on
8/31/2002
I've been a Hotmail user since 1997. I've seen a lot of changes. Most of them have not been positive.
I receive more spam in my inbox than real email -- and I'm on the highest filter level below "Exclusive." (Which would not be feasible.) I've had to use my custom filters to route repeat offenders to the trash -- and for some reason I'm limited to twelve filters.
Recently, my sent messages folder was emptied. I was notified of this after the fact, and lost a number of emails I had been saving. (Otherwise, why would I have checked "save outgoing message" when I sent them?) This was touted as a new feature.
I used to be brought to my inbox, on login, then that was taken away, and the removal was touted as a "feature." (I'm getting so cynical about that word.) We got the Hotmail Home, a little mini MSN page with lots of annoying advertisements. (Listen, I don't care if I'm smarter than J-Lo. Maybe if I were, I could afford my own domain name.)
Now, my login page (which used to load very quickly) has itself been hijacked, and turned into another mini MSN. And it hangs Netscape 4, 7, and IE 5 for a couple seconds while it loads. Options like the "Increased security, for shared and public computers" check box have been dumbed down to "I am on a public computer." And I still don't care if I'm smarter than J-Lo.
Lastly, there is no way to contact anyone at Hotmail regarding these changes. None. I am in Tron. This "admin@hotmail.com" address is a pure guess, and probably will never reach a real person. [It did not.] I searched for ten minutes, and found only an automated bug report system. There is no accountability here.
And wait, there is one more kicker. Switching email addresses. There is no documented way to pop mail a hotmail account into another address. Were I to change email services, I'd have to continue to monitor this one, in case someone I didn't get my new address to tried to contact me. Of course, the account would jam as soon as spam filled the alotted storage space -- which would take literally a week and a half, tops -- so the theoretical message would never reach me anyway, unless I continued to wade through the account every few days, which kind of defeats the purpose of switching.
Register my complaints please, if this ever reaches a live human. I don't mind tasteful banners while I check my email. (No epileptic, flashing "You've Won!!!!" for example.) I don't mind Hotmail ads being attached to the foot of my outgoing emails. I don't mind the fact that this is now a Microsoft company. I don't mind the automatic deletion bot that kills addresses that haven't been accessed in a couple months -- you have storage issues, like the rest of us.
What I don't like is having my account's usefulness or ease of access reduced, and being told that I've been given a "feature." You haven't doubled the ads to make this "more useful;" you've doubled them to lose less. It's the deceit I can't stand.
Touch the Toast