Dear Customer,
Sorry for the intrusion into your Inbox. We had a database problem yesterday that affects all customers who placed orders with us or changed any account settings from July 31st through about midday August 12th. If you haven't visited us between these dates, no need to read any further. Otherwise some information below may apply to you.
Earlier yesterday, during what should have been a simple and routine database update, something happened to cause all of our August data to be corrupted. This was an internal human error. There are no security or privacy concerns; it is simply overwritten data.
Sadly, we discovered there is also a flaw in our latest backup; a failure occurred that we were simply not aware of, meaning that all of the data from 7/31 to early 8/12 is effectively lost, with no chance for direct recovery.
Again - No hacks occurred, no security issues. Just compounded errors that piled up against each other in a way that has us seriously revamping some processes.
What does this mean, exactly, for you?
* If you purchased any products between midday on 7/31 and 8/12, these orders will no longer show in your order history and you will not have your normal access to download them again as a prior purchase. All orders made prior to 7/31 and all order made later today and forward will appear normally. If you used a credit card to make a purchase between 7/31 and 8/12, then we hope to have your order history restored by the end of the month. If you used PayPal then we have permanently lost your order history and you would need to contact us through our Contact Us page if you should ever need to re-download your purchase.
* If you changed any settings in your account between 7/31 and 8/12, such as changed your password or changed your newsletter or publisher communication settings, these changes may have been lost as we had to reset data to 7/31. You may find that you need to return to My Account and make those changes
again.
For any inconveniences this causes you, please accept our sincerest apologies. We work hard to continually improve our systems, and we are profoundly upset to have had this problem. We truly appreciate your business, and we look forward to continued successful service to you.
Sincerely,
Sean Patrick Fannon
Marketing, Communications, and Publisher Services Manager
