The cloud is not really in the cloud.* I mean, I knew that – the cloud is really just a server farm (or several server farms) and thus entirely physical and subject to disasters like hurricanes and I’m mentioning this because we’re using PODS to move our stuff across the country and they’re based in Clearwater, FL, and apparently they got destroyed by the hurricane because their phone lines and EVEN THEIR WEBSITE have been completely down since Saturday. (That run-on sentence was sponsored by my fear that our truck will not arrive tomorrow and we’ll be living on the floor for another week.) Based on the phone message I heard on Monday, they had deliberately shut down the customer service center Friday to Monday to keep their employees at home, which makes sense. I can understand and appreciate that. But they said they’d be back up Tuesday. They were not. They still are not, and now it’s Wednesday. I can’t get a live person, which, again, I can understand considering they’re probably literally underwater, but for the website to still be down? I can’t log in to my account to see the status of my shipment. I scheduled it to arrive tomorrow (Thursday, earliest day possible). Is it still coming tomorrow? I can’t check. I can’t call anyone to check. Local PODS storage facilities don’t have local numbers. All numbers route to FL, where there are only unhelpful recordings and hang-ups, and all web URLs route to the Hurricane Irma page they put up.
UPDATE! All of the above was written earlier today, when I had been trying to contact PODS for three days. This evening, I checked again and the website was back up! With a message saying their phone center is open again! And that they’d be prioritizing existing customers! Unfortunately, I didn’t see that until after their call center was closed for the day, but I logged in to our account (yay!) to find no new information (boo). It says our POD is due to arrive at the local storage center before 9/13. That’s today. Did it arrive? That step doesn’t say it was completed, but is that because there’s a backlog and they haven’t updated the system or did it really not arrive? It also says they’re going to deliver the POD to our house on the 14th. That would be tomorrow. Will it happen? I can’t say. The night before they delivered it to us in Eugene, we got a phone call, and email, and an update on our account online giving us a three-hour delivery window. I have not gotten any of those alerts, and it’s nearly 10pm.
It’s all a mystery that I hope will get resolved tomorrow. More to come.
*If the computing cloud were actually in the real clouds, this hurricane would have REALLY messed with their systems.