Smart Zone followup - updated
First off, we’re sorry about this weekend’s SmartZone outage. We know
that email is more and more important to people these days (I have been
known to check my email on four different devices simultaneously) and we
understand the frustration you felt. We’re truly sorry.
Now, the details: SmartZone suffered an outage on Saturday, April 4th, starting at 7:30 am EDT and lasting until 5pm EDT. This outage was caused by a power issue in one of our datacenters that impacted some of our email servers. The outage was compounded by the fact that several databases needed to be restored from back up (that process was successful, and no data was lost which is a good thing).
Over the course of the outage, mail that was sent to SmartZone customers was stored in a number of queues across our email system. Once the entire system stabilized we were able to start delivering that queued mail. Our engineers worked around the clock (literally) to identify email that was delayed, and to get it to the proper recipients. This process was completed earlier this morning, and now all email messages queued during the outage have been delivered (one important thing to note, however, is that the email messages will show up in your inbox stamped with the date they were delivered to your inbox, not when they were sent. For example someone might have sent you an email on Saturday at noon, and it was queued over the weekend so it shows up in your inbox as a new email today. If you look at your email headers, though, you’ll see the actual send and received dates).
During the outage there was a window of time (from 11am to 2:50pm EDT on Saturday) when our email directory was in a state of flux due to the various databases being rebuilt. There were some small cases (we think a fraction of emails sent) where someone may have sent you an email during these hours and our system was unable to recognize you as a user (because servers were coming back online). In each instance Comcast sent the sender of the email a ‘user not found’ message to alert them that their email message should be resent.
I know what you’re thinking: what are you doing to sure this doesn’t happen again? Our engineers are examining every piece of our email system to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to make sure an issue like this doesn’t happen again. We are reviewing all of our systems - hardware, software and processes — to make sure that we mitigate the possibility of this occurring again. Email is a critical means of communication for us, as well as our customers, so we know that it just needs to work.
Update 4/15/09 3:24pm: Lots of folks in the comments are wondering about whether or not our datacenters have redundant power, so I thought it would make sense to add this update. Our datacenters do have fully redundant systems, including power. That said, while we didn't lose power in our data center, an element of our email platform failed (some more details can be found here) resulting in the need to restore data from backup. I hope that answers some people's questions.
Enter Comments
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Comments (1109)
every time I play a game I cannot access my email afterward. I have called and deleted using my internet tools. It doesn't help. I have to get off of the internet and then get back on. This is really getting irritating. I can access all other sites. It only happens at my home, where I use comcast for all (TV, Phone, Internet) I have no trouble with this at work which is sbc.
Hi Philip,
I just logged into my SmartZone account without any issue (and I haven't heard of any outages today).
I would suggest trying another browser, or clearing the cache on your browser that you're using.
It's happening again, apparently. I can do everything on the Internet except open e-mail. The Smart Zone Communications tab just circles and circles -- there are five green squares in my progress bar, and nothing has happened for several minutes. I called 1-800-COMCAST, and the tech's response was "hmmm" - we're not showing any problems." My response -- log this in as the first one, then.
I am so disappointed with Comcast...My son told me comcast was the best on the market, I find it frustrating to wait for my computer to operate. I assumed we had speedup service. I'm sorry to say that Verizon was a much faster and quicker to respond. We bought the Comcast package TV,phone and internet. The instructions for the TV we don't have, we cannot play our DVD because no instructions. We have a copy of the channels and somechannels have been removed, I called Comcast and asked the rep to send us a new TV directory and I'm still waiting.
Marian Pursley
As bad and unreliable as the old system was, the new "Smartzone" is even worse. I want to help them improve their product. I have called and written. There appears that no one is at home. It appears that no one at Comcast even cares. I have tried for more than a year, and all I get is stupid robot answers.
Yesterday(May 28 2009) i registered an account for a website but I never got the confirmation email to let me sign-in, and it has ticked me off.I am constantly searching through everything including my spam and trash folders but I have still had no luck.If SOMEONE could help that would be very nice.by the way i also know i used the correct email address because when i tried to register again, it said i couldn't use that email because it was already in use..i have no idea why it is doing this but i just know its making me mad!
Hello Alice!
If the font is to small, this is one way that can help; hold down the Ctrl key, and hit the + key, this will increase the font size for the page you are on. If you hit the + sign to many times just hold down the Ctrl key, and hit the - key and this will decrease the size.
Hope this is some help.
Thank You
John
Are you aware of how slow smartzone is? And that comments submitted through your contacts page never seem to go through after an interminable delay?? I never use this service for business or personal use as it is cumbersome to access and seemingly unreliable, based on my experience in trying to email you. And the inconvenience of having to log in and multiple times for secondary accounts and having to go through the lengthy delays more than once. This is soo much worse than the old comcast email. By the way, if you wish to respond you will have to use my normal email address rmoe@ramcapitalcorp.com. I hardly ever use the comcast/smartzone email given the delays and problems.
Today, I finally got some of my e-mails that I have been unable to access since April 13 (or earlier since there are alot of deletions that I do not understand.) It appears that I am not the only person still having problems. Is there a big problem with Outlook Express e-mail or am I an anomaly?
SO, there is an e-mail problem that affected "some" customers. Today is May 19 and I finally get to read the e-mail about a system problem. What I want to know is why wasn't I informed of this occurrence when I called in for service help? My Outlook Express is still screwed up, but at least I can access my e-mail in SmartZone.
Kind of ironic, huh, I get my e-mail from something name Smart?!!!
It's May 17th and I'm still experiencing the problems that first occurred with this "outage". I'm in the middle of conference planning and this has caused considerable difficulties. I shut down when trying to include attachments or pasting text in body of email. System shuts down saying it's experiencing a problem.
Emails won't go out or arrive to me after-the-fact.
Are certains areas you service still affected by the original problem?? Will this be fixed?? Will we be compensated?
I would like to chime in on this, for my hisband account has not been restored yet. We would like to know what acti0ns are being taken, since his email service has been down for most of the mont of May.
what happens when you use a secondary mail server like mercury mail that happens to be linked to the builttolast@flacshn.com acct for my website when people sign up for an acct and the auto mailer is suppose to send out a confirmation email with a validation link included in the body of the letter? did those emails get queued and sent or did my peers get nothing. i need to know cause my site and my peers in the lossless digital audio of bands that allow taping distribution(see etree.org for more details)are very important to me. thanks
Wow! Lots of angst over a short outage. As long as can find out that it's not my problem (by calling 1-800-COMCAST), I'm okay. If I were running a business, of course, I'd not be using Comcast residential and would be sure to have an alternate method of getting my stuff.
A couple of days' outage over the last 10 years is something I can deal with.
Thanks for letting us know (and will I get credit for the outage?)
I am still getting my some of my emails in my deleted box and I this has created a big problem for me because I was disputing the fact that my corporate office had sent me some information via email. I was not aware of where my emails were going. I happen to finding them by accident one day when I was looking for an old email. I could have empty the deleted box and loose a bunch of important emails that were in there instead of the Inbox. By the way I found emails that came in to the deleted box from January and I also found recent ones. Not a good thing, my comcast friends......Please check this isssue as carefullly as you check the billing, I have never miss one of them, and this is WAAAAAAAAAAAY passed two days; so the apology for the two day isn't really doing much for me right now. Thanks
Will the president of comcast read all 1008 of the post as of today? NO. If I were chairman of the board I would make him or fire him. How many of you have see the tv commerical with David Begely as the cable tv president. I have a friend that works for one of the other big companies and he says its as factual as it get on the C level behind closed doors its about the stock price and how much bonus they will receive.
I would like a refund for the two days without service, that's only fair.....you seem to want to charge us for every little extra thing......
Thank You,
David,
The only comments that would not be posted to entries here on Comcast Voices are those that either do not conform to our Rules of the Road (http://blog.comcast.com/about.html) or contain personal information about the person commenting (address, email address, phone number.. that sort of thing).
I can assure you that we have not edited anyone's comments, and I think the mix of comments you see on this entry stand as proof to that. This blog is a place for people to engage us (and hopefully be engaged with us) on a variety of topics. Censorship is never a great strategy when you're trying to do something like that.
Lots of pro and con posts. I found out that not all submittals are being posted. I wonder how many other non-complimentary posts have been censored? Since Comcast is censoring entire posts, this begs the question of how many posts have been "adjusted" or are pure fabrications?
Fact: Comcast forced SmartZone, a slow, clunkly, poorly tested product, on its customers.
Fact: Comcast claims the problem was due to a power failure. But none was reported and any computer person knows about uninterruptible power supplies.
Fact: Requests for customer service were directed to TV Cable rather than Hi-Speed Internet. Customers were then forwarded to a black hole.
Fact: For more than a week, large parts ComCast Voices was blanked out.
Fact: The new administration in Washington is way more favorable to the people than the previous one. Write your representatives and the FCC and demand the cable/ISP be re-regulated!
Bet this post never sees the light of day.
Look while I understand you had a problem , and are greatful to hear that it has been resolved and stride on not happing again, and only speaking of myself . It put me in a difficult spot I had to close my ebay account my hotmail account and stayed up all night with both trying to restart my programs. So what kind of apology can you make on that. So yes I am more than upset. IS THIS SOME KINDA JOKE TO YOU. bECAUSE THIS IS NO WAY TO OPERATE a business as big as Comcast. Do Ya Think.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What about all the apologys to the OTHER people who does not have anything to do with Comcast get. Are you going to apologize to them too, or Is it not cost efficence enough , Are we going to have to pay for that to. ? Hope Not you have already cost me enough.......... NO MORE. Signed Still Mad.
To whom it may concern, will all these customers be compensated for the loss of the service???? I think it only fair since it disrupted us sending emails that were extremely important, like paying bills on line that were due that day. Please respond asap. Thank you..........Pamela Murphy
Hello, To whom it may concern. Today is the first time I have checked my email and did not have any problem but I did call comcast, spoke with a representative and he gave me the indication to take my computer to have diagnostic and I did and paid over $60.00 and still unable to connect to the internet. Presentlly I am out of town but I will be checking my home computer when I return. But I am very delighted to know of your apology and to know of the power issue. Now Dell is telling me my operation system is gone and I really do not know what to do, I am not a computer educated person. But again thank you for the information.
Sandra W. Griggs
I WANT A REFUND FOR THAT TWO DAYS I WAS WITHOUT SERVICE. ALSO THIS CAUSE ALOT OF MY SALES FOR THAT DAY TO BE DECEASED DUE TO ME NOT RECEIVING MY ORDERS ON TIME.
I was very inconvenienced by this outage, I think the upstanding thing to do would be to credit our accounts for a loss of service. I would be putting the proverbial "money where your mouth is". Verizon Fios has been soliciting in my neighborhood for several months. I may have to consider this for some form of reliable service.
Thank You for taking the time to explain and the courtesy to remember me. This shows my questions and my problems were important to you. I appreciate being treated with respect and want to show that with sincere gratitude.
Sincerely Yours,
Richard Singleton
Hello, were you ever able to fix the small font problem? I have contacted Comcast numerous times and no one seems to know how to format the new SmartZone. The browser settings do not change anything except my other web pages......A little help ! ..... Mitch
Dear Sir;
Thank You For Let Me Knowing About This Problem of SmartZone Outage on Saturday April4th 2009 not only affect Our Email But, Did Also, Affect Our Service Internet Connection With This April 1th Fool Virus. I Was Without Internet Connection for a Whole Week Cause This Virus Kill My Drive Adapter. I'am Hopefully Someday Comcast will Come up With Ideal Of Killing This April Fool Virus cause is causing Everybody Computer Damage.
Thank You For Your Attention. Have a Great Day!
Sincerely Your;
Ms. Gladys Bonet
Hi Everyone--- Thanks for the apology---Being an electrical trouble shooter for some 50+ years, I know how things happen---So it's so nice to have a company follow up on a problem---I didn't have any troubles as I was away for 14 days during the outage---So again, THANKS for the notification--- Shows respect for your customers--
Best Reguards, George
Well, it's nice to finally have some meaningful communications from Comcast—telephone and online support channels are utterly useless (the worst in the industry).
I wonder, though, whether its heartfelt apology will be backed up with any credits to our monthly invoices. I suspect not.
Will we be compensated for your outage? I still recieved the same payment amount. Also it looks like my bill is going up more each month. Please do the right thing & compensate all for the inconvience.
I agree with all the comments and compaints I've reviewed. There should be some kind of compensation for customers. I've been a Comcast customer a long time, even before it was called Comcast. I assumed that my internet was the top of the line, with no complications. There seems to be interruptions with McAfee being able to be protected on my computer. I have to constantly check to see if my computer is protected.
All my websites was very slow and my Downloads was moving slow and bring up the internet was taking for minutes. Please make sure this interruption doesn't occur again. I need to have my computer to run faster....
I CAN NOT GET ON THE INTENET AT HOME IS THERE SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE TO DO
hi its ok i was in LA when it happen when i was there i met Ashley Tisdale it was so coo!!!!
please make sure this interruption doesnt occur again
Ever since this event has happened I have had problems with downloading important material that people have sent me. Either it won't download or it takes forever. Is there anything you can do. I am so frustrated I am ready to cancel my Comcast internet, cable and telephone. I have deleted everything I could think of that would make it so slow. Is this your way of telling me I need to spend more money for faster internet?
Thanks, Melinda Samuels
Most of my "Sent" e-mails were lost during that outage. Though I have asked for assistance in getting them back from the backup system, to date I still have not been able to retrieve e-mails before March 2009. I would still like these back.
Also, the font size is too small. It is difficult to read the line by line descriptions. Is there a way this can be adjusted. I'd appreciate any help you could forward. I'm going blind trying to read the e-mail screen.
My email has still not been restored and I have still not been able to get an answer to how this issue is being addressed or how I will be compensated. Thanks for your assistance.
You claim that the problem lasted only one day. I was unable to access my account for over 5 days!
I just received my Comcast bill and it was for the usual amount - $100.00 more than the same service I can get from Verizon! I made calls every 2 days and it seemed that the internal communication at Comcast was poor - I talked to a different technician each call and had to explain each time the problem with my account. Finally I got a tech that was able to reset my account and get me up and able to read my email - after 6 days. For the amount we pay we should get a rebate for the time the system is down and customers are not receiving the services we are paying for!
I still cannot get my mail. I have tried two live chats, phone calls to your techs, forums and thousands of people cannot get their mail if on a Mac. I'm a web designer and this is killing me....!
You get one or both of these errors: enter your password (no matter how many times you do this it doesn't work) or server denied error on port 110. Believe me that I have tried every port number and authentication setting known to man. Nada!
This is happening to client email programs that have not had any problems (before) you changed over to your spam super firewall system.
What is most frustrating is that your techs don't understand this and are giving out bad information - either old port info or just plain 'It's Apple's fault.'
I'm sure I will never hear anything from you or your tech team besides a 'canned' survey which no one will ever read. I'm telling ya, I'm about 5 minutes from canceling my entire bundle package with Comcast.
My e-mail also goes to my Blackberry, which required me to change my password to contnue service. Can i reset the password back to prevent having to keep track of yet another password?
Shame this corp giant has so many issues and so little trained 2 deal with them when you call. Your tech support is almost funny! i find i must call daily and many times till i reach someone who knows what they are talking about :( i have requested the issues on my account be fixed and someone call me back from management since 3/29/09, i have yet 2 have my issues corrected, my bill corrected, credits for the equipment i paid deposites for and returned etc...
I'm not feeling so comcastic theses days and ready 2 go with another ISP after many years with you!
I am so upset, there is no day that either the internet stops working or the telephone. I have the three services and the only one that works regularly is TV which I don't watch too much. But telefone and internet are constantly out of service. Whenever I call support they, many times don't have a clue. I am constantly rebooting the box. What upsets me is that I pay my bills on time and the full monthly charge. Today, april 20 the internet stop working three times. Hope your service improves.
As of 4-20, I still am not getting email from certain senders. Their messages are returned to them undeliverable.
When my email recovered. (Incredimail Premium) it does not work properly. When opening I now have to go through "Outlook Express 6", which I don't have and also, through Outlook I cannot open Power Point attachments.
Please alert us of the problem; there was no info on the home page to tell us that you were working the problem. I had to check all my settings and then call your number to finally get a recording, after pressing many keys, that told me you had a problem and were working on it.
Next time please post something, anything, on your website to alert us that it is a technical issue on your end and not ours .
Thank you
Lee - April 20th
Apology accepted, these things happen, but how much are you going to reduce my bill for time without service?
You should give us a refund because your billing is very high and we should get what we pay for.
i am still not receiving all of my email. and also my outgoing mail is not always getting to the recipients. can you help me?
We all have to ensure that we backup our data. I have access to two other internet services should one become disabled. It's called having a game plan.
I appreciate the problems that can arise with this type of technology, however I need your help. With the recent problem, I have lost McAfee protection in the process. Is there anything you can do to help me?
Regards,
Irene
I appreciated the info. I wish there was a way to alert your customer what has occurred. For two days I was informed to establish a new password etc. and then could not do it. While I have your attention, there is an on going problem in the Sarasota Fl. area. Two or three times a week I rec. a notice the mail host can not be found and to check if it is correct. I have learned it is not my problem but Comcast's. I correct by turning off the PC, disconnect the cable mod and router. Wait a few minutes and reverse the procedure. this is a great inconvenience to the many residents in my condo assoc. All who experience the same problem.
The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'mail.comcast.net', Server: 'smtp.comcast.net', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E
I am receiving, but unable to send. The script above is the error message I receive.
I posted this yesterday but never recieved the confirmation email (shock) so here we go again.
I noticed you have ignored the question of compensation. Comcast bills their customers a month in advance (Verizon Fios doesn't). When and how much will Comcast return to their customers for for failing to provide the services their customers have paid?
Either Comcast system admins aren't knowledgeable enough to provide redundant reliable service (and I'm sure that they are), or Comcast as a company just isn't willing to devote the kinds of resources that it takes to provide excellent email service.
Outages are expected, in this world there is no such thing as 100% uptime, but when proper resources are devoted you can surely achieve 99.9% . I know that reliable email is not a fantasy, if Google (I hope this word is allowed on this blog) can do it, then Comcast should be able to do it too. If anything, you should be able to do it better (considering you're an ISP)
Is comcast willing to devote the resources necessary to make sure that these kinds of outages never occur again? Is it?
WELL IT DIDN`T TAKE LONG FOR YOU TO SEND OUT AN ANNOUNCEMENT DID IT . I HAD AN EMAIL CHAT WITH ONE OF YOUR PEOPLE THAT DAY AND SUGGESTED THAT WE BETTER BE COMPENSATED FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIME WE AS A PAYING PIBLIC COULD NOT ACCESS OUR EMAIL . SHE INFORMED ME IN THE CHAT THAT WOULD HAPPEN . DOESN`T SOUND LIKE YOU ARE BACKING HER UP HERE . I WILL SEND THE CHAT TRANSCRIPT IF YOU CAN`T FIND IT .
WHEN YOU KNEW OF THIS WHY DIDN`T YOUR SITE TELL EVERYONE , INSTEAD OF ME TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY COULDN`T SEND EMAILS . FOR HOURS !!!!!!!!! IF EVERYONE DECIDED NOT TO PAY THEIR BILLS ON TIME TO MAKE UP FOR THIS WRONG DOING ON YOUR PART , I`M SURE YOU WOULDN`T BE SO NICE . WELL I HOPE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO READ THIS DECIDE TO TAKE ONE DAYS RATE OF THEIR BILL AND NOT PAY IT SINCE YOU DON`T SEEM TO HONOR YOUR WORD . AND DON`T SAY THE PERSON CHATTING CAN`T DO THAT , THEY WORK FOR YOU THEY REPRESENT YOU AND THEIR FOR THEY HAVE THE POWER TO SAY IT AND WHEN THEY DO YOU HAVE THE OBLIGATION OF STANDING UP TO IT . SO I AWIAT YOUR LETTER TELING ME HOW MUCH MY BILL WILL BE REDUCED .
I noticed there are no replies to posting mentioning compensation. Will you be compensating your customers for the loss of service? A reminder Comcast bill their customers a month in advance.
I only find time to play with my computer and check e mail once a week . but did not happen to be doing it on the 4th. i am glad that you are working to fix it for other people but it did not happen to bother me .
I dread the day when E mail and computer internet become a necessary part of my life rather than a luxury.
glad to have it but glad that I am not dependent on it , i can still work around it. best wishes to all your it staff
So where is our service credit for your downtime? If I use extra service like a movie I get charged an additional fee right? If Comcast does not live up to the basic service level agreement of keeping e-mail up and available, then we should be issued a service credit. I know I can call in and spend 15-20 minutes being hold and speaking with polite CSR's with little to no authority and eventually get refunded $5 which is supposed to cover the outage time AND the time I have to invest on the phone with Comcast. But life is busy so I don't do that everytime.
Well, even though I know Comcast won't give me a credit without me fighting for it, I will remain a Comcast Customer. For now. But I am constantly on the lookout for alternatives. I will NEVER add voice from Comcast because being solely dependent on you folks for TV, Internet access, and voice is scary given how Customer Service is prioritized. By Customer Service I don't mean a department in Comcast's org chart. I mean your approach to paying Customers. Yes indeed, those are 2 different things!
What amount of $$$$$$$$$$$ will you take of my bill or will it be your $7.50.
Just another excuse for an unusually disruptive internet service. It is always something. Besides an uncommonly poor internet service, the Comcast Customer Service Centers are extremely poor and the people that you send out have no people skills I fell that you all need to learn how to have more skills and if not we need more internet's in Baltimore///
Agree Comcast should have posted the outage immediately on their website - I think I was #188 in the LIVE CHAT that finally after over an hour confirmed there was an outage. There was no ETA, nothing except an outage. It also should not have taken 7 days to send out an apology but at least one was sent & that is appreciated ($ refunds also helps). However, on 4/12 Comcast lost ALL of my online mail & I have been calling & doing LIVE CHAT every day since then - still not resolved or even looked at. I had a ticket closed as 'resolved' & then had one re-opened. It is now 6 days & not one person has reached out to assist. I need to have my mail restored to where it was-a simple request. My line of business is in Customer Service & key to our success. Sadly, Comcast customer service needs a major overhaul & refocus to improve their relationships with their customers & reputation.
I rely on this service all the time. I recieve a lot of time sensitive email for family and community. The disruption meant I did not receive email that contained informaiton where others expected me to respond or notify others of important events that day and the next.
For my out going email, it created the need for many phone calls. Some people could not be contacted due to the only contact information is an email address and no phone.
For incoming, people thought I was receiving email and I wasn't.
I appreciate the update and "Sorry" message. I even know that the amount of time prorated can't be more than a dollar or two but, still, there wasn't any mention of reimbursement for interruption. It might have been a good faith gesture. Especially with Verizon and others sending out many deals for switching to their services.
Thank you,
Are you serious? We get an appology for this minor event? Listen, my telephone is through comcast so God forbid one day I need 911 when the cable is out which is several times a month and for hours at a time. My brother is now and insulin dependent diabetic so I really feel like we are playing russian roulette with Comcast. If Comcast wanted to make things right they would spare the appologies and give more money back. I can't pay my bill with an appology so I sure as hell don't want one when my service goes out.
JUST ASK TO SPEAK WIT ROY IN LAREDO TX HES THE BEST IN CUST SERVICE EVER HE SAVED ME MONEY ON A BUNDLE HE GREAT JUST ASK FOR HIM ROY IN LAREDO DONT BE ASHAMED TO ASK
I publish and send a newsletter to my golf group (39 members) once a month. I send 3 emails each containing 13 recipients with the adobe newsletter attached. I have to send 3 emails because Comcast has blocked me in the past if I try to send 1 email to all members. It took several contacts over 2 months to Comcast before somebody understood my problem and changed my outgoing mail server so that I wouldn't be considered a spammer. I was having to send 39 separate emails before Comcast gave me a new outgoing server to use. So you see, your April 4th issue rekindled the disappointment I had toward your company. Because I had sent the first 2 of the 3 emails when you had your glitch and I couldn't send the 3rd email. I got to an online agent (started out 231 in line)who explained that they had a problem with the email servers. As competition expands into the arena, the company that performs the best with a FAIR price will earn my business.
I called the custermer service numnber on April 4 and was told there was not a problem. They told me it was due to an internal wiring problem and asked if I wanted them to send out a tech.....
I am not receiving any email at all what can I do I use outlook express??????
When electric power fails, it fails....period.
no credit on our accounts???????? pay full price for less then full service what a great co.
Since this interruption, my new email comes in scattered throughout any opened email I have not deleted yet. This is as opposed to new email coming in at the bottom of previous email per time sent. How do I correct this?
What are you doing to eliminate the slow servers that I frequent nearly every day when I'm trying to access e-mail or trying to go from one message to the next? I keep getting messages re: the server is down or slow and it's most aggravating.
Not a very high speed internet anyway,always have to wait 15 seconds for the Comcast home page to reboot. I can't wait for Verizon to show up in the neighborhood.
In addition to many of the comments that are already on the site, I would like to add that I was one of the customers who called early in the game and was told that Comcast had no other complaints or problems and that I should unplug and replug every cord that I had attached to the computer, etc.
The "customer service person" was not at all interested in assisting me any longer when I explained I was afraid to tackle all the wires because I was not the techician and would not be able to put everything back the way with was. She said it could not be Comcast's problem and that was the end of the "customer service". Several days later I find out of course, that it was a Comcast problem.
As several people have said, service??? credit for disruption of service???
Roberta Conolty
Good luck with AT&T! They are HORRENDOUS. If you think this outage was a problem, just wait. And at least you can get immediate response from Comcast. With AT&T, you will get a person in India reading a script. When AT&T was running, it was great. The minute we had problems, though, it was a nightmare. We were down for ONE WEEK where AT&T insisted it was OUR problem. It wasn't. And we "escalated" the problem to their president level. Finally, they admitted it was a minor issue on their side. ONE WEEK. That's when we switched to Comcast. It hasn't been perfect, but it's been a whole lot better than AT&T overall.
Admission of having made a mistake goes a long way in these days of uncertainty (for intelligent persons) you have just gone up in my book of services to stick with thank you.
Sincerely, John Fischer
I've read through some of the comments regarding the recent email problem and feel compelled to offer some support and Kudos to Comcast.
When I stop and consider the relative "up" time of the Comcast cable services that we use (cable TV and Internet service) compared to the "down" times, Comcast's services have proven to be very reliable overall. Down times and problems are very rare and usually short in duration compared to the "up time".
We've had cable services for many years starting with Cambell Communications which then became Adelphia and is now Comcast. Comcast has proven to be the most reliable and has invested in significant service improvements.
Anyway, I appreciated the apology for the email service outage and the efforts being made to prevent a future repeat of the problem.
Richard Eriksson
I didn't have use of my computer all day....not even internet...and when I called all I got was a pre-recorded message you were experiencing technical difficulties. I feel I should be credited for loss of time. My home is on Castleton Drive in Toms River....and my parents had no service on their line also.
Thank you,
M. Knutsen
When will all the impacted customers see a credit on their bills for this outage?
Thanks for the Apology. Should have come immediate. After speaking with Comcast live Help the day this tragedy happened, I gathered that Comcast was doing an upgrade or switch over of some kind and the email server went down - oops. Which I think comcast was trying to avoid. The comcast online helper was able to tell me when it would be back up. So that told me that this email problem was possibly expected/planned.
How about - a break (No) commercials on the FAN. That is what I would like.
The Comcast cable has more and more Commercials.
Now - Online - Commercials are all over the place. Excessive.
The monthy cost of cable - phone - internet. There should be an option of no commercials.Or give commercials their very own Station - where people who want to can watch commercials 24/7 if they like.
Another service failure by Comcast? Is this news to anyone? I have been a Comcast customer for several years and I can truly say that your service gets worst every year. Outages, poorly trained staff, unskilled technicians and management who all seem to truly hold the customer in contempt makes for a company that truly deservers your lable of "worst customer service in America". Wonder why Verizon is taking most of your customers in Montgomery County Maryland? Try being a comcast customer for a while and you will truly understand that for most people any company other than comcast seems like the best one to have!
I would bore you with my latest comcast horror story except that I know you truly do not care. Just like the rest of your staff. Attitudes usually do come from top down in a company. The one attitude that seems to permeate everyone who works for you is "if you are stupid enough to be a comcast customer then you deserve what you get"! I used to work for AOL and I could never really understand why people disliked the company so much. With comcast I have no such confusion.
Am use to it, constantly having problems with comcast. ALWAYS goes out late at night.
Your service IS ABOUT RELIABLE AS THE WIND!!!!!!!!
What would happen if our payments were as reliable as Comcast services??
Same old, same old, nothing new here. I'm constantly having service problems especially over the weekends. If the TV channels aren't changing it's the internet; lose connectivity, slow, and the email is an abortion. And no it's not my PC, my software or the internet connection because when I log in at work it's the same crap only at a different location. Personally I've had enough !
i was acually waiting that day from comcast and could not receive it i think we should get something off the bill i couldnt een sent an email wasted alot of my time.
your e-mail is getting like your cable t.v, it sucks.The tv channels keep going out,sound goes out,e-mail keeps going out.It might be time to go dish tv and DSL .Thank's for not too much!
are you going to put a credit on our internet bills since this happened?
Apology and explanation are all good and appreciated, if you truly want to make it right, give us a rebate, no matter how slight, that shows me you are truly sorry, I pay for the service every day, why should I pay for a day when I really needed my e-mail and "COULD NOT" get it!
Do we get a credit on our bill?
sounds like we had the same tech advisor as mine also blamed it on outlook express! by any chance did you jot down his operator id #?
Yes, I was hit by this problem...but then again, this is not a new issue. Comcast shut me off, claiming the account was unpaid, when in reality it had been paid in advance. I was down for 2 days, the person on the phone was nice. but I lost business and there was no change in my monthly bill. I have also tried to redeem coupons for free movies....only to get charged. I'm looking into alternatives for my bundled service with Comcast. I appreciate the apology, but that is just a continuation of what I get after every problem.
Have you had any other customers that had additional PC problems that day. My PC at home has not been right since April 4, 2009.
I am having to buy a new PC.
Just wondering!!
As aggravating as the whole problem was, it was GREATLY mitigated by the fact that you listened to what your customers were saying in the Comcast Forums, in particular by finally noting that there was an outage on the Comcast splash screen and also by the emailed apology and explanation as to what happened. Thank You.
what would really b great is that u refund everyone for the time that bcame unavailable. its ok for u to shut us off at the drop of a hat, but when u guys are in error, we get an apology. NOT GOOD ENUF!!! we lost our ebay biz for the whole day!!!! come down off ur high horses and waive us for the time off our bill!!! thats apology and consideration!
I lost important emails will they be restored?
Well we are glad you did not lose data but I lost a day of work which meant I had to work the next day to get caught up with my emails & faxes that come in over email. So I spent 2 days of work rather than one. Is there going to be a credit of $$$ to compensate for lost service??? Who pays me for working an extra day???
Thanks for the apology. Stuff happens and thats life
You emailed me with an apology for failure of the email service being down from 4-4 till now, but no one is recieving any of my emails , KINDLY look into this!!!
You must be kidding... of course we lost mail. Some of the mail never reached my computer.
It is deceiving to claim that no mail was lost. Accept the responsibility, period, but do not lie.
You have missed the point entirely as usual. Ther is no reason to apologize for an outage, things like that happen and we all recognize it. What you should be apologizing for and fixing (better yet replacing) is this piece of 1980s technology you foisted upon all of us.....Smartzone....heck the name itself contains 3 seperate lies. Its horrible, slow , cumbersome and has caused a great many of us to revert to using our free services to conduct our buisness. I for 1 won't have this problem for much longer. Comcast on the other hand needs to stop trying to make the world spin backwards so you can get more advertising revenue at the expense of customer service. Smartzone is crap...you know it and we know it..only you can do something about it....best advice...blow it up and get something new, modern faster and better. Trying to fix this thing or make excuses for it is a waste of all of our time.
First I want to thank Mitch Bowling for sending out the apology. I am not thanking him because he apologized, I am thanking him because - for a change - a Comcast manager apologized at all. We Comcast customers have had problems in the past - as anyone associated with technology does - and the disruptions have been ignored by management. Comcast has actually gotten better with its customer support - and, in particular, my technical support at my home by the local manager, Maureen Cavanaugh is excellent!
If Comcast lost power to the E mail servers, and if there was fully redundant power at the datacenter that started the outage, then Comcast just has to look at the software on their servers and provide an update that will protect the E mail application if a switchover to alternate power occurs in the future. Your E mail application just can't be that vulnerable. I'm sure you have plenty of help working on this diagnosis.
There is one thing, however, that Comcast can do when their servers go down. They can immediately put a notice on Comcast.net or the Smart Zone that tells customers that the servers are down. You did put a notice on the server, but it took you a very long time before you did it. I looked there first and then had to call. It adds insult to injury to have to call Comcast when E mail doesn't work to find out if your servers are down. If I could, as a normal practice, count on you putting such a notice on the web site - I would go there first instead of going through the wasted time of calling - going through your endless prompts - and waiting until a customer service person talks to me (and that person usually has no idea whether your servers are down either!). My suggestion should be the least cost and most efficient way for you to provide customer friendly satisfaction. If you choose to take that suggestion, however, you have to send out a notice so that we know that it is now going to be your policy - so we can depend on it.
Thank you for your apology, however, this was late.
What are you going to do to correct the problem and how are you handling the consumers billing?
There is no one printing money for us to bail out of our finances, yet we are expected to accept an apology for the cost of your issues.
Please think of the consumer and not big business pockets.
No interruption in the mega expensive TV ad played over and over for Comcast though....maybe priorities should be revisited. I am beyond convinced that advertising is where my bill goes and I'm sure all those that undoubtedly worked around the clock to fix the problem were just waiting for this to happen.
Thanks for the 10 DAY LATE NOTE though. That'll be $130.00 please.