katek
12-04-2004, 07:01 PM
Ok. Yesterday and last night was a mess. My problems (shared by several, according to messages posted all over the forum):
1. Was unable to login for several hours -- about half a day; maybe more: I finally gave up around midnight (US Pacific time) last night.
2. The error message I saw on the site, when I tried to login, implied that the problem was already known about, and was in the process of being fixed. This turned out not to be true. Because when I posted on the forum, the response from tech (Rhonda) was such that it seemed like this was the first they'd heard of my individual issue. The response (from her, on the forum) was quick, and I appreciated it. However: I asked three times about whether the stats were still being tracked, despite the issue of my being able to see them, and was not given an answer. I wasn't the only one who wished to have an answer about this (data loss), and I can't see that anyone got an answer, anywhere on the forum. Not good.
3. If I can't login, I can't submit a trouble ticket.
4. Nowhere on the site (that I could find) is an alternate list of resources we can use for help, if we can't use the ticket tool. I.e. a list of email addresses, etc. When I posted to the forum, Rhonda gave me her email address, which was great, but I didn't have time to copy and save it before...
5. The entire forum went down. That's right. No forum. The reason I needed the forum at that point is obvious: no other way for me to contact customer support. And I still needed to know whether data was being saved or lost. I still needed answers. When the forum went down, I used the online form devoted to people wishing to advertise on statcounter. It was the only way left to contact anybody. I haven't yet gotten a reply to that message.
So, in summation:
I suggest a couple of things:
1. A separate list, available only to paid customers, of ways in which we can contact customer support if we're unable to login, and/or if the forum is down.
2. A whole separate section, apart from the forum, devoted to system status alerts and info. The problem with the forum is that people are posting all over the place -- it's not centralized. This is normally ok, except (I believe) in the case of overall system failure. Everybody (especially those who are unable to login) will need access to this new area -- where tech can post status alerts, and ETAs, and also customers can post questions (and even answers, if they have some) in ONE PLACE. So nobody has to run around all over the forum to see what everybody has to say.
Not only would this save time and effort on the part of the customer base, it would also help tech support -- I'm sure a lot of time is spent answering the same question, just because it's posted by different people in different places.
I'm sure this kind of thing doesn't happen all the time (partial/total system failure), but when it does, it's very scary and bad, especially for the people who are paying for the service. Some of us aren't paying simply for the fun (and it is fun) of looking at our website traffic -- many of us pay because we are running businesses, and depend on this information as it relates to income. At the very least, there needs to be a way for us to soothe our fears, while things are being fixed.
We're not stupid -- we know humans are behind this big beautiful machine, and sometimes things happen that no one can predict, or fix immediately. Mostly we just want to know what's going on. And I think a System Status Section would really help in this regard.
I love your service -- the information is great and I am not ditching you because of one or two issues. But if this (almost total system failure, combined with getting only partial answers and not being able to contact customer support) happens again more than once or twice, I'm going to have to pull out, because it just doesn't make sense otherwise. In order for me to integrate stats in the running of my business, I need a reliable tool, and if the tool breaks, I need to know exactly what part is broken, and when it will be fixed. I think that's reasonable. Right?
Thanks very much,
--Kate Kudirka
1. Was unable to login for several hours -- about half a day; maybe more: I finally gave up around midnight (US Pacific time) last night.
2. The error message I saw on the site, when I tried to login, implied that the problem was already known about, and was in the process of being fixed. This turned out not to be true. Because when I posted on the forum, the response from tech (Rhonda) was such that it seemed like this was the first they'd heard of my individual issue. The response (from her, on the forum) was quick, and I appreciated it. However: I asked three times about whether the stats were still being tracked, despite the issue of my being able to see them, and was not given an answer. I wasn't the only one who wished to have an answer about this (data loss), and I can't see that anyone got an answer, anywhere on the forum. Not good.
3. If I can't login, I can't submit a trouble ticket.
4. Nowhere on the site (that I could find) is an alternate list of resources we can use for help, if we can't use the ticket tool. I.e. a list of email addresses, etc. When I posted to the forum, Rhonda gave me her email address, which was great, but I didn't have time to copy and save it before...
5. The entire forum went down. That's right. No forum. The reason I needed the forum at that point is obvious: no other way for me to contact customer support. And I still needed to know whether data was being saved or lost. I still needed answers. When the forum went down, I used the online form devoted to people wishing to advertise on statcounter. It was the only way left to contact anybody. I haven't yet gotten a reply to that message.
So, in summation:
I suggest a couple of things:
1. A separate list, available only to paid customers, of ways in which we can contact customer support if we're unable to login, and/or if the forum is down.
2. A whole separate section, apart from the forum, devoted to system status alerts and info. The problem with the forum is that people are posting all over the place -- it's not centralized. This is normally ok, except (I believe) in the case of overall system failure. Everybody (especially those who are unable to login) will need access to this new area -- where tech can post status alerts, and ETAs, and also customers can post questions (and even answers, if they have some) in ONE PLACE. So nobody has to run around all over the forum to see what everybody has to say.
Not only would this save time and effort on the part of the customer base, it would also help tech support -- I'm sure a lot of time is spent answering the same question, just because it's posted by different people in different places.
I'm sure this kind of thing doesn't happen all the time (partial/total system failure), but when it does, it's very scary and bad, especially for the people who are paying for the service. Some of us aren't paying simply for the fun (and it is fun) of looking at our website traffic -- many of us pay because we are running businesses, and depend on this information as it relates to income. At the very least, there needs to be a way for us to soothe our fears, while things are being fixed.
We're not stupid -- we know humans are behind this big beautiful machine, and sometimes things happen that no one can predict, or fix immediately. Mostly we just want to know what's going on. And I think a System Status Section would really help in this regard.
I love your service -- the information is great and I am not ditching you because of one or two issues. But if this (almost total system failure, combined with getting only partial answers and not being able to contact customer support) happens again more than once or twice, I'm going to have to pull out, because it just doesn't make sense otherwise. In order for me to integrate stats in the running of my business, I need a reliable tool, and if the tool breaks, I need to know exactly what part is broken, and when it will be fixed. I think that's reasonable. Right?
Thanks very much,
--Kate Kudirka