Mail issues

[Simon]

No-one, including IDNet, are happy about the failure. They are doing their best to resolve it as quickly as possible (and there are signs of progress as I type). However, I've had a similar failure from a dedicated email company - these things happen. One thing I am certain of is that IDNet will have learnt from this and will do all they can to ensure it never happens again.

Couldn't agree more, Rik, and I would just further point out that as can be seen by Simon's post at 04:07 this morning, they have been working on this over night, as promised, and are continuing to make progress.  There will be a post-mortem on this incident, and I am sure that the IDNet team will answer any questions with honesty and clarity, once the systems are up and running again.

[LesD]

I think this posting and the rest of the message is a first class response from Simon and IDNET.

It takes courage to put your hand up, admit to a problem and commit to a solution. Communication is everything.

Seconded for the nth time! 

My last ISP was in denial and completely unable to face and deal with an enraged customer base. Fellow IDNetters will no doubt have similar stories.

You could be describing my last IPS Dave! 

One of the Tipex variety? 

[Sooty]

Crisga has a valid point.

Sure - everyone is working hard in the background to resolve what has become an awful situation and it is clearly appreciated by all those who have posted (when they probably checked to see if it is up and running yet) but it is a service - it is not free and it should have a 'recovery process/disaster plan' to minimise any such issues.

After all, we know the mail system has failed - we are its victims; but would the same have occurred if the web access or other server hosted files had failed?  Last week, we would not have imagined it could; but last week we would not have imagined being without email for days and days.

Likewise, it is a premium cost service - it is not a 'two-penny' you get what you paid for service - and I pay a max premium price and expect it to be a little better than this.

It surprises me that there was no planned recovery - that there has been little or no email service resilience; It seems as though we didn't start to think about what to do until after it happened and then waited and waited for some file check to complete, and eventually decided there should be a plan B

The comments about lack of updates and why there has been little communication is even more frustrating - for all the time that the file check was running there were no, or very few, updates. Other than watch the HDD light flashing and monitoring the file count, I can't imagine why there was no-one that could type in a few sentences to be even more up-front about the true status.

I certainly telephoned because I didn't think I would have to visit a customer forum to find out why there was a problem.  Why no 'news alert' or info on the home/front page?  It is not good! Having a trial after the event is OK but doesn't aid the current issue.

The IT and ISP industry is calculated on MTBF rates and resilience, backup and recovery plans etc. Would this not focus on keeping downtime to an absolute minimum - counted in minutes and hours not days?


And I'm not sure that throwing the 'terms and conditions card' at the customer is helpful in these circumstances. That is what I would have expected from the large multi-nationals not a more tailored, 'friendly' and customer focused company.

Crisga was making a point, not asking for the T & C's.

Regards

Sooty

[Tacitus]

It takes courage to put your hand up, admit to a problem and commit to a solution. Communication is everything.
..Things go wrong. What counts is fixing them and moving on. So I am sticking with IDNET, for all my internet services, including email.

Couldn't agree more.  I think it's pretty obvious Simon and co know that for whatever reason they screwed up, so we don't need to labour the point.

There will be a post-mortem on this incident, and I am sure that the IDNet team will answer any questions with honesty and clarity, once the systems are up and running again.

Absolutely.  I also have no doubt they will tell us what they have done so it doesn't happen again. 

[Captain K]

I think this posting and the rest of the message is a first class response from Simon and IDNET.

It takes courage to put your hand up, admit to a problem and commit to a solution. Communication is everything. My last ISP was in denial and completely unable to face and deal with an enraged customer base. Fellow IDNetters will no doubt have similar stories.

IDNET are facing their customers and dealing with the outage. Sure, the hindsight-rich and the armchair engineers will throw a few rocks. The toys will be out of the pram for some and a few might migrate. Such is the nature of customers and they have that right because their perception is the reality of how well you are doing.

I see Simon's response as a big positive and feel more rather than less confident in my choice of ISP. Things go wrong. What counts is fixing them and moving on. So I am sticking with IDNET, for all my internet services, including email.

Hang in there IDNET. I do think I am alone in this view.

The measure of any company is not whether it makes mistakes, because we all do, but how it deals with them.

In the days when I was with Tiscali, there was once a 7 day outage of all services, and whever I phoned up to ask when service would be restored, the script-monkey always told me engineers had the problem in hand and there would be full restoration within 2 hours, an assurance they stuck solidly to even when I pointed out they'd given me the same answer the last 15 times I called!

Every time there is any chance I might get wound up by the current situation I just think back to the days of long outages, rubbish speeds, and do-not-deviate-from-the-script-when-talking-to-customers-or-you're-fired support staff, then I read Simon's post again, and a wave of calm washes over me.

[mrapoc]

iv just been able to send and receive mail

lucky or has it been restored?  8)

[Simon]

Things seem to be happening now - I can log into all my email accounts.   

[mrapoc]

i saw it first! 

[Rik]

UPDATE

Mail is now up and flowing again. Webmail is not yet working and will be the next target. Other services, eg web space, blog space and albums will be sorted, but mail has the priority.

[mrapoc]

So what do i win? 

[Rik]

And I'm not sure that throwing the 'terms and conditions card' at the customer is helpful in these circumstances. That is what I would have expected from the large multi-nationals not a more tailored, 'friendly' and customer focused company.

Crisga was making a point, not asking for the T & C's

That was my decision, nothing to do with IDNet. I just felt that perhaps we should all remember that there are times when things go wrong, and they are provided for in the T&Cs.

There was a recovery plan, btw, it's just that phenomenal growth in the past nine months found it wanting. I'm sure that won't be allowed to happen again.

[Simon]

So what do i win? 

A new chair?   

[Rik]

 

[mrapoc]

possibly better than me current offerings...when will it arrive? 

[Simon]

It's with Chitty Link, so who knows?   

[sobranie]

Whooopppeee!! Oh how I've missed my E-garbage.
A huge thankyou to all here and IDNet towers for all the extremely hard work over the last days.
Now, if we can find the original individuals(s) responsible for the problem perhaps we can devise a fitting punishment for him,her or them.  I suggest a tied in 5 year contract with AOL or something similar!!

[Malc]

  I suggest a tied in 5 year contract with AOL or something similar!!

Remove their testicles?  Without anaesthetic.

[Steve]

Remove their testicles?  Without anaesthetic.

I suspect that they have "no balls" anyway.

[Sebby]

I'm glad things are moving again.

[Malc]

This is not a complaint in any way, just a question, and I'm not pushing for this as I know they are busy.

If I haven't received something now, will it follow at a later time, or do I need to re apply for it?

[Rik]

It should work it's way through over the next few hours unless it was sent before 13:00 on Wednesday, Malc.

[Malc]

Thanks Rik.

It would have been sent late Wed, early Thur.

[chrisga]

That was my decision, nothing to do with IDNet. I just felt that perhaps we should all remember that there are times when things go wrong, and they are provided for in the T&Cs.

There was a recovery plan, btw, it's just that phenomenal growth in the past nine months found it wanting. I'm sure that won't be allowed to happen again.

I think we also need to  differentiate between Terms and Conditions (that are usually there on advice from a legal company),  and what we can reasonably expect  to have as a level of service.  I don't think anyone   was planning on suing IDnet for breach of the small print !

WRT the recovery plan,  growth of the  ISP should be facilitated or halted - Isn't this  one of the  reasons the likes of Tiscali have  such a bad reputation, "sweating" their infrastructure to extreme ?  Maybe they can get away with that by dint  of the low expectations of their client base and the low price  of the service.  Maybe it is  in fact an integral part of their financial calculations, to allow a  "churn" of their clients in exchange for  "£x" savings in their capital expenditure ?  Personally I don't think that a premium  ISP has  the luxury of such a trade off!

By the way, I do appreciate the honest and contrite post from IDnet Simon - That, and the  reasonable level of service to date, are the reasons I'm not actively looking for an alternative ISP  !

[Simon]

Now, if we can find the original individuals(s) responsible for the problem perhaps we can devise a fitting punishment for him,her or them.  I suggest a tied in 5 year contract with AOL or something similar!!

I reckon In and Mad hatched a plot from Spain...   

[Rik]

Thanks Rik.

It would have been sent late Wed, early Thur.

Probably best to get a re-send, Malc.