- E-mails are not being sent out on time - or at all (My blog post from yesterday has still not turned up in my 'quality check' inbox).
- Subscribers have been writing to me to say that they have not been getting their e-mails - or getting them very late.
- Feedback to reported problems has also gone completely downhill since it's been taken over by Google.
When you do get a response they are unable to explain problems that have happened - I'm not alone. There appears to be a total lack of support for people reporting problems in the new Feedburner Help (Google) Group.
Purple asparagus from the Wye Valley
8" x 10", coloured pencils on Bristol Graphic
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
The bottom line - Feedburner used to be a very reliable service which I liked a lot but it is now anything but. 8" x 10", coloured pencils on Bristol Graphic
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
I've also noticed that other people's feeds are not being reported through to Bloglines. I've taken to clicking on the blog names to see whether there is anything posted when there's nothing showing up in the inbox.
Whether the problem with the feed is rooted in Blogger or Feedburner - the reality is that the problem actually lies with Google - since it owns both of them.
So just what do they spend the Google Billions on? Judging by the quality of service performance they certainly don't spend it on proving a good customer service!
I'm now looking at alternative options - which are not owned by Google - and don't require me to ask all my e-mail subscribers to shift their subscriptions. Any suggestions?
If you're having problems too why not post about them on your blog? We all tend to think it's just us until everybody starts posting. Plus the one thing that I've noticed is that services do pay attention to public comment on blogs because this gets picked up by the search engines. Witness the way Statcounter got its problems with Paypal sorted very fast (see Paypal - A Warning from StatCounter - RESOLVED) as soon as all its customers started posting on their blogs about it.
I use Feedburner and haven't noticed any problems. I have the freebie version.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you re: Google service. Very unstable, lately, IMO.
ReplyDeleteHow ironic to see your post, because I just clicked on your blog title to see if anything new had been posted, because nothing new had come through in my reader. The same thing is going on with my blog subscriptions through the reader...email subscriptions are still being delivered, so far.
ReplyDeleteAaargh! I am not all that computer savvy - although I hold my own and am tenacious as heck... I am extremely frustrated with Feed Burner. Getting help is IMPOSSIBLE - unless maybe you are some kind of programmer and actually know exactly what and how to ask - if you can find someone - somewhere to ask! I know subscribers are getting my blog emailed to them - but no one - zero - shows up as subscribers. I use Firefox and Sage for reading blogs - love it - no problems, easy to navigate. Happy with them - would love an alternative to Feed demon!
ReplyDeleteKatherine you've hit the nail on the head and voiced my suspicions... Something is not right with feeds, mails and blogs. Waiting for a response from Google
ReplyDeleteSurprise, surprise - the day after I write a blog post about the problem I've been having, my Sunday blog post is e-mailed to me 2 minutes after the due time..........
ReplyDeleteLike I said - try posting about any problems you have.
Just make sure to include the keywords in the title linked to a suitable comment.
I currently use Feed burner, and only occasional difficulties. Twice in 9 months new postings were a day or two late.
ReplyDeleteI do concurr with Nathalie in that I have fewer difficulties with my blog in general (Wordpress) when I use Firefox.
Go figure?
Thanks for sharing your frustration. I started a blog recently for my church and my subscribers mysteriously disappeared (or at least the stats went to 0) a few days ago. I'm definitely going to look into using another service.
ReplyDelete