Moving over to Linkup - watch out non-paying users you could lose your files

Thanks to everyone, and in particular WillTRiker, for keeping this blog going.

Great to see John Hood is a regular poster, responding to people's concerns here. Nice to get requests from you for adding links to help people using the blog, but may I suggest MediaMax looks to its own blog (comments still disabled) and poor communications at the same time.

Which is the issue that prompts me to come back today. I follow what's going on as comments are posted and hear that many people have not yet received a notification email from MediaMax. Mine has just arrived, so I'm posting it below. Like some people who have commented here, I am concerned that the switch over is to take place next week and I'm only being informed now.

It is an utter disgrace to read that free Mediamax subscribers need to upgrade by 25 April: "Otherwise, your account will be deleted and all your files will be lost."

Hasn't MediaMax learned a thing about the misery it causes when it loses people's files?

Anyway, the latest poll presents some other options, so give your view. For the record, the last poll showed that in January 70% of voters had extreme problems with MediaMax, 16% significant problems, 9% rare problems and 5% no problems.

This is the email I've just received. I'll join in with posting my comments on the switch over here later.

Luzo.

---MediaMax email received 18 April (ie one week before free subscribers will lose all their files)

We have some exciting news to share! We will be launching a major upgrade to MediaMax this month. With this release, we're going to be renaming our service to "The Linkup" (www.thelinkup.com). The Linkup supports all of the current functionality of MediaMax, but also has some exciting new features.

The basic info you need to know:

"The Linkup": MediaMax will be renamed to "The Linkup" on April 25. The new URL will be www.thelinkup.com and we're expecting that you'll love the new service and features. You can check out a preview now at:

http://www.thelinkup.com/

Current subscribers: If you are currently a paying subscriber to MediaMax, you don't need to do anything. Your account will automatically be moved from MediaMax to The Linkup before the end of the month. All files that you uploaded to MediaMax after July 1, 2007 will be automatically moved to The Linkup. If you'd like to move additional files, please select them here using the "mover" tool:

http://www.thelinkup.com/mover

We'll process requests made using this tool once per day through the end of this month. You can use this tool more than once if you forgot some files the first time.

Current non-paying users: If you are not currently a paying subscriber to MediaMax, you need to upgrade your account before April 25 to be included in the move. Otherwise, your account will be deleted and all your files will be lost. Click here to upgrade your MediaMax account:

Upgrade now:

http://www.mediamax.com/Brands/MediaMax/home/pricing_plan.aspx

The Linkup Prices: Effective April 25, we will be increasing the prices of all of our premium subscriptions, but, in addition to the increased stability and new features that The Linkup provides, we are also removing bandwidth limits on all accounts, so there will be no more bandwidth "overage" charges (for personal, non-commercial use only). For example: $4.95/mo subscribers will now be paying $5.95/mo; $9.95/mo subscribers will now be paying $11.95/mo. Your MediaMax subscription will be automatically moved to a The Linkup subscription that is closest to what you currently pay. Additional subscription details will be available on The Linkup web site.

That's it! If you're currently a paying subscriber, there is nothing for you to do (except for selecting extra files that you'd like to have moved). For additional information please visit our blog: http://mediamaxblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading, and we're looking forward to having you at The Linkup!

MediaMax & The Linkup Support Team

support@mediamax.com
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Do you want your Mediamax account rolled on to make up for the down time?

In response to my question about rolling on billing dates, John Hood of Mediamax responded on this blog with a comment that he would do so, if I send my account name.

That is very welcome.

But it raises another question. Are there any Mediamax users who do not deserve to have their accounts rolled on (or a refund if they prefer it)?

My experience is that this service has not been performing since June. I used to have regular meetings in Second Life using hosted mediastreams. I haven't had any since June because streams I wanted to use had disappeared. Now momentum has been lost and I don't know when there will be any point trying again. I also lost podcasts until I found another server to host them.

My view is that if Mediamax wants to make amends to customers, it should roll on billing dates by the number of months lost from June. The clock is still ticking, of course, as the service is still not properly usable. Indeed, new problems arise. The official Mediamax blog reported a 401 page timeout problem 4 days ago and still no update to say it is fixed.

It seems to me, the simplest thing is for Mediamax to freeze its billing process and when they do have things working, add on the lost months already deducted before they start the billing process again. I appreciate that creates cashflow problems, but, hey, isn't that a good reason to get things fixed and to ensure outages of 3 months or more do not occur again?

I would like to suggest anyone who wants their account rolled on in this way add their user name in a comment here. If you do not want to make this public, contact Mediamax at support@mediamax.com

I'll post a quick link to this page in the side bar so we can find it again. If you think you deserve more than the months lost since June, please say so.

By the same token, if there are any Mediamax customers out there who have been unaffected by the problems of the past months and want to publicly acknowledge receiving good service as advertised, then please also leave a comment. It would be interesting to know if there are any.