Bigpond email problems.

Dry_bean.

Has anyone else been experiencing problems with Bigpond email? have not been able to send or receive for going on 24 hours now.
Bigpond tech support has a voice message apologising for the outage, working flat out to fix it blah blah blah.
Just wondering how extensive it is, Aust wide or just isolated pockets?

hiphipharar

Yep...it's down. Australia-wide though I'm not sure it affects all users http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1828019

Dry_bean.

Thanks for that, not a word from BP other than a short message in Whirlpool suggesting services MAY return to normal later today. :head:

Kelsey

I have bigpond accounts but I avoid using my carrier or ISP for email. Mainly because I move around carriers and don't want to change my email address as often. But it's also because for my telco, email is not a core business and I need the uptime that comes with someone for whom it IS core. Of course I have easier access to setting up email accounts than most. But it's almost worth it to register a domain just to have a permanent independent email account. My entire family use the domain I set up for us - 'thebrookesfamily.net'. $10 a year. Of course that doesn't help your immediate issue (sorry!). The problem seems to be limited to the BP email servers - my email is working fine over their 3G broadband.

Dry_bean.

All is well with the world again, Bigpond email is back up and running. Really cant complain only the second outage of this nature I can recall in over 10 years using them, people do tend to have short memories when it comes to this type of thing.

RichardM

The outage isn't the issue. The reason behind it is...... (ie all customer data being available on the web for who knows how long for).

Dry_bean.

on 1323498024:

The outage isn't the issue. The reason behind it is...... (ie all customer data being available on the web for who knows how long for).

The issue was identified, beat up by the media, addressed and hopefully rectified, I'm not overly concerned with the situation. Just because it's Telstra it seems some feel it gives them a license to criticise them at every minor hiccup. I've been with Telstra for over 30 years and except for the odd minor niggle found the service to be very satisfactory.

Kelsey

I've found the quality of service second to none, but heaven help you if you need *customer* service!

Dry_bean.

on 1323504227:

I've found the quality of service second to none, but heaven help you if you need *customer* service!

I agree, it can be a night mare, fortunately seldom need to use it.

RichardM

on 1323499914:

The issue was identified, beat up by the media, addressed and hopefully rectified, I'm not overly concerned with the situation. Just because it's Telstra it seems some feel it gives them a license to criticise them at every minor hiccup. I've been with Telstra for over 30 years and except for the odd minor niggle found the service to be very satisfactory.

I'd critique anyone for security breaches like that. It just annoys me. Once, I contacted a company privately when I came across a customer database with all credit card numbers etc available to the public in plain text. They instantly removed the security flaw, after telling me I shouldn't be accessing it (it was plain text...open to the public), but never informed ANY of their 1000+ customers. Props to Telstra for admitting to the flaw (not like they could dodge it), but in reality, a technology company needs to be much more careful! I said it was concerning, not a stab at Telstra directly. I was more outraged by the customers who were going on about the mail server being down being an "outrage" on whirlpool. Better they disable it while they address security breaches than keep it going - they did the right thing for their damage control, and acted quickly.  :thumb: The tech support is definitely terrible, but it's no worse than most other large carriers (TPG, Optus etc). The problem is, if they charge more, and make support good, noone will go with them because they'll then be "Too expensive". Telstra are so big they are in a position where no matter what they do, people will complain, no matter who is at the helm.

Dry_bean.

on 1323511277:

I'd critique anyone for security breaches like that. It just annoys me. Once, I contacted a company privately when I came across a customer database with all credit card numbers etc available to the public in plain text. They instantly removed the security flaw, after telling me I shouldn't be accessing it (it was plain text...open to the public), but never informed ANY of their 1000+ customers. Props to Telstra for admitting to the flaw (not like they could dodge it), but in reality, a technology company needs to be much more careful! I said it was concerning, not a stab at Telstra directly. I was more outraged by the customers who were going on about the mail server being down being an "outrage" on whirlpool. Better they disable it while they address security breaches than keep it going - they did the right thing for their damage control, and acted quickly.  :thumb: The tech support is definitely terrible, but it's no worse than most other large carriers (TPG, Optus etc). The problem is, if they charge more, and make support good, noone will go with them because they'll then be "Too expensive". Telstra are so big they are in a position where no matter what they do, people will complain, no matter who is at the helm.

Cant argue with any of what you say here Richard. Have to agree, I thought most of the primadonna's on Whirlpool were carrying on like a mob of kids.

Lacehim

I would be changing my password asap just to be on the safe side.

Kelsey

on 1323511277:

The tech support is definitely terrible, but it's no worse than most other large carriers (TPG, Optus etc).

Now that's a statement I can't get behind. I found Optus' customer support fantastic - just their quality of service was shocking. Similarly, iinet have always had fantastic customer service for me. They're not the cheapest ISP around, but the quality of their product also shines. I don't see any reason to accept poor customer service. I have some insight into the inner workings of Telstra and their customer support teams. It's unfortunate, but their old "we're the only game in town - and we act like it" mentality has never gone away. I give them grief about it at every opportunity because we should never just accept poor customer service.

UNM

Well, I wouldn't touch telstra with a ten foot pole due to price. I'm with optus for business mobile (about $41/month with mobile internet, free voicemail and free galaxy s)  used to be with vodafone but changed due to promo deal. Iinet for landline and isp, siteground for web hosting and independent email, as well as google and yahoo for public email. Not a lot to choose between them on service reliability, telstra do have better coverage in some areas. I had to take a complaint with iinet to the  ombudsman a couple of  years back when they changed my phone number, but neglected to inform me until afterwards.  Still with them them though, since the ombudsman interface did the trick. Customer service from telcos will always have limitations, but overall, I doubt any of them really stand out as excellent or terrible. Individual cases probably cause as much variation as their service delivery.

Kelsey

I can't agree on service quality between Optus and Telstra - still anecdotal, but everyone in my family (myself, my wife and about six mothers, brothers and sisters in law) have had to switch from Optus to Telstra due to a severe lack of being able to make or receive calls. It was not good in Sydney, unbearable in QLD. The difference is like night and day - one or two missed calls a month compared to dozens. And I'm paying no more on Telstra. $79 cap that covers all calls and SMS and has 2GB of data.