Service Update: 1600 IST, December 13, 2016

Thank you all for the patience and amazing support you have shown us, as clear from the warmth of the comments below. Our people are safe. I saw dozens of fallen trees and several ripped power lines on my drive to work this morning. Sadly, there are uprooted trees all over the city.

We are still dealing with customer service call backlogs for Zoho services. Voice links are still not back up in Chennai and the mobile network in the city remains patchy. Earlier today we dispatched a team of customer service reps to the city of Coimbatore (about 500 km away) where we will set up another functional customer support center. This will also help insulate us from possible further communication disruptions in Chennai, as repair work gets underway across the city. Chat and email support continue to work. We expect to catch up with the backlog of calls by the end of Wednesday, Dec 14th IST.

Thank you for your sincere enquiries and genuine goodwill.
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Service Update: 2245 IST, December 12, 2016

Dear Customers:

Some of you may have experienced slow customer service over the last 12 hours or so. Yes, we have an issue and I want to give you an update.

A severe cyclone, Vardah, hit Chennai on Monday, December 12th and passed over the city several hours ago. All offices and schools in the region remained closed today. Zoho’s Chennai office was also closed, with the exception of our customer support staff who came in before the storm hit.

All Zoho services are unaffected and have been up and running. However, customer support has been spotty as communication links have been impacted. We have been rerouting calls to other locations around the world, and from landlines to mobile networks, but we still have a backlog of unanswered calls that may have impacted some of you. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to your businesses.

The worst of the storm has passed (although it has left some damage), but the lashing rain and gusty winds continue. We expect to get ahead of the backlog over the next 24 hours and achieve normal response times soon. Our employees are OK, and everyone expects to get back to work tomorrow. We thank you for your support and will keep you posted.

As a side note, one of the most reliable sources of storm information and weather updates in Chennai today has been an independent weather blogger, who also happens to be a Zoho product manager.