I often marvel at how screwed up the T is. From purchased trains of the wrong size, to flooding, to “switch problems,” to handicapped turnstiles at stations with no elevators, they always find a way to impress me.
Yesterday’s Globe: “A $466,000 revamp of the MBTA website debuts this morning . . .”
Today’s MBTA.com: “The MBTA apologizes for the slow response-time [sic] users experienced on our new website. We are currently doing everything we can to improve performance, and the new site will be re-released soon. In order to give customers the content needed, we are offering our former site while we work out the problems. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”
Back to the Globe: “RDVO, a small Web design firm in Somerville, revamped the site while helping upgrade the MBTA’s Web servers, which they said are now four times faster. The web site sees an estimated 500,000 visits per day.”
Now, I’m not saying that building a website to handle 500,000 visits easy. But I will say that when you know that you have 500,000 users, you probably should test it with 500,000 visits before you issue your press release.
It was load tested, the problem was with one of the 3rd party data providers
The “3rd party data provider” excuse is exactly that. An excuse.
The T is notorious for bending over backwards to coddle employees and outside companies milking taxpayers via The T, but not caring about customer experience.
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