Generally, when I can’t access a website on the less restricted sideof the the Great Firewall, I attribute that to either my VPN not working with that site or the GFW just getting better at what it does. Alas, for the last few days, purt near a week now, I’ve been trying to access the military commissaries website. I just checked with Down for Everyone or Just Me and it turns out the commissaries site is down. Now, I don’t knnow how long it’s been down for everyone, but it’s turning into a pain not being able to use it. The spouse is headed to Korea to assist her parents and I’d like to load up the rewards card (that’s the coupons card) before she heads there.
So, anyone have any luck with that site in the last week or so?
I got to it immediately (Central Valley, California)
This was on the front page.
Commissary CLICK2GO will have maintenance updates from 6:00pm EDT 09/16/2023 - 10:00pm EDT Saturday, 09/16/2023. Additionally, both Commissaries.com and shop.commissaries.com will have maintenance updates between 5:00pm EDT - 7:00pm EDT, 09/18/2023. Customers will not be able checkout and finalize orders utilizing online payments during these timeframes. Customers should refresh browsers following these important updates. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Well, the maintenance updates finished and those two sites were live for exactly one day before they left this mortal coil. I called the Defense Commissary Agency’s support line and the nice gentleman who fielded the call created a trouble ticket. The responese I got was rather interesting:
Yes, that is quite helpful. Thanks for the information. You know what would have been more helpful? Telling people about the change! And I don’t mean putting the announcement on the new site and not mentioning anything on the old site.
Yet another helpful bit would be if I did not need to use a VPN to access the site. My question as to why I was not able to access it from outside the US generated the response, “You should have no problem doing that”. I agree. I should have no problem with doing that, but the reality is there’s a problem. I need to have a VPN set for the US to get to the site and use its nifty functions.
All’s hunky-dory now, though. Let’s see how long that lasts.
And to nobody’s surprise, the site’s down and has been since January 20 of, you guessed it, this year! Gee, I wonder what could have caused that. So the rewards card (the card you can go online to top up with coupons) is now only good for two things: 1) taking up space in my wallet, and 2) adding about five grams in weight to said wallet.
I’m really not enjoying all the benefits we’re supposedly getting for our service not being accessible.
