Excite Mail problems persist for 48 hours

Excite Mail, Excite@Home's free Web-based email service, is suffering outages caused by a hardware failure that are affecting a portion of its users, the company confirmed today.

Between 10 percent and 15 percent of Excite Mail's users have been without service for as long as 48 hours, according to Excite@Home spokeswoman Melissa Walia. The company does not disclose how many people use its Excite Mail service, but more than 38 million people have registered to use Excite.com, the Internet portal business of Excite@Home.

"We have had a hardware failure associated with one of our storage machines," Walia said.

Service is expected to be restored by 9 p.m. PT today, according to the company.

But some users have complained in emails to CNET News.com that Excite already has pushed back its expected restoration time on several occasions. "We're working with our mail customers to give them constant updates on our status," Walia said.

Jeff Edgett, a 22-year-old Web developer in Alexandria, Virginia, said he first experienced an error message indicating too many users on the system Wednesday night.

"It makes me mad," Edgett said. "I was trying to get a message, and the only way I had to get in touch with that person was through email."

Affected users will receive their email once the problem has been resolved, according to the company. "No data will be lost," Walia said.

As reported, the Excite Mail service also had problems earlier this week. Some users of Excite Mail experienced sluggish access to their Web-based email because of a spike in usage after the Labor Day holiday weekend, Walia said.

Service glitches are nothing new for the free Web-based email market.

Microsoft's Hotmail has suffered a series of woes in recent years, with outages most recently in June.

Similarly, online auction site eBay has inspired the ire of many users after a string of service outages in recent months.

excite.com email problem

Can't wait until Google mail is out for all interested users

[joeinflorida]

The problem has gotten worse and worse for me ever since they came out with their new email tool. I have used this service for over ten years and have never had the kinds of continuing problems i have now. It is sluggish to load and clunky during usage and the last time i tried to log in it stopped at "loading application" and locked up my computer until i was able to close that tab. The ads all seem to still work however.

[ashleibabe]

I definitely agree this problem has gotten worse. I have tried to access my email account for the past couple of days with no luck. It was very sluggish to load and eventually froze up during the "loading application" on my computer also. I had sent some emails to a friend that also uses excite and he said that he hadn't received anything from me in a couple of days. He also told me he was able to access his account yesterday and then not again until almost 24hrs. later.

[ashleibabe]

I forgot to mention the emails I was referring to that I sent, were sent from another account (not excite).

[qrwtyfufifi]

I have been having serious trouble with my Excite Account. This has been my primary account for many years and I am so dissapointed. The system won't load, has lost my contacts, locks up my computer and rejects incoming emails. Since I also use this account for business, it is causing both private and professional hardships for me. Excite users should start contacting thoes companies who are paying to advertise on the email accounts and let them know how they are wasting their money. Once I can retrieve my contacts and notify everyone, I am going to leave Excite forever.

[jacquie_bromley]

I also agree that since things have changed it takes much longer to check my e-mail and more times than not I can't even read them due to "error on page"

[cglrcng]

Still having Excite.com e-mail problems as are millions of others according to parent company IAC phone answer(s). Why is there no actual tec line where you can actually reach a human @ Excite.com?

[johnsonthego]

Yes, why is it impossible to communicate with someone?
The time it takes to get and check my regular mail has trippled. I can't afford the time. Is it better for paid users? Or am I getting ALL the streams of advertisments?

[johnsonthego]

Oh, it's been longer than that..... for me.
Apparently, I was volunteered as one of the first to be forced into using this worthless beta. I would never have opted for this junk. It is absolutely no good. Been using the same address for over three years. Send and receive important documents throught this address. Now, I really don't know what's happened to some of my old files, Can't be replaced. I requested to use the old system due to difficulties, however, not an option. The cream of the crop is that it sucks! Keeps flooding my inbox and spam box with spam. Oh, I deleat so many it's not funny. However, the more I deleat, the more they return. The SAME e-mails! I feel like a pawn for their advertisment budget. Since I don't pay for the e-mail, I guess They have to get something out of me. Tell you what...... I can't even use it, really! trying to find all my stuff and switch to another provider. It is such a pain. The Do Right Association says there should be a law. ........... Or something. Everything's becoming so misleading. Getting out of hand

[yooztoo]

I have been a PAYING EXCITE member for several years. The service has NEVER been this bad and it all began after the e mail upgrade. All the blogs and posts I have read are the same problems I have expereinceing. I very OFTEN cannot get into my e mail account. If I get past the initial load it freezes in the middle and I get an error on page. I wrote to excite help and did not get anywhere. I will not renew unless the problems are fixed. It wasn't broken to begin with. Don't know why it is takeing so long to make it right.

[mymetal]

I am switching to Yahoo Right now and never going back to excite

[mclendom]

I'm sick of Ecite not working properly, so I switched to Gmail and it is quite faster. I have sent Excite numerous emails to support and have not received a response. I put my phone number in there and still nothing. There is no way to receive a response from them, because you cannot access the email. I have been experiencing this problem for a week now. The page will not load. I suggest emailing or calling all the people you correspond through email and let them know that you have a new email address, because I suspect the Excite may not be around much longer. Freaking retards.