened to be awake were all busy trying to fix the problems.

My general attitude, and I'm pretty sure it's shared by the rest of the staff, is that getting things fixed 5 minutes sooner is more important than breaking out concentration to send update messages - so they tend to happen when we get a moment's break in things rather than frequently. I know how much it sucks to be on the opposite end of that.

I'm sitting on my couch at home, and I'm sure Rob is somewhere similar at his place - this hit us 9pm Melbourne time, 5am New York Time - and we're still not even sure exactly what happened. Now that some of the non-night people at NYI are awake we're trying to get answers.

Thanks Brong. It is certainly apparent that you do not have "PR Staff". I admire your attitude of "getting things fixed 5 minutes sooner is more important than breaking out concentration to send update messages" but this is a BUSINESS we are talking about. The customers WILL get restless if they are kept in the dark. I would feel much more at ease if I know what is happening at any given moment - and perhaps even have some sympathy - but I am guessing that you did not have any idea of what the problem was so you did not make any comments to hide this fact. This is worrying for me - the fact that you do not appear to know why the situation occurred.

6 Dec 2010, 08:16 PM	#46
jsamuelson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Switzerland Posts: 138	My IMAP back up…phew. Thanks. I second using Twitter for blow-by-blow status updates. Easy way to broadcast.

6 Dec 2010, 08:22 PM	#47
CyberDyne Master of the @ Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 1,583	Seems fine now, thanks for all your hard work guys.

6 Dec 2010, 08:29 PM	#48
CyberSaint Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hurricane, WV Posts: 206	My FM is working here now -- thanks guys for the quick response! I'll be curious read exactly what happened to cause the outage when the details are posted!

6 Dec 2010, 08:30 PM	#49
Ladrillo Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Spain Posts: 116	Yahooooo

6 Dec 2010, 08:41 PM	#53
brong The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,696 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	I'm not a twit

6 Dec 2010, 08:44 PM	#55
sadams Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 54	@rabarberski Thanks for taking an interest :-) Agreed. Interestingly.. combined with the specialist offerings (techie features & functions), availability (not being ironic - I've found them really reliable for several years) their BIGGEST differentiator to the BIG GUY competitors (Google, hotmail, yahoo & likely Facebook sometime soon) SHOULD BE their ability to communicate with users/customers in a "Big enough to cope - small enough to care" kinda way. That they don't recognise this is a weakness and a missed opportunity IMHO and makes users like me (discerning, a bit geeky, yet small time in terms of usage and revenue) more likely to be seduced away to gmail eventually. I respect that I am likely not (no longer, were we ever) an important sector for FM and that they have a different perspective. That said.. if I were a supplier/reseller/integrator for small-biz customers myself.. i would have had FM at the top of my list if I thought they would actually provide "customer service" when needed. Anyhow.. glad to see the service restored.. i'll take an interest in the explanation/outage-post-mortem :-). Cheers, Steve.

6 Dec 2010, 08:45 PM	#56
brong The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,696 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	we don't have a big "PR staff". I'll talk to Opera about having someone allocated to communications during outages, beacuse I know we're not good at that. Funnily enough, the techs who happened to be awake were all busy trying to fix the problems. My general attitude, and I'm pretty sure it's shared by the rest of the staff, is that getting things fixed 5 minutes sooner is more important than breaking out concentration to send update messages - so they tend to happen when we get a moment's break in things rather than frequently. I know how much it sucks to be on the opposite end of that. I'm sitting on my couch at home, and I'm sure Rob is somewhere similar at his place - this hit us 9pm Melbourne time, 5am New York Time - and we're still not even sure exactly what happened. Now that some of the non-night people at NYI are awake we're trying to get answers.