Grantors: USDA E-Auth is down

USDA E-Auth is experiencing a problem. USDA has posted a message on their site regarding the service problem they are experiencing. This service problem only impacts grantors attempting to access Grants.gov. ORC and Employee Express are operating.

Contact Center

If you exeperience extended wait times today due to the weather situation and you do not need immediate assistance please e-mail the Contact Center: support@grants.gov.

This will reduce some of the call volume.

ALERT: Contact Center Extended Call Wait Time

The Grants.gov Contact Centers physically reside in Kentucky and Texas. Yesterday, January 27, the Kentucky facility experienced a phone outage due to a Sprint fiber line outage which has since been corrected by Sprint. When the outage occurred all calls were forwarded to Texas. This resulted in increased wait times. A message was put on our IVR script indicating extended wait times for callers.

Today, January 28, the Texas facility has encountered a number of employees calling out for the day to due the impact of the ice storm there; schools and businesses are closed therefore Customer Support Representatives had to take off to take care of their families.

With the system slowness experienced over the last week calls have doubled. With the situation today as a result of the ice storm in Texas caller wait times will be extended. We have placed a message on the IVR script alerting customers. If you do not require immediate assistance please e-mail the Contact Center www.support@grants.gov

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

ALERT: Contact Center Extended Call Wait Time

The Grants.gov Contact Centers physically reside in Kentucky and Texas. Yesterday, January 27, the Kentucky facility experienced a phone outage due to a Sprint fiber line outage which has since been corrected by Sprint. When the outage occurred all calls were forwarded to Texas. This resulted in increased wait times. A message was put on our IVR script indicating extended wait times for callers.

Today, January 28, the Texas facility has encountered a number of employees calling out for the day to due the impact of the ice storm there; schools and businesses are closed therefore Customer Support Representatives had to take off to take care of their families.

With the system slowness experienced over the last week calls have doubled. With the situation today as a result of the ice storm in Texas caller wait times will be extended. We have placed a message on the IVR script alerting customers. If you do not require immediate assistance please e-mail the Contact Center support@grants.gov


Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

ALERT: Grantor and Applicant login error resolved

The Error 404 experienced by users this morning has been resolved.

ALERT: Grantor and Applicant login error

The system is currently experiencing an "Error 404" for the grantor, applicant, and E-biz logins.

We are aware of the problem and working on the resolution. Once resolved, we will update this blog message.

Grants.gov System Status

At 8:50 a.m. this morning there were 850 users logged into the system. We anticipate a heavy load this week so we continue to recommend applicants submit off hours and early.

If an applicant calls our Contact Center and the system status is slow then the Customer Support Representative will give you the option to call back and to create a customer service ticket on your first call that you can reference when you call us back. When the system is slow there is a ripple effect to the Contact Center. The reports the Contact Center run take a long time when the system is slow.

We are scheduled to conduct round 3 of testing on Build 2008 - 03 this week and then determine a deployment date. This build increase the number of concurrent users to two thousand, hence alleviating the current system slowness users are experiencing.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO