As many of you have noticed we have had a recent outage as well as some strange data issues.  First please accept our apologies.
 
We want you to know that these occurrences are not acceptable to us and are certainly not to our standard of operations.  As we experience large hurdles of growth, technical issues arise that we try to deal with as quickly and painlessly as possible.  Sometimes not as quick and painless as we or you would like.  
 
On Monday, January 7th, not only did our main server fail, which was ok since the backup server took over as is normal procedure, but as bad luck would have it, the backup server then failed as well.  
 
Unfortunately most data was lost for the 24 hour period of Monday, January 7th.  Please check your accounts and resubmit any cards for approval that appear to have been "lost".
 
Please notify us of any issues or data you think is out of synch.
 
We are in the process of confirming card orders placed during this time period and restoring associated data which includes your Store Report data.
 
BigDates recently launched a Facebook application, Birthday Calendar, that is experiencing incredible popularity and growth.  This is a reminder service that incorporates Greeting Card Universe cards.  That's the good news    It is serving millions of users a day and has unfortunately put undue stress on our other sites and applications.  That's the bad news  
 
We have made a significant investment in new equipment and as we speak we are in the process of separating these applications so the Facebook workload will no longer impact the operation of our other sites like Greeting Card Universe.
 
Again, our apologies to you, who have been so patient and spent your valuable time working on your cards and stores.  These are growing pains on many fronts and we're committed to improving each step of the way.
 
Thank you for your understanding,
Mindy Rosso

aww...no worries all part of the game! Appreciate the info!!!  

Thanks for filling us in on what's happening. (I am very familiar with computer problems and know what a headache they can cause, having been a graphic designer using Macs since the 1980s!) Good luck resolving all the issues.
 
Sunday was my first day as an artist on GCU, so it's good to know that this is unusual!
 
Glad to be part of the community.
 
Dustin

Thanks for letting us know what is going on, Mindy!
 
I didn't have any trouble uploading or completing my cards yesterday, but of course, they weren't there today - only 3 of them, no big deal!  
 
Besides resubmitting those 3 cards, I won't be doing anything else to stress the servers today!
 
Take care, don't work too hard!
 
Hugs, Kat

Just a humorous thought..I think we should have a "card request" for the staff at GCU ..something like "I was looking for a "Hang In There" card for a great group of business people at an up-and-coming internet card company. The card should say thanks, we appreciate all your hard work, thanks for the timely communication ....things like that."
 
Glad GCU is experiencing such strong growth!! Glad I'm here!
 
Pat
Will Davis Studios

Ditto what everyone else has said. The team at GCU is A+++!

I too wish to join in a say a huge thank you for having the extra drive to take the time to send out a message on the problems.
 
I hope it will be solved soon and work again for you, nothing worse when it's happening, it's good to have back-ups but not when it happens to it too  
 
Big Huggs
/Inge

Yes, thank you for the information.  With the sales results we saw on the 7th, according to the email notifications, I'm not terribly shocked to learn GCU had a big server load.  Frankly, I'm still a little skeptical that we sold so many cards that day.  As of this morning, I still do not see it reflected in our reports.  So please do keep us posted on the recovery progress so I'll know when I can frett.  As of now, I won't worry about it.  I'm sure we're in good hands with GCU.