Earlier today a mandatory website security update was installed, an automatic process which is done frequently. Unfortunately this time for some reason it did not install correctly, it caused a fault and the website would not respond.
Cloudflare (CF), a security service we pay for, detected our website as being offline and tried to load a copy from backup server. The backup didn't have the new security patch applied yet and data conflicted and complicated the matter, unfortunately this was out of our hands and not caused by anything at our end.
CF then started giving incorrect messages about expired security certificates. This was nothing to do with us. Our security certificate has 545 days left, but CF was loading it's own version for some reason which appears to have expired. CF also unfortunately created lots of other problems along the way and it has taken some 8 hours to get the website back up and running.
Unfortunately without CF our website would become susceptible to hackers, especially those using DDOS (a very common and easy attack to hit a target website and make it unusable) and of course we have competitors and have been at the receiving end of grief before, hence we started using CF in the first place!
We are not Microsoft. We are not Netflix. We are not Youtube or any other multi-million dollar company with a dedicated programming and development teams, or a 24/7 support desk waiting for customers to complain to them on the phone.
We took over the running of the TV channels from a 1 person project with intention of family members getting involved, to help pay the bills etc. Unfortunately this did not work out, one family member gained a full time job elsewhere, another family member had a baby and so forth. So it is still basically a 1-2 person project. When something nasty hits the fan and the website is down, I do not have time to reply to your emails individually (sorry about this), 50 emails and rising would take most of the day to reply to. Priority is getting the website back online.
The point is, now and then things go wrong, there are power cuts, bad weather, computers break, internet line faults (yes despite that we pay £400 a month for the internet connection, 1 day in the last 365 was affected by a fault on the line), force majure etc.
Anyone is welcome of course to a pro-rata refund (which will literally work out a few pence....) or of course membership cancellation and refund of any remaining membership.
The point is, if anyone is really unhappy then just ask for a refund and move on elsewhere. if you are disappointed with the service, that's fair enough.
If you are inclined to be disgruntled and rude about it, continue reading.
So before being rude and disgruntled and getting your membership revoked, think about it from my perspective. You might have lost a few pence of membership and a few hours of TV viewing, but I lost an entire day, maybe lost members moving elsewhere, a whole load of stress and a horrible day trying to repair something which was not my fault, when I had plans to get things done with my life other than sit in front of a computer all day stressing out with my eyes hurting. I wanted to enjoy some sunlight, walk the dog, visit family, and in the evening work on the IPTV boxes feature of the TV club.
I will not put up with rude and vindictive comments from someone who thinks that because they pay me a few pence a day that they can talk to me like ****.
2 or 3 members have been removed in the last couple of years for being very rude and sarcastic. Nobody has the right to pay me a few £ a year to talk to me like I'm below them.
Save your energy and find another TV solution, rude support tickets will be deleted and memberships revoked.