Pbase problems....

[RiverCottage]

Hi is anybody having problems getting onto PBASE? everytime i try the server just times out?

:-)
River Cottage

[Andy001z]

Works from the UK side. www.pbase.com

[kenyc]

Working for me.

KAC

[ssim]

It's working fine for me today. They certainly haven't been without their problems but generally they seem to be slowly working out the problems and, given what one pays for this service, it does seem to be more consistently operative.

If you take the time to read through their forum there are alot of complaints and one of the biggest ones is the lack of response from the owners. Slug (part owner) finally responded to some of this last week. Following is his/her response

The two largest problems here have been site speed and customer service.
I realize it doesn't help your frustration, but believe me, I'm feeling all of your pain at once when there's a technical problem with the site.

I also realize that nobody but me really cares about the details of the servers, but we've made a lot of progress in the last year improving the whole setup. The last major piece we're finishing up is the main database server. We should have this done by the end of the year with the help of the team of people from Sun, Oracle and the reseller to install and maintain it.

For the last few years, we've been living with less than ideal hardware for the job, but we'll very soon be to the point where we have what we need to run the site properly.
It would have been nice to get this equipment years ago, but we've been limited by cash.
The solution would have been to get outside funding, but once that happens, there would have been constant pressure to make more money by selling objects or advertising. Maybe this would have been wise, but we chose to do the best we could, and retain control so that we only have to answer to customers, and not investors.

As far as customer service, we still have work to do for sure, but I'm actually surprised to still be seeing so much unhappiness about this.
Our incoming email is regularly monitored and responded to by Kathy and Emily. We'll continue to put more resources towards customer support because it's extremely important. We need to dedicate someone to providing official responses here in the forums also. I hadn't intended these forums to be for customer support, but like it or not, they give that expectation.

I wish I could respond to all the emails and forum posts myself, but I then I'd be here all day and nothing would be improved.
We're making steady progress increasing reliability and manpower and these problems will soon be history.

-slug
They have had the potential to turn this into something great but their complacency towards their customers has been driving them away. New entrants into this market segment are passing them very quickly.