We’ve added two new preferences to the account control center that will be part of a significant change to Mail/DNS services in the near future. They’re under a new section called “Usage Allowance Handling” under the Account Preferences section. As the name implies, they are selectable actions on how to handle usage allowances. Since the beginning, Roller Network has handled account service levels under an honor system. Each service level has a data handling and storage allowance, but we left enforcement up to the account holder to purchase the appropriate service level to match their requirements. However, we are noticing a sharp increase of accounts only purchasing a Personal level service while consistently exceeding its allowances. We’re not sure why the sudden increase, but we only started noticing because some of them have bordered on abusive overuse enough to draw our attention.
Our intent for now is to put a system in place that will only send alerts when usage levels are approaching or exceed the allowances. Also, we will not be removing the “free days” flex option. Accounts will still be allowed to occasionally exceed their usage levels for busy days during the month. We understand that everyone has unexpected or unplanned busy days or over-peak usage. As of this writing we are planning on allowing up to three or four free usage days per month.
We realize this will be unpopular for some customers and cause concerns for others. Based on usage data we do not foresee the vast majority of our customers being affected. The bad news is that yes, some accounts may ultimately be subject to additional use charges, and we will probably lose some of those customers as a result. We also understand that some current customers may have even put off upgrading to keep an old price point under our service guarantee; depending on how old the account is, it may cost less to simply add additional usage instead of upgrading the account.
As we work through this process we only ask one thing: don’t panic. Roller Network will continue to work with our customers and take your concerns into account in order to find the best possible solution, just as we have in the past. Nothing here is set in stone. Please feel free to voice your concerns and we will post answers to common questions as well.
One of our “for fun” projects we recently completed was to add online streaming audio for the two NOAA Weather Radio stations we are able to receive. By utilizing a pair of handheld Midland weather radios tuned to stations