Imagine 633 vultures hovering over a fresh chunk of Texas roadkill and you pretty much get the picture of how the "Texas appliance rebate program" went down this week. What happened? 24.7 million Texans were instructed to apply online or register by phone on April 7th at 7am for the rebates. Texans crashed the program server within the first 30 minutes and repeatedly throughout the day. With only 500 phone lines available to receive calls from 24.7 million people, the odds of Texans getting through to the program reps by phone were .00002%.
Program Debacle Breakdown:
Local news coverage displayed the anger of citizens fatal attempts by phone and internet. WFAA Dallas at noon interviewed a Texan using 4 computers on 3 networks, who still couldn't get through. Another reporter at a local Sears outlet covered an employee attempting in vain to get through for customers wanting to purchase appliances.
Program Debacle Breakdown:
- *The program server received 1700 hits per second (102,000 hits per minute)
- *The program Call Center received 1000 per minute (60,000 calls per hour)
- *39,000 rebates were awarded (only .0015% of Texans received a rebate)
- *Only 1 out of 633 Texans received a rebate
- *The $23.3 million marathon lasted 7 hours
Local news coverage displayed the anger of citizens fatal attempts by phone and internet. WFAA Dallas at noon interviewed a Texan using 4 computers on 3 networks, who still couldn't get through. Another reporter at a local Sears outlet covered an employee attempting in vain to get through for customers wanting to purchase appliances.
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