PartyPoker Upgrade Reversed Following Network Failure
Major Euro-facing online poker site PartyPoker found itself backing out a recent software upgrade in a hurry over the weekend, after the latest client upgrade caused unspecified network errors that culminated in a system crash on Saturday.
PartyPoker quickly issued a statement of apology (reprinted below) and confirmed that refunds for all interrupted and canceled events will be issued in accordance with the site’s standing policy in such matters.
The system failure, which Party has yet to precisely locate but appeared tied to a mid-week client upgrade, caused the site to have to reschedule at least one Grand Prix Poker Tour (GPPT) online event, which is now scheduled for Wednesday, February 24th, during European evening hours. PartyPoker has not announced a specific date for when the next upgrade will be implemented, though the site’s statement regarding the outage implies that it won’t happen until late March, allowing Party’s next wave of promotional events to run without the threat of a similar upgrade-induced crash.
Front and center among the site’s near-future promotions is Week 2 of PartyPoker’s “Powerfest” series, which collectively offers $5 million in guaranteed prizes. Week 2 started on Sunday, just hours after the site was restored, and there have already been quite a few overlays, which tend to make players happy (not that we’re providing plugs or links here). However, with this big spring event ongoing, it’s little wonder Party decided to unwind the latest upgrade and wait a few more weeks to try again.
The site appeared to be down for about seven hours during prime European Saturday-evening poker hours, causing plenty of outcry from waiting players on poker discussion boards and social media. Party’s tech staff managed to get the site restored well in advance of an initial promise of 6am GT the following morning, however, and with the exception of one very brief hiccup later on Sunday, the new (old) PartyPoker has been running fine ever since.
————————————
The PartyPoker statement on the Saturday system crash:
As you are aware, partypoker experienced some unexpected downtime to our services on Saturday 20 February, 2016, resulting in several tournaments being cancelled. Over the past 12 months, partypoker has worked tirelessly to improve all aspects of the site and the feedback from you, our valued customers, has been extremely positive.
One of the reasons for the positivity is the fact partypoker has been transparent when it comes to giving you information about the changes being made to your online poker site, the poker site for the people, and that transparency continues today as we explain what caused the downtime on February 20, what we have to done to rectify the issue, and what happens next.
Firstly, we would like to sincerely apologise for last night’s system downtime. This seems to have been caused by issues with a routine update to the software deployed earlier this week and is now under investigation by our technical teams. Until the underlying problem is solved in full, we have taken the decision to reverse this update, thus ensuring that everyone has a smooth over the next four weeks, starting with the Featherweight Week on Sunday 21 February.
We understand the frustration felt by our players who had their tournaments cancelled and rest assured that we will honour all of the guaranteed prize pools in full for those tournaments that started before the technical issues arose last night. The customer support team is working around the clock to process these refunds. As you can appreciate this is a substantial task, but should you not receive your refund in the next day or two, please contact customer support who will be happy to assist you further.
We would also like to apologise to those players who were unable to participate in the scheduled Grand Prix Poker Tour Newcastle Online Day 1 and we have decided to run a special GPPT UK Online Leg at 7:00 pm GMT on Wednesday 24 February so that you have the opportunity to use your GPPT $109 tickets. This tournament will have a $50,000 guaranteed and we are adding an additional $10,000 to the guaranteed prize pool.
Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all each and every one of you who have supported partypoker and helped us grow the site over the last 12 months. We know that there will be bumps along the way, but rest assured, we all remain 100% committed to the cause of bringing poker back to the people.
COMMENTS