How many other companies do you deal with where the CEO, COO, and other employees directly answer your questions and concerns?
It is a pain in the butt when the system is down, but come on... Name me another large company that grants the masses instant contact.
I'm sorry, Cygnus, but as far as I know, Smugmug is NOT a big company. Smugmug is a SMALL company trying to provide a BIG service, and hence where the problem lies. Downtime is a function of resources. Too few resourses (hardware + support) for a given load results in sytem failure and downtime. Plain and simple. Smugmug obviously needs to commit more capital to hardware and support but might not be financially capable of doing so at this time.
The feeling that I'm getting lately is that demand for Smugmug is starting to exceed their ablity to provide it satisfactorily to customers (esp. Pro's). This is what some might call "growing pains." Take the pain or jump ship, the choice is yours, but I wouldn't expect much difference anywhere else at present unless a company the likes of Adobe gets into the Internet photo-sharing business...
Do you tell that to your customers when you have technical issues?
A person makes a choice whether to sit and be a crankmeister and complain or to laugh things off and be positive. I think complaining is a waste of time. Life is too short to get all bent out of shape over things you can't control. I'm sitting on 800 photos that need to be uploaded. Fretting, complaining and whining isn't going to make the site come up any faster. Perhaps you need a juice box and a cookie?
I've been with Smugmug for 2.5 years or so. The number of times I've had site problems or had to send emails to the support heroes has gone up quite a bit over that time. I understand growing pains and welcome any maintenance window to accomplish improvements to the great service already provided. However, this particular event doesn't appear to be related to any "upgrade", etc.
I appreciate the fact that you haven't experienced many issues. Perhaps you or your customers don't frequent your site as much as the rest of us who have experienced all of the issues over the past several months. It's natural for the level of frustration to grow when unexpected events occur.
I'm a network engineer for a global corporation and have been for more than a decade. I am well aware of unexpected issues and necessary downtime. There are measures that can be taken to avoid a lot of the problems we've experienced as customers lately. For whatever reason, Smugmug apparently hasn't covered all the bases with regards to that.
The reason I stay here is because of the great communication from the top directly to us. And, customer support response times is simply unrivaled in the industry. I applaud all the work everyone does behind the scenes and know that those folks are working hard to restore things when they break. But, the top level also needs to seriously get something in place ASAP to start minimizing the frequency of events "most" of us have experienced over the past several months. Yes, I love Smugmug, but I am also growing more and more frustrated lately.
Can Smugmug try to get a "Experiencing Technical Difficulties" type of page up quicker? All it takes is one time for a new customers to try my link and get a 504 page can't found error or some other error to discourage them from coming back. I mean we've got 7 pages in this thread already and yet there isn't one that comes up yet to say that there is an error.
Randy Sportshooter Member
***********************
D3, D700, 24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 VR, 50 f1/8, 200-400 VR f/4, 300/2.8 VR, 400 f/2.8 VR, 85 f/1.8, TC-14E II, TC-17E II, Sigma 15/2.8 Fisheye, SB-900 (2), SD-9, SB-600, AB800 (2), misc. other stuff
Can Smugmug try to get a "Experiencing Technical Difficulties" type of page up quicker? All it takes is one time for a new customers to try my link and get a 504 page can't found error or some other error to discourage them from coming back. I mean we've got 7 pages in this thread already and yet there isn't on that comes up yet to say that there is an error.
We use such a page when we can - sometimes the nature of the problem prevents us from using it
The engineers are going as fast as they can. I'm really sorry.
So instead of verbally venting our frustration at the office, I spent 10 minutes in PS relaxing by making this beautiful illustration of how everyone feels. I hope it brings a laugh to your all mornings and gets the guys to fix this problem ASAP!!!!
So instead of verbally venting our frustration at the office, I spent 10 minutes in PS relaxing by making this beautiful illustration of how everyone feels. I hope it brings a laugh to your all mornings and gets the guys to fix this problem ASAP!!!!
in all seriousness... this does blow... a msg would be sooo nice. i'm expecting about 100 people from an event to check out my site today for pics and they're going to get an internal server error if they wake up early... sleep child.. sleep...
We use such a page when we can - sometimes the nature of the problem prevents us from using it
The engineers are going as fast as they can. I'm really sorry.
Anyone who's been with Smugmug for awhile knows that the entire staff is dedicated to providing an outstanding level of service. As someone in charge of a Customer Care operation for a large corporation, I can assure you that the folks of Smugmug are not simply paying "lip service" to their customers when they feel inconvenienced. They truly care about delivering a good product, and strive to correct issues quickly.
I see the site starting to come back on-line. - Like we all knew it would.
Thanks Andy, and everyone there for the hard work and customer service.
The site you are trying to access is hosted by SmugMug.
We're having some temporary technical difficulties. We're working on them at the moment, and expect service to return shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience. We're investigating a problem with the site. Hopefully it'll only take a few minutes. We're not happy about it, of course, but we are prepared for it and expect there to be no data loss or any long-term reduction in service. You can learn more and follow our progess on our Support Forum and our Service Updates Blog. Thanks for your patience and understanding!
That looks nice, I have a group that looking for their gallery this AM...I also just e-mailed my contact explaining some site maintainance. Thanks SmugMug
Smugmug should pay us for every time they go down
I am serious when I say smugmug has been down at least once or twice every month for last 5 or 6 months which is totally unacceptable.
And I am serious that the only way to solve this is if smugmug refunds us pro-rated money every time it goes down. We should not be paying for service when it is down.
Only when it starts hitting smugmug in the pocketbook is when they will actually ensure uptime and redunancy against failure etc
I can't imagine how much money smugmug is making off each paying member. At least they can do is pay for an army of support and machines to keep it up.
And I have meeting with important client in a few minutes and my website is down. Which is BAAAAAAD timing.
And I have meeting with important client in a few minutes and my website is down. Which is BAAAAAAD timing.
That's why I keep a hardbound portfolio, as up-to-date as possible, for just those kinds of meetings.
You can also 'cache' your website on a laptop and present it that way.
This may help in the future. Especially if you have no internet connection at your meeting!
I have a pro account, but do not use it yet for ebiz. That said, I understand the frustration people have during (unexpected) downtime. This is the first downtime I've seen from smug, but I do not pound on it all day like some probably do. I'm a network engineer during the day, so I am curious what the infrastructure is like for this service. While demanding redundancy is easy to say, many do not understand the complexity (or cost) involved. Not knowing the size of the smug company, revenue, and existing infrastructure makes it impossible to know if they are even in a position to improve redundancy. Of course, that depends on what the actual failure even is. It could be well outside of their control...or maybe the hampster died inside a non-redundant server...who knows?
Back to the complaints in the thread...like any service, there should be an SLA somewhere for the pros using this service. I haven't read through the TOS fully, so I can't say if there is. If there isn't, perhaps smug can work on that...which is pretty typical for pay-for sites/services. Then, during a downtime, people know what to expect and how long is acceptable, per the SLA. If it exceeds the SLA, then they can complain.
.02
Canon 7D and some stuff that sticks on the end of it.
I am serious when I say smugmug has been down at least once or twice every month for last 5 or 6 months which is totally unacceptable.
And I am serious that the only way to solve this is if smugmug refunds us pro-rated money every time it goes down. We should not be paying for service when it is down.
Only when it starts hitting smugmug in the pocketbook is when they will actually ensure uptime and redunancy against failure etc
I can't imagine how much money smugmug is making off each paying member. At least they can do is pay for an army of support and machines to keep it up.
And I have meeting with important client in a few minutes and my website is down. Which is BAAAAAAD timing.
Choosing to be a part of the Smugmug "community" requires that we accept the good AND the bad that goes along with it, as being a part of any community does. Do not put blame on Smugmug and the fine and dedicated people that work there until you first accept responsibility for YOUR actions and YOUR company - i.e., have a "plan B" when it comes to customer dealings... Do you bring only one camera to a client shoot?????
Now a "Temporary Service Interruption" message - much better, thank you. I was beginning to think that Smugmug had been bought by the Chinese government!
My coworker made some remark about the Titanic and found this picture. While waiting to upload my pictures of Homer Hickam Im working in PS and making useless art that will live in these forums....
That's why I keep a hardbound portfolio, as up-to-date as possible, for just those kinds of meetings.
You can also 'cache' your website on a laptop and present it that way.
This may help in the future. Especially if you have no internet connection at your meeting!
I don't agree with your post. People who paid for service have the right to complain or file law suite if it hurts their bottom line.
Community or not and people work there are nice are not the point. We are the customers to a profit seeking company. It is their job to keep us happy and provide us top service or we will leave or better yet start our own Xmugmug.
Choosing to be a part of the Smugmug "community" requires that we accept the good AND the bad that goes along with it, as being a part of any community does. Do not put blame on Smugmug and the fine and dedicated people that work there until you first accept responsibility for YOUR actions and YOUR company - i.e., have a "plan B" when it comes to customer dealings... Do you bring only one camera to a client shoot?????
I've been a SmugMugger for about 5 or 6 years now. I visit my site pretty much every day. I have to agree that the downtime has SHARPLY increased the last few months. Fortunately, I use SmugMug strictly for pleasure, not for business. But if I did use SmugMug for my business, I'd be pretty damn unhappy right now. Something must be done to offer enough redundancy to prevent any sort of downtime from lasting more than a few minutes. This current one has been going on for, what, 2+ hours now? Unacceptable.
That's why I keep a hardbound portfolio, as up-to-date as possible, for just those kinds of meetings.
You can also 'cache' your website on a laptop and present it that way.
This may help in the future. Especially if you have no internet connection at your meeting!
As a follow-up to Carden's excellent suggestion...
If you weren't aware, in Firefox (FF) or Internet Explorer (IE) (and other browsers too, probably) select "File -> Save..." to download a "copy" of the active browser window. IE downloads the page as an archive file and FF gives all the nuts and bolts. Double-click (Windows) on the *.mht (IE) or .htm (FF) file to relaunch the copy locally. Try it - kinda fun!
I don't agree with your post. People who paid for service have the right to complain or file law suite if it hurts their bottom line.
Community or not and people work there are nice are not the point. We are the customers to a profit seeking company. It is their job to keep us happy and provide us top service or we will leave or better yet start our own Xmugmug.
Then, my friend, you should do just that... Truthfully, you may be expecting too much from the company at this point in their evolution, sorry to say.
And yes, we all have the right to complain - and do nothing about it. This is America, right?
Choosing to be a part of the Smugmug "community" requires that we accept the good AND the bad that goes along with it, as being a part of any community does. Do not put blame on Smugmug and the fine and dedicated people that work there until you first accept responsibility for YOUR actions and YOUR company - i.e., have a "plan B" when it comes to customer dealings... Do you bring only one camera to a client shoot?????
It may be a community to you, but it is a wedding photo hosting site for me. They fiddle with it too much and it is down too much; at least for a pro site. Perhaps the solution is to separate the "community" aspect of it, which I believe is quite popular, from the pro side of it.
BTW, I do bring a second camera with me to a client shoot. Actually, I bring two backups. Evidently Smugmug's backup failed this morning. Maybe they need to heed your advice...
Comments
I'm sorry, Cygnus, but as far as I know, Smugmug is NOT a big company. Smugmug is a SMALL company trying to provide a BIG service, and hence where the problem lies. Downtime is a function of resources. Too few resourses (hardware + support) for a given load results in sytem failure and downtime. Plain and simple. Smugmug obviously needs to commit more capital to hardware and support but might not be financially capable of doing so at this time.
The feeling that I'm getting lately is that demand for Smugmug is starting to exceed their ablity to provide it satisfactorily to customers (esp. Pro's). This is what some might call "growing pains." Take the pain or jump ship, the choice is yours, but I wouldn't expect much difference anywhere else at present unless a company the likes of Adobe gets into the Internet photo-sharing business...
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
I've been with Smugmug for 2.5 years or so. The number of times I've had site problems or had to send emails to the support heroes has gone up quite a bit over that time. I understand growing pains and welcome any maintenance window to accomplish improvements to the great service already provided. However, this particular event doesn't appear to be related to any "upgrade", etc.
I appreciate the fact that you haven't experienced many issues. Perhaps you or your customers don't frequent your site as much as the rest of us who have experienced all of the issues over the past several months. It's natural for the level of frustration to grow when unexpected events occur.
I'm a network engineer for a global corporation and have been for more than a decade. I am well aware of unexpected issues and necessary downtime. There are measures that can be taken to avoid a lot of the problems we've experienced as customers lately. For whatever reason, Smugmug apparently hasn't covered all the bases with regards to that.
The reason I stay here is because of the great communication from the top directly to us. And, customer support response times is simply unrivaled in the industry. I applaud all the work everyone does behind the scenes and know that those folks are working hard to restore things when they break. But, the top level also needs to seriously get something in place ASAP to start minimizing the frequency of events "most" of us have experienced over the past several months. Yes, I love Smugmug, but I am also growing more and more frustrated lately.
-Danny
dannyberryphotography.com
Facebook
My entire website is out - is there something wrong with SmugMug?
I know... I just didn't want to babysit the blog 'if' it was going to be down long 'and' they had an Estimated fix time.
Can Smugmug try to get a "Experiencing Technical Difficulties" type of page up quicker? All it takes is one time for a new customers to try my link and get a 504 page can't found error or some other error to discourage them from coming back. I mean we've got 7 pages in this thread already and yet there isn't one that comes up yet to say that there is an error.
Sportshooter Member
***********************
D3, D700, 24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 VR, 50 f1/8, 200-400 VR f/4, 300/2.8 VR, 400 f/2.8 VR, 85 f/1.8, TC-14E II, TC-17E II, Sigma 15/2.8 Fisheye, SB-900 (2), SD-9, SB-600, AB800 (2), misc. other stuff
the backup of "a critical part of our infrastructure" "is having issues"
If they are not able to keep backup in order, there is no hope. :cry
The engineers are going as fast as they can. I'm really sorry.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
-Brian
Rich Mar Photography - Sydney Family Photographer
Rich Mar Photography Blog
http://kathyrayphotography.blogspot.com/
Rich Mar Photography - Sydney Family Photographer
Rich Mar Photography Blog
Anyone who's been with Smugmug for awhile knows that the entire staff is dedicated to providing an outstanding level of service. As someone in charge of a Customer Care operation for a large corporation, I can assure you that the folks of Smugmug are not simply paying "lip service" to their customers when they feel inconvenienced. They truly care about delivering a good product, and strive to correct issues quickly.
I see the site starting to come back on-line. - Like we all knew it would.
Thanks Andy, and everyone there for the hard work and customer service.
OK I'll bite, so what is this Big new Feature being released ??
JimW
http://www.smugmug.com/down/maint.mg
Surprised no one's commented on that yet : )
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
status msg is now up. thanks smugmug.
Rich Mar Photography - Sydney Family Photographer
Rich Mar Photography Blog
'Site down page'
Find that kind of service somewhere else!
Thanks SmugMug!
That looks nice, I have a group that looking for their gallery this AM...I also just e-mailed my contact explaining some site maintainance. Thanks SmugMug
http://kathyrayphotography.blogspot.com/
I am serious when I say smugmug has been down at least once or twice every month for last 5 or 6 months which is totally unacceptable.
And I am serious that the only way to solve this is if smugmug refunds us pro-rated money every time it goes down. We should not be paying for service when it is down.
Only when it starts hitting smugmug in the pocketbook is when they will actually ensure uptime and redunancy against failure etc
I can't imagine how much money smugmug is making off each paying member. At least they can do is pay for an army of support and machines to keep it up.
And I have meeting with important client in a few minutes and my website is down. Which is BAAAAAAD timing.
That's why I keep a hardbound portfolio, as up-to-date as possible, for just those kinds of meetings.
You can also 'cache' your website on a laptop and present it that way.
This may help in the future. Especially if you have no internet connection at your meeting!
Back to the complaints in the thread...like any service, there should be an SLA somewhere for the pros using this service. I haven't read through the TOS fully, so I can't say if there is. If there isn't, perhaps smug can work on that...which is pretty typical for pay-for sites/services. Then, during a downtime, people know what to expect and how long is acceptable, per the SLA. If it exceeds the SLA, then they can complain.
.02
Choosing to be a part of the Smugmug "community" requires that we accept the good AND the bad that goes along with it, as being a part of any community does. Do not put blame on Smugmug and the fine and dedicated people that work there until you first accept responsibility for YOUR actions and YOUR company - i.e., have a "plan B" when it comes to customer dealings... Do you bring only one camera to a client shoot?????
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Now a "Temporary Service Interruption" message - much better, thank you. I was beginning to think that Smugmug had been bought by the Chinese government!
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Community or not and people work there are nice are not the point. We are the customers to a profit seeking company. It is their job to keep us happy and provide us top service or we will leave or better yet start our own Xmugmug.
Mark
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
As a follow-up to Carden's excellent suggestion...
If you weren't aware, in Firefox (FF) or Internet Explorer (IE) (and other browsers too, probably) select "File -> Save..." to download a "copy" of the active browser window. IE downloads the page as an archive file and FF gives all the nuts and bolts. Double-click (Windows) on the *.mht (IE) or .htm (FF) file to relaunch the copy locally. Try it - kinda fun!
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Then, my friend, you should do just that... Truthfully, you may be expecting too much from the company at this point in their evolution, sorry to say.
And yes, we all have the right to complain - and do nothing about it. This is America, right?
Steve
www.LateSky.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
It may be a community to you, but it is a wedding photo hosting site for me. They fiddle with it too much and it is down too much; at least for a pro site. Perhaps the solution is to separate the "community" aspect of it, which I believe is quite popular, from the pro side of it.
BTW, I do bring a second camera with me to a client shoot. Actually, I bring two backups. Evidently Smugmug's backup failed this morning. Maybe they need to heed your advice...