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Transcript
This is Leo Notenboom for askleo.info.
I'm occasionally taken to task for what some people consider "Hotmail bashing". Folks get upset with me for repeatedly pointing out that they shouldn't rely on Hotmail.
If you've read Ask Leo! for any length of time, you know that I frequently reiterate how bad an idea it is to keep important information in only a single, free, email account. And, while I try to be generic and say "free email account", I often use Hotmail as an example, or reiterate my opinion when answering a question that was related to someone's problems with Hotmail.
There are two issues at play here.
First is that I get more questions relating to problems with Hotmail than I do with any other service, hands down. In fact I probably get twice as many Hotmail problems as the other free services - combined.
What kind of problems? Lost and hacked accounts. Accounts that suddenly lose all email or all contacts. Or scenarios where people can't login to some Hotmail accounts from some machines, but other accounts or other machines work ok.
The list goes on.
Folks, I get these every single day. 10, 20, sometimes 50 times every day. Not so for the other services.
So if you think I'm down on Hotmail ... well, I guess I sort of am. But not because I want to be. Remember, I worked at Microsoft for many years. I left on great terms, I still respect the company, and I still want Microsoft to continue to thrive.
But I can't argue with the data that shows up in my inbox. I know that many of you have used Hotmail for years without a single problem. In fact, so have I. But if you saw what I see, you'd be very, very nervous.
The second issue is simply the wisdom of leaving important information in the hands of a third party with next to no customer support. Again, every day I hear of people losing contacts, losing email, losing documents that they've saved in email - and having nowhere to turn, and as a result never, ever, being able to get any of their critical data back.
If you don't have some way to backup your important information, then leaving it all in a free service - any free service - or heck, any pay service - that doesn't have responsive and responsible customer support, is just asking for trouble.
HotMail, Yahoo, GMail ... they're all great services, when used appropriately. Using any of them as the single place to keep all your important email and contacts is not using them appropriately.
"You get what you pay for" has never been truer if you run into a problem.
I'd love to hear what you think. Visit askleo.info and enter 11200 in the go to article number box and leave me a comment. While you're there, browse over 1,000 technical questions and answers on the site.
Till next time, I'm Leo Notenboom, for askleo.info.
Article C2944 - February 24, 2007
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I M ANNA IM STUDENT OF 2Y
Posted by: ANNA at April 20, 2008 10:15 AMAfter having extensively used hotmail, yahoo and gmail, I can say that it is a personal preference as to which is the best. They all constantly evolve and upgrade.
As far as I am concerned, I like them for different reasons. I have my friends circle in yahoo messenger, which is by far the best messenger. But when it comes to mail, i love the simplicity, milder page colour, folder option etc of hotmail. Gmail ofcourse is very good too, but is slightly user - unfriendly. But the load speed is so fast. And also the search. Plus the attitude of constant improvement. Still, I prefer hotmail as of now. I do not believe in keeping all the mails. If someone hacks, it is the end of your life. I prefer to keep important files etc in a separate, secret email account from any of these, thats just a dump box, which i log on to once in a month or so.
Posted by: Jaykrishnan at June 12, 2008 3:23 PMMy parent's e-mail was shut down over 3 days ago by Hotmail and we have not heard anything from customer service despite repeatedly filling out customer service form. Is there even a customer service? No, I don't think you are being too hard on Hotmail. I myself will migrate to somewhere else. However, my parents have a lot of important e-mail and they can't get their contacts or e-mails from Hotmail as it says Account closed. Access Denied. Is there any solution to this? Please help. Thank you.
Sorry.
-Leo
Kami, ms overcharged me due to some mess up internally with their ad manager, didn't tell me they were locking me out of my mail and everything while they were figuring it out, still waiting on my refund too. Here's the number for the MS Office Live at least they may be able to give you another number.
Posted by: JL at August 1, 2008 7:02 AM1-866-591-5483
Good Luck !
I called that number that the person on the phone rudely asked me if I had a website or a paid subscription. He was so rude and unhelpful. He said that Hotmail receives so many e-mails and I will just have to wait. I have been waiting for a week and a half. They have not responded to me despite writing to them five times. How come they say on their website they will get back to us in 24 hours? How can they write that when they have not got back to me for a week and a half. I don't know what to do. Hopefully, my parent's account will get reopened.
-Leo