No Dialtone!! Anybody else having this problem this morning?

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 23, 2007 Posts: 12

Trinijoy wrote:

The phones went down for a total of 3 1/2 hours not the entire day. Your illustration doesn't make sense. From the time we take to get the information that there IS an outage, FROM customer's calling in, then make an IVR and put a message on the dashboard does take time. These things happen, but not often.

I think the response time was quite fast.

The service announcement on the web site right now (12:42pm) is the same as it was this morning when I logged in (roughly 9:30am). In 3 hours, they couldn't provide more details? I still have NO incoming service but atleast calls are now going to my cell phone, something that wasn't happening earlier today.

Maybe a few hours is nothing to you. But I have clients that expect to pick up the phone during business hours and get me. I have co-workers that expect my phone to actually ring into me. You know, the minor things like that - having a phone that actually works. But in this case its not just to talk to my family and friends - its business = time = money.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Sep 07, 2005 Posts: 34

Trinijoy wrote:

... I think the response time was quite fast.

Was it? I just checked the dashboard, and I'm still seeing the message that customers are still receiving intermittent issues. This tells me that the problem is not yet fully resolved.

It may very well be that Vonage has fixed everything, but you wouldn't know that from the dashboard message. The dashboard is a primary information conduit between Vonage and its customers. If (a) the dashboard is not reachable, as was the case for much of this morning, or (b) the dashboard message is not updated, the information is of little or no value.

And again - the "network availability number" feature, which is supposed to ensure reachability even in the event of an outage, should never experience any downtime whatsoever. That's a "last resort" for many customers.

Posts: 424 · Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:54 pm Post subject:

Trinijoy wrote:

The phones went down for a total of 3 1/2 hours not the entire day. Your illustration doesn't make sense. From the time we take to get the information that there IS an outage, FROM customer's calling in, then make an IVR and put a message on the dashboard does take time. These things happen, but not often.

I think the response time was quite fast.

Speaking from an ISP-admin perspective, when one of our transit circuits drops offline, we at least get an explaination from the carrier.... "fiber cut", "line card failure", or whatever. If there are routing problems elsewhere, it's discussed on NANOG and other venues. There are few secrets. There are also plenty of major webhosts who post notices when things break, explaining what happened and when it should be fixed.

Vonage is extremely tight-lipped, even considering the legions of customers they server. IMO, a VERY bad decision. People WANT to know what's going on, even if most of them don't really understand it. But it goes a LONG way toward building credibility in the eyes of the subscribers.

To simply put up "there is a problem and we're working on it", then leave that message up for hours, is not sufficient in this day where customers are (a) curious, and/or (b) clued. It would take very little to put up a message with a brief summary of the problem and an ETR.

When you remain silent, it's only natural for us to think you've screwed up internally and don't want to admit it.

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 26, 2006 Posts: 35

Our service is still not working, so the Dashboard message appears to be accurate.

Vonage appeals to tech savvy people, they should at least have the tools to communicate to their subscriber base.

High availability is a requirement for their systems.

Posts: 424 · Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject:

gmchenry wrote:

If you can't login to get to the dashboard, a dashboard message is as useful as tits on a bull.

And even when we DID get logged in, our session was timed out almost immediately, kicking us back to the login page.

Posts: 143 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 22, 2005 Posts: 143

Besides a message from our call in system, and a dashboard message. What suggestions do you have to inform people sooner, or more "efficiently." I will take suggestions.

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 26, 2006 Posts: 35

For starters, have a call-in system and web services that can actually be useful during the surge of an outtage.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 23, 2007 Posts: 12

Trinijoy wrote:

Besides a message from our call in system, and a dashboard message. What suggestions do you have to inform people sooner, or more "efficiently." I will take suggestions.

A. Fix the system so its more reliable. I have had issues 3 times since January 8th.

B. Provide a separate page for status, such as www.vonage.com/statusupdate - my web hosting service has a page like this. If I go to it now, it says something like "all systems functional."

C. Update it hourly, at a minimum, when there is a problem. Provide an ETA.

D. Lastly, build something into the network so when problems are on your end, calls still go SOMEWHERE. Preferably, my cell phone, but maybe my voicemail box or even just a recording that says, "the vonage network is currently experience difficulties, blah blah blah." Today my clients/co-workers heard nothing when they called me except the line going dead.

Posts: 143 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 22, 2005 Posts: 143

1. Impossible to route it somewhere, if the PSTN carriers are having issues, we can't route anything.

2. A Vonage status page is a good idea. Should be considered.

3. If there is no change in the status of the service, the status message won't change. No reson for it.

But the status page is a good suggestion.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Sep 07, 2005 Posts: 34

Trinijoy wrote:

Besides a message from our call in system, and a dashboard message. What suggestions do you have to inform people sooner, or more "efficiently." I will take suggestions.

* Ensure that dashboard messages are always available, regardless of the nature of an outage. If the site goes down, a backup version of the site (even a limited functionality version that supports little more than logging in, and displaying dashboard messages) kicks in immediately.

* Ensure that dashboard messages are updated (and timestamped) a minimum of once per hour. Even if the update says: "9:45am - Still working on it - no updates to report," that would be acceptable.

* Ensure that dashboard messages are informative, and indicate the reason for the outage. No more than one or two sentences would be needed.

* Ensure that dashboard message updates indicate which geographical regions are affected, which are believed to be resolved.

* Ensure that dashboard messages give an estimate as to when service will be restored. Remind customers that these estimates are "best-guesses" and may be updated.

* Ensure that dashboard messages remind customers that the dashboard is a dependable source of current information, and if one is able to access the dashboard, there is no need to burden Vonage phone-support with calls concerning the outage.

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* Ensure that the network availability number feature has GUARANTEED reliability, such the customers who have taken the time to provide the necessary information will have their calls forwarded.

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* Ensure that the Vonage phone support line begins with a message alerting callers of known outages. The message should reflect that of the dashboard message. Callers should not have to punch any buttons on their phone in order to find the message.