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MobileMess™

'Like watching a train wreck in slow motion.'


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CUPERTINO (Rixstep) -- MobileMe is no longer MobileMe. It's MobileMess™.

But one thing must be stressed throughout the ongoing discussion: Apple are doing all they can to correct the situation.

It's just that those efforts might not be enough.

Raus mit den schlechten Äpfel!

In the meantime Apple's officially nonexistent Gestapo patrols are looking at their message boards, basically helpless about what to do.

This is some of what they're seeing.

I have been a loyal Apple supporter and promoter of Apple products for a long time. Like most of us, I haven't had access to my email since Thursday around 1 p.m. and have waited for long periods of time without success to chat with Apple support.

I, like most of us, are feeling that Apple is being less than honest about the % of affected users and scope of the problem. I do not understand why they will not be up front with us providing regular updates. I am very disappointed in how they are handling this. All companies and service providers have problems from time to time and Apple has an opportunity to set an example and standard in regards to how they handle what can only be described as a disaster scenario.
 - Joe Holley

this is ridiculous. i also feel foolish as a die-hard convert from PC to Mac, having joined .Mac right off the bat and depending on it for consistency. now, not only have i been without crucial e-mail contact (depending on this for my business), but it's been down since Friday morning (today is Sunday afternoon) without any REAL information from Apple.

Give us a break and treat us customers like customers before you lose your credibility. all this for the sake of iPhone?
 - 'jafrajaj'

Everyone should go to their local Apple Stores and raise holy **** about this email thing with me.com. I realize that the retail employees cannot do anything about it, but if enough people raised **** - in a respectful sort of way - maybe - just maybe word would get back to someone at Apple that gives a RIP about its after the sale customers
 - 'NCMacuser'

frustration !!!!!! I've tried calling Apple and they hang up on me!!! 3 times so far!!! I thought you only got that treatment with a pc. When will we get our mail? 1% my butt
 - 'markwm'

This is s disappointing to me. Long time Windows user, I finally bit the bullet last year and boight my first iMac. Love it!

Followed up with a Macbook a month ago. Bought into .mac (mobileme) and loved the syncing of bookmarks, and especially contact and calendar. IMAP email was working great.

I am about to buy an iPhone to complete the transition and totally commit to Apple.

Now, this crap happens. I have NEVER lost e-mail capability on ANY provider I have EVER had...not less being totally SCREWED for DAYS.

If I wanted aggravation like this I could have stayed with Windows...then again...I have NEVER had this crap with Windows.
 - 'pizzaman2008'

Hi i too have used mac.com mail for 4 years and pay for it why is my mail down now for over 48 hours and i cannot get any response from the online support. I even went to the downtown chicago apple store and worked at the genius bar for over 2 hours waiting for online support after they tried everything possible to trouble shoot. So it is apple and i am really upset to not to be able to access my mail for over two days. this is my business.
 - Deborah Brocan

What's Going On?

Apple's new 'MobileMe' service is a disaster. Although Apple insist it's only affecting 1% of users not many of other 99% have come forward to corroborate this.

And no one's really sure what's going on either - Apple are typically not forthcoming with details and not giving customers updates on the issues.

Even though no IT consultant would ever recommend tying an Apple mail service to a financial enterprise lots of people not in contact with the experts have done so anyway - and now they're losing money hand over fist.

Enterprise Computing

It's one thing to make and market a cute blue/beige/titanium/white/aluminium box and it's quite another to provide support for a major enterprise network. Apple's iTunes has worked well for so many years but whenever you initiate a new system you are supposed to know you have to test thoroughly and establish test routines so you leave nothing to chance.

Apple obviously left a few things to chance.

  • Apple obviously didn't see this 'MobileMess' coming.
  • Apple obviously thought they had the project well organised.
  • Apple obviously thought everything was going to work wonderfully.

But something did happen; they weren't well organised; nothing worked wonderfully. They obviously had it all wrong.

Succeeding at enterprise computing is more than deciding on what finish you'll put on an handset.

No Mail Here for 4 Days Now

'trusted_content' wrote the following two days ago. He's been a forum member where this was posted for the past six years. In those years he's posted only ten times. He's not exactly a forum rat. But now he waxes eloquent.

Apple's lack of communication on this really irks me. They said they would fix mail 'ASAP' for 2 days, and then decided to change their message to 'We apologize for the inconvenience', still giving no real indication of the scope of the problem or its likely duration. I'm a sysadmin for a dot com with millions of customers; I would surely be fired if I bungled something this bad. We've ****ed up in the past, but we always communicate to customers what's going on; this MM Mail outage reeks of pure stonewalling.

I suspect there has been data loss, and they are running around trying to recover it. Several people have gotten stories that their 'mail server' is dead. What does that mean? Some frontend IMAP server is down? Those take about 30 minutes to replace with another machine, if that. A 4-day (so far) outage smacks of lost data.

I finally (after an hour and a half) got an agent online on their 'chat' system, who flat out informed me there was no way he could help me, and that I'd just have to keep checking back to see if it was fixed. The least I'd like from Apple is emails apprising me of the progress, or an offer to move my account to a functioning machine so I can start receiving emails again!

I use Gmail, which costs nary a cent, and has never been unavailable to me for more than an hour. How Apple, with their $99/year service, can not keep a simple email account up and running boggles the mind. People are surely losing money over this. I hope that Apple compensates us customers who have suffered from this boondoggle. At this point I've nearly given up hope.

I've been a huge Apple cheerleader for years, and have continued to use .Mac despite clear flaws in the service, because I appreciate its integration with the OS and I support Apple products. I guess it's time to get more practical and see Apple's web offerings for what they are: broken and mismanaged. The company can make a mean computer and a killer operating system, reinvented the music player and the phone, but can't keep an online service up. What a pity...

Thank your lucky stars they're not managing the 2008 Olympics.

well i was thinkin bout geting this but with all the problems they had i found another alternative with push email mobile2web and its free and works on my ipod touch cant complain about it the only thing im not geting is the disc space but aol has that too.
 - macfan881

See Also
Google Web Search: 'MobileMess'
Apple Forums: Is Mobile Me mail down?
Rixstep/7 Forums: 'Like Watching a Trainwreck in Slow Motion'
Apple Forums: 1% ??? Why doesn't Apple tell us what is really going on?

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