SSA Website Crash Irks Customers Seeking Summer Reservations

Louisa Hufstader
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<p>Groundhog Day came early for Steamship Authority customers seeking summer reservations for automobiles. The boat line website crashed at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Groundhog Day came early for Steamship Authority customers seeking summer reservations for their automobiles.

The boat line’s website crashed as soon as seasonal reservations became available online, at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

By mid-afternoon the site was back up, after a harrowing day for customers and SSA managers alike.

“I apologize to all our customers for the inconvenience this has caused,” said general manager Robert Davis, speaking to the board of governors at their monthly meeting Tuesday and promising a full accounting of what went wrong.

Customers who set their alarms for the early-bird start were frustrated by the failure, which mirrors a crash at the beginning of the 2018 season.

Well past noon, visitors to the site were still being greeted with a bright blue message reading "Sorry About That" and a red-lettered announcement that “we have run into an error we weren’t able to recover from.”

In 2019 and again this year, the boat line staggered its Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard opening dates in order to manage website traffic and keep the site from crashing.

Nantucket’s opening earlier this month went smoothly, Mr. Davis said, but Vineyard travelers account for three to four times the volume of website traffic from the smaller island.

“Despite the extensive preparation and load testing that had occurred prior to the opening date, this (crash) has occurred, preventing our customers from making reservations for travel,” Mr. Davis told the boat line board Tuesday morning.

The website developer, the SSA’s information technology staff and representatives from its software and server vendors have all been working to resolve the crash, Mr. Davis said.

“This is obviously an unacceptable result on our biggest reservation day of the year,” he told the board.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 10:30

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jon wes tis

it is not even funny any more. boat cancellations, boat collisions, boat maintenance issues, and now this. time for a serious change at the SSA. it is time for our island elected leaders to start demanding change! the SSA is not listening to their customers, so maybe they will listen to our elected officials.

Marcy Chatsworth

As an annual summer visitor, I'm now quite worried that change will not come to the SSA until
there is a major, disaster of epic proportions. Can we avoid that and get it right?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 11:36

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Stevie Oak Bluffs

This is beyond unacceptable. 2020 is the year of change and the lack of respect for travelers can on be remedied by personal changes from top to bottom. How did they think this wouldn't happen when history has shown the vulnerability of their systems. Not only does their website lack usage capacity but it's ability to schedule in relation to actual vehicle capacity is sometimes off by 30% or more.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:02

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Andrea Edgartown

it's 12noon and just as expected

"Unfortunately, we have run into an error we weren't able to recover from. We've been notified of the error, and will look into it right away. In the mean time, feel free to hit Back and try again."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:13

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Chip Maine

Been at it since 4:30am this morning. Suppose to be able to book at 5:00am, then 9:00am, then 12 noon and still get "sorry about that". They can't even communicate properly.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:13

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KAS

AGAIN!!! This is so not good! Many of us do not have access to the website all the time so this is literally a small window of opportunity to enable us to get our vehicles over to either MV or Nantucket..FRUSTRATING!!!...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:15

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shajura DC

WOW! This is the second time that this website has not been available to take reservations because it has crashed. This is incredibly inconvenient. Most of us work, have already put out a great sum of money to rent a home on the Vineyard, and are counting on being able to bring our vehicles over so that we can shop and move around the island. I am truly shocked and dismayed that this has happened again! Especially after that new 11% tax on all rentals. This stuff should run like butter!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:21

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Katama Bill Katama

I have a simple idea. Open up reservations based on a moving date. ie. 6 months. Airlines do the same thing.

Rena Vine NY

What a wonderful idea -- or even open a week at a time. Anything to eliminate the experience of today - getting up early and hitting back a few hundred times. It's not completely down though as sometimes I can make it to selecting the trip (before it kicks me out) and see that some boats are sold out already - mid-day on Sat Aug 22 - but still room left. I am hoping to be one of the lucky ones but agree with others here - a complete waste of day!

Rena Vine NY

P.S. After 9 hours of trying - I got to make my reservation. I almost got to the finish several times - once the list of states wouldn't come up to choose from, another time....all the way the purchase button, only to get a time out! If you get as far as picking out times and then it times-out/no connection, I think it's because it has no availability as I started changing times and am now leaving 6:30 Sat Aug 22, even though later times appeared, they wouldn't "take." But as others point out...it's the only game in town.

Annie P WTis

I suggest taking advantage of the waitlist option. After you have your reservation. Choose a range of times that you like Better - there is a LOT of shuffling of reservations between now and summer. Odds are high that you’ll improve your spot.

Pennye J. Framingham

Waitlisted return trip yesterday when I was FINALLY able to make reservation about 2:30 pm. Got moved overnight and was notified this morning! Always remember to indicate a sufficient waitlist time frame to allow for multiple trip possibilities.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:27

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Yup Edg

Wait, I thought the board wanted to give Davis an A+? What exactly is going on over there?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:28

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Marie

Now there is not even a timeframe. Sit at your computer all day and keep trying?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:28

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disugusted edg

You can't make this stuff up. Mechanical incompetence, financial incompetence, technical incompetence. I have a suggestion, rather than piss away more money with studies and consultants, get some smart 4th grade kids to set up your website with the proper capacity to handle the online traffic. Maybe get some students from trades classes to come up with a proper preventative maintenance schedule. And a few from the math club to do your budget.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:40

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Island Mike MV

This happened last year too. Obviously their IT department works from the same playbook as the rest of the company - haven't they heard of compute on demand? THEY ALL NEED TO GO! Just sad!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 12:56

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Milton Chicago

Well, it appears to me that the Steamship Authority is reliable alright...extraordinarily reliable in its consistent unreliability!

What we have here is a failure of government. If there was a profit incentive here, any other private boat company would have fixed these problems to satisfy the demand of its customers. Otherwise they’d be rightly run out of business.

Government monopoly fails and always results in poor quality at increasingly higher prices subsidized by the public. Privatize the Steamship and let there be competition. The public will be free to choose to vote with their dollar and the people, both Islanders and tourists, will be immeasurably better off. Unfortunately, this will likely not happen in a state where government tends to hold more power than the people it’s purported to serve. One can dream, though!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:03

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Laurie RI

Since being up at 4:45 this morning I have been told several times to keep trying...either on the phone or by the website. The last time I was also told that SOME reservations are being processed. How can that be, and further more, how can that be fair? Scrub the mission and set up a new date for us all to make our vehicle reservaions fairly! Not good business at all.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:03

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KatamaBird Natick

I thought I could not be more insulted than when I was whacked with the ridiculous new rental tax. Wrong. Been coming to the Vineyard for 25 years, but the price gouging of summer visitors and the ridiculous lack of customer service at the SSA will send me elsewhere next year. There are lots of places that treat summer visitors as guests rather than piggy banks and to which you can drive without having to ask permission from some government authority that runs a monopoly on the only mode of transportation.

Mark Edgartown

!00% agree with you, for an economy completely reliant on Summer dollars the incompetence of elected officials and the SSA stuns me. We should be encouraging the Summer economy not causing its death by a hundred cuts.

Mark Edgartown

I understand SSA structure, re: the government incompetence I referenced is related to leveling unnecessary short term rental tax on Summer visitors...Edgartown’s property is valued at over $10bn and we were just able to reduce property tax rates. Enough is enough, no need for the money grab that could hurt the Summer economy.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:10

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Mike Barbados WI

This is totally unacceptable.I have wasted an entire day and still have no idea when I might get a reservation. The irony is that the folks who work the ferry boats are fabulous.....oh well.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:11

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Amy O’Brien Fairfield, CT

Is anyone getting through? I still can’t anything but the “Sorry About That” page.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:18

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Mike Grand Blanc Michigan

You cannot even make this up! Come on this is 2020. It is not as if millions of people are trying to access the site.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:20

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Ed A

This is the most ridiculous situation that I have ever encountered. There is no excuse for the lack of planning, testing and preparation of the website. As someone involved in the IT industry, I can tell you that this is 100% the fault of poor management and a complete lack of concern for customer service.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:30

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Paul Connecticut

It would be beneficial if they simply announced that there will be no reservations today, rather than keeping people at their computers hitting refresh.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:33

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Gary Hoffer Pawtucket

And they say the system started working at 12:30!! Really? Try getting on, I've been at it since 5:00 a.n.!!!!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:38

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Richard Fontana Orange

I would immediately remove Mr. Davis as this is completely unacceptable. Especially that his has already occurred last 2 years. Get some leadership that will make a difference, and not the same old inadequate leader!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:02

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Jon United Kingdom

My family have a house rented in MV in August. It is a long trip for us from England. I have no idea what we will do if our ferry sells out. I’ve been trying to access the website since 5.00am US time and still can’t sign in 9 hours later!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:11

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Stephen Foraste Mainland - but hoping to make it to MV!

I agree with the suggestion that they call it a day. Turn off the website, fix the issue, TEST the system for real, then reschedule for another day. Tuesday, Jan 28th makes sense, but only if they KNOW they are ready.
Waking up early to waste a day "trying again", is bad enough, to know that others are luckily getting through when I am not, creates growing frustration. If the end result is that I cannot reach my rental 7 months from now is cruel and unusual!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:15

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Joni Haley New Boston, NH

I got as far as making a reservation and putting my credit card in, and then, after about 15 minutes of processing, was booted out. Now I am not sure if I have a reservation or not, but my credit card number is in the system. :(

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:35

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charlie callahan so boston/edgartown

This is almost as though these clowns running this circus are doing these things purposely. Even total idiots couldn't be jinxed as bad as this AUTHORITY

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:45

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Kathleen Maryland

I was finally able to purchase my ferry reservation to MV!! I started at 2:20. The first time that I saw a page that said "cannot load" I pressed the reload button and it eventually reloaded. The whole process took a long time (20 minutes) but I was successful. I hope everyone else can get in now too. Good luck!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/21/2020 - 14:50

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Marie

Time for competition. Let another carrier take half the allotted cars. Lets see who wins.

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