An example today about how an error message can make the difference between a happy end user, and an annoyed end user that is willing to blog about it – that’s me.
If you try to login to your account on the Fido.ca website, at about 11:30PM Pacific Time, you will get this error message: “Sorry! Your request cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later.”
On any other website, I would assume that there is a temporary, generally one-time, issue. Maybe the site is overloaded, or it might have a technical glitch. That’s OK. In Fido land? This error means that the website is down for it’s nightly maintenance and I should give up and try tomorrow, but earlier in the night because Fido doesn’t like people on the West Coast.
This isn’t listed anywhere – it’s something that I’ve deduced over months of using the Fido site to pay my bill by credit card. I’m not impressed that Fido’s website has a nightly maintenance schedule, especially one that seems to kick in before midnight Vancouver time, but I’m really not impressed by the wording of the error. All they need to do is follow the banks and fess up to their maintenance schedule. Something like, “Hi, the Fido.ca user site is unavailable from 11PM to 6AM PST. Please try again during our operating hours.”
As an aside, if you’re wondering what the error message is if you have entered your phone number or password wrong, it’s “No match for that phone number and password was found. Please try again… Sorry! No match was found for that phone number and password. Please retry.” in a red box right above the login boxes. I kept getting the “Please try again later” error, so at one time I wondered if I had been using the wrong password.
Is this a big enough annoyance to make me switch my cell plan away from Fido? No, but this added to various other annoyances and… well… I’ll certainly be evaluating my options when the new wireless providers in Canada start up in 2010.
Tags: cellphone, error, fail, fido, fido.ca, login, maintenance, password, user, wireless, wording
February 15th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Thanks. Been wondering why I couldn’t log in.
February 25th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I have the exact same issue. Fido already is overcharging, especially for the network access fee (which we shouldn pay)
March 16th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
This always happen everytime I need to refill my Fido Prepaid! FIDO: YOU
‘RE LOOSING LOTS AND LOTS OF CUSTOMERS IF YOU DON”T FIX THIS!!
March 20th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
I live in Southwestern Ontario and at 10:45 I got that message from FIDO. I was trying to access my account for data update. It isn’t just the west coast; they hate us all equally LOL.
April 27th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Curious, I just tried to login at 11:22PM, PST, and what error did I get today?
“Our systems are under maintenance daily between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. EST. Self-serve functionalities are currently not available. Please visit us again after 6 a.m. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Wow, it’s almost as if someone read my original blog post.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Called fido rep today. They have no idea why this has been happening for months. They just told me to pay the extra 4$ to get the invoice sent to my house. I cancelled my fido contract.
May 15th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Fido is complete trash, how can be pay the bills and be “eco” friendly? You can geuss the type of “Green” they care about isn’t providing a working website for us to use.
June 29th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
In fact the mentioned error can appear anytime and almost evertime I try to login, rain or shine – 9 out of 10 times!
June 30th, 2010 at 7:52 am
“Is this a big enough annoyance to make me switch my cell plan away from Fido?”
You bet, in this time and age, this is unacceptable.
September 3rd, 2010 at 1:45 pm
this is going even today (Sept 3 2010). right before the long weekend.
no ability to access your account, recharge a prepaid phone. Difficult to reach customer service. WHERE IS CRTC?!?!?!
September 18th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Thank you for this valuable information.
September 25th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
It’s September 2010 and nothing has changed. I cannot refill my cell minutes :-( Weird.
March 25th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Still happens even in March 2011
March 27th, 2011 at 4:48 am
Still Happening in 2011 March 27th
April 21st, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Simply put, their website is complete and utter crap. Been a prepaid user for about 2 years now and always re-fill my account through their so-called website. Because of random error messages, I’ve lost my minutes several times already. As others have said, totally unacceptable nowadays and this really speaks volumes about their company. Frankly, I can’t believe this isn’t happening on purpose.
June 10th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
It’s now June. I’m in Toronto. It wass 1pm. Why the f**k does it take 5 minutes for it to realize that it [still] can’t let me see my bill. There can’t possibly be too many people on the site at this time of day. Half the time it’s unable to log me in and the other half it won’t let me through anyway. I’m getting fed up with this nonsense. Especially since it wouldn’t let me refill for a week, and that’s without using the site. I’m switching from Fido. I can’t put up with this stupidity anymore
September 24th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
same issue – can’t log in to my Fido account to refill my prepaid cell, starting about 10:20pm mountain time and ongoing to 11pm Saturday Sept24, 2011. And of course their customer service is closed until Monday. Can’t refill through my phone -Fido’s automated refill system is having ‘technical difficulties’ and tries to transfer me to a live person, who is taking the weekend off. Can’t refill on their website. Seems like a mickey mouse outfit to me, or perhaps lower on the evolutionary ladder like an invertebrate of some sort – certainly not a dog’s level of technical expertise.
November 14th, 2011 at 9:51 am
Ive been with fido since jan2000 and Ive had it also. Im definitely changing to mobilicity this week. the problem with most corporations is that they pay more for advertising than customer service. A good business model is knowing that its cheaper to keep existing customers than to go out searching for new ones.
December 5th, 2011 at 12:04 am
I’ve been trying to log into myFido all weekend, and its been down every time I’ve tried. But it seems like all other functionality on the site works. i wonder if it is really maintenance issues, or as I suspect, IT Labor cost reduction?
February 20th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
That’s it. I’ve fed up with the crappiest website ever. I’m switching to anything else whatever it is.
March 21st, 2012 at 1:12 am
It is March 21, 2012 & this nonsense is still happening! I have had so many issues with Fido although I have a prepaid account!!!! When I make valid complaints they seem so nonchalont about it. They have THE WORST customer service in North America. I have been a customer for over 5 years but they dont value my loyalty. I am switching to anothrr company TODAY!
March 21st, 2012 at 1:14 am
Oh yeah, did I mention they have the shittiest, UNuser friendly, website?
March 29th, 2012 at 12:20 am
I’ve never ever seen any other websites to have their services unavailable every single night for 8 hours. For what? Why? Based on what rule?!!!!!!!!
I am a software developer myself and I just don’t get it, why Fido’s service should not be accessible 24 x 7 like all other web services.
Fido, this is just poor service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 20th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Down again today. Can’t even login to re-new my prepaid service.
September 19th, 2012 at 2:11 am
Still happening today, September 18th, 2012.
Still not fixed?
I was going to login today because I NEEDED to see my account activity because I suspected that my cellphone had been stolen..but no such luck. >.>
Fido, if you won’t let us log in because of
“Our systems are under maintenance daily between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. EST. Self-serve functionalities are currently not available. Please visit us again after 6 a.m. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
and also “Sorry! Your request cannot be completed at this time due to a technical issue. We are currently working on a resolution and appreciate your patience. Please try again later.”
both of which messages I received trying to log in today, then how about break intervals that we’re allowed to login to the site? “Maintenance has started, please wait one hour to be able to login. You will get a 30min login session, after which maintenance will continue for another hour until finished.”
That seems a bit more fair to me.
Or, better yet, throw out the maintenance excuse altogether, and manage your site better.
Take off ( put offline ) the main server that you regularly use, and let us log into an archived version of the site that gets updated to the latest information, until the point of maintenance. After your’re done maintenance on the main server that you put offline, take the archived site offline, and put the main server back online.
There, through better site management, you can make your maintenance invisible to your customers..and not lose any of them through annoying them with this site maintenance, or a fido representative over the phone telling you they’re not sure why it’s happening, and to go with invoices being sent to your house for an additional $4 a month..which just ends up with even more lost customers..
Also. If I’m going to go online, shouldn’t I have access to the latest texts and phone calls my phone has made? Telus had this when I was with them. Why doesn’t Fido have this then, hmm? I didn’t even have caller id, yet it told me everything up to the minute what had happened with texts and calling. Oh no, with Fido, I have to wait until the NEXT INVOICE to get that kind of information..even though I need it NOW to see what’s happening with my possibly stolen phone if anything. Telus showed every phone number online my last phone called, and texted. If I texted a number, it would show up almost instantly online as that number that I just texted. And same with calling too. If this is a feature that a customer didn’t want, they could always disable it in their online account settings..but I really need this feature.
Unfortunately I don’t have a data plan ( well, of course I don’t have one, it’s not possible at all for me. :P ), so any apps such as plan b or android lost can’t be ‘push installed’ to my phone..( Unless my phone can connect to an open network automatically? I don’t think it can..or if the thief decides to use the internet, which I don’t think they’ve done yet..or I would of at least got something from plan b..I never received an email from plan b..)
..I have avast security mobile on my phone..but I’m not sure if it’d work either? I’m not sure how to use the anti-theft feature on it. :S
But yeah anyways. Fido, please do better maintenance on your site..and add more up to date information available for your customers ( both text and phone call numbers the device has called/texted recently instead of having to wait until the next invoice..where the information is almost irrelevant after so long.. ) ..so that your customers don’t have any headaches about your service,,
Thanks for reading. ^_^
May 6th, 2013 at 10:30 pm
I hate this about Fido. 17% of the time, their website is useless.
July 27th, 2013 at 12:21 am
Still happening wow lol. Southern Ontario 2013.
October 15th, 2013 at 6:00 am
omg this is SO HORRIBLE this has been happening since yesterday, same dam thing : We are currently experiencing technical difficulties and cannot complete your request at this time. If you require immediate assistance, please call 1 888 481-FIDO (3436) and a customer service representative will be happy to assist you. Thank you and we apologize for any inconvenience.
WTF GRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! i wanted to sign up and purchase a phone but the site isnt working, now it reminds me of years ago when i used to have a fido account same thing happened, im gonna go with rogers and pay the extra 5 bucks a month for their plan, F this SHIT !!! I DONT WANT TO CALL OR GO TO A STORE I WANT TO ORDER IT ONLINE AND HAVE IT SHIPPED DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 25th, 2013 at 1:13 pm
What a fucking joke! Fido SUCKS ASS! I can’t even register a fucking phone after two fucking days of trying. Holy crap I am so going to jailbreak and piss all over every FIDO thing I find. One angry customer tells on average 15 people NOT to use the service I will go OUT OF MY WAY to tell EVERYONE how bad FIDO bites.
March 12th, 2014 at 11:16 pm
It’s March 13, 2014, still having the same dumbass problems. Fido isn’t getting their shit together so I’m done. Switching to Telus.
August 20th, 2014 at 12:46 am
Omg, this sick error showed up again. Just bought a new SIM, and every time i try to log in in order to recharge my prepaid, it says: Your request could not be processed!
aarghhh.
October 18th, 2014 at 10:32 pm
This has happened to me. I can’t access the website and phone topup won’t recognize pin. I’m starting to look around for another service. This is insane that it hasn’t been fixed in all of this time! They are gaining from people paying for a service they aren’t able to use. There should be a law against this.
March 14th, 2015 at 8:47 pm
Still happening. It’s 2015.
October 20th, 2015 at 10:10 pm
Happened to me today. It’s 2015. My contract is over! yeah! Bye bye fido. Will pay bill tomorrow and never return to ridiculous fidoland.
December 8th, 2015 at 11:41 am
Dec. 8, 2015 and can not log in for almost a week now to view my bill before paying it.
June 26th, 2016 at 11:57 am
From about June 15 to today, June 26, 2016 I have not been able to pay my bill or chnage my account plan. I had to call a customer rep to pay it. So, this problem has been ongoing for YEARS!!!
October 12th, 2017 at 3:14 pm
Sorry! Your request cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later
Soon Fido will go out of business if they do not hire qualified developers.
October 15th, 2017 at 7:05 am
Its oct 2017 and yes the website is still not allowing me to logon at random. Ive been with Fido for years and these problems with the site not being accessible are just as bad as 8 years ago. Fido likes to mix it up with a series of excuses for the website like :
“that username is no longer in use please use the email you provided art registration” a complete fabrication lol
“your account is unavailable right now try again later”
“thinking please stanby ” lol but it will never stop saying “thinking” you could wait hours makes no difference lol i love you guys!
” your using an outdated browser ” really im using the default browser on my late model Samsung.
“you have third party cookies disabled! fidos website will not work without third party cookies”
For those of you who dont know a third party cookie is an flight recorder that records all your activity to a file when your on a site but since the recorder is owned by a third party any other site that also uses that same third party can know what you did on the other site not just the one they administer. For example if you go to website A and look at some asian porn than go over to an other unrelated site that uses the same third party cookie/add network you may notice an advertisrmebnt for dating Asian women. dont worry though the file name assigned to your “add profile” will not be your name but instead a serial number or email address.
“your account has recently undergone some changes and is unavailable, please try again later”
and thats just off the top of my head. In fact the simple message here is that if your too cheap or too poor to pay for Rogers than you will be provided with very poor customer service. This is part of the buisness model as they need away to distinguish the high end rogers from the low end Fido service to service two separate markets. Fido idealy should only be used by a market that is not from the Rogers pool.To make sure of this they make fido customer service so difficult to use that any rational person would only use it out of obligation as they can not afford the alternative. Also the phone customer service is intentionally mind numbingly slow and inefficient in order to deter clients from calling too often or having easy access to making changes, that way they stay on their plans for longer and stay ignorant and uninformed.Also since no rational human would repeat such waste of time by calling customer service a second time, the costs for fido are far less.
Ask any website developer and they will confirm that a site that is unavailable or problematic to that extent is iether made that way intentionally or has a lack of active development because their is no financial motivation. Though I do like the old school yellow theme and the dog and i think fido should really focus more on dogs and do tv commercials with dogs as that’s what how they originally became known even though they were bought out by Rogers.
June 2nd, 2018 at 10:55 pm
Fido is the worst phone company I have ever been with!