Just a heads up that certain functionality is currently unavailable:
- Phone support (inoperable until upgrade completes)
Chat support (may still partially work during upgrades)(Restored March 12)Documentation (will return in phases)(Restored March 3, ongoing)
Outages of the above services will begin Monday, March 2, and are currently expected to last 2-3 days through Saturday, March 7 (see progress below). While inconvenient, these upgrades also ensure future modifications do not require taking services completely offline.
We also anticipate extended delays in responding to customer service queries during the upgrades due to the amount of work. We ask for your patience as we perform these upgrades.
The following updates note our progress towards full restoration of all services.
Update 3/3 9 am: Migration of documentation continues, approximately 50% complete. This step is required before the rest of the migration occurs. During this time, customers will temporarily lose access to documentation for items purchased through their account. Chat and phone service remain unavailable.
Update 3/3 3 pm: Most documentation should now be available through My Account and product pages. We are now adding non-critical documentation and ensuring that all documentation is correctly labeled and linked.
Update 3/3 9 pm: Documentation has been fully restored, and videos will be added after the migration. We are now proceeding to testing to ensure functionality.
Update 3/4 4 pm: Work is now progressing on testing the connection between our servers and Ben.
Update 3/5 12 am: We have successfully connected Ben to our servers and are testing chat functionality internally. We expect to restore chat support within 24-36 hours. Note: Ben may “work,” but he is only partially connected to some services.
Update 3/5 5 am: Work has begun on the flows Ben uses to navigate conversations effectively. This is the single largest task of the migration, and is expected to take up most of the day, as it requires extensive testing. The restoration of the web chat service will occur shortly after work on flows is complete. Restoration of phone service is currently expected by Friday, March 6.
Update 3/5 7 pm: We are updating our expected full restoration of chat and phone service to Saturday, March 7, due to the amount of work necessary to complete Ben’s workflows. Some services will return online starting Friday night.
Update 3/6 5 am: We have confirmed the connection between our servers and Ben, and the basic workflow layout has been completed. Final work on the flow layout is now underway, followed by initial testing to confirm the correct operation of Ben’s tools. Pending the successful result of the internal test, the update is expected to deploy to our live server early Saturday morning for web chat and Saturday evening for phone support.
Update 3/7 11 am: Work on the final version of Ben’s workflows is nearly complete. We are now connecting the security functionality, the final step before testing. More updates soon.
Update 3/8 12:30 am: We’re continuing to improve Ben’s flows, especially in security. Due to the sensitive nature, we are not rushing this work. However, when services are fully restored, both chat and phone support should be available simultaneously. We are aiming for that within the next day or so.
Progress Update – Sunday March, 8
Instead of a shorter update, we wanted to provide a little more detail on why it’s taking longer than expected to bring our chat and phone service back online. One thing that is dramatically different from our initial launch is that we have more data to work with, which means we can run better tests before launch.
This has revealed some “hiccups” in the flows that guide Ben’s conversations, and may explain why he sometimes pauses for long periods before responding. In simplest terms, he was unsure of what to do and had to rely on training. By providing a flow for Ben to follow, he will know what to do even when the request is unclear.
Also, and we think you’ll understand, a lot of this release of Ben is about security, ensuring private data is secure. Those tests are complete and successful; we’re taking extra steps to keep the bad guys out.
We’re also preparing our platform for an eventual migration to non-OpenAI providers. We want to stress that this migration was already in motion before the events of the past few weeks. Our decision to move away from OpenAI stems from its announcement that it will use data for marketing purposes, such as selling you something relevant to your conversation with ChatGPT.
Such a move left us with serious concerns about the platform overall, so we decided at the beginning of the year to move to an alternative platform with stronger assurances that our business data isn’t being used against us.
Plus, with so much skepticism around AI โ some of it very valid โ we want to make sure the experience provides value, protects your information, and, most importantly, works correctly.
We will continue to post updates on our progress, but rest assured, we’re nearing the end. It just took a few more days to get everything right!
Update 3/9 2 am: We have made substantial progress on Ben’s flows, and they are currently functionally complete for the functions that are present. Initial testing has revealed some missing functionality, which will be added through Monday. We have also made changes to the server Ben uses to allow him to serve multiple customers simultaneously (not needed during the test, obviously!).
Update 3/10 1 am: While we didn’t get to work on the flows as much as we had hoped, they are now complete, and we are progressing to the final phase, internal testing. Most of the tests have passed, so we anticipate being able to restore chat service late Tuesday.
Progress Update – Wednesday, March 11
Time for another longer progress update! One of our main goals during testing is to iron out areas that cause Ben to behave unexpectedly or take the wrong path in a flow. Our tests are finding those issues, and we have made considerable progress in improving predictability.
We want to make sure that Ben works well, and ensuring he’s following our flows and policies is important. These tests help us understand how Ben may behave.
We’ve also done something very important: placed a feature freeze on any new functionality. As we’ve worked, new ideas have crept in. These are all features that make Ben a more complete customer service representative, but they can also wait.
One of the most important features that have made it in is Ben’s context awareness: he now knows which page you’re on and, if you have a cart, assists you in completing your orderโeven if you’re not logged in! Need to create an account? Ben can do it for you.
We’ll have another update on Wednesday night. Thank you for being so patient. We’re working hard!
Update 3/11 6:00 am: We expect to have a short period of site downtime on Wednesday afternoon as we wire Ben into the site itself. Final targeted fixes are also queued for the remaining issues spotted in initial testing.
Update 3/12 1:00 am: Chat service has been restored! Work on restoring phone service continues. We currently anticipate requiring additional time to ensure voice functionality works properly.