Mobipocket Issues affecting our customers - NOW RESOLVED - Page 4

FizzyWater · 10-26-2008, 02:04 PM

OMG. Do you suppose the servers crashed because all of Oprah's lemmings overloaded the servers?! No, they wouldn't have had time to receive their Kindles yet.

pilotbob · 10-26-2008, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

OMG. Do you suppose the servers crashed because all of Oprah's lemmings overloaded the servers?! No, they wouldn't have had time to receive their Kindles yet.

Actually, I can download Kindle ebooks just fine. So the mobipocket DRM servers must be different from the Kindle DRM servers.

BOb

Lemurion · 10-26-2008, 02:48 PM

I think the Kindle servers have a higher priority for Amazon right now. What concerns me is that according to FW, they are getting vacation emails from all their contacts. That's not a good thing even though it is the weekend.

With any luck things will be back to normal soon.

Most of what's in my FW wishlist is mobi.

tompe · 10-26-2008, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I think the Kindle servers have a higher priority for Amazon right now. What concerns me is that according to FW, they are getting vacation emails from all their contacts. That's not a good thing even though it is the weekend.

Usually you have to pay for support during weekends. So maybe they have not done that? Otherwise they would email their weekend support...

jljones · 10-26-2008, 03:08 PM

Quote:

(the auto-replies say they are on vacation).

Almost makes me wonder if they take weekends off, and nobody will know about the problem until they go back to work tomorrow.
It's been nearly 24 hours now. I know these things happen, but sites usually get something up quickly, even if it's just a single page giving some information.

tcv · 10-26-2008, 03:10 PM

Truthfully, I find the situation so incredulous, I wonder if something else isn't going on. I mean: What if I walked over to Barnes and Noble right now and couldn't get in because their door-unlocker server was down and all stores were inaccessible. This would never happen of course.

Is it possible that Mobi is shutting down?

pilotbob · 10-26-2008, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcv

Is it possible that Mobi is shutting down?

No!

Why do people go all conspiracy theory when things things happen. The bottom line is, stuff happens. Hardware fails, internet connections get accidentally cut, power goes out, etc.

Perhaps this will wake up the people running mobipocket servers and show them they need some redundancy like a co-located server in another data center in another state. The worst part is all the book stores like fictionwise, BoB and others that can loose sales at times like this.

BOb

Lemurion · 10-26-2008, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcv

Truthfully, I find the situation so incredulous, I wonder if something else isn't going on. I mean: What if I walked over to Barnes and Noble right now and couldn't get in because their door-unlocker server was down and all stores were inaccessible. This would never happen of course.

Is it possible that Mobi is shutting down?

It's a side-effect of DRM - and we all know how ridiculous that is. As to the possibility that Mobi is shutting down; I'd say that while it's not impossible it's so unlikely that we can remove it from consideration.

Right now it's probably somewhere in that wonderful continuum between letting the responsible people KNOW that there's a problem and diagnosing then fixing said problem. Once they get to the good end of the continuum things will be back to working.

HarryT · 10-27-2008, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elsussman

Harry

How do you get that mailing list info. I am a member of their buywise club. get all kinds of email about specials new books etc... but I did not get this message and there is no specific info on their website that I can find

Elihu

Yahoo Group called "Fictionwise".

HarryT · 10-27-2008, 05:32 AM

The MobiPocket web site is back up, and I've just successfully downloaded a Mobi book from my bookshelf on FictionWise, so it looks as though the problem (whatever it was) has been sorted out.

jljones · 10-27-2008, 05:41 AM

Minor technical issues according to their forums.

HarryT · 10-27-2008, 05:51 AM

Good to know that it wasn't a serious problem, then. After all, it only cost every Mobi retailer an entire weekend of sales

.

stxopher · 10-27-2008, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Good to know that it wasn't a serious problem, then. After all, it only cost every Mobi retailer an entire weekend of sales

.

Oh, don't worry. I'm sure it didn't really cost them much in the way of sales since they still took the order and money at the time even when unable to deliver the product. The only thing it really cost them was a couple days worth of consumer confidence in their product (mobi DRM) though most people will probably misdirect their ire towards the bookseller instead. Actually, I'd like to see a few more outages. Perhaps that would get more books published in something besides just mobi.

(I honestly don't mind mobi but have a horrible dislike for the publishing of any single format exclusively and most books using a single DRM seem to use mobi. If you are going to DRM, use several so people have a blasted choice!)

Monteagle · 10-27-2008, 11:32 AM

BooksOnBoard did NOT take Mobipocket PX orders and money after some time Saturday. Can't speak to the other retailers with certainty because I only followed this story on BooksOnBoard after a certain point this weekend.

BooksOnBoard shut down the ability for customers to buy Mobipocket PX ebooks from its site Saturday afternoon, probably only a short time after the server problem became apparent. The only Mobipocket format you could buy were the Mobipocket OD titles which you could, in fact, download because they come from a different server not controlled by Amazon's group.

BooksOnBoard just reinstated the ability to purchase Mobipocket PX (the affected source) some time this morning. So, Stxopher, at least one retailer puts customer satisfaction ahead of a quick buck. I would bet other retailers did the same as BooksOnBoard, however. I just didn't shop them this weekend because I started looking for OD titles which I could only find at BooksOnBoard.

Their support just wrote that they also now have a dedicated Mobipocket ebook store as well. Apparently, they've had it for a while. Good to know.

stxopher · 10-27-2008, 01:22 PM

Sorry for my misleading phrasing. I was railing against the mobi side of things and not the retailer side. Thus my comment about people blaming the sellers for the problem and not the source which would be the mobi servers.

And you are correct. Most of the actual sellers I know of put a stop as soon as they found out there was a problem. But then, as you pointed out, they actually are concerned about customer satisfaction. Why else would they have been so responsive to a problem, a problem not of their making, that affected their clientele? Responses posted to places like this that included letting people know what was happening from their end are one of the things that keeps cutomers.

Which is why I continually buy from retailers like that. I feel better knowing that they will be doing the best they can dealing with the issues I can't. (I still don't know what happened this weekend with the servers. Probably turn out to be that someone flipped the power switch on the way out the door for the weekend thinking it was a light switch.)

10-27-2008, 05:32 AM	#55
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	MobiPocket site is up again The MobiPocket web site is back up, and I've just successfully downloaded a Mobi book from my bookshelf on FictionWise, so it looks as though the problem (whatever it was) has been sorted out.

10-27-2008, 11:32 AM	#59
Monteagle Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Treo 700w	Down Time DID cost at least one retailer BooksOnBoard did NOT take Mobipocket PX orders and money after some time Saturday. Can't speak to the other retailers with certainty because I only followed this story on BooksOnBoard after a certain point this weekend. BooksOnBoard shut down the ability for customers to buy Mobipocket PX ebooks from its site Saturday afternoon, probably only a short time after the server problem became apparent. The only Mobipocket format you could buy were the Mobipocket OD titles which you could, in fact, download because they come from a different server not controlled by Amazon's group. BooksOnBoard just reinstated the ability to purchase Mobipocket PX (the affected source) some time this morning. So, Stxopher, at least one retailer puts customer satisfaction ahead of a quick buck. I would bet other retailers did the same as BooksOnBoard, however. I just didn't shop them this weekend because I started looking for OD titles which I could only find at BooksOnBoard. Their support just wrote that they also now have a dedicated Mobipocket ebook store as well. Apparently, they've had it for a while. Good to know.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Mobipocket Dictionary for Kindle, PID issues etc	bernardpar	Kindle Formats	0	09-15-2010 12:17 PM
How are geographic restrictions affecting you?	karenr_nz	General Discussions	170	08-13-2010 07:16 AM
Resolved -- Problems at Fictionwise.com	foxpaw	News	28	12-08-2008 09:10 AM
How Mobipocket DRM can drive away customers	Alexander Turcic	News	34	09-16-2007 06:24 PM

10-26-2008, 02:04 PM	#46
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	OMG. Do you suppose the servers crashed because all of Oprah's lemmings overloaded the servers?! No, they wouldn't have had time to receive their Kindles yet.

10-26-2008, 02:48 PM	#48
Lemurion eReader Posts: 2,750 Karma: 4968470 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Note 5; PW3; Nook HD+; ChuWi Hi12; iPad	I think the Kindle servers have a higher priority for Amazon right now. What concerns me is that according to FW, they are getting vacation emails from all their contacts. That's not a good thing even though it is the weekend. With any luck things will be back to normal soon. Most of what's in my FW wishlist is mobi.

10-26-2008, 03:10 PM	#51
tcv Addict Posts: 330 Karma: 596 Join Date: Oct 2006	Truthfully, I find the situation so incredulous, I wonder if something else isn't going on. I mean: What if I walked over to Barnes and Noble right now and couldn't get in because their door-unlocker server was down and all stores were inaccessible. This would never happen of course. Is it possible that Mobi is shutting down?

10-27-2008, 05:41 AM	#56
jljones Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 54 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Iliad	Minor technical issues according to their forums.

10-27-2008, 05:51 AM	#57
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Good to know that it wasn't a serious problem, then. After all, it only cost every Mobi retailer an entire weekend of sales .

10-27-2008, 01:22 PM	#60
stxopher Nameless Being	Sorry for my misleading phrasing. I was railing against the mobi side of things and not the retailer side. Thus my comment about people blaming the sellers for the problem and not the source which would be the mobi servers. And you are correct. Most of the actual sellers I know of put a stop as soon as they found out there was a problem. But then, as you pointed out, they actually are concerned about customer satisfaction. Why else would they have been so responsive to a problem, a problem not of their making, that affected their clientele? Responses posted to places like this that included letting people know what was happening from their end are one of the things that keeps cutomers. Which is why I continually buy from retailers like that. I feel better knowing that they will be doing the best they can dealing with the issues I can't. (I still don't know what happened this weekend with the servers. Probably turn out to be that someone flipped the power switch on the way out the door for the weekend thinking it was a light switch.)

Advert

Advert