Website & email Problems RESOLVED

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pennymachines
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Website & email Problems RESOLVED

Post by pennymachines »

About a week ago my hosting service informed me they were migrating the site to a new data centre in Utah, adding that "interruptions of service are expected to be around 5 minutes".
In fact, thanks to a whole series of administrative errors, we have been experiencing "interruption of normal service" for over a week now.

Problems resolved:
Website accessible again after two days downtime.
Images can be posted again, now that full server disk space has been reallocated.
PennyMachines email accounts working again, now that full server disk space has been reallocated.
(If you have recently tried to send emails to PennyMachines email accounts, please re-send).

Problems I'm currently working to resolve:
Subscribers cannot view Arena articles.
Forum posts missing.
New Forum members' accounts missing.
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badpenny
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by badpenny »

Thanks for the update and the time and dedication you put into making this site the only one I look at every day.

Badpenny :tarah:
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bryans fan
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by bryans fan »

Are you sure it's the only one you look at every day??!!
pennymachines
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by pennymachines »

It ain't healthy to look at those other sites more than once a week. :lol:
pennymachines
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by pennymachines »

Blowing off steam...

Me: I have been requesting some feedback on this for three days now.
To date five different systems administrators have failed to sort out the
problems caused by the server migration.
It is time somebody was assigned to see this through.

Clint: I apologize, but the admins will be best able to help you. I see you posted a very similar thing in your ticket. They will need to reply to you as this is over me.

Me: What is the point of this live support if you cannot at least escalate some action on existing tickets? As you can see, I am not getting any response to my ticket, despite repeated requests. I posted "a similar thing" over 12 hours ago.

Clint: The ticket has been escalated. I will ping the admins right now.

Me: Can you let me know which admin by name is going to deal with it please?

Clint: Just a moment while I speak with the admins.

Me: OK

Clint: I apologize for the delay, our Admins are currently working on the setting on your account.

Me: Can you let me know which admin by name is going to deal with it please?

Clint: The admin currently responding to your tickets is handling this issue.

Me: Five admins have responded so far, the last being Anne Ominous*. Can you confirm that Anne is currently handling it?

Me: Hello?

Clint: I am not authorized to give personal information out. I apologize.

Me: I'm not asking for personal information. I'm asking who is assigned to handle my ticket.

Clint: You might want to try asking in the ticket for a name.

Clint: I just can't here in chat.

Clint: I am sorry.

Me: That is silly and leads me to suspect that nobody is assigned. A couple of days ago James G. stated "one of our system administrators has been asked to look at and address this ticket as quickly as possible". That was the last I heard. What's the point of asking who is assigned to my ticket via the ticket when I can get nobody to respond to the ticket? Is the purpose of this service to satisfy or frustrate customers?

Clint: I apologize, I don't know what else to tell you.

Me: All I want to hear is that Anne, Morgan, Mark, Stacy, James or some other named administrator is currently handling my ticket. Is that really too much to ask?

Clint: I am trying to be helpful, but you are asking for something I can't give. You ticket will be taken care of I assure you. I just don't want to pin a name on something that I am not in charge of.

Me: Well I don't see how you can be helpful if you're not in charge of information as basic as who is assigned to the ticket.

Clint: Again I apologize, I am not able to give you that information. Your issue is currently being worked on by our Administrators. They do not use the chat system, so communication through ticket is best. Most of their time they spend working on issues and respond when they are taken care of. If they have not responded this is most likely the case. Another note, tickets are ranked according to age, if you say something on the ticket it pushes it down the list because it becomes fresh again.

Me: This is absurd. I've had no response for three days so you advise me to communicate and ask for a name through the ticket, but when I do, I'll be sent to the back of the queue.

* name changed to protect the guilty.
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badpenny
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by badpenny »

Bryans fan wrote:Are you sure it's the only one you look at every day??!!
Of course I am, I look at those ones on average 6 times a day
pennymachines
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by pennymachines »

OK... so the hosting service finally restored the forum database they messed-up in the great server migration debacle and I think I've replaced all the more recent posts (30th June to 12 July).

Unfortunately, there are still several more problems to resolve...

Forum account activation emails are not being delivered to new members.
So if tdmnet5, phil_palmer1 or anyone else would like to register with the Forum at this point, please try this:
Go ahead and register (or re-register if you tried earlier) and post a message in the Open Forum to let me know your chosen Username. I'll then activate your account.

The Arena subscription area is still not functioning.
Again, sorry and please bear with me... !PRAY!!
pennymachines
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Re: Problems with website and emails

Post by pennymachines »

The Arena is now functioning again (amazing what a smart boot up the backside can achieve).
I've added a month to the expiry date of all current subscribers.

Work is continuing on the forum email issue.
pennymachines
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Re: Website & email Problems RESOLVED

Post by pennymachines »

The Forum-generated emails are now working.
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