Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records • Hacker News Board

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#131

Post by djsumdog » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:44 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #115

djsumdog wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> UptimeRobot and Hetrixtools are good starters with generous free tier Are there any open source status pages/monitor programs that have build-in checks for HTTPS, DNS records (ipv4/6), arbitrary port checks, etc? I'd rather just setup a status page/alert app on a $5 minimal DO/Vultr node and self-host/support/contribute to a FOSS program than use a commercial provider.

You need to host across several nodes in different geographic locations and data centers to resist network splits. Then you need some way to slowly roll out upgrades to your monitoring platform over time.

I'm just talking about my personal infrastructure. If I host my crap in Vultr or Linode, I should be able to buy one cheap node on another provider just to run a simple status app: something with celary or sidekiq jobs to check my other stuff and intervals and generate a page with some red/yellow/green dots.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#132

Post by subhro » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

graiz wrote: post #126

iudqnolq wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. You can post updates with any relevant information. Probably goes without saying, but if the issue has to do with my billing or address please don't post specific details without asking me first. I will link to this comment from TFA for verification. (Edit: added to the bottom. If you need more verification you have my email.) Edit2: I see that the domain is back in my account and listed as "Pending Nameserv…

Maybe contact support first, figure out what happened and why before writing the blog post? Maybe it's a cloudflare issue, maybe it's an honest mistake, maybe they are bad at customer service... either way, it's not great to shame a company before you even open a support ticket or talk to someone to find out.

I think it is a bit harsh to say that the OP was trying to shame anyone. He did post a support ticket. When your domain is "off-line" it is literally a shit hit the fan moment, and no one likes to be given the run-around.

To combat, hey my issue is always a Sev1 ticket, one can probably institute something like, here is a red button and if you click it, we will charge 100$. If it is indeed an issue that caused you to lose 90%(say) traffic and it was our fault, we will return the money.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#133

Post by mpitt » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #125

jgrahamc wrote: post #83

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

I've put this idea forward a number of times here on HN in regards to other big tech companies. Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. The Ombudsman must not be part of the technology companies ordinary support processes, it must be entirely separate, and have highest level authority to demand action within the company. To avoi…

jgc is not a "random" Cloudflare person ;)

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#134

Post by gist » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

jgrahamc wrote: post #83

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

> BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

I know that people will think it's great that you are doing this and I also know that you think it's good (for you) to have a feel for the issues that frustrate every day users. But I think it's not a great use of a company execs time and I am not even sure it's a good way to deploy resources at Cloudflare.

The reason is people will tend to (as a rule) do as little as they can themselves but then use as a hammer the court of public opinion to get something resolved.

You say 'ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare' but you know that in itself is different for different people. What will happen is you will get people using you as a help desk and then after you don't help them as quickly as they think you should they will then follow up with a post, comment or story about how you did nothing.

Separately if someone is posting publicly about an issue (as this person is) and if you can verify that it's actually coming from the customer (I mean who says it is actually?) I don't think you need them to say it's ok to resolve online. In fact to me it's the opposite. You take the time to reach out publicly and you take what follows good or bad even calling you out (the customer yes you can do that by the way) if you think they didn't put the appropriate effort into finding an answer.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#135

Post by goatsi » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC

graiz wrote: post #126

iudqnolq wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. You can post updates with any relevant information. Probably goes without saying, but if the issue has to do with my billing or address please don't post specific details without asking me first. I will link to this comment from TFA for verification. (Edit: added to the bottom. If you need more verification you have my email.) Edit2: I see that the domain is back in my account and listed as "Pending Nameserv…

Maybe contact support first, figure out what happened and why before writing the blog post? Maybe it's a cloudflare issue, maybe it's an honest mistake, maybe they are bad at customer service... either way, it's not great to shame a company before you even open a support ticket or talk to someone to find out.

In the blog post he mentions that Cloudflare recommends posting your problem to their open community forum to try and get things resolved. He couldn't access their forum, so he posted it on a different one.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#136

Post by gist » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #125

jgrahamc wrote: post #83

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

I've put this idea forward a number of times here on HN in regards to other big tech companies. Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. The Ombudsman must not be part of the technology companies ordinary support processes, it must be entirely separate, and have highest level authority to demand action within the company. To avoi…

> Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed.

From what I read this is nothing to indicate the process failed (so far) just that the user decided to skip to the head of the line by writing a blog post internet style to get something resolved and attention. Failed is not 'I didn't get a reply or find what I needed as quickly as I think it should happen so now let me complain publicly so I get a reply'.

> To avoid the Ombudsman being overused, you could give it a price of say $20, which is always refunded when the case is resolved.

In theory nice but first it would be a 'deposit' and also opens up a host of new issues as far as the money being paid back and how that would be done and so on.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#137

Post by iudqnolq » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:49 PM UTC

graiz wrote: post #126

iudqnolq wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. You can post updates with any relevant information. Probably goes without saying, but if the issue has to do with my billing or address please don't post specific details without asking me first. I will link to this comment from TFA for verification. (Edit: added to the bottom. If you need more verification you have my email.) Edit2: I see that the domain is back in my account and listed as "Pending Nameserv…

Maybe contact support first, figure out what happened and why before writing the blog post? Maybe it's a cloudflare issue, maybe it's an honest mistake, maybe they are bad at customer service... either way, it's not great to shame a company before you even open a support ticket or talk to someone to find out.

I address this in TFA.

Essentially I felt that this was alright because when I filed a ticket I was informed that I should expect a long wait and that they recommend that their non-business customers post publicly on their support forum for crowdsourced support because that leads to faster replies. I was unable to log into that forum, and I suspect that may be because the way they set up SSO between the forum login and their main login may have failed in Firefox (with all tracking prevention and ad blockers disabled).

I felt that if a company invites me to ask for support publicly on their forum to save on customer support costs it's reasonable to talk about the issue in another public place.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#138

Post by _def » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:49 PM UTC

Paul-ish wrote: post #96

> However, I'm unable to log in to their community forum. When I click the login button I'm redirected to my dashboard, and when I then click Support on the dashboard I'm redirected back to the forum without being logged in. I suppose it's possibly an issue with Firefox blocking cookies (although I disabled tracking prevention) so it's possible this part is partly a problem on my end. I'm into issues like this more a…

If a service doesn't function properly without tracking I wouldn't blame it on a privacy respecting browser.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#139

Post by samcrawford » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:49 PM UTC

iruoy wrote: post #120

paulfurley wrote: post #77

FWIW I recently evaluated a few DNS companies after Namecheap ballsed up our MX records in a similar way. I actively looked for someone we could pay money to, so we are their customer (as opposed to being a free tier user, effectively a cost) The winner was DNSimple[1], who do exactly 1 thing, and they do it extremely well. And they are small enough to not take themselves too seriously[2], which I really appreciate.…

NS1 could be another one to look at. I have never used their services (directly), but I've noticed Netlify uses them for their DNS services.

I've used ns1 for a few years, they've been great!

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#140

Post by briandear » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:50 PM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #125

jgrahamc wrote: post #83

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

I've put this idea forward a number of times here on HN in regards to other big tech companies. Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. The Ombudsman must not be part of the technology companies ordinary support processes, it must be entirely separate, and have highest level authority to demand action within the company. To avoi…

> Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed.

All companies should have that!