“Website inaccessible”: Around 10,000 people at Goldach SG in Lake Constance were unable to access the municipality’s website from 30 December 2022 until late in the morning of 6 January 2023. Those wishing to take advantage of official services or to get information about school, cultural life and more had to reach the municipality by phone – communication by e-mail was also not possible. This is because, as “Tagblatt” reports, the entire domain of the municipality of Goldach has been disabled.
Mayor Dominik Gemperli (51) explains to Blick that a 16-franc bill for domain hosting was not paid in 2023. The invoice went to a person who is no longer active and has an inactive address. That’s why the domain was shut down “without warning”.
Even though the bill was paid soon after the domain was closed, the website was still offline when Gemperli spoke to Blick. An assurance from Swizzonic that it would be activated in three days turned out to be unfounded.
“Totally disproportionate,” said Gemperli angrily. The municipality of Goldach has been a customer for years of Swizzonic, the successor to the former domain monopoly Switch. But now the change of provider at Goldach has already been decided. Although the website is now active again.
While Gemperli is relieved about this, he describes the situation as “unsustainable” and even “Kafkaesque”. He doesn’t want to take legal action, but says: “Our employees have received WhatsApp messages that, among other things, make fun of our situation. That was sad.”
Swizzonic denies the accusation
Ruben Pandolfi, 46, Swizzonic sales director, explained to Blick that the company absolutely wants to avoid deactivating domains. But the fault is in the municipality of Goldach: They failed to keep their data up to date to receive all notifications and avoid service interruptions. Swizzonic sends invoices early as well as payment reminders. There was no reaction to it. The website is also always available to see when a contract expires and customer data can be updated directly. A direct debit extension can also be installed.
Gemperli says it is possible to contact Swizzonic only through a registered phone number that no longer exists. Pandolfi justifies the protected number by saying that certain information is only disclosed if the customer is clearly identified.
And why did the reconnection take so long? Pandolfi explains that the domain can be reactivated directly from the Swizzonic control panel. This takes a maximum of 24 hours after paying the bill. “We received the replacement order from Goldach not through this automated procedure, but by contacting customer service,” explains Pandolfi. It takes longer because it is a human process. “The holiday season hasn’t helped,” concludes Pandolfi.
So much technology, few people
A classic case: The provider provides the customer with access to technical tools to perform various transaction steps. For example, airline passengers can now check-in for themselves instead of having someone else do the check-in for them. If human interaction is still necessary, service limits often emerge quickly.
Gemperli complains of “useless and unfriendly” phone responses to her questions. In online reviews, Swizzonic – by no means the only company – has been criticized for its level of service. Swizzonic made headlines just a week ago with the sudden deactivation of the domain name of the Liechtenstein newspaper “Volksblatt”. Apparently, a technical flaw in Swizzonic had caused several domain names from different customers to expire. Errors happen. The heavier thing was that Swizzonic was not available for this.