(From AA’s Special Message dated 5/25/07)
While we pondered what we could do to show our gratitude to our loyal clients we kept coming back to offering something that would last the entire duration of your time with Advanced Access. On behalf of our whole team, please accept these improvements to your services which have already been implemented in your Virtual Offices:
* Your available number of POP3 email boxes has increased from 5 per domain name to 10 per domain name. You will continue to have an unlimited amount of forwarding addresses available.
* The capacity of your POP3 email boxes has increased from 10 MB to 100 MB per email box.
* The space allotted for non-image files has increased from 10 MB to 100 MB per website. You will continue to have unlimited space for all image files. (Note – For our clients who have upgraded to our 50 MB or 100 MB paid service, your billing will be stopped for this product).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With Advanced Access sites being down for over 24 hours and then intermittent for the balance of the week, with many features not functioning properly, what is your opinion of their compensation offer? Would you recommend Advanced Access to other agents?
Filed under: Outrage
It’s not all over yet. I still have listing to post.
The concession package is clearly in jest for those who thought of it. I bet they are quite jovial except the fat guy with the cigar, He’s jolly. I’ll take the 100 megs though. The extra e-mail addys and storage are also silly. Most people re-direct their e-mails, and most A.A. clients are not a 10 person operation. It left me incredulous.
However, When I weigh the good and the bad at A.A., The good stuff prevails. As we move foward from this major disaster I will retain a certain fear with A.A. and I’ll be watching with acute interest. After 5 years with A.A. We have pretty good positioning in the SEO arena and I wanna keep it that way. I just hope there’s a site available for our potiential clients.
“When I weigh the good and the bad at A.A., The good stuff prevails”
Ever hear of battered wives syndrome? That’s what that sounds like. If you all let them off the hook, you deserve what you get.
Greetings, “All Ye Who Enter Here”,
This is my message I posted earlier tonite over in the Advanced Access forums. I’m reposting it here in case my angry post gets “accidently deleted” from AA’s “earthquake proof” servers…
= = = = =
REPOST:
My problem with the Special Message (“SM”) is trying to separate hype from what will basically benefit me. We want to hear about network STABILITY, and genuine functionality. As Paul_L said, we don’t need any more email boxes when we’re a two person team. I do however want to hear that using AA for email is STABLE. What not cut the dang hype? See, when we hear stuff like this, we immediately dismiss the rest of the content of the message, knowing that AA is giving us HYPE, and still doesn’t understand that we want STABILITY, not fake bells and whistles that is only of use to *AA*, in their marketing ploys to get new customers.
Do you get it yet AA? Who’s listening at AA anyway? Who are the decision makers and policy makers, and how do we know how serious they are taking this? If they are serious, why on earth are they giving “us” more email names, instead of giving us just one basic account that WORKS reliably? Answer – they’re interested in marketing hype.
That being said, we immediately start to suspect that the whole message is gonna be just more AA HYPE. So we put our hype sunglasses on and look for what else in the message is hype? We’ve all been sick of the ongoing problems for so long, and then the big crash that lasted for days. So pardon us if we don’t tend to readily accept the sincerity of the message – its a long string of things, culminating in the big crash, and then a lovely spin message comes out telling us (cough) that we’ve got MORE email accounts?
Its quite obvious that they don’t get it. Our distrust of AA management is very intense. They do NOT have our interests at heart.
Webgod slipped up by telling us something to the effect that he was at AA solely to protect *AA’s* interests.. I found that almost chilling. I was instantly on the outside, looking in. And I had previously thought I WAS on the inside – he made it clear, that WE are not family. He was adopted (hired) by the family (management), and in his usual sarcastic tone, he showed us that WE (customers), are not what is paramount – AA’s “interests” are what he was there for, and being paid for.
Anyways, the message made everything sound wonderful. Very reliable, highpowered, state-of-the-art, professionally staffed, equipped, and trained. Ready for any possible contigencies or emergencies, with High Security, bulletproof, earthquake proof, blah-blah. Quadruple redundant backups, as the message prattles on.
So WHAT happened? The reason we know AA is giving us hype and extra email accounts, is because it “sounds” so awesome and exciting, but WE KNOW that it just plain doesn’t work. It failed miserably. And management DARES to try to “MARKET” the service to us again.
You know what – someone in another thread said we ought to forgive AA, since mistakes happen as a company like AA gets so huge so fast, and it has indeed happened to all the other companies. But that’s easy for an AA New User to say, especially when they haven’t yet established their website and start depending on the stream of customers – they didn’t lose any income to begin with, so it’s EASY for THEM to be forgiving, isn’t it?
I for one, would love to be able to forgive. Yes, mistakes happen, and accidents are called “accidents.” But this is a LONG string of diverse problems, with no solutions, and AA is not SERIOUS, because we see it, and we feel it – it’s spin, and it’s hype. You can’t forgive someone whose guilty tears are FAKE! They think we’re too stupid to NOTICE…
The only quadruple, is quadruple baloney… They think we’re stupid.
– Chip Rose
Just when I think I wouldn’t ever be suprised! Adding insult to injury.
What a joke AA – the laughing stock of web hosting!
WOW more space to add files that may or may not ever been seen! yipeee. And lots more email box’s for mail that goes undelivered or blocked. what a hoot.
Gene I kept thinking about when somebody would do this. Good for you!
I posted a couple rants at my http://www.SantaClaritaRealEstateNews.com
I thought that AA would resolve this in their closed forum but since they insulted the majority of their members with their ridiculous offer, I felt it was time to let others know just how ugky the situation really is at AA. What good does additional email boxes do for someone like me who has their email hosted at Godaddy with a ‘catch-all’ account or extra storage for someone who has never uploaded any pdf or documents to my site? How about giving me a total refund for the five months gone by and the remaining seven months on my annual renewal and I will be glad to find a more reliable hosting company! It’s one thing to have an equipment breakdown and it’s another thing to take full responsibility for it. If this wasn’t an already planned addition for members sites, I wonder why they were working on implementing this instead of concentrating on getting the sites ’stable’ and working at 100% capacity. My thoughts are that this was already planned to offset new subscription pricing which they may have to put on the back burner now!
Has anyone bothered to realize how much effort has been put into complaining about this? It seems to me that if you’re missing as much revenue as you claim for your website being down for a few days, you shouldn’t have all this time to start blogs and gum up forums. I don’t understand how you do so much business from your websites that you don’t have a home or two to show while your site can be down. Yes it sucks, but everyone here is just trying to get money back as a way to compensate for your inability to do your day job well. Thank goodness you found your scapegoat.
If you think they suck so bad, BUILD YOUR OWN. Hardly anyone on here has gotten anywhere without the knowledge and advice they give you. Go get that from Go Daddy or Blue Host. Oh wait, they could care less as they realize their client’s are responsible for themselves. You should, too.
Oh, and those participating in these just so you feel like you matter in this industry, stop with all the link spamming on these blogs (Darla). You may not have ordered “Scrambled Eggs” but you have managed to poach them quite well.
I am outraged about AA’s actions and what they are giving for compensation.
I am still awaiting a phone call from a supervisor since Monday and have made 3 attempts to speak with someone. Unbelievable how quickly this company turned to crap since being purchased by the corporate world.
Unfortunately my renewal happend within 2 days of this big crash. I don’t believe everything was down because they just cashed my check that I am trying to get back.
Definately would not reccomend AA to anyone!
Logan,
AA didn’t provide any Internet expertise at all. It came from the people on the forums, not from their employees. The only ones they had who knew anything, like CK Chung, left.
It was AA who got you banned in Yahoo, it was AA who is keeping you banned in Yahoo.
Oh Please! Logan I don’t know you, but in knowing Gene if he thinks my link is spam-he’ll let me know-not you.
I really am busting out lauging right now in reading this “Hardly anyone on here has gotten anywhere without the knowledge and advice they give you” What? did I read that right? what I learned from AA is I’ll add so many agent/agent links to my site that one day I’ll be banned in yahoo! yup thats what I learned from AA. I really don’t think you want to go there and attempt to determine just what I’ve learned from AA.
What you call scapegoat I refer to as accountability. period.
Logan—this is not about me or you—Please DON’T make it that way. You don’t know me and I sure don’t want to know you.
If you know about the scrambled eggs post—awesome! that means it’s working
I don’t think it was AA who forced anyone to do their realtor links. AA didn’t force anyone to leave all the duplicate content on their websites. I can certainly say anyone relying of their forums doesn’t know a thing about ASP.Net or any programming, so don’t pat yourself on the back because you can make a page in html. Thats why people use template sites. I hardly believe a company was founded after a forum was created.
If you rank well elsewhere, yahoo shouldn’t matter. Google is more than capable of sending you thousands of visitors a month. Worry more about your site’s capabilities so you can absorb things like downtime. It happens with every company. Don’t blame one search engine penalty if you’re site isn’t converting. That’s all the responsibility of the author, not the host.
Just curious, what did you do during the downtime?
You sure know how to muddle up a topic!
In you first post you talk about what people have learned from the forum.
-Now your talking about AA forced people to do.
I’d never let on to you what I have gained business wise from brilliant minds that used to frequent the forum, those things are highly coveted rewards that I got and you didn’t. Sorry.
-In my previous post;
It was never suggested AA forced me to do anything. – You said that
It was never suggested that anyone relied on the forums to learn any coding – you said that.
It was never suggested that I said any thing as to what you refer to in your post.
Just what are you talking about?
It sounds like you are angry!
Are you displacing some of your downtime tantrums on me?
I kindly recommended earlier that you not make this about you and me- something it is not. But you are still badgering me. Quit.
Gene bless your heart I would understand if these posts were moderated…this has gone beyond reasonable now.
Yahoo does matter- people want what they can’t have. Don’t you know that?
Are you really suggesting that you accept and will tolerate 60+ hours of down time?
If you know as much as you let on … you know that it is much more than a Yahoo penalty or a server outage or for that matter what I did with my down time, besides put out fires by angry clients unable to utilize the services I pay for with my site. What did you do? beside find ways to create absurd posts.
You just don’t get it do you? AA does not give 2 hoots about you! Why are you so defensive? I hope you don’t have to wait for another brick to fall before you come to that realization.
Oh hey I searched for you in Google, couldn’t find you exactly but found a site -howletthomes.com buried on the bottom of page 3. Is that your Dad?
I think perhaps that Greg Boser, AKA “WebGuerrilla” may have purposely turned in some AA users to Google and made trouble for us. I asked him if I could “hire” him to help me get re-submitted and to help me “tweak” my site to make it more search-friendly. I will quote here from his email to me: “I’m not really sure any SEO can help you much with code issues on your site. Most of the problems I see with AA sites are caused by the platform itself. Their system doesn’t provide you the ability to change things like the url structure, or to setup things like redirects to clean up duplicate content.” In other words, there’s nothing you can do. Yours site is doomed to suck because of the Advanced Access platform.
And now I’ve heard that, since he realizes how bad AA is, he’s creating a whole new hosting platform that addresses all the technical problems of AA sites, in direct competition with AA, so we’ll all move our sites there.
So, first it appears that he makes things bad for us, ruins us with Google and AA, and then says “Hey, since everything at AA is all messed up, come with me, I can offer you something better!”
I must remain anonymous, but the administrator has my ID.
Darla, you should settle down and not look for excuses. My post was entirely for “Bob” regarding yahoo penalties. If you feel like I’m attacking you, it’s because you feel insecure on these topics.
Thanks for looking up my name and not realizing the first 3 pages of other results were for a fictional comic book character.
I am only reminding everyone that AA goes out of their way to educate us and to provide help. And the accusations I’ve read (from everyone, not just Darla) seems to be all of you threatening to jump to ship over 2 days, not 60 hours like you claim, of down time. (i haven’t experienced some of the other services not working like others). When were we promised 100% uptime? And the excessive amount of whining is making the whole profession look bad. This wasn’t intentional, but a few complainers are going to ruin it for the rest of us who need the attention and guidance. If you haven’t noticed, the more complaints and arguments, the less proactive they are with help.
I only felt like adding my 2 cents to this forum after reading the absurd comment comparing the recent problems and people’s reactions to “battered wives syndrome”. That’s using belittling to keep opposing arguments from arising. So Darla, if you feel threatened, consider asking the administrator to remove posts that make a joke of a serious condition, and stop replying to my comments like this blog is all about you.
A word on complaints…….
I will complain for all of you. So you don’t have to do it. I loose nothing. I gain nothing. I am not a paid employee, I am not an agent and I’m retired. So I can spend my entire life bitchin’ about this if I so choose. And let me add that Wolverine probably didn’t lose a proposal in e-mail and didn’t lose any clients or presentations due to the outage. We did, and it pisses me off. Still. The mistake that was made there is inexcusable. A power outage is fine I can deal with that. This was more than just an outage. This was an elementary school networking mistake at best. No backup. No crisis plan. Our site was down for 4 days and then some. I lost top SEP to my compitition as we got spidered with no index up. It also took 4 days before I could post any new listings.
Backups! the #1rule in the computer industry. has been since 1983. Way back then when I programmed in QBasic. Since then, Cobal, Cobal II, C, C++, Html, and I’ve dabbled in Visual Basic. Wanna talk about programming. I’m prepared and I’m a regular in the A.A. forums and I help when I can.
Last week I lost my video card in my main system. I was forced to reinstall XP service Pk 2, after installing a new video card. The only problem I ran in to was which of the 4 backup drives do I want to copy my important files from.
As far as being a battered wife. I understand I’m comming back for more. I just hope AA gets it right. I will move our site if AA whips up another bogus issue. Frankly, my butt is so full of AA smoke, it’s comming out my ears.
> Wildgeas- thanks for your rational post. You must have been in the same math class as I was in adding up the numbers of total downtime. My site indeed was down 58+ hours. If it was 2 days for some people-super, you were able to be on line when we were not, it still remains the latest injury in a very long string of “issues” do a quick search for “server” or “site down” or any other phrases at the AA forum, it goes way beyond this occurence. if it were an isolated incident, I can be forgiving. I had been forgiving for the last 15 months.
> Super Hero…I certainly was mistaken for that … it really appeared that the post had the argument aimed at me. my bad. I certainly don’t feel threatened, however I didn’t think you’d really want to take this on in a public forum. Your posts appeared to be contorting what was said. Yes I did notice the wolverine thing in the results…I was searching for something tangible and related to real estate not fantasy.
“AA didnt force anyone to leave duplicate content on their site”
Logan, it is AA’s setup that led to dupe content. Give up your domain and I’ll show you how using their default editor impacted your site.
If you have an opposing argument, bring it on. As for a joke, I was not making light of BWS, just making the comparison, and you certainly help by being their apologist without the benefit of facts which are not known to you, but to many others (assuming you are a client and not an employee).
Cindy, why is it WG’s fault? He didn’t build the system, but he did tell them how to fix it, which Dominion isn’t willing to do. The reason Yahoo didn’t lift the network penalty is not his fault either. Yahoo won’t lift the penalty because AA kept doing what they told everyone else to stop doing. They were adding doorway link pages like this one, http://www.randallcourtneyhomes.com/PageManager/default.aspx/PageID=1527381&NF=1.
Last year I brought those pages to their attention, but they argued that what they do is okay. The fact that they kept doing this kept WG from succeeding across the board with Yahoo. So now you are stilled screwed and their PMP clients are screwed as well, because other than Jay Griffin’s directories, those pages were pretty much all they got for $2400.
AA and Kristina know this, which is why since May 1st they have been busy removing those pages from those agents still paying them so they can submit these sites for reinclusion to Yahoo on an individual basis. WG did get that concession from Yahoo despite AA’s stupid spam link pages.
AA isn’t even smart enough to do the right thing with those pages. For many of their PMP clients, those pages are the only ones not supplemental, so instead of deleting the offending content and replacing it with local content, so that now those indexed pages are valuable, they just delete them. Freaking brilliant, AA!
“Don’t blame one search engine penalty if you’re site isn’t converting. That’s all the responsibility of the author, not the host.”
Not in this case. With Google, the bucks stops with Kristina and Justin Davis. No one does or did anything without their approval, at least until September.
Greetings all,…
Logan,… I must say,… your defense of AA appears that you are more “in bed” with them than out. You assume that the people that are here,.. are here because they have nothing better to do,.. maybe for some,.. that’s true,.. after all,.. you sure spent your time defending that which can not be defended.
Care to see what AA was offering before all of this,.. to give us all that warm fuzzy that our data would be safe?? Visit http://www.crsstore.com/adacweho.html This is a reseller that I am sure was advertising AA prior to the crash.
As for the search engine placement,.. AA was the one who told me that to get top SE placement Links were imperative,.. I have a number of their “newsletters” that said the same thing. No where,.. anywhere that I ever read did it state that so doing would kill Yahoo search.
I too was offered a search engine opitimized site that would rak high,.. I started with AA must have been about 10 years ago,.. was close to when they started,.. When I started,.. I stated I wanted to Own the content,.. I was assured it all belonged to me with the exception of their newsletters for Buyers and Sellers,… LOL,.. they forgot all about that,.. I also had a password so that I could directly edit any page,.. that too went out the window,..
My issue is NOT with the fact that they had a technical issue,.. we all have those,.. my issue is the way that they have AA has handled this issue. When they went down,.. I went to the main AA site,.. nothing,.. I started Calling,.. every extension they had listed gave me a mailbox full issue,.. I started dialing random 4 digit extensions and finally got an answer,..
AA did not care enough about their clientele to even give us a message that there was a technical issue,.. it appeared for every practical purpose that they were out of business,.. which is where they may be headed anyway.
I have asked and it has never been answered,…
1.) Why did they not have the 30,000 e-mail addresses stored on a laptop?
2.) Why did they not have their client database complete with phone numbers stored there as well?
3.) Why was there not a redirecedt from AA’s main site to one hosted anywhere stating that they were working on the problem?
This is beyond the obvious question relating to having redundant systems available and ready to be switched to?
Most of us are parts of MLS’s,.. imagine if this happened with one of them,.. what would be the response as 500,.. or 200 or 4500 or more agents were not able to search,.. and that means unable to work?
The principle here is the same,.. in todays society,.. our clients depend upon their own ability to access us and for many when AA went off line,.. our customers thought we were out of business as well,.. We are expected to foresee and to guide our clients through the maze of homeownership every day,… I expect my web provider to do the same for me when it comes to marketing my site to the SE that ultimately market my site to my paycheck,.. ad yours,.. those people whom you serve.
AA is the expert here,.. we are not,.. the question is,.. Is it reasonable for me to have an expectation that the company has systems in place to ensure that my site is up,.. and do I,.. as the client have a reasonable expectation that AA will deliver what is promised?
I believe that answer is yes,.. and just because “S&*T Happens” is not an excuse to offer us as compensation an insult,… upgrade my site,.. on AA dime,.. grant me a years worth of service for the price of one,.. or better yet,.. just perform as promised and provide each of us some security that AA will do just that,.. beyond the hype,…
Just my thoughts,….
Oh,.. and Logan,…. My day tomorrow,.. starts with appointments at 10:00,..
I can’t show property at this time of night,.. 11:27 P.M. so I am not just ranting and raving because I have nothing better to do. I am doing so,.. as is every other person here and on the AA forum to force AA to be accountable for what was gross incompetence on their part in protecting the trust we,.. their customers have placed in them and for me,.. in the hopes of sending the management at AA a strong message that they are not to big to leave,.. do any of us “want” to do that,.. I don’t think so,.. I think each of us,.. only wants what we have paid for and what has been promised.
One last note,.. I was just notified this evening that ie 7.0 is not necessarily compatable with all aspects of VO,.. Why AA has not seen fit to ensure that compatability is a bit beyond me. They have recommended a work-around,.. but for what I am paying,.. I don’t want a work-around,.. I want compatability.
LOL,… “grant me a years worth of service for the price of one” that was supposed to read 2 years service for the price of one”
Sorry,.. It’s late
If I were AA I would be extremely concerned about not losing a SINGLE monthly paying member. Memories can be short and this will pass just like many other things we have endured over the years with AA. If I were in upper level management I would have done what Don suggested (“double” what some might have expected as a concellation for the downtime) only instead “triple’ it by offering not just two extra months added onto your paid subscription, but THREE months! Now, if I were a new member working on improving my site and just becoming familiar with the VO, to get an extra THREE months for the inconvenience caused me by their lack of a disaster plan, would keep me on board and not quite so insulted with offers of email boxes and storage space I may have little need for. Once three more months have passed, this will be old news and there will be other hills to climb and battles to win (like page #1 ranking). And what did it cost AA to keep that one unhappy client, about $120.00
Forget about multiplying it by the number of sites they host, we are talking about ONE unhappy client. Wouldn’t that small investment in retaining that client have been well worth it? Don’t we, as agents, spend much more than that to secure one happy, loyal client?
This 58 hour event was the largest and most recent outage, but outages were becoming more and more common. Either site down, email down or both have happened several times per month recently.
Because of these PRIOR FREQUENT OUTAGES, I had already started the process of leaving AA. The timing of the move though was not good as I had 58 hours of web and email down time, followed by about 12 hours of uptime – then 15 hours of downtime for the domain change.
I did not renew at the end of May 2007 because of frequent downtime, clunky interface for editing, difficulty with IE 7.0 (as noted earlier by Randy).
During the time of “Denied Access’” Power Failure, I was having some challenges in receiving emails for 2 contracts I was working on, and communicating with other sellers, buyers, and property owners.
During the business days, I used another email account to get things done, and had to contact many people to re-send to the other email address because it was stuck in the queue at Denied Access. I continued showing property, and selling – but it added more “work” in having to contact people to give them a new email address – or to send them documents which are normally on my website.
And, although I left – I believe Every Single AA Client who had an account during THE OUTAGE should receive more compensation than a larger inbox (etc.). There are people who use PPC accounts, who were paying for clicks to get error pages. People who lost potential customers who went back to the search engine – and picked the next website on the list, etc. The actual lost revenue would be difficult to calculate. Nothing for some people. Large for others. One lost buyer for a $250,000 house… what’s that worth?
Signed – ONE FORMER AA CUSTOMER.
So Logan, what’s the url?
Okay…
So if I go the the dump AA trail…
Suggestions for new host???
Hey Joe,
Check out DiverseSolutions dot com- they are very helpful and can do everything including the domain transfer. What attracted me is the uptime guarantee. I’m putting up a parked domain because I’ve already been working on transfering my main site to a different server when AA crashed, it made me want to check out other options. Check out Max’s forum- IBSteam dot net theres a thread over there with all kinds of information.
Good Luck to you!
This would be like Ford Motor Company selling a car with an engine which breaks down and needs an overhaul every other week leaving you stranded on the side of the road, then compensating you by offering you a bigger gas tank.
When we first signed up with Advanced Access and made it legal, they did everything in the world to make us happy, they were always nice, friendly, appeared to be a company in good shape and agreed with everything we said. Until they felt they had us ‘hooked’ and that’s when they started ‘letting themselves go’. No communication, bad attitudes, their ‘health’ went all to hell, and they quit doing anything at all to make us feel appreciative of them. Advanced Access became the fat spouse.
We want a divorce.
We have just cancelled our account with Advanced Crapcess. At least, I’ve left messages and sent emails saying “Do not bill us for any more time, as we no longer need your services”. Of course, I haven’t gotten a call back or a return email.
Our office has gone with RE/MAX dot com, since we are a RE/MAX office and this is the best way for anyone with RE/MAX to go. Great website builder, easy to use, awesome real estate searches, very search engine friendly, and huge web presence.
( So forget about trying to find a webhost, just join RE/MAX
. lol )
Susan
Susan I find it interesting that you cancelled your Advanced Access site and went with e neighborhoods who is also owned by Dominion. It’s like you got your divorce and then remarried. I hope it works out OK for you.