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[Rog]

Like so many others these days my business is highly reliant upon email. Not just for general communication, most of our incoming orders, outgoing quotations, almost everything is by email.

We don't use some free or cheap web based service, we pay megabucks to a company called Daisy plc.

We have not been able to access our email since Friday last week, and cannot do so right now. I have no idea how many orders have been sent. I am expecting a major order for an item of urgent medical equipment, and who knows what else.

I have pestered Daisy for a result, getting nothing but meaningless platitudes.

http://www.daisygroupplc.com/customer-support/service-updates/

I'm not looking for help or advice here, I just need to let off steam             

I will accept that faults happen. I will NOT accept that it takes six days to fix them, and I really don't care that it was a bank holiday weekend. It was not a holiday in Scotland and most of the rest of the world.

There is another point to this though. The NHS, Government, and most businesses are all embracing e-everything, but if it falls down it REALLY falls down and often it only takes one incompetent person in one incompetent company for that to happen. Bring back the carrier pigeon 

Needless to say don't ever ever even consider using Daisy for anything. I won't be for much longer once this is all sorted (if !).


Also, our website is also down, but that is less important to use in the short term.   

[Kevin Wood]

Downtime of that kind is simply not acceptable for anyone claiming to provide an internet service. Hell, you could do better with a server in your cupboard under the stairs hanging off a broadband line - I wouldn't be surprised if that is how your provider is operating, in fact.

[Rog]

Downtime of that kind is simply not acceptable for anyone claiming to provide an internet service. Hell, you could do better with a server in your cupboard under the stairs hanging off a broadband line - I wouldn't be surprised if that is how your provider is operating, in fact.

You know, I would have some entrepreneurial sympathy with them if that was the case. It's not. The Daisy Group are huge, and encompass many familiar internet related names from the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Group

I've always found that the smaller the company the better the service. The problem is that the small companies then get bought by bigger ones, and they in turn get bought by even bigger ones and so on. You end up with a huge company and crap service. That is exactly how I ended up using Daisy. I signed up years ago with Advance Internet that have now got lost in the Daisy monolith.

[Kevin Wood]

(formerly known as Freedom4 Group plc and Pipex Communications plc)

Everything becomes clear.

You know, I would have some entrepreneurial sympathy with them if that was the case. It's not. The Daisy Group are huge, and encompass many familiar internet related names from the past.

Just incompetent, then.

[Rog]

Just incompetent, then.

Yep ! Plus, I suspect that they didn't even start to sort the problem out until after the Bank Holiday Monday. Getting things done and having to pay people over a holiday weekend is probably expensive.

[05omegav6]

Just incompetent, then.

Yep ! Plus, I suspect that they didn't even start to sort the problem out until after the Bank Holiday Monday. Getting things done and having to pay people over a holiday weekend is probably expensive.

But not as expensive as losing customers

[Rog]

Just incompetent, then.

Yep ! Plus, I suspect that they didn't even start to sort the problem out until after the Bank Holiday Monday. Getting things done and having to pay people over a holiday weekend is probably expensive.

But not as expensive as losing customers

I meant expensive for THEM not for me

[Rog]

UPDATE

I found some of the big bosses of Daisy PLC on LinkedIn. Including the CEO 

Invited them to be "Connections" of mine. But I replaced the default invitation with a bit of a polite but short rant   

Very soon after, a personal phone call (not from the boss, but high up) explaining the situation in detail and an assurance that I was being moved to top of the list. A faulty server was being physically replaced, "issues" meant that the data had to be manually migrated to the new server. . . . or something like that. Could be BS, but as long as I get my service back I don't care.

I've had NHS customers calling to chase up delivery of orders that we don't even know about.

In the meantime I am looking at email-only companies to get an alternative email address that is completely separate. I don't want one of the free web based ones, I'll pay a bit.

Any recommendations ?

[Kevin Wood]

I would just go with someone with better uptime, TBH. You can, in any case, specify multiple mail servers on a domain, so a decent service provider shouldn't ever put you in a situation where a failure stops you getting mail as they will have backups to which the mail is routed if a server dies.

[Rog]

So, I looked on a well know techie type broadband/internet/website type forum, looked around for reasonable prices reputation etc, bought some new domain names similar to my others, and set about getting set up to inform everyone about a new email address.

NOPE. After a few hours of struggle, and some calls to support, seems there's some problem with Nominet the domain name people. So still no email ! 

Will someone tell me who I have to kill to get this sorted 

[Kevin Wood]

Will someone tell me who I have to kill to get this sorted 

I doubt it, but I could suggest a few for whom it might ease the frustration a little, and take your mind off it.

[MR MISTER]

Jusdt use hotmail, Rog. What could possibly go wrong?

[Rog]

Will someone tell me who I have to kill to get this sorted 

I doubt it, but I could suggest a few for whom it might ease the frustration a little, and take your mind off it.

Trouble is, I might also enjoy it 

[aaronjb]

So, I looked on a well know techie type broadband/internet/website type forum, looked around for reasonable prices reputation etc, bought some new domain names similar to my others, and set about getting set up to inform everyone about a new email address.

NOPE. After a few hours of struggle, and some calls to support, seems there's some problem with Nominet the domain name people. So still no email ! 

Will someone tell me who I have to kill to get this sorted 

Don't forget that DNS propagation takes at least 24-48 hours in most cases, so if you did that this morning even if everything went swimmingly it wouldn't be working for most of the world until some time tomorrow..

I've registered a fair few domains over the years (mostly they're with 123-reg now who, at one point, were owned by GX Networks/Pipex!) and I've never had any problems with Nominet themselves..

(N.B. For those in the business - my domains might be with them but my hosting most certainly is not, so I wasn't affected by the Chinese DDoS last year )

[Rog]

Don't forget that DNS propagation takes at least 24-48 hours in most cases, so if you did that this morning even if everything went swimmingly it wouldn't be working for most of the world until some time tomorrow..

I've registered a fair few domains over the years (mostly they're with 123-reg now who, at one point, were owned by GX Networks/Pipex!) and I've never had any problems with Nominet themselves..

(N.B. For those in the business - my domains might be with them but my hosting most certainly is not, so I wasn't affected by the Chinese DDoS last year )

The guy I spoke to said something like that 

"GX Networks/Pipex!" - I think they are now part of Daisy group plc, THE VERY ROOT OF MY PROBLEM   

( Yes I know I'm shouting ! - I really need to  )