How do I contact MSN Hotmail Customer Service?

First, I know of no phone number to reach a live person. Like I said, MSN Hotmail's a free service, and I would not expect phone support for it.

To contact Hotmail Customer Service:

• Log in to Hotmail - ideally with the account you have a question on, but any account will do.

• Click on Help, in the upper right corner of the Hotmail page:

  

• Click on any of the questions in the list that's presented:

  

• Underneath the resulting answer to whichever question you clicked on, are a couple of links:

  

  Click on "Contact Us"

Now, at this point I've seen this link take you to a couple of different places. You may be taken directly to a page with a "Contact Us by Email" form, if you scroll down far enough. Or you may take the path I'm going to show here.

• In many cases you'll be taken to the MSN Support Home page, and asked to select the service with which you're having trouble:

  

  Click on MSN Hotmail in the "Standard Services" list.

• It should then take you to a page asking what type of support you want for MSN Hotmail:

  

  Note: that even though other options are listed, the only option that actually has a button I can press is Email Support / Technical Support.

  Press the E-mail button.

• Finally, you'll be taken to a page which begins with "Helpful Information for MSN Hotmail", but if you scroll down far enough you'll find a form you can fill out to contact MSN Hotmail support:

  

  Fill out the form and press Submit.

That sequence above is the preferred method.

Another approach is to use the Report a Security Vulnerability which includes links specifically for stolen MSN Hotmail accounts.

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So after having presented all that information, I have to be honest and tell you that from what I've heard and the questions I get here at Ask Leo!, you probably will not get a resolution to your problem. While I have heard of some people getting responses, the vast majority apparently do not.

It's worth a try, but I wouldn't count on it succeeding.

I honestly don't mean to sound like I'm bashing MSN Hotmail. But based solely on the number of reports of problems, I can't recommend relying on it.

And that brings me to my ultimate recommendation: don't use any free email service for something you consider to be vital or important. Providing customer service is expensive, and one of the ways that free services stay free is that there's little or no customer service. If you run into trouble, you are frequently out of luck, and can easily and quickly lose everything in your account.

Good luck!

[This is an update to an article first published September 3, 2004.]