As email gets ever more complicated thanks to spam and other vermin, now a related issue has developed. Some services just don’t deliver email at all. Apparently, it’s a lot easier for them not to bother.
For this reason, here and now, I’d like to suggest that people boycott Hotmail. Not to put too fine a point on it, but how useful is free email if you don’t ever GET your email? Do you think all your friends and family have abandoned you? Are you wondering why all these “bad” companies never send you email confirmations of your online orders? Odds are they did; you just didn’t get the email.
We sell various products and as most people know, online commerce requires that you type in your email address. All is well until Hotmail is included in the picture. People come back screaming because they “never got” the product they ordered. Well, I sent it. Then Hotmail ate it.
The problem with using free email is that you have exactly zero recourse if something goes wrong. With free email accounts like Hotmail and Yahoo, you get what you pay for: nothing. Sure there may be some “tech support” email address somewhere, but do you really think they are motivated to help? No.
Using Hotmail for your primary email address is just lame. It’s particularly lame when people use it as their primary business email address. I mean come on, suck it up, spend the eight bucks, and buy a domain for your business.
Sure I have a Gmail address that I use as a throwaway account for newsgroups and such, but I don’t use it any time I’m trying to look professional. When I see people using free email addresses, particularly Hotmail, it makes me think they are unprofessional. Is that really how you want your business to be perceived?
If you need to actually get the email people send to you, do yourself a favor and just dump Hotmail now. Everyone you know and the businesses you deal with will thank you.