So what went wrong ?

[#1]

Dear Plusnet,

could you kindly let your users know what went wrong so as to cause the recent e-mail outage?

No BS please - there are a lot of tech savvy folks on this forum.

Kind regards

Mike

[#2]

Hey all!

I'm truly sorry that this issue is still ongoing. I know how frustrating this is and can promise you we've got all hands on deck here trying to get it fixed!

If you're trying to use webmail, we'd recommend setting up an email client as this will give you the best experience until it's all sorted, although you'll likely experience some delays in receiving your messages. If you do this, we’d recommend that you set your messages up in an IMAP configuration as this will keep copies of the messages on the server.

You can find guides on how to set up your emails on an email client here and how IMAP works here:
https://www.plus.net/help/email-guides/how-to-set-up-plusnet-email/

We understand that there’s many questions surrounding this matter, but as it stands this is the most up to date information we're able to provide. Any further updates can be tracked here:
http://status.plus.net

With this issue ongoing it does mean we are experiencing a high number of customer contacts and we're not able to respond as quickly as we usually do. Thank you for your continued patience and support.

[#3]

I have same problem. On Wednesday I could not receive emails - yesterday and today I cannot send them. What are we paying a subscription for?

[#4]

Hey all!

I'm truly sorry that this issue is still ongoing. I know how frustrating this is and can promise you we've got all hands on deck here trying to get it fixed!

If you're trying to use webmail, we'd recommend setting up an email client as this will give you the best experience until it's all sorted, although you'll likely experience some delays in receiving your messages. If you do this, we’d recommend that you set your messages up in an IMAP configuration as this will keep copies of the messages on the server.

You can find guides on how to set up your emails on an email client here and how IMAP works here:
https://www.plus.net/help/email-guides/how-to-set-up-plusnet-email/

We understand that there’s many questions surrounding this matter, but as it stands this is the most up to date information we're able to provide. Any further updates can be tracked here:
http://status.plus.net

With this issue ongoing it does mean we are experiencing a high number of customer contacts and we're not able to respond as quickly as we usually do. Thank you for your continued patience and support.

[#5]

Hey there,

I'm truly sorry that this issue is still ongoing. I know how frustrating this is and can promise you we've got all hands on deck here trying to get it fixed!

If you're trying to use webmail, we'd recommend setting up an email client as this will give you the best experience until it's all sorted, although you'll likely experience some delays in receiving your messages. If you do this, we’d recommend that you set your messages up in an IMAP configuration as this will keep copies of the messages on the server.

You can find guides on how to set up your emails on an email client here and how IMAP works here:
https://www.plus.net/help/email-guides/how-to-set-up-plusnet-email/

We understand that there’s many questions surrounding this matter, but as it stands this is the most up to date information we're able to provide. Any further updates can be tracked here:
http://status.plus.net

With this issue ongoing it does mean we are experiencing a high number of customer contacts and we're not able to respond as quickly as we usually do. Thank you for your continued patience and support.

[#6]

"I think the annoyance is perhaps more down to being over-optimistic and disingenuous in service status reports"

That does to some extent depend on perspectives.

The cause of the issue might genuinely be fixed with a high degree of confidence therefore the service status report (in respect of the cause) is not over optimistic or disingenuous.  The catch-up is not so readily determinable.

Unfortunately until backlogs are cleared and repeated impatient send / receive actions deliver instantaneous results users are not going to understand that the now working systems are catching up ... and that the sum of their individual actions are part of the problem.

It might have helped just a little, if the service status had added "it will take a few hours for the mail servers to catch up".  From the little which has been shared with the SUs I conclude that the issue has not been the email service itself, but that the email service has been a victim of some other system component failure.

[#7]

Unfortunately after one golden hour of my email client working late last night it is now back to not working at all. I also cannot sign in to webmail. I would greatly appreciate a realistic appraisal of when, or possibly if (!) this debacle is going to be truly fixed. Having been with Plusnet since 2007 and Madasafish for many years before that I find it sad that I should be having to think about finding a new ISP as 3 days without email is completely unacceptable.

[#8]

---

@shapter wrote:

Still no emails from Wednesday and I cant send anything either.

SO NOT FIXED

Webmail not working either

---

Some emails being received but fairly sure not all. Lots from PN this morning.

BUT still cannot send email!

The fault is NOT fixed!

[#9]

What's interesting and Puzzeling is that I am now able to send email from my laptop using Thunderbird but still get a failure on my desktop ! I tried rebooting my desktop but it made no difference. It rather suggests that the DNS lookup on my laptop got a working server but the one on my desktop didn't.

Looking at the Service status on the plusnet website tells me that for webmail "they may experience a delay when sending and receiving emails" and that "Plusnet emails can be accessed using an email client as normal" - it doesn't mention the fact that customers may not be able to send emails using an email client. Are they aware of this I wonder?

[#10]

Is there a second line of technical support that are/know better?

[#11]

Hi,

I appreciate that you have taken the time to respond, but the service status update does not help those of us that are still struggling to send/receive emails by any method (Outlook or Webmail).  I did get a few sporadic emails to my .plus.com email address late last night, but that is not my primary email account - I'm using a migrated ic24.net account that has worked fine for 20+ years.

Again, I acknowledge that those people who have business accounts have more to lose, but there are practical issues here for some of us as well.  I have financial accounts I can't log in to because they send one time authentication codes to my email address, which I can't access.  I can't change it to send the code to e.g. a text because I can't log in to the account!

I have parcels I can't track and find out where they are because the tracking information is sent by email following dispatch.  The couriers round here aren't leaving cards due to current circumstances, they rely on people checking tracking information to find out where they have left the parcel.

I can't pay my elderly mother's credit card bill because I can't log in to her account - reason as above.

So while this initially might have been frustrating, it is now becoming quite scary.

And I'm non-technical so I have absolutely no idea what else I can do - I did manage to speak to customer services an hour or so ago and was told it could be Monday before all the issues are resolved!!

[#12]

Outlook has just connected and downloaded some emails from Wednesday but not all I'm sure, still unable to send

[#13]

I am getting really hacked off with this delay and am starting to look at alternative ISPs.
I have been with Plusnet for about 10 years and this is not acceptable.

[#14]

What rude responses ... no one thought to ask why that might be the profile of the problem ... but hey you all know better about that of which you know nothing.  Whilst the SUs do not get the full details of issues, we do get some information on major issues, which enables us to illuminate issues where appropriate.

The initial profile was most certainly an issue confined in one data centre.  The mail systems are (In principle) split between the data centres based on user name.  Therefore the problem was being seen by only part of the user based, not the whole of the user base.  I have a number of referrals and friends using Plusnet - not one in the top half of the alphabet have reported issues, whilst all of those in the lower half have.  One, having an account starting with "B" is on the phone to me several times a week (often daily) for the slightest of glitches ... did not hear a word from him about email all week.

[#15]

Thanks - apologies for the duplication, I had just posted this on another thread at about the same time as you replied.  I can't get anything to work properly - Outlook or webmail.

Hi,

I appreciate that you have taken the time to respond, but the service status update does not help those of us that are still struggling to send/receive emails by any method (Outlook or Webmail).  I did get a few sporadic emails to my .plus.com email address late last night, but that is not my primary email account - I'm using a migrated ic24.net account that has worked fine for 20+ years.

Again, I acknowledge that those people who have business accounts have more to lose, but there are practical issues here for some of us as well.  I have financial accounts I can't log in to because they send one time authentication codes to my email address, which I can't access.  I can't change it to send the code to e.g. a text because I can't log in to the account!

I have parcels I can't track and find out where they are because the tracking information is sent by email following dispatch.  The couriers round here aren't leaving cards due to current circumstances, they rely on people checking tracking information to find out where they have left the parcel.

I can't pay my elderly mother's credit card bill because I can't log in to her account - reason as above.

So while this initially might have been frustrating, it is now becoming quite scary.

And I'm non-technical so I have absolutely no idea what else I can do - I did manage to speak to customer services an hour or so ago and was told it could be Monday before all the issues are resolved!!