Tucowed -- The Blog

Tucowed -- The Blog

A history of the crisis brought about by , from the viewpoint of one beleaguered user. The same incompetent bungling and failed leadership that led to the crisis continues with and .

Friday, December 29, 2006

Three Months and counting

Three months have passed since the NetIdentity Migration Disaster and many of the same problems remain unresolved, not the least among which is the issue of customer non-service:
... there were some email system disruptions... during which various aspects of the email system were degraded.

The regular NetIdentity system status page has not been updated...

People have lost their jobs because of the customer service issues we're facing. Others have lost their jobs because of the performance quality of the infrastructure we're providing. Letting people go is the easy part though -- rebuilding takes more time.
Left unsaid is the fact that "rebuilding" would not be necessary if the e-mail service hadn't been destroyed in the first place. Alas, that would have required foresight and planning, two items that were left off the Tucows menu for this migration.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Customer Non-Service, Part Deux

Six months ago, Ross Rader (General Manager, Domain Direct) wrote:
The biggest, firstest step is to get our customer service team up to speed.
Six months later, customer non-service is still not "up to speed", not to mention e-mail non-service in general.

Friday, December 22, 2006

"... a good learning experience..."

Over a month ago, on Friday November 10, Ross Rader (General Manager, Domain Direct) wrote:
The migration was a good learning experience for the NetIdentity team -- unfortunately, it was a lesson that came at the expense of what had been historically a good relationship with our customers. We have learned how NOT to do a migration and can tell you that it has helped us initiate big changes in the business.
Even more unfortunately for NetIdentity subscribers, those "big changes" have yet to be implemented, as the service is still unuseable.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Got Issues?

Twelve weeks after The September Disaster, customers are still experiencing major problems with the NetIdentity e-mail "service", resulting in a comment section of the company blog that is a virtual bonfire of outrage. Fanning the flames is the continued insistence by the General Manager that "this blog is not a great place to get support for your issues" while failing to acknowledge that there is no effective support for any issues -- then he pours gasoline onto the blaze with this one: "no one is working on problems submitted via this blog". Nice work.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

All-out User Revolt?

Another article on Digg was posted Tuesday by SundanceKid503 about an all-out user revolt on the NetIdentity blog. Sundance may be overstating the case, but there is certainly enough outrage and frustration to impress most people -- Tucows management excepted, of course.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Another Corporate Blog Gone Wrong

Yesterday, fellow NetIdentity sufferer Kurt Gooden posted an article on Digg about the failure of the Domain Direct News blog to live up to its claim that "subscribers can rely on this blog to stay on top of important announcements about these services."

There is no doubt among subscribers (past or present) that the blog has failed to "stay on top" of anything.

click here for a current Tucows stock chart,
 or just scroll down to the bottom of this page.

click here for a current Tucows stock "Price Performance" table.

Tucows corporate web-page.

NetIdentity is now Hover, so of course there are Hover system issues
 "We are again seeing issues with the main Hover system."

add me to the list of the unimpressed
 "no contact info on their home page, no help menu"

trying to get some support for the past 2 weeks and have had no reply
 "have been having trouble since trying to renew our domain"

Us Versus Tucows
 "a blog for those fed up with Tucows (NetIdentity, Domain Direct, etc.) and who are ready to do something about it"

from Cluster A to Cluster F**k
 "with this notoriously bad-luck strewn product"

You call this service?
 "This is the most disappointing service I have used in a long time... I have yet to see anything work right"

support may be in need of some quality control
 "waiting 5 days for a reply"

new "Processing Fee" at OpenSoReS from Tucows
 "Everyone here is tired of being nickle-and-dimed"

Tucows Incompetence
 "the ridiculous webmail interface that looks like a high school project.
You have shown your incompetence in the past.
This e-mail service is much too complicated for you.
Tucows = Incompetence with a capital 'I'
I opened a ticket a long time ago. Of course they did nothing.
SHAME ON YOU TUCOWS. SHAME ON YOU."


Downsizing at Tucows
 "laying off approximately 15% of its staff"

Tucows stripped of its Registrar Seal of Approval
 "the World Association of Domain Name Developers has voted to revoke the Registrar Seal of Approval awarded to Tucows"

NetIdentity Complaints - Bad service
 "has been down multiple days 3 times YTD"

I hate Tucows and NetIdentity right now
 "I am sick to death of the broken email, broken delivery, broken blog software, clunky interfaces, and general lack of investment in this service"

NetIdentity failure powered by Tucows
 "I will not renew my account expiring in 2009"

Tucows launches the brilliant, sophisticated YummyNames
 "Why settle for a lousy domain name? (like we did)"

Tucows… Come On!
 "Tucows just keeps the domain"

Tucows Now Selling The Expired Domains They Kept From Their Customers
 "it has started Yummydomains.com to sell tens of thousands of those domains"

Site contents deleted - use at your own risk
 "all the files of my original site were gone"

Domain Renewal - now taken by Tucows
 "They took it AFTER the domain was already renewed"

Tucows/Netidentity sold my domain name
 "their declining stock price is forcing them to make some quick cash"

Is it worth this frustration?
 "I will cancel this service as soon as the subscription finishes"

Giving up on NetIdentity
 "my site and all its content vanished"

Netidentity email failure/outage lasting for 4 Days
 "should be interesting to those considering using their service"

service has been down for almost a day and has been intermittent for 3 days

Virgin.net Knocked Offline by Tucows
 "a series of unanticipated hardware failures"

how exasperating these people are to deal with
 "It never works."

hanging out in the NetIdentity Office
 "I am a very unhappy NetIdentity customer."

after Tucows purchased Netidentity the service and customer service both simply fell apart.

the NetIdentity service has hit rock bottom since being taken over by Tucows

no reply to my service requests
 "service is one of those unheard-of words"

not able to access my paid-for email/web service
 "they need to get out of this business"

Tucows has a deferred problem
 "Tucows has lost 50% of its market value since July 2007"

net loss for the first quarter of 2008 was $1.1 million
 -- how a company loses money providing e-mail and domain names --

the cow is half empty
 "their market share has been dropping"

Tucows Revenue Falls Short, Stock Tumbles
 "disappointing Google ad revenues"

Tucows forever
 "how a woman feels when her drunk ex-boyfriend calls at 3AM saying he misses her..."

Nitido WebMail at DomainDirect Sucks
 "why do people have to break things that aren't broken?"

the future of Tucows Developer Blog
 -- in a word, "bleak" --

Why I’ll Never Do Business With Tucows Again
 "managed by incompetent, uncaring, and completely clueless people"

Re-imagining Our Email Defense Service
 -- just imagine it actually working! --

"it really sums up a lot of my approach to business"
 -- a nice, warm pile of irony --

Companies Must Understand There Is Nowhere To Hide
 -- even better irony from a Tucows VP --

Corporate Blogging Best Practices — by Ross Rader (!)
 -- a case study in irony --

Terror Goes Digital With Canadian Help
 "the website for al-Qaeda was registered to Contactprivacy, the anonymous-registration arm of Tucows"

Tucows Facilitating Hamas Propaganda
 "Canadian firms selling service to Hamas include Tucows"

the incompetence of Tucows
 "Tucows passing the buck"

NetIdentity business ways
 "is this the way to run a good business?"

Mismanagement, Bad Customer Service, and a Revelation
 "how not to succeed in growing your business"

NetIdentity Aren't Smart
 "really lousy webhosting"

This Isn't Customer Service
 "why do I have to fix this company's problem?"
This isn't customer service, Finale
 "The solution is simple. Find another company. Take your business elsewhere."

What's happening at NetIdentity?
 "having lots of problems"

So what's happening with NetIdentity?
 "My email has been down pretty much ALL WEEK"

Recent Blogrolling Downtime
 "We still have an issue"

Blogrolling no more?
 "odd that they would buy this service and then basically abandon it"

Blogrolling Update
Blogrolling Update 1

Netidentity Email Migration Nightmare
Netidentity Email Migration Nightmare: Update

NetIdentity's "Reliability Report" from the Better Business Bureau
 "BBB Rating: Unsatisfactory"
 -- note the
"Additional DBA Names" section, listing "Glazen Online Services", run by notorious spammer David Glazen; and "Loanclub.biz", a fraudulent online lender --

Spamfree, virusfree NewNetMail: Jaap Verduijn's answer to the /

using Gmail to read other accounts
 "Gmail instead of the crappy webmail interface that NetIdentity provides"

NetIdentity Transition Survivors Group (NTSG) — Google
 "to discuss the recent transition disaster"

NetIdentity & Tucows "migration" fails miserably
 "by far the worst example of customer service"

Tucows screws up NetIdentity and NamePlanet migration
 "a new, horribly-designed e-mail system"

Netidentity E-mail Fails
 "a service provider has stopped providing service"
Netidentity E-mail Crisis Ends for PR Consultant
 "Netidentity, owned by Tucows, went from bad to worse"

Mailbank.com (NetIdentity/NamePlanet) Email Migration — WikiPedia
Tucows Talk on WikiPedia

System migration may be the most dangerous thing Tucows could ever do
 "our technical team is working on fixing this issue"

there have been too many issues with your Tucows migration

When Business Processes Fail
 "this problem is endemic"

The end of explorers@whyte.com
 "even worse since they were bought by Tucows"

Netidentity/Tucows email Price Increase
 "they are a novice in the email space and completely messed this one up"

NetIdentity extended downtime
 "this one has gone on for months and is beyond real"

No More BS Ross — FIX IT!
 -- The Unintentional Comedy --

Bandwagon Missed
 "Tucows bought NetIdentity and has since screwed up the whole system"

Why Have I Moved My Website?
 "Netidentity email service is virtually unusable"

a foolish spam policy
 "not very good for email"

NamePlanet — the worst customer support
 "We've had a few problems"

NetIdentity, please stop
 "I don't want it any more"

Ok, so I got a blog
 they screwed up the transition and made my whole site go "under construction"

Tucows resurfaces!
 "I pretty much gave up and forgot about Tucows"

Receiving Problems With Your NetIdentity Account
 "There are a number of reasons"
Sending Problems With Your Email Account
 "the problems are common"

Do yourself a favour and avoid NetIdentity and any service provided by Tucows
 "I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO RECEIVE MY INCOMING E-MAIL MESSAGES"

Dude, where's my website??
 "Whoops!!!"


Add to Technorati Favorites!

How much is your blog worth?


Powered by Blogger


cast your vote for/against NetIdentity