TaxCloud Down / Bad (no) error message

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.6.3
-- Joomla version -- : 3.5.1
-- PHP version -- : 5.6.22
-- Error-message(debug-mod must be tuned on) -- : None (that is the problem)

Looks like TaxCloud is down status.taxcloud.net/ due to an attack or something for 19 hours now.

This exposes a problem when this occurs as it is just creates a rather odd error message of just:

TaxCloud error :

It doesn't say any more than that so it can be off-putting on the checkout.

I've set to some default tax entries so it at least has a default rate for such a case.

But with that error, there it isn't going to help people checkout (so we can adjust tax values later).

This is how we handled it under other carts as tax rate lookup services are always pron to outages.
Even state run ones.

It would be good to customize an TaxCloud error message for this kind of situation.

I hate just to hide it with CSS as that means hiding all system messages.

Wow, this was pretty brutal. Everything was out for almost a day, and they are still working to recover newer accounts.
Always configure a backup tax rate!

Thank you all for your patience, understanding and support.

As you may already know, TaxCloud has had only one interruption of service since 2010 (for 17 seconds), so this event was obviously unexpected, and extraordinarily sophisticated.

Our first goal after identifying the exact cause of the incident was to remediate and rerturn to ordinary operation.

Fortunately we were able to restore TaxCloud to normal operation earlier this evening - for most accounts.

We are still in the process of restoring a handful of accounts created after 2/14/2016, if your account was created since then, the most expedient path to return to operational status is:
1. Create/register for a new TaxCloud account (using the same email address as previously used), and;
2. Configure your new account (shoudn't take more than a few minutes for most merchants) and;
3. Copy-Paste your new API credentials from the TaxCloud websites area into the HikaShop admin panel for TaxCloud.

In addition to the many things going on, part of our remediation to this event will likely include a new set of APIs for monthly 'base-line" data sets to allow local "fall-back" after a configurable latency threshold.

Thank you again.