Apple online outage impacts retail outlets in US, Europe
Roger Fingas
The extended outage of Apple's online services on Wednesday appears to have impacted not just its online stores, but also its retail outlets, which suffered problems conducting basic business operations.
For two hours yesterday, some European Apple Stores couldn't punch in workers, conduct sales, or handle Genius Bar appointments, a source told Business Insider. Staff were reportedly unable to even check their email until about 3 p.m. GMT.
While sales and services were hampered, workers were left with little to do except answer phones and talk to store visitors. Many phone calls were reportedly complaints about Apple's online services.
A Twitter user also observed that at one outlet in Birmingham, England, clerks resorted to using analog credit card readers to continue business.
In addition, a number of stores experienced trouble in the U.S. and the U.K., suggesting that the outage affected Apple retail on a global scale, according to The Next Web.
The company issued a rare apology on Wednesday after the iTunes Store, iBookstore, and Mac and iOS App Stores had been down for over seven hours.
The issue was blamed on "an internal DNS error," and only fully resolved sometime after 4 p.m. Eastern or 8 p.m. GMT. For a time iCloud mail and account services were also impacted, but those difficulties were fixed in relatively short order.
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28 Comments
Shit happens.
I would hope this would spur a rethink of the current system. Accidents do happen, but Apple can't afford for them to go on that long either.
I still say this was probably hacking related.
I still say this was probably hacking related.
Or Apple did a check of their systems and found some NSA/CIA crap on there, decided to trash it and start over.
Reminds me of that line in the movie "Spaceballs", when they went to turn off the self-destruction switch and it was tagged as 'out of order' and the Mel Brooks President character said, "F*ck, even in the future nothing works!" Bottom line, technology snafus aren't impervious to giving one a massive headache, even if branded Apple.