Date:         Sat, 8 Dec 2001 09:33:16 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Bus Depot Sale
In-Reply-To:  <e4.1f258216.294356df@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> > Their computers were down so it was all phone stuff.
> >
>  I placed an order around 1pm on line and had no problems.  Must be
> 'cause I'm on the good side of the US/Canadian border.


Our point-of-sale computers were indeed down for 45 minutes when we first
opened; from 11 to 11:45 that morning. Murphy's Law; we hadn't had a major
computer crash for months, and the day we ran our biggest sale ever, we had
one!  I came in at 9:30 to discover the problem; after almost 2-1/2 hours on
the phone with tech support we brought them back up shortly before noon.
But it could have been much worse; at first it looked like the system could
be down all day, which would have been a nightmare. During that 45 minute
period customers who called were asked to call back a little later. The
point-of-sale computers are on a different network from the website server,
so there was no interruption in website service.

If anyone had trouble getting through other than during that 45 minute
period, on the website or by phone, it was simply because we were overloaded
with volume, not because of any actual problem with the computers. At some
points we simply had twice as many calls coming in as we had incoming lines.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  (215) 234-VWVW
  www.busdepot.com

_____________________________________________
Toll-Free for Orders Only: 1-866-BUS-DEPOT