Bug Report 101307-B

Code name: Form-to-Email Breakdown

Incident Number / Tracking Number:

In October 2007, a failure occurred in one of AOL's servers 
which caused failures in certain AOL-hosted web pages on the users.aol.com server. 
This is a report of that bug. 

Status:
 
To ensure that the AOL tech support staff do not sweep this problem under the rug, 
this bug report has been sent to AOL management.  
[more below] 

Forwarding Notice
 
This bug report is written in terms which your programmers will understand. 
The problem is of a technical nature, and cannot be resolved by front-line customer service staff. 
Therefore, direct forwarding of this bug report to the America Online programming dept. is requested. 

Problem Type
 
Breakdown of advertised feature. 

Feature Affected -- Background
 
AOL provides its customers the ability to make web pages having fill-in forms. 
(If you are not familiar with this feature, please see AOL's description of this feature at 
http://members.aol.com/wwwadmin/email/email.htm.) 

When the "Submit" button is pressed, AOL's server is supposed to take information from the form 
and send it as an e-mail, to the form's owner. 
This is called "form-to-email processing." 

Feature Affected -- Specifics
 
Pressing "Submit" no longer causes an e-mail to be sent. The e-mail never arrives. 

History
 
I have used this AOL feature continuously since 1997. 
The breakdown occurred in several of my web pages simultaneously this week (October 2007), 
even though I had not changed them. 
Therefore this rules out any possibility that the bug might be mine and not AOL's. 

Problem First Appeared: October 12, 2007 

Problem First Proven to Exist: October 12, 2007   Feature was working: October 11, 2007 

Date Reported to AOL: October 13, 2007 

Cause
 
Unknown. Rebooting the FTP server might fix it?  

Symptoms and Demonstration
 
The problem is easy to see and understand. 
Please see AOL's description of this feature at 
http://members.aol.com/wwwadmin/email/email.htm. 
When you press the Submit button, the AOL user "wwwadmin" should receive an e-mail. 

You may also test my version of this form, at 
http://members.aol.com/JEBrown800/Contact/index.html. 
Each time you press the Send button, an e-mail should arrive in my in-box. 

 

Closing Comments
 
This bug constitutes a reduction in the user experience and a reduction in AOL's level of quality. 
This problem is simple in nature and is easy to see and understand. 
All the information necessary to understand the problem is included in this page and the linked pages. 

 

Due to the past misbehavior of AOL's staff, it is now my policy to contact management FIRST, 
to ensure that supervisors and managers are not being kept in the dark about system breakdowns. 


Time to Investigate and Write This Bug Report: 
 
About 30 minutes 

 

	Sincerely, 

	 (mr.) 
	Software Engineer and Tester (for hire) 
	Testing Pays! 
	http://users.aol.com/JEBrown800 
	Los Alamos, New Mexico  USA 

, BS Computer Science, has been a software engineer for over 20 years and an AOL user since 1996.



Caution
 
Note: As in every company, it's possible you'll delegate this bug report to a new employee. 
If you do, please keep an eye on his or her progress. 
New employees sometimes have little experience with customer support and service, 
and sometimes find it easier to blame the customer than to fully investigate the problem. 

Such behavior is unprofessional. 
My policy on unprofessional behavior is to report it to AOL management. 
So, if you delegate this bug report to a new employee, please see that he or she has adequate supervision. 

This is an AOL breakdown. 
Any attempt to shift blame onto the customer 
will be regarded as unprofessional 
and will be forwarded at once to AOL management, 
along with the name of the offending employee. 

I'm sorry to have to put it in those words, 
but I have years of experience dealing with certain non-technical AOL employees who treated me that way. 

I am running a business. 
I have warned you people before about disabling my website.
As a result, automatic reporting of this bug to AOL management has occurred. 
BECAUSE OF THE REPEATED EXAMPLES OF POOR QUALITY OF YOUR WEB SERVER, 
I CALL UPON AOL MANAGEMENT TO FIRE SOMEONE. 

Issues:

Concepts:

AOL complaints, AOL problems, AOL breakdowns, reviews of AOL, how AOL treats its customers

More at This Site

• Full list of my AOL bug reports (index)

Contact

Copyright © 2004-2007     all rights reserved.
 
Los Alamos, NM USA