Repairers Thursday reported turning customers away as a CCC hardware issue knocked out CCC ONE connectivity until Thursday afternoon.

Nick Kostakis of Angelo’s Auto Body (Irvington, N.J.) said he’d experienced the CCC outage since at least 7 a.m. EST.

Brett Bernard of Total Care Accident Repair (Raynham, Mass.)  emailed us at 3 p.m. that CCC ONE was back up and running. CCC formally notified users by Twitter and email shortly afterward that they could resume logging on to the system.

The estimating service apologized for the outage, which it indicated earlier was tied to a “hardware failure.”

“We are currently experiencing an issue with CCC ONE® platform availability,” a CCC spokeswoman wrote to Repairer Driven News earlier that afternoon. “We have identified a hardware failure as the source of the issue. We have informed customers and will continue to communicate with them as we work through the situation. Offline estimating capability is available, however features that require connectivity, such as assignment upload/download and shop management functionality are not available.”

Shops in emails and Facebook messages shared their stories of a day without access to the country’s dominant estimating service/information provider.

“I have YET to get any news by email of any issues,”  Best Paint and Body Shop (Hartford, S.D.) lamented in an email. “Tried to figure things out myself thinking it was our internet being the issue. Finally called tech line to get an answer only to be told experiencing large call volumes and that if we are having connecting issues to please try it later.  Messaged a friend who is a tech with CCC One to have him tell me the issue. Had to turn customers away. Bad for business when we are struggling already for work in a small SD town! I can’t even connect to try and look at previous estimates I wrote. Just dead in the water!”

CCC attempted to contact Repairer Driven News early Thursday evening after our close of business. We regret to have missed them, and we’ll follow up Friday. Continue to check Repairer Driven News for updates.

For a look at Thursday’s news as it unfolded, check out our “rolling update” below, presented in reverse chronological order. Also check out Facebook conversation for more reactions.

4:01 p.m.: CCC ONE is back!

The estimating service just tweeted:

“CCC ONE system functionality has been restored. You are now able to log in. Again, we apologize for this situation.”

We also received a copy of what appears to be a mass email related to CCC’s restoration carrying the same message.

Earlier in the day, we’d reached out to some of the major auto insurers to see the impact, particularly as their adjusters deal with massive claims volume following Hurricane Matthew.

“Since repairers participating in Select Service use the CCC platform this could have an impact on claims handling if the outage is prolonged,” State Farm spokesman Justin Tomczak wrote in an email.

“We will continue to monitor this situation on behalf of our customers.”

3 p.m.: Brett Bernard of Total Care Accident Repair (Raynham, Mass.) reports: “CCC is live in Southeastern MA, just logged in successfully and confirmed with CCC Technical Support.”

Ditto Haury’s Collision in Seattle, Wash.

@repairerdriven CCC is working again for me now pic.twitter.com/1MfTEiPVIe

— Haury’s Collision (@haurys) October 13, 2016

“COUNT SOUTH DAKOTA IN!!!! Fingers crossed it stays up!” Best Paint and Body Shop (Hartford, S.D.) reported.

The shop also had a couple of other interesting comments about the past day and a half, including a connectivity issue yesterday.

• “I have YET to get any news by email of any issues. Tried to figure things out myself thinking it was our internet being the issue. Finally called tech line to get an answer only to be told experiencing large call volumes and that if we are having connecting issues to please try it later.  Messaged a friend who is a tech with CCC One to have him tell me the issue. Had to turn customers away. Bad for business when we are struggling already for work in a small SD town! I can’t even connect to try and look at previous estimates I wrote. Just dead in the water!”
• “On a side note  yesterday afternoon I tried to print a bill for a customer who came in and paid just after 4 pm CST and had connecting issues. I logged out of it after trying to refresh it for 15 minutes. Once I logged out and reconnected it came back on line. I figured it was a fluke but maybe it was a start of things to come for today.”

1:52 p.m.: A CCC spokeswoman emailed us the following update:

“We are currently experiencing an issue with CCC ONE® platform availability. We have identified a hardware failure as the source of the issue. We have informed customers and will continue to communicate with them as we work through the situation. Offline estimating capability is available, however features that require connectivity, such as assignment upload/download and shop management functionality are not available. The CCC team and our vendors are working diligently to restore service, and we apologize to our customers for this situation.”

1:22 p.m.: CCC ONE’s outage message also has been sent out to shops via email. It’s the same content as the Twitter post we covered earlier.

“Offline estimating capability is available, however features that require connectivity like assignment upload/download and shop management functionality are not available,” CCC wrote. “We are working diligently to restore service.”

Rebecca Meyer of Ernie Patti Collision Center in St. Louis, Mo., reports it has been down for her since 7:30 a.m. We’ve received another report of 7 a.m. EST, but nothing earlier.

CCC has more than 22,000 collision repairers on its platform, and we’ve received reports from shops from New Jersey to Seattle.

Share how your business is working around it on our Facebook conversation or at info@repairerdrivennews.com. Here’s a couple more via Facebook:

12:20, 12:33 p.m.: CCC posted an image on Twitter describing the CCC ONE outage.

It says offline estimating still works, but connected features don’t.

“We are experiencing an issue with the CCC ONE platform availability,” CCC wrote.

“Offline estimating capability is available, however features that require connectivity like assignment upload/download and shop management functionality are not available. We are working diligently to restore service.

“We apologize for the situation.”

pic.twitter.com/ve4aTEmKOw

— CCC Info Services (@CCCInfoServices) October 13, 2016

Estimator Kevin Blanton of Gwatney Collision Center (Jacksonville, Ark.) reports “CCC has been out all morning here in central Arkansas as well.”

Haury’s Collision (Seattle, Wash.)  reports trying to log in every 10 minutes but no luck.

Roarke Ponce, owner of Excel Auto Body (Klamath Falls, Ore.) offered some tips in our Facebook comments on he’s coping with the outage:

“I got into work at 7:30 PST and it was out already by then,” Ponce wrote. “Since I can’t access my existing files while it is offline I will be just making notes on paper so I can make the changes or entries needed when it comes back online. If anyone new comes in, everything will be written out by hand and photos taken and I will email estimates to the customers when the system comes back online.”

12:17 p.m.: Randy Estes of the Body Shop (Prosper, Texas) reports the same chat message.

11:59 a.m.: CCC says it will have more information for us very soon.

11:16 a.m.: Collision repairers and other users on CCC, how are you adapting during the outage? When did it start for you? When outages do happen for body shop-related tech companies, what would the best way for them to communicate the information to the industry?

Share your experiences and ideas at info@repairerdrivennews.com.

10:56 a.m.: Nick Kostakis of Angelo’s Auto Body in New Jersey reported the CCC outage has been happening since at least 7 a.m. EST

A tech support representative indicated a message regarding the outage can also be heard at 800-637-8511.

“I do believe there is a message up on the phones, but we are still here trying to get control of this…thanks!” she wrote.

The phone message is essentially identical to a tech support chat message:

“We are currently experiencing connectivity issues which should be resolved shortly. If you are experiencing an issue connecting to CCC or receiving a system busy error, please try connecting again later,” the chat window states.

Kostakis suggested that CCC in the future try an email to local system administrators when there’s an issue and a follow-up one when the server has been restored to avoid repairer confusion.

CCC has more than 22,000 collision repairers on its platform, though there’s no indication at this point of how widespread the outage is.

Users across the country and at least one leading parts procurement system had reported problems connecting.

A CCC technical support chat window told us at 10:37 a.m.:

“We appreciate your patience. All representatives are still assisting customers. Currently, there are higher than normal wait times. We are currently experiencing connectivity issues which should be resolved shortly. If you are experiencing an issue connecting to CCC or receiving a system busy error, please try connecting again later. For all other issues please stay connected and your chat will be answered in the order it was received.”

We’ve also contacted a CCC spokeswoman for more information. Continue to check Repairer Driven News for details.

CCC has more than 22,000 collision repairers on its platform, though there’s no indication at this point of how widespread the outage is.

Images:

The CCC booth at NACE 2016 is shown. (John Huetter/Repairer Driven News)

Estimating platform CCC is reporting “connectivity issues which should be resolved shortly,” a technical support chat indicates. (Screenshot from CCC)