New Customer Concerns

Hylander · July 16, 2008

I'm in the middle of my 14 day trial for the Pro Account but today is the 3rd time I've experienced the "We're having some temporary difficulties. We expect full service to resume shortly. Sorry!" problem while working on my site.

I'm sorry - but that is alot of "down time" in an 8 day period. I've been working on customizing and experimenting with SmugMug but I'm really having my concerns about reliability. One of the reasons I was considering moving to SM was so I wouldn't have to worry about updating my own software on my server, etc and just concentrate on adding my photos and content. But I need to know that the service reliability is better than what I've experienced in my 8 days so far.

I do appreciate the Status updates via the blog though.

Thanks,
Scott

rainforest1155 · July 16, 2008

Scott,

You're really catching us at a bad time here and this is certainly not normal at all. I've been a customer since 2004 and the site really has a track record of great uptime. With the introduction of the read-only mode, your photos even were available when we had troubles.

Thanks a lot for giving us the chance of taking care of these issues and for the trust that you put in us that this isn't the norm. There are always good and bad times and with SmugMug, the bad times are usually down to a minimum.

Best wishes,
Sebastian

Awais Yaqub · July 16, 2008

Scott it is great i am using it since 2005 and i am very happy.It seems like SmugMug is doing some major maintenance these days. But i assure you, you will be very happy with it, let them fully come back :cavig

Hylander · July 16, 2008

I do realize my site would have been available for viewing. But it was a concern that in 8 days, 3 times while trying to work on my site I got those errors.

I have a friend who praises SM so that's why I've been giving it a chance. I'm still learning how to "hack" all the layout and customizations by searching threads and viewing sites so I'm still trying to get a grasp on the whole thing.

But thanks for the follow-up, one thing I am encouraged by is the communications.

Thanks,
Scott

rainforest1155 wrote:

Scott,

You're really catching us at a bad time here and this is certainly not normal at all. I've been a customer since 2004 and the site really has a track record of great uptime. With the introduction of the read-only mode, your photos even were available when we had troubles.

Thanks a lot for giving us the chance of taking care of these issues and for the trust that you put in us that this isn't the norm. There are always good and bad times and with SmugMug, the bad times are usually down to a minimum.

Best wishes,
Sebastian

Hylander · July 20, 2008

Wow.. I have to admit that the 14 days of free trial have been less than a stellar exposure to SmugMug. After all the issues I discussed previously - today not only can I not work on my gallery, It's not available for viewing either.

I appreciate all the positive comments from existing users and I'm certainly taking them into consideration particularly since I have a close friend who loves SmugMug - but I must admit that with just another day of "free trial" - I'm really having to convince myself to take a "leap of faith" to pay for the yearly Professional packaged considering the pretty significant frequency of downtime I've experienced in just under two weeks. :wow

Andy · July 20, 2008

Hylander wrote:

Wow.. I have to admit that the 14 days of free trial have been less than a stellar exposure to SmugMug. After all the issues I discussed previously - today not only can I not work on my gallery, It's not available for viewing either.

I appreciate all the positive comments from existing users and I'm certainly taking them into consideration particularly since I have a close friend who loves SmugMug - but I must admit that with just another day of "free trial" - I'm really having to convince myself to take a "leap of faith" to pay for the yearly Professional packaged considering the pretty significant frequency of downtime I've experienced in just under two weeks. :wow

Yup, you've had a bad luck streak. We've had an an extraordinary record of uptime over the years, one that I'll stack against any site out there. I'm sorry your trial's been rocky!

Write our heroes, we'll happily extend your trial if you wish.

pabster · July 20, 2008

Andy wrote:

Yup, you've had a bad luck streak. We've had an an extraordinary record of uptime over the years, one that I'll stack against any site out there. I'm sorry your trial's been rocky!

Write our heroes, we'll happily extend your trial if you wish.

I agree with the OP. This is the first time it's been down for me, but I'm only on day 3 of the 14-day trial. I really love the interface and customization options, much prefer SM to PicasaWeb, but this isn't exactly instilling a whole lot of confidence. Rather than simply extending free trials or giving credit here and there, I'd be much happier with a full explanation of the issues and a plan to deal with such a problem when it arises in the future.

nvisiblephoto · July 20, 2008

Hey man, I've been here for about a year and I can tell you this is VERY rare. I can only think of one other time when the site was down and that was for maintenance late at night. You just caught it at a bad time. Don't let it worry you. Stick around and you will definitely not be disappointed.

MacLoyal · July 20, 2008

pabster wrote:

Rather than simply extending free trials or giving credit here and there, I'd be much happier with a full explanation of the issues and a plan to deal with such a problem when it arises in the future.

Where else do you have a forum like this for on the spot information? Isn't an explanation of what's going on exactly what you are getting here?

It's Sunday and you can see that every effort is being made to get information to us and to get the problem resolved. I am impressed, not disturbed, by what I am reading here. There is no 'good time' for this to happen. Some people are inconvenienced and some will potentially have a hit on their photo businesses. Would it be any different if we were experiencing something as mundane as a power outage?

I still highly recommend this service. I've found nothing better.

aledat · July 20, 2008

Welcome to the jungle.
I have a lot of experience with Amazon. I hate that I'm tied to them here on Smug.

pabster · July 20, 2008

aledat wrote:

I have a lot of experience with Amazon. I hate that I'm tied to them here on Smug.

Agreed. Their vaunted 'S3' services have had a lot of issues in the past month or two. I wouldn't use them IMHO. I don't know if they have grown too much too fast or what but reliability has been in the crapper. It's a shame SM is so dependent on Amazon; Hence why I said perhaps they need to look in to mirroring the data elsewhere when (not if) this happens again.

Andy · July 20, 2008

pabster wrote:

II'd be much happier with a full explanation of the issues and a plan to deal with such a problem when it arises in the future.

I'd like you to find a company that's more open than we are

Go for it - when you do let me know, okay? We don't hold anything back - ever.

http://blogs.smugmug.com/don
http://smugmug.wordpress.com/

pabster wrote:

It's a shame SM is so dependent on Amazon

I'd say it's a bit early to be calling that, isn't it? You have to consider things over time. Sorry this outage sucks - indeed it does. But we have been and will continue to remain, extremely reliable, extremely available, and will be here in 5 years, 10, and a 100. Count on it.

Hope you will, too!

dgentile · July 20, 2008

Hylander,

I have been with smugmug for close to a year now, and like others here I love the service.

It's true the past few days have been a bit "rocky"...
But one of the main reasons I love smugmug is this:

The "heros"... truly in our time where in the IT-Business it is a major fubar situation with most "customer support services" smugmug's support team has been the golden exception here.
They are humans, they're into it, they know what they talk about and first and most importantly are honest, open and quick.
Any request I had, any problem I had, no matter how minor or major has been effectivly and personally taken care of in usually what I would define as record time.
New features are being introduced and fine tuned until they meet "our" requirements... the guys at smugmug do a great job with "Customer Communication" - instead like most other just sticking to some "ominous" big plan no customer has a clue about.
If something goes wrong they're upfront about it. that's worth more to me than some providers big lies of a SLA of 99.999% with so many "exceptions" written in fine-print that it's basically a joke.

I say pick them up on the offer to extend you're trial - I doubt that you'd regret it

and to the SmugMug Team: I've said it before, and I mean it - you do an awesome job!

MSMoore · July 20, 2008

Andy wrote:

I'd like you to find a company that's more open than we are Go for it - when you do let me know, okay? We don't hold anything back - ever.

http://blogs.smugmug.com/don
http://smugmug.wordpress.com/

I'd say it's a bit early to be calling that, isn't it? You have to consider things over time. Sorry this outage sucks - indeed it does. But we have been and will continue to remain, extremely reliable, extremely available, and will be here in 5 years, 10, and a 100. Count on it.

Hope you will, too!

It's been about a year & half since I posted anything (or visited) in this forum....just been busy. This response is to the person doing the trial with SM who started this thread. I'm a very satisfied camper and have been with SM since the end of 2006. I've experienced very few irritations since becoming a smugger...the few that I did experience were my own fault.

If you just recently came on board at SM and got a dose of the current/recent downtime stuff...very unusual. You'll not find better value or quality for your money...whether you're a professional or non-professional shooter. I'll be a smugger until I kick the bucket.

Hang in there and give SM another shot. SM gives EXCELLENT customer service!!!

Cygnus Studios · July 20, 2008

I have only been a smugger a short time, and while there have been a few times recently the site has had issues, the support team has been on top of it quickly and solved the issue. All sites have issues at one point or another, and that is to be expected.
The difference to me has been the personal support. The team at Smug Mug is available to all of us here on the forum, that alone will keep my business.
If I knew nothing else about smug mug, the replies of support from their customers here on the forum would be enough for me to think twice before leaving.

Motophotog · July 20, 2008

Hylander. Its not just you. I've been wondering the same, there hasnt been an email from any of the head honchos expaining why this is occuring so often? It would be nice to know why this is happening 4 times (that I've noticed) in 7 days.

Shima · July 20, 2008

I've had my smugmug account for over 3 years and it has been highly reliable, this is indeed a rare happening, so hang on there, we'll be back up and running soon.

JETA · July 20, 2008

Another person who has had smugmug for 3 years.

I've never had an issue. Not only that they've personally helped me build my site, email me quicker then quick when I had questions and have provided stellar service.

I love smugmug and wouldn't change for the world. They put up with me and all of my silly newbie questions on top of everything else.

Hylander · July 20, 2008

Although I find the downtime frequency in my trial period un-acceptable - I also realize these things can happen and sometimes timing can happen as just a bad circumstance and coincidence. I did write SmugMug asking them to extend my trial period in hopes of seeing more of SmugMug without the frequency of downtime. Well, NO downtime would be optimum of course.

Although I question how a company with the resources of Amazon can allow their service to THEIR customers (in this case SmugMug) to be down for the better part of an entire day and find it appauling (I am responsible for our entire Online Banking program along with ATM network so I know a thing or two about downtime and dealing with vendors since we are not in house) - I certainly hope SmugMug is going to look at their relationship with Amazon after this situation and at least get a thorough explanation and what procedures and action plan Amazon is going to implement to help mitigate this kind of downtime in the future. Makes me wonder what kind of plan they have in place for a real disaster recovery.

Thanks Andy for your responses and everyone else who chimed in. I've received more than enough messages backing SmugMug to give them the benefit of the doubt for further trial.

Thanks again!

BeachBill · July 20, 2008

Motophotog wrote:

Hylander. Its not just you. I've been wondering the same, there hasnt been an email from any of the head honchos expaining why this is occuring so often? It would be nice to know why this is happening 4 times (that I've noticed) in 7 days.

I guess you guys don't read the status updates page?

You can find it here: http://smugmug.wordpress.com/

Andy · July 20, 2008

Motophotog wrote:

Hylander. Its not just you. I've been wondering the same, there hasnt been an email from any of the head honchos expaining why this is occuring so often? It would be nice to know why this is happening 4 times (that I've noticed) in 7 days.

http://smugmug.wordpress.com/ always has our Status when there's a problem. Put it in your feed reader, you'll never miss a beat.

I'm sorry for the hassles today

Cal-Dream · July 20, 2008

Down Time
I am a new member from a few months ago and have uploaded about 2,000 photos. This down time of the system today is a big issue for me. I shot 2 days worth of pro tennis photos and wanted to upload at least one thousand photos today. To get on the internet I must drive about a half hour from home and I have done this twice today, early this morning and now late in the evening. System reliability is a major issue. I keep backups of everything that I upload, but the time to actually upload high density photos takea a lot of time.

Today was not a good day!

Hylander wrote:

I'm in the middle of my 14 day trial for the Pro Account but today is the 3rd time I've experienced the "We're having some temporary difficulties. We expect full service to resume shortly. Sorry!" problem while working on my site.

I'm sorry - but that is alot of "down time" in an 8 day period. I've been working on customizing and experimenting with SmugMug but I'm really having my concerns about reliability. One of the reasons I was considering moving to SM was so I wouldn't have to worry about updating my own software on my server, etc and just concentrate on adding my photos and content. But I need to know that the service reliability is better than what I've experienced in my 8 days so far.

I do appreciate the Status updates via the blog though.

Thanks,
Scott

Hylander · July 21, 2008

Andy wrote:

Yup, you've had a bad luck streak. We've had an an extraordinary record of uptime over the years, one that I'll stack against any site out there. I'm sorry your trial's been rocky!

Write our heroes, we'll happily extend your trial if you wish.

Andy.. just wanted to thank you once again as support hooked me up with an additional 2 week extension. I certainly appreciate that and hopefully this will all pass as just an unfortunate and isolated period of time.

One thing nobody can legitimately complain about is the communication from SmugMug. Between yourself, the blog, support, etc... the lines of communication are open.

Now go get some sleep!

Thanks!

Motophotog · July 21, 2008

Thanks for the link Andy. Yes, you're right about that. Smugmug's communication is top notch, and i like how you guys speak like human beings. Not like we're computers.

Im just ranting because my site was approaching record numbers for the month and this is causing that number to slow.......geez im so greedy.

New Customer Concerns

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