ix webhosting lost all my mail

[HotHolly]

OK, I filed a trouble ticket b/c I couldnt get in there for 2 days. Then I finally did and all my mail was gone. But only on one account - the photography one.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else was affected? Im kinda POed.

And if anyone had sent me an email, Im not ignoring you, I lost it, so please resend. I was talking to a few TPF & guild peeps that are on here. Sorry.

[Cajungaltx]

OUCH - I would be annoyed. Hopefully they backed that data up and can recover it.

[epoh]

Surely they can restore everything. If not, find a new mail host!!!

[HotHolly]

No, it was all lost. No back up. Only one server went down. Am I seriously the only one affected? I guess that's kinda good. Just sucks being me.

[epoh]

I would have a serious talk with your service provider. Not backing up email is very poor server management. They should compensate you in some fashion and setup a better disaster recovery plan.

[HotHolly]

They had a server fail, they replaced it, and tried to restore our email from back ups, but failed. Should I be compensated? Or is that considered normal?

Just wondering how big a blunder this was on their part?

Im kinda POed. I dont print email, my addresses were all lost, past contacts, and some letters I still had to respond to.

[epoh]

Bad backups is a pretty major screw up on their part. If we loose our customers backups that costs us thousands of dollars at my job. They most likely knew they had bad backups prior to this, btw. If they are using any sort of standard backup method they receive reports after ever backup completes stating if it was successful. If there were errors they should have re-run the backups. At most, they should have maybe lost 1 days worth of email.

[HotHolly]

Thanks Amy. They lost all of the email. They sent a message apologizing and admitting fault. This is the 1st major issue I have had with them. I dont like looking stupid in front of clients. Its not my norm to blow them off either. It's really bugging me.

[jonnydonut]

gmail, mac mail, microsoft mail, .. use some sort of pop3. Never use that crap on the back end of a server, only use it as a name. gmail has amazing features to adopt addresses. ix? as in 3ix?

I went cheap on my hosting at first and really learned a lesson, site goes down, you loose a client, server problems, you loose an email, etc. I happily pay $5 a month more or whatever it is now for reliability.

[ShaneKislack]

...and I had just sent you the 7 secret ingredients for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by ShaneKislack

...and I had just sent you the 7 secret ingredients for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I thought there were 11?

[Cajungaltx]

I would be irate - honestly. I think you are being WAY over the top 'nice' about this.

Seriously.

[HotHolly]

I would be irate, but we just had a loss in the family. I'm outa sorts emotionally and dont really want to care about things right now. The irritation Im feeling is trying to recall the last names of clients I have scheduled at the end of the month where I dont have their email anymore and Im not totally sure I have their phone number either - it was stored with their original email.

Today kinda sucked...and the KFC joke was funny. I needed a giggle.

[jonnydonut]

Holly. Use every outlet you can to inform people. In your blog, maybe an email auto-reply, post on your website.

"Due to a 3rd party server failure, I've lost all my emails for the past 2 years, this tragic event has caused me to loose contact information, shoot dates and etc. Please call or email me asap to confirm your date and contact info. I apologize to the fullest extent and thanks for helping me out. cell:##### "

I figure is better to admit that you've lost info, than to stand-up a client. It might hurt your image a tad, but not as bad as being a no-show.

[Cajungaltx]

That's a great suggestion Jonny.