Several days ago the entire contents of my Resources page disappeared. At about thge same time members began reporting that they couldn't access many key pages like the Blog, Forum, and Photos. An error message appears that says "Feature Locked. Contact your network creator to unlock this feature." I had not made any edits to the structure of the site for several weeks, so these problems are clearly bugs in the platform. I contacted Ning tech support three days ago, but so far the problems still exist. All Ning has told me is "Bugs are issued a priority based on the severity of the issue, the number of affected networks, the complexity of the issue, engineering resources available and if there are any workarounds until there is a fix."
So members have been locked out of much of my site for at least three days, an entire page is gone, and Ning appears to have no answers for these issues, Is anyone else experiencing this level of poor support?
Replies
Hi Tim,
I do apologize for the inconveniences. I have checked the network connected to your email address and it seems that everything is fine at the moment and teh tech team has fixed this issue, Could you please clear cache and cookies on your end and check whether everything is fine on your end as well.
Best regards,
Ning Team.
Kyryl, what am I missing here? I've having the same issue on a test site. I joined as a regular "test member", and when I try to access blogs or videos, I receive the "Feature locked. Contact your network creator to unlock feature" I looked at both modules, and they are set to "Who Can View - Members".
Thanks,
Jen
Hello!
Unfortunately, on the networks with demo plans, since they are free, it is no longer possible to insert HTML boxes and add some of the modules.
The issue was fixed on Tims networks because it is a regular network with a paid subscription.
We apologize for the inconveniences.
Best regards,
The NING Team
I have looked for a link where to file a complaint about poor support.
For the past four weeks I tried getting assistance in changing a side image on my network. Normally I would do this myself but the editor tool in my Ning 2 has been broken for months and have been unable to use it.
During Christmas I asked chat support to help uploading a Christmas decoration to my side area. I explained that the editor was not working and the operator was amazingly helpful.
After Christmas I needed to change the image back and the editor was still broken. So I asked support to please replace the image back to the normal one.
This time I dealt with Elizabeth who refused to assist claiming that this was a CSS issue and that support would not help with that. I explained that the editor was malfunctioning and that I no longer couldchange the images. At this time there was hostility and a stubborn refusal to even look at what was going wrong.
I have been with Ning for over 10 years and in the last three have been paying premium money for a broken platform that barely functions with the promise of future iumprovements.
I am now actively looking for alternatives and wthin a month or two will be selling my Ning 2 site. So if anyone is interested please contact me.
I could not find an appropriate place where to lodge a formal complaint. My apologies if this is not the correct place. Franklly I do not really care anymoer. All I want is to move and move quickly.
If you could suggest an email where I can file a complaint IU would greatly appreciate it.
All the best
Alex
Hello Alexander!
First of all, let me express my deepest apologies for the bad experience you recently had with the Support Team!
This website was created as a platform for all our creators, where everyone can ask for help, share their feedback, express their feelings and concerns, so no need to apologize, you are in the right place and I`ve heard you.
I will check the correspondence you had with us (and Elizabeth in particular), investigate the issue and get back to you on Monday.
Best regards,
The NING Team
Hi Anastasia,
I appreciate your reply.
The paper trail goes back to several weeks.
Initially I dealt with Ann who was truly marvellous and tried everything she could to help.
Unfortunately the appearance editor was broken and she could not change the side image either.
The horror story started when Elizabeth arrived on the scene.
In ten years with NING I have never experience such lack of care incompetence and laziness.
During the last chat help she just fobbed me off with excuses and would not even look at the issue.
I asked her to provide me with an admin contact because I wanted to file a complaint. The reply was: there is none write to support and I will send it on to the right place.
Fortunately I was able to reach out to a friend who immediately identified the issue and walked me through a fix.
I appreciate your intervention and sincere concern, but because of this character I lost 4 weeks of work, was stuck with Christmas decorations since January.
It took one intelligent and competent individual who cared 5 minutes to identify the issue and fix it.
It took Elizabeth one month to tell me that she was not going to help.
I am not a developer I or programmer and I do not desire to be one.
For years I managed the group nicely. The platform, although glitch, is fairly intuitive. On the rare occasion I reached out to support I was impressed by their eagerness to help.
I am concerned that there is no quality assurance when it comes to support issues and that there is no admin contact to escalate issues when characters like Elizabeth refuse to help customers.
These are issues you may want to raise with management. Without quality assurance, companies are vulnerable to lazy and unhelpful staff.
Most customers do not raise these issues. They just walk away and you know what happens when you have no customers.
Again I sincerely appreciate your response.
Best regards
Hello Alexander!
Thank you for sharing your experience with me! Actually, we do have a quality assurance department, and I have already asked the manager to evaluate all communication Elizabeth had with you. We will work on making things better and I hope such situation will not occur again.
I am very sorry that we were not able to help you, please accept my apologies.
Best regards,
The NING Team