Buy and Pay (and Pay)

I just realized that a blog is also a forum for me to rant. So, let me end the week on this quick rant against Microsoft Hotmail. Because I was using Hotmail for a business email address some time ago, I needed to access Hotmail through my Microsoft Outlook email reader. So, I paid up the price for a "premium" account with Hotmail.

Well, recently, on re-installing Outlook (my computer hard drive crashed), I found Outlook would no longer access my "premium" Hotmail account. One of the key features of a "premium" account is that you can access it using an external mail program like Microsoft Outlook (and I was using it with no trouble before my system crashed). I am reasonably computer savvy and so I tried all sorts of things including reinstalling the email account, etc. I also made sure I had my email account and password right by logging in to the email account using a browser. Finally, after spending a fair amount of time troubleshooting, I contacted Hotmail technical support and explained the problem. Since it was email technical support, I expected a quick and reasonable response. I was quite surprised when I was told that since I was able to log into the account with a browser, I would have to contact Microsoft Office technical support (despite the fact that compatibility with Outlook is one of the features of the premium Hotmail account). When I contacted Microsoft's Office technical support, I was told that I would have to pay $49.95 as a "per incident" fee for technical support. I tried complaining to the manager, but the answer was clear - you want help? Pay (at least) $49.95 to fix the problem.

Do you get this? I am trying to get TWO LEGAL AND PAID FOR MICROSOFT PRODUCTS to work with each other AS THEY PROMISED IT WOULD and I have to pay them (again) to get it to work? (sorry for shouting). I guess their argument is that this is no different than buying a car. You buy it, but if you have trouble with it, too bad - you pay to get it fixed. But give me a break - does this sound reasonable to you?

Of course, we're lucky that in this market there are options. I will NOT renew my premium Hotmail account (which I was renewing each year purely out of inertia) when it expires later this year. Instead, I got myself a nice free Gmail account that allows me to access mail via Outlook and also has other features like mail forwarding. I also found I could get a bunch of email accounts with my company domain name for less than I was paying for the Hotmail premium account.

So, if you're looking for good, reliable, feature-rich email programs, forget Hotmail. Get sensible (as I did) and get yourself a Gmail account.

Thanks for helping me see the light, Microsoft!