You can be darn sure the card approval service -- the GDPS-based (likely) application that approves or denies your card transaction -- is still working round the clock. So the mainframe is still working.
Chances are the Web front end is not (yet) on the mainframe, and that might be the problem. There could also be problems with the architecture -- somebody might have thought it would be a good idea to replicate the billing database, and so that has to close when the master billing database is in a batch cycle because it would be out of sync and present the customer with an old version of the truth. Now, the Web customer self-service applications might have very different SLAs than card approval, and that might even be a sensible business decision.... ....And that's a clue. Why don't you write a letter to the credit card company CEO asking him/her why the Web customer service application is not as available as card approval? There are increasing numbers of people who need service at 2 a.m. -- people who travel to places like Japan, for example. It may no longer be a sensible business strategy to have these front-tier outages at 2:00 a.m. The Web needs to grow up, fast, for many of these businesses. Unless and until customers demand higher availability for services that are important to them, the CEO won't know about it. It's all about business. For that matter, do you have credit cards with companies that don't shut down? Cancel the ones that do, and move to the ones that don't. Let the company management know why you moved. I live in Japan and have a bank account with a certain major U.S. bank that supposedly never sleeps. This particular banking service is even called "Global Executive Banking." Now, you would think this type of banking, from a bank that advertises that it never sleeps, would offer something approximating 24 hour service. At least 23, right? You would be wrong. Full banking services are only available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. New York time. (That's currently 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Tokyo time, Monday night through Saturday morning.) And by "full," I mean things like a simple wire transfer. A few, limited banking services are available for a couple more hours. (The banking interns are working the longer hours?) This for "global executives," who you'd think would be among the bank's top customers. Certainly given the high fees and paltry interest paid, that would seem to be the case. I am closing the account as soon as I possibly can, and I'll let the bank know why. This level of service is simply unacceptable. In fact, one really wonders whether anybody offering this "service" actually spoke with a "global executive." As a reminder, I speak only for myself. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
