HBO Max Continues to Have Multiple Technical Problems That Frustrate Users
Published on June 19, 2021
- HBO Max has had a downtime issue that lasted over an hour for some users in the US.
- Many had trouble logging in, others couldn’t stream anything, and several reported server connection errors.
- HBO is going through a period of technical turbulence, failing to deal with basic stuff on multiple occasions.
Things couldn’t be worse for HBO Max lately, seeing as after the botched update that broke core functionality in the Apple TV app, the streaming platform is now facing widespread technical problems with content delivery and platform access. Many users even report their inability to log in to their accounts, with the problem persisting for more than an hour in some cases. However, the company has acknowledged the issues as its support lines were bombarded by unhappy users and stated that they’re working on a speedy resolution.
Variety monitored the situation and reports that all types of the reported errors spiked around the same time, at 2:15 p.m. ET, with log-in, server connections, and video streaming taking roughly a third each. So, this was weirdly a simultaneous failure on multiple levels that affected users in a peculiarly balanced way. In terms of the most affected locations, Chicago and Los Angeles were the main sources of most of the reports.
The streaming giant never clarified what exactly has happened. Still, downtimes of this type aren’t helping at all, especially when they are one more occurrence in a series of unfortunate events. One simply cannot afford to treat customers like that in such an antagonistic space that gives consumers so many good options. As we discussed the last time, HBO has the content, but the firm hasn’t invested enough in the project's technical infrastructure, mistakenly giving it the back seat.
In-between the two events that caused so much PR damage to HBO Max, there’s a third one that happened on June 17, when the company sent out an empty test email message to a large portion of its userbase. The company attempted to joke about this saying it was one of their interns that made the mistake of sending out the messages. Still, even if that’s the truth, it only shows that HBO Max didn’t implement integration tests and is still fighting with bugs in the practical process.
This is definitely not matching the prestige of the company nor the price of its streaming service, as users are seeing their experience degraded on multiple occasions of technical incompetence, something that hasn’t impacted other providers in such a notable magnitude for years now.