Customer Service Center is Unresponsive

[richhotrain]

doctorwayne

I'm not seeing the unrelated pages of data gobbletygook, but haven't been able to send or receive PMs for some time, although I'm able to read pretty-well any of the older "Conversations" on my 27 pages of that no-longer-functioning-feature.

I could suggest an alternative site, but I don't wish to instigate a mass migration that would overwhelm it.

Wayne 

Well, you ought to, Wayne, since no one at Kalmbach seems to care whether we stay or go.

Rich

[doctorwayne]

I'm not seeing the unrelated pages of data gobbletygook, but haven't been able to send or receive PMs for some time, although I'm able to read pretty-well any of the older "Conversations" on my 27 pages of that no-longer-functioning-feature.

I could suggest an alternative site, but I don't wish to instigate a mass migration that would overwhelm it.

Wayne

[mbinsewi]

I get your frustration Rich!  

This seems to be so isolated.  I haven't read back through the thread to see if anyone else is having the same problem.

I know I wanted to PM you a couple of times.

Mike.

[richhotrain]

Just updating this thread to indicate that 7 weeks later, I still am unable to visit other Kalmbach forums, and my Private Message feature is still totally disabled.

I am unable to send or receive Private Messages, and my Private Message history has totally disappeared.

I have sent four messages to Customer Service, three of which went unanswered. The fourth message prompted an automated response with suggestions to restore the lost features. None of those changes worked. So, I wrote back pleading for help and that request has gone unanswered.

In my initial post to this thread, I publicly appealed to Steven Otte for help since I am unable to send him a Private Message. But, unfortunately, I have receive no response from him.

I have long ago become totally frustrated with the forum and its failing software. I know the service is free and that you get what you pay for, but this is ridiculous.

Why offer a forum and then cripple the forum member's use of it?

Rich

[richhotrain]

maxman

 

richhotrain

Wow, maxman, that sounds like a real ordeal that you went through to get the problem resolved. This has been going on in my situation for three weeks now.

Rich 

Yes, seems like it took almost a month.  But it appears that you are at least able to post which was more than I could.  And I had done all the usual recommended stuff such as clearing the cookies, using three different browsers, and two different devices. 

When I am looking in on the forums, there are times when I see a post listed in another forum that interests me, but I am unable to view that forum. I can only read threads in the MR forum and the Classic Trains forum. 

Rich

[maxman]

richhotrain

Wow, maxman, that sounds like a real ordeal that you went through to get the problem resolved. This has been going on in my situation for three weeks now.

Rich

 

Yes, seems like it took almost a month.  But it appears that you are at least able to post which was more than I could.  And I had done all the usual recommended stuff such as clearing the cookies, using three different browsers, and two different devices.

[richhotrain]

Wow, maxman, that sounds like a real ordeal that you went through to get the problem resolved. This has been going on in my situation for three weeks now.

Rich

[maxman]

Had all/most of the issues above.  I don't believe that it has anything to do with anyone's personal computer, software, anti-virus, or things "lickable".

It does require persistence to get the issue fixed.  Took me about a month.

1. I called customer service (CS) and the lady who answered tried to help me.  When that failed she said that she would bump the issue upward.  Never heard back.

2. Called CS a second time.  Lady who answered tried to help, and finally said the issue would be bumped upward.  Never heard back.

3.  Filled out the online issue form and submitted.  Got the canned email we will work on it reply.  Never heard back.

4.  Repeated step 3.  Never heard back.

5.  Called CS again and told lady my dilemma and explained.  She basically said that that sounded like a problem I shouldn't be having and said she would contact someone.  She said she would get back to me.  Couple days later problem was corrected.  And she did call back to say that problem had been corrected.  Unfortunately we were out and that message went to voicemail, so I couldn't ask what problem actually was.

Note that the issue seemed to be related to logging into the forum.  I could log into everything else, like MRVP, and it would welcome me by name.  If I logged into MRVP and tried to go from there to the forum, the forum wanted me to log in again and then wouldn't recognize me.  (Maybe someone warned them.)

I still have the issue where the green box that used to say Welcome, My Name, just says Welcome,.  But since everything else seems to work I'm just going to ignore it.

[The Milwaukee Road Warrior]

This explains why my PM to you last week on Everett Street Station comparison with LAUPT didn't get thru Rich.  I can just repost in your LAUPT thread...

[richhotrain]

Overmod

Mr. Otte was on this forum a few moments ago.  I presume he has 'gotten the message' he would need to see, and will comment as appropriate or get the necessary fix 'in process'. 

Well, unfortunately, all of my problems with the forum software persist. I have no idea if Steven Otte saw this thread, or if he did I have no idea if he did anything about it.

Rich

[tstage]

I wouldn't presume anything...

[Overmod]

Mr. Otte was on this forum a few moments ago.  I presume he has 'gotten the message' he would need to see, and will comment as appropriate or get the necessary fix 'in process'.

[RR_Mel]

Sorry about that.  I fixed it.  Thanks Tom.

 

Mel



 
My Model Railroad   
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[tstage]

RR_Mel

EDIT:

It wouldn't let me make the bookmark lickable, kicked me out with FORBIDEN

Mel

Mel,

If you wanted the bookmark "lickable", I'd probably kick you out, too.

Tom

[riogrande5761]

It's all due to COVID, don't you know.  Just be patient.  VERY patient, you know, like Job in the Bible.

[RR_Mel]

I haven’t had problems in quite awhile. This is my bookmark:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/recent.aspx

I’m running Firefox 84.0.2 in Windows 10 Version 1903 (OS Build 18362.476)

I can read messages but I can’t reply from Firefox (been that way for a long time) but I can reply when using Chrome.  Kinda of a PITA to have to change browsers to reply but I prefer Firefox over Chrome.
 

EDIT:

It wouldn't let me make the bookmark clickable, kicked me out with FORBIDEN

Mel



 
My Model Railroad   
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[Overmod]

richhotrain

Say what?

Sorry, I edited it a couple of times after I saw the code you posted, and perhaps it makes a little better sense now.

It appears to me to be the back-end tracking trying to link to an information data host in the back end and failing to connect.  Someone has set it to throw a verbose error message ... which is being directed to your browser instead of someone's at IT.

 

[richhotrain]

Say what?

[Overmod]

richhotrain

On the right side of each page above my screen name are 30+ lines of coding jibberish in red.

Ah, I see you posted the code at 8:14 this morning.  It appears that one of the data-containing hosts of the PM system was either 'down' or corrupted at the time you tried to access the PM system -- the funny thing being that no user should ever see the message.  I suspect this has something to do with Kalmbach removing code associated with "Telligent Evolution" from its systems, since I believe they've gone to different 'partners' to do the community back-end tracking stuff in the 'new experience'...

 It is CERTAINLY an issue that IT, and probably only IT, can address, and rectify -- ideally, it may be only a small amount of remedial action and bringing it to Steve's or others' attention can advance getting it resolved.)

There are a couple of ways the PM function is otherwise 'known broken', and I would not find it surprising that at some point during the back-end development of 'stage 3' there will be some more.  I expect they will fix those, too, in stage 3 (but probably not before, as being too 'expensive' to spend the IT outsource time on).

[NorthBrit]

rrinker

 

 David - which of your pictures have disappeared? I reviewed some of your posts back to Dec 31 and I see the pics you posted just fine. 

 Yet another indication that some overzealous 'protection' is blocking a required element of the forum to process the image links.

                                         --Randy

 

 

 

Hi Randy.  A number of pictures on my layout thread -  Leeds Sovereign Street & Clarence Dock are missing.

 

I haven't checked other threads.

 

A similar thing happened on the UK site I am on;  happening after a 'update'.   A number of members lost heir pictures.  It took about a week to correct.

 

David

[Doughless]

rrinker

AV - antivirus.

Hmm, how to you actually get here? I always go to this link: Model Railroader Magazine - Model Railroading, Model Trains, Reviews, Track Plans, and Forums  

which should take you to https://mrr.trains.com and then I click Forums under Community. The error is seeming to indicate the URL being passed to the forum software is not the one it expects.

I've been using this link since I first joined the forums years ago. Others may work/may have worked, but possibly not now that they want to consolidate everything under a common site.

                                     --Randy

 

 

Hmmm.  I work for a large corporation.  What you describe is something we often experience when our IT department updates things frequently.  Nobody in the company, even IT, really knows what was done or all of the minor consequences it has.

But often times the links we saved to go to certain areas on our site don't work.  The data has moved and the saved link doesn't get you there anymore. 

Maybe the problems here are caused by using older access links where updates have adjusted things slightly to where not all functions get accessed like they used to from the legacy entry points.

Maybe Rich should just start from the beginning.  Log out and back out and access the mother-site by typing CS.trains.com (which is the home-est of home pages I think) and follow the menu forward to where you want to go. 

Might be a simple suggestion worth trying.

 

As an aside. I too get the Welcome, (no name) when I used to get Welcome, name.

[mbinsewi]

The book mark I use takes to the page that Randy shows in his links, than I click on forums from there.

On the mrr.trains page, it says Welcome back Michael Bower.  On the forums page, it says welcome back, no name.

No problem with any other forum.

I use Chrome, with ESET av.

Mike.

[rrinker]

AV - antivirus.

Hmm, how to you actually get here? I always go to this link: Model Railroader Magazine - Model Railroading, Model Trains, Reviews, Track Plans, and Forums  

which should take you to https://mrr.trains.com and then I click Forums under Community. The error is seeming to indicate the URL being passed to the forum software is not the one it expects.

I've been using this link since I first joined the forums years ago. Others may work/may have worked, but possibly not now that they want to consolidate everything under a common site.

                                     --Randy

 

[richhotrain]

Not sure what you mean by AV software, Randy.

Here is the coding "jibberish" as I refer to it.

[rrinker]

 Just curious, what are you using for AV software? That code is displaying instead of executing could be the AV blocking a false positive which keeps something from executing properly.

 It used to say Welcome, <name here> but now it just says Welcome, for me, but my PM works and I cna get to all forums.

 David - which of your pictures have disappeared? I reviewed some of your posts back to Dec 31 and I see the pics you posted just fine. 

 Yet another indication that some overzealous 'protection' is blocking a required element of the forum to process the image links.

                                         --Randy

 

[richhotrain]

mbinsewi

Rich, have you tried calling?

MRR CS: 877-246-4879

Kalmbach Products: 800-533-6644

Not able to access other forums?  Wow!  THAT is strange.  Maybe your computer? 

Mike. 

Mike, I have not considered a phone call. I thought that the best way to deal with this issue was to contact Kalmbach using their recommended Customer Service Form. The first two requests for assistance were acknowledged by a follow up automated reply saying that my request had been assigned to someone who would contact me.

Could it be my computer? I suppose anything is possible. But, the problems that I have described first occurred in the middle of a session on the forum. I had not closed off or signed out (I never actually sign out) when the red lines of coding jibberish first appeared. In fact, I was in the middle of a PM session with another forum member when these problems first appeared and the PM function was lost.

Rich

[richhotrain]

NorthBrit

Not only you, Rich to have problems.     Since the recent 'updates'  most of my pictures I have posted have disappeared.

Upon reporting no answer/reply has been given.

 

David

 

Thanks for your reply, David. Something is wrong with the forum software but by now we all know that.

Rich

[mbinsewi]

Rich, have you tried calling?

MRR CS: 877-246-4879

Kalmbach Products: 800-533-6644

Not able to access other forums?  Wow!  THAT is strange.  Maybe your computer? 

Mike.

[NorthBrit]

Not only you, Rich to have problems.     Since the recent 'updates'  most of my pictures I have posted have disappeared.

Upon reporting no answer/reply has been given.

 

David