Some kind of new VA promo... but first, more data required

[anat0l]

Glad I'm not the only one having problems!

Checked the source email and the site concerned. If this is a phish then this is one of the most advanced traps I've ever seen, let alone that's probably out there. Even the most visually convincing phishes have a clear weakness that someone without too much h4x knowledge will be able to pinpoint.

Damn site made me change my password and then thought I goofed with the password again (I didn't!) and re-locked my account, forcing me to set a new password when I decide to log in again (if I do).

Not to mention the password requirements are ridiculous.

What rag tag operation are behind this mess... No seriously, I demand answers... not tomorrow, not after breakfast, now! (with apologies to The Shawshank Redemption)

 

[rtyuiop]

Yeah - an outsider's view of IT operations at VA (and I guess their marketing partner in this case) makes me feel much better about the way we do IT ops at my employer!

 

[Milefest]

When using the email link they provided I get a warning:

"We've had an unexpected amount of traffic to this page and are undergoing maintenance. Please check back soon or click here to visit www.virginaustralia.com."

They just emailed every va member requesting them to access that page and they didn't expect there to be a large amount of traffic?

 

[sausagefingers]

I imagine their IT dept to be one single guy in the server room playing Pokemon on a gameboy for 90% of the day.

 

[anat0l]

I imagine their IT dept to be one single guy in the server room playing Pokemon on a gameboy for 90% of the day.

Pokemon? Gameboy? How old are we presuming this sucker is? Next you'll say they give him a big stick which he beats Old Eleanor (the server) with when it looks like it's freezing?

 

[Milefest]

A glimpse into the VA IT department:

 

[HeavyElectricity]

Pokemon? Gameboy? How old are we presuming this sucker is? Next you'll say they give him a big stick which he beats Old Eleanor (the server) with when it looks like it's freezing?

I'd hold off assuming blame / sterotyping any particular person. Usually they end up being the only one who does know what they're doing, but are overworked and overruled by management constantly, or keep being assigned to new projects without being able to properly finish the ones they're working on. If that was the situation, I'd hate for them to stumble upon some of the comments people leave here. Blame the company for sure, but don't start talking about internal staff/teams without knowing what's going on.

 

[sausagefingers]

Pokemon? Gameboy? How old are we presuming this sucker is? Next you'll say they give him a big stick which he beats Old Eleanor (the server) with when it looks like it's freezing?

Its a reference to a funny story I read on 4chan once.

 

[anat0l]

I'd hold off assuming blame / sterotyping any particular person. Usually they end up being the only one who does know what they're doing, but are overworked and overruled by management constantly, or keep being assigned to new projects without being able to properly finish the ones they're working on. If that was the situation, I'd hate for them to stumble upon some of the comments people leave here. Blame the company for sure, but don't start talking about internal staff/teams without knowing what's going on.

It was an odd characterisation to start with. Fair enough we shall not judge them, although there's plenty of that bandied around here, viz. "the work experience interns".

I certainly agree with you of the common sentiment of companies undervaluing and overusing their IT teams. Unfortunately, I don't see that changing, and there is pressure coming from both main parties which ensure that will not improve in the short term.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

When using the email link they provided I get a warning:

"We've had an unexpected amount of traffic to this page and are undergoing maintenance. Please check back soon or click here to visit www.virginaustralia.com."

What they really meant was:

We've stuffed up bigtime, but rather than admit our error we will assume our customers are all morons and just lie our way out of it instead and will not give any indication of a real solution. In the meantime our customers can waste their time by going to www.virginaustralia.com where they will find absolutely nothing, but if we are lucky they may book a flight.

 

[anat0l]

What they really meant was:

We've stuffed up bigtime, but rather than admit our error we will assume our customers are all morons and just lie our way out of it instead and will not give any indication of a real solution. In the meantime our customers can wasite their time by going to www.virginaustralia.com where they will find absolutely nothing, but if we are lucky they may booka flight.

The spelling mistakes are intentional?

 

[Milefest]

What they really meant was:

We've stuffed up bigtime, but rather than admit our error we will assume our customers are all morons and just lie our way out of it instead and will not give any indication of a real solution. In the meantime our customers can waste their time by going to www.virginaustralia.com where they will find absolutely nothing, but if we are lucky they may book a flight.

Velocity does this too.

They tell us they "scheduled" maintenance and never provide a schedule.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Website is now "undergoing maintenance".

Looks like someone didn't check things before sending out an EDM - well played.

I would have been really surprised if someone had! Someone not checking is par for course. I didn't get the email.....but then again I never get emails, that's just another little IT error for VA/VFF. My Mum got it, but I'm just hoping she isn't the Qld girl birthday present that was previously mentioned.......her dicky leg is not up to bounding up and out of a cake! :mrgreen:

 

[eastwest101]

More professionalism and competence would be a better idea next time?

 

[drewbles]

I imagine their IT dept to be one single guy in the server room playing Pokemon on a gameboy for 90% of the day.

I always figured it was a work experience kid, who was not very good at Tetris

 

[arkady]

Just to let you know, the update preference page appears to be accessible again, and now allows you to enter a Date of Birth.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I'm a little surprised no one has really commented much about the system logging someone into someone else's account. The implication is of course that if it's done it once, how many times has your account been accessed by strangers?

 

[eastwest101]

I'm a little surprised no one has really commented much about the system logging someone into someone else's account. The implication is of course that if it's done it once, how many times has your account been accessed by strangers?

Don't worry - I was thinkig about this myself, but I didn't have anything constructive to add to the thread except to direct new members (whom may not be aware of the sad history of the Virgin Australia IT and web site design team) to this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ity-virgin-websites-are-rubbish-48005-21.html

As a matter of fact - this particular thread could be easily merged into that existing thread and there would be no real surprises. As we've already seen from previous threads it seems that web sites that can't price tickets correctly, can't sell seats or allocate seats properly are considered acceptable practice for an airline web site, so it should come as no suprise that potential breaches of customer data and privacy should not trouble them either!

I think its of more interest that a Virgin Australia or Velocity social media representative hasn't come along to extinguish this potential PR mess. Oh that's right - they also "enhanced" their social media team PR team .

The conclusion can only be that they don't know that they don't care, or that they don't care that they don't know that they don't care! (With apologies to Donald Rumsfeld)

As far as the IT stuff goes - as long as they aren't allowed anywhere near the aeroplanes or the crew then we should be fine....

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Hilarious!

Follow up email just landed in my inbox (bolding mine):

Let's try that again, shall we?

We recently sent an email asking you to update your profile and select your preferences. We had such a great response from you that we’re sorry to say that some subscribers were unable to access the site or enter their date of birth.

We assure you that you won’t experience these issues again. If you’re willing to give us another chance, please update your profile or preferences now.

If you're a Velocity member, please be aware that your Velocity login is separate to your V-mail subscription account. If this is your first visit to update your V-mail profile and preferences, please be sure to create a password.

Edit: And surprise! I get a '400 Bad request' error when signing in.

"Your browser sent an invalid request."

Awesome work guys!

 

[HeavyElectricity]

Follow up email just landed in my inbox

Wow, so many lies in one email!