Email log in issue

[#1]

I really hope not but then again 

[#2]

I've seen a status report claiming this long, long email fault is solved
Not true. I still cannot access my email
Got to say this is very bad service
Look out Plusnet you're going the way of Tiscali, Talktalk et al
To have the problem on service like this for over six hours smacks of incompetency.
Exactly when will this get fixed?
Will you then apologise properly and refund customer?
News, please and give me the service I paid for

[#3]

Quote from: kdiment

Is there any connection with the following Service Status announcement of a couple of days ago, I wonder?  - Keith

I just thought exactly the same thing myself.

[#4]

No luck here either via Thunderbird or Webmail.
ATM I am not going to join in PN slating: am wondering if the slowness of repair might be due partly to it being the weekend and weather, both causing problems of getting the right people in position.

[#5]

Hello! Any body there at Plusnet?
I am waiting and waiting for his dreadfully long email problem to be solved.
I am waiting to conduct business with a NY contact.
This is really dreadful service
I first tried at 7.00 am Now 3 pm Even by my maths that makes 8 hours.
Plusnet has become very unreliable
I notice your slog is "Never been beaten on price"
How about "Never been beaten on service?"

[#6]

Latest update on the support status page...

Quote

18/12/2010 @ 14:32 We regret to inform that the email issue we have been experiencing is still ongoing. Our Development team are currently rolling out the first fix for this issue, so we will hopefully have a good news update for you shortly. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter and we sincerely apologies for any inconvenience this has caused. Please note, some customers are finding that they are able to log on to webmail and email clients intermittently Kind Regards, Martha Billingham Customer Support

Next update is forecast for 19:00 today.
Problem situation is I suggest still sketchy - my business account has shown no probelms, my residential account is a solid failure.  Have PM'd Martha suggesting that a "I have this problem too" 'thing' be put on to the support portal so that PN can gather a profile of who is having the problem.  Like Keith, I'm wondering if there is a correlation with the migration of users to the new email server... or this could just be coincidence!

[#7]

I am getting "Wrong Password" and "Server Response :- Temporary Problem please try later"
I can send but not receive on my Plusnet account but my Live account is OK
Will have to get up early tomorrow to catch up on my mail if it is cleared by then  

[#8]

Hey guys,
Just thought I'd refer you to the announcement post:
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,91679.0.html
If we have any information before 7PM we'll let you know, I've been keeping my eye on it whilst I've been in office today and I will ensure I update the team in tonight so we can keep you all updated.

[#9]

I think the words that spring to mind are "Up" and "Cock"
Many of us left people like Tiscali to get away from appalling service like this
Doesn't matter if they reside in Yorkshire or India - bad service is bad service
Plusnet have done themselves a lot of damage with this shambles
Word of mouth is the greatest advertiser - And Plusnet have the audacity to trumpet their new marketing campaign
I suggest they concentrate on getting what they should do right before going after new business

[#10]

ey guys,
Just thought I'd refer you to the announcement post:
http://community.plus.net...ex.php/topic,91679.0.html
If we have any information before 7PM we'll let you know, I've been keeping my eye on it whilst I've been in office today and I will ensure I update the team in tonight so we can keep you all updated.
what exactly does that mean?
have you solve the problem, if not, when?
7pm? 12 hours without a service and you still haven't a clue
its not PR announcements we want - its action and restoration of a service we pay for

[#11]

My main email account with Plusnet is at least 7 years old and that is the one that is not working and has not worked consistently since 8am this morning either using Mozilla Thunderbird 2 or using the Plusnet webmail interface.  I have not been intermittently able to pick up my email from this account as Plusnet claims.
I also have a more recent email account set up only about 3 years ago and that is working as normal as is an account I set up only 18 months ago for a relative.  So this smacks strongly of some 22 year old at Plusnet not knowing about their oldest email accounts where the records were quite clearly kept on some other server that they did not know about.  The obvious solution in this situation is to immediately roll back to the old mail server platform configuration and hardware and then investigate what is wrong with the new set up but this seems to be too easy and too obvious for Plusnet.  Instead they prefer to tinker around with the new email server and hope to upload the missing account records to that.
Below are the emails I have sent to Plusnet's CEO, Jamie Ford, and to Martha Billingham and Bob Pullen.

Quote

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: "Temporary" Email Problem That has Not Been Resolved After 6 Hours! Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:13:17 +0000 To: <snip> CC: <snip> Dear Mr Ford, When I try to collect my email for my __________ email account with you using Mozilla Thunderbird I receive the message "Sending the password did not succeed. Mail server mail.plus.net responded: Temporary problem, please try again later" Can you please explain the Plusnet definition of the word "temporary" as I would have thought an over six hour long mail server outage affecting thousands of customers in the main part of the day (i.e.not the wee small hours) was more than a "temporary problem". It is clear that your new mail server did not properly migrate in details of many of your older Plusnet email accounts so why can't you simply roll back to the old server platform that worked until you have fixed the problems on the new server.  The answer seems to be that your IT staff are too stubborn and too cussed to consider doing so and that they would rather tinker around on the new server and leave thousands of customers without email for hours on end instead of invoking the guaranteed fix solution of rolling back to the old server. I thought these bad old Plusnet email practices had been eliminated with the BT takeover and the departure of Lee Strafford but it seems I was wrong and that spurred on by your new "We're Yorkshire folk" tv advertising that you have reverted to the bad old Plusnet ways. If you need to email me I can still get email if you reply to me at __________________ or you can phone me on ___________________,. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards, > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: New Mail Server Meltdown - Why Can't You Roll Back To The Old One > Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:23:36 +0000 > To: <snip> > > Dear Mr Ford, > > New Mail Server Meltdown - Why Can't You Roll Back To The Old Mail Server > > Account :- _______________ > > I and thousands of Plusnet customers with your oldest email accounts have now not been able to get our email for over 6 hours (as of Saturday 18th December at 14.22 hours). > > But because all your newer email accounts are working your IT staff are refusing to implement the correct solution of rolling back to the old email server until such time as they have diagnosed the problem and are instead leaving the new but incorrectly configured email server in place. > > Surely it isn't rocket science to have a fall back position in place with a new mail server so you can cut back over to the old one if the new one doesn't work.  But apparently this simple contingency is beyond the wit of your IT staff at Plusnet. > > I look forward to your comments. > > Regards,

jim:orange email addresses removed mod:end

[#12]

as more and more people post on this forum all the evidence points to Plusnet being technically incompetent and making it worse by trying to pull the wool over our eyes
8 hours without a service?
Will Plusnet put that on their marketing campaign?
They say they are honest Yorkshire service - well be honest and tell the world that, will you

[#13]

All,
I understand that you're all frustrated with the outage, however venting your anger at Martha when she's just trying to keep you up to date isn't going to help at all. Can we try and keep this thread at least civil please?

I'm going through the problem notes at the moment and will post back when I have more information.

[#14]

I had almost forgotten about the Community forum and initially just gave Plusnet three hours to fix the issue and after that three hours was up spent 30 minutes on hold to technical support twice (in the middle of the first call I was just dropped back to endless musak on hold after waiting 30 minutes to get through and speaking to someone for a few seconds) .
Now after it has become quite clear that Plusnet are completely technically clueless and/or that the key staff cannot be bothered to come in to the office at the weekend I feel the need for solidarity with other customers to express just how truly useless Plusnet have been over this matter.
This was a planned rollover from an old mail server to a new piece of equipment for capacity reasons (but clearly the capacity of the old mail server had not yet been exceeded) so if it failed there should have been an easy contingency plan to fall back to the old server that still worked.  But Plusnet seem to be totally clueless about such basic belt and braces IT security. No wonder they won't let customers store more than 1GB of email on their servers.

[#15]

Quote from: Chris

I understand that you're all frustrated with the outage, however venting your anger at Martha when she's just trying to keep you up to date isn't going to help at all. Can we try and keep this thread at least civil please?

I don't see any evidence at all that anyone was rude to Martha in this thread.  They just indicated their dissatisfaction with the incompetence of Plusnet as a commercial entity over this matter.
I would note that one of the standard techniques of companies that offer bad customer service to customers is to suddenly start accusing their customers of being rude when it is always their own lousy service and lack of empathy with the customer's predicament that has caused the customer to suffer the quite normal human emotion of becoming upset and angry because their own tolerance threshhold has been exceeded.
All too often customer service staff behave robotically and defensively in these situations mainly because senior management refuses to take any notice of the flack these staff are taking and instead continues to pretend that all is fine with the company and their meaningless PR slogans.