Exchange Server Down

The other week our Exchange Server had a serious issue that prevented about 2 to 3 hundred of our 3500 users not being able to get to their email. Due to the type of problem it was going to take around 24 to 48 hours to fix the problem. We put up an alert up on our website and got to work. During that time we received numerous phone calls from different users:

1. "Hi there is the email down?"
   We explain the situation...
   "Well please can you just get it going again now just for me?"
   
2. "Why is the email down?"
   We explain...
   "That's NOT good enough, why wasn't an email sent out to inform us?"
   
3. "How long will it take to fix?"
   "One to two days."
   "I need to get my email right now, can't you just fix it tomorrow instead?"
   
4. "I can't print, could it be because the email is down?"
   
5. "Someone said the email is down, but mine is working, when will it be fixed?"
   
6. "Just ringing to let you know that my email works fine."
   
7. "I can't get in to Outlook."
   We explain the problem... Again...
   "I know that, but I can't get in to my calendar."
   "That's because email isn't working at the moment."
   "I know about the email problem, I just want to get in to my calendar."
   "You wont be able to until the problem with the email is fixed, your calendar is in your mailbox."
   "That's stupid, why can't you put my calendar on a different server?"
   
8. "Even though the email is down, can I still access it from home?"
   
9. "Can I still use Word even though the email isn't working?"
   
10. "Yesterday I kept receiving email messages saying that my Mailbox was full. Is that because the server is broken?"

So it went on... ALL DAY LONG!

Email. What would we do without it? Not much apparently!