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Old 21 May 2002, 10:35 PM   #73
Jensen
Junior Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4
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The Turning Point:

About 5 days ago now I think I just snapped I finally had enough of my Hotmail inbox fulling up with spam and my Yahoo messages no longer being forwarded through to OE. I was up late that night and started trolling the internet for my next (all encompassing) email site. Although there were hundreds to choose from, I honestly thought there would be more. I am afraid the night was to become even longer.

Fastmail.fm came to notice a few times, as well as a few others and finally started to compare what each offerred in terms of the basic functions I was after. This included forwarding and POP access primarily, but price was also an issue. Before this experience I would have said that it is my right to have free email and why would I pay when I get it for free. I had contemplated paying, but recurring fees were a turn off when paying the equivalent Australian dollars (it effectively doubles the US$ price).

I would like to note that at this point I remember reading some of these postings on this forum prior to joining and thought this sounds like the "Mutual Admiration Society". "Jeremy and Rob you are fantastic........" etc etc. I did wonder what was going on, are these guys rock stars?

The Decision:

It was a Saturday morning now at 4am now and it was time to commit. I wasn't going to bed until I had achieved something. I think I chose FM based on the forwarding function (Yahoo was still a sore point); all the other host of functions that I perused on the FM pricing table and the $14.95 once off cost was acceptable. At the last minute though I thought why not get the $19.95 a year deal and if i want to change next year I can always drop. By doing this as well I got myself a very nice 6 letter login name. I was set the money was paid and I started to explore my new 'toy".

Big Kids.......:

I've got to say I am one of these people that when I buy a computer game I just start playing and don't bother with the instructions. Learn on the fly. It is pretty haphazard, but you can usually get yourself out of trouble eventually. I was the same on FM. I saw the rename thing and thought, yeah I'll try that. Mistake one for me. Think before you act and read the print. I chose a name that I had reservations about straight away then found out about the one change only deal. Danger Will Robinson Danger!! I thought this was going to end in disaster until I saw that FM actually had a support email address.

The Support:

I formulated a very polite email playing up the "paid my money" aspect, in the grim hope of a reply. I was about to hit the sack thinking I would get a reply in a few days at best, when I get the reply saying "no problem the rename setting is reset". I was dumbstruck this is not normal. On top of this and prior I was trying to find a more suitable name when I inadvertantly registered the name I was after under a seperate account which i did not pursue. I thought that FM must have me on the "not financially viable" list by now but thought I harass them anyway to get this other name I was after. I hit the hay that time thinking it was not physically possible for me to continue at that point. Next day though I found my newly named account waiting for me. Wallaaa Problem solved once again. I did have only one other hassle, that being with my SMPT settings on OE but resolved that after properly reading the FM FAQ section. Read those FAQ's properly.

My Testimonial:

As you can gather I am now a committed customer. FM has everything you want and more. Including a few things you sometimes forget about - like Reliability and Support. As for the cost I would gladly pay my money again, even more for the service and product that I have received in 5 days. As for competitors I can speak from experience that there aren't many peers for FM out there. If you read this and you are thinking about going with FM just do it, you won't regret it. By the way Jeremy and Rob you are rock stars.

My only questions now are:

1. Where can we buy shares (stock)?
2. What city is FM based in?
3. How do your Wives/GF's put up with the long hours?
4. When are we going to see FM Cola?

Thanks
CJ
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