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Old 7 May 2022, 01:26 AM   #1
FredOnline
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Fastmail Customer Support - Threatened?

This on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/adamsweetonline/...22424640483330

Here's a screencap, should that Twitter thread disappear:

https://i.postimg.cc/ry0wK6yh/Screen...6-16-13-43.png

Of course, there are 2 sides to every story . . .
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Old 7 May 2022, 03:55 AM   #2
placebo
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I can't help but wonder if this so-called threat was a message that said something like "Your payment failed. If you don't pay the amount due, your account will be closed in seven days."
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Old 7 May 2022, 04:15 AM   #3
guest2k
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if you pay, you get the service, if not, you dont, simple as that, grow up!

just like ... if you own a restaurant, and somebody comes to you and say "can i have a sandwich, i'll pay you tommorow!", i dont think you're happy with that.
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Old 7 May 2022, 06:07 AM   #4
janusz
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The crucial bit of the tweet is:
Quote:
I checked the status and noticed that my bank had flagged them [Fastmail] for fraud.
(my emphasis)
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Old 7 May 2022, 07:44 AM   #5
Bamb0
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Yes apparently FM did something they shouldnt have or they wouldnt have been flagged!!


And what a stupid amount to complain is unpaid! ($0.01)
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Old 7 May 2022, 07:48 AM   #6
ioneja
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I've never had a problem with Fastmail payment over all the years I've done business with them, and in the cases where a credit card expired or my balance was low (in case I didn't have an automatic payment set up), they always notified me. So I tend to agree with FredOnline that there are always two sides to a story. Could just be a mistake on both of their parts, and it's easy to miss notifications. As for the bank flagging them for fraud, that could be anything -- he doesn't reveal what method of payment he was using, etc... he could have been paying with over-the-counter debit cards, etc., or some obscure or finicky bank, or didn't have matching info on record with billing, etc., etc., and those could easily trigger some issues. If it was a typical credit card, he could have easily just called up his bank and told them to accept charges from FM and then contact FM again to run the charge again. Or who knows, it could be an honest mistake.

HOWEVER, I do agree that there are issues with Fastmail's support, and that is precisely why I have recently moved all my business email out of Fastmail. It took two weeks to resolve a problem I had with them, and their first tier support staff were essentially not bothering to intelligently read my ticket, and once it was finally escalated to the higher levels, it took way way way too long to fix. The higher level support are able to solve things, but they are probably way behind in responding to escalated tickets. Hence, for any business-class service with critical email needs, I'd currently NOT use them until they fix their support queue system response time, and hire (and properly train) more support people.

I still have a personal email account with them, and because of the bad taste I have from my last experience, I am planning on fully phasing that out over time. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of relying on too many aliases on the Fastmail domains, so it will take me time to fully migrate out the personal account. But my business email is out of there. The big lesson from my own experience was to NEVER rely on a provider's domains for aliases, since that will lock you in big time, as I have discovered with my personal account.

Again, to the other point about Fastmail being tagged as fraudulent, I would strongly disagree. Very very very slow support, YES, but fraudulent, NO. *Unacceptably* slow support, YES. But arbitrarily canceling accounts without notice? UNLIKELY. They are good people there, and I just think they haven't managed to keep up with their support department needs, and that lost them my confidence and my business subscription, but I didn't ever have a problem re: fraud or notification. They do need to fix their support problem though for sure.
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Old 7 May 2022, 07:56 AM   #7
placebo
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The last time Fastmail charged my credit card directly, I was charged a foreign transaction fee. If that's the way it still works, it's quite possible that the bank seeing a charge from Australia suspected it was a fraudulent transaction.

My bank, through which I have a credit card, recommends letting them know if I'll be traveling to a foreign country so that they'll know not to decline my card if I happen to use it when I'm there.
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Old 7 May 2022, 09:57 AM   #8
Bamb0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ioneja
I've never had a problem with Fastmail payment over all the years I've done business with them....
Please dont say the N word,we wouldnt want ya to jinx something
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Old 7 May 2022, 07:46 PM   #9
FredOnline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ioneja View Post
I do agree that there are issues with Fastmail's support
I follow @Fastmail on Twitter, and have noticed recently a change in the way they respond, for example:

Quote:
Hi {first name}, thanks for letting us know!
We’d love to document this as a feature request for you.
Can you please reach out to our friendly support team about this?
Perhaps it's just me, but this 'friendly' style of response grates somewhat.
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Old 7 May 2022, 09:57 PM   #10
ioneja
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
Perhaps it's just me, but this 'friendly' style of response grates somewhat.
Seems like they've hired a certain kind of customer service rep now, and are losing that "hands-on direct line to the owner kind" of feel. I wonder if this corresponds to them adding India as one of the places your data might get processed in...

From https://www.fastmail.com/about/privacy/ -- Your personal information may be disclosed, transferred to or processed outside of your country of residence. This includes to Australia, the United States of America, India, and the Netherlands, where it will be subject to the laws of the country to which it is transferred. These jurisdictions may not have an equivalent level of data protection laws as those in your country.

Nothing against India at all, or any of the other fine countries that Fastmal operates out of, but this kind of change in the privacy policy is another reason why I'm leaving Fastmail. The US and Australian jurisdictions are already not great for privacy as we all know, but adding India on there is a move in the wrong direction as far as privacy laws are concerned.

Anyway, different discussion for a different day, but maybe there's a correlation in terms of Fastmail trying to expand customer service quickly, as that's a popular country that IT/Internet companies go to for customer service staff.
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Old 8 May 2022, 02:51 AM   #11
placebo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
Perhaps it's just me, but this 'friendly' style of response grates somewhat.
I think it grates on people because the friendliness comes off as fake and disingenuous. While I get the importance of establishing a good tone in an exchange, this kind of response comes off as "trying too hard." You know that it's just part of a script and a real person would rarely talk like that.
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Old 8 May 2022, 05:51 AM   #12
hadaso
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bamb0 View Post
Yes apparently FM did something they shouldnt have or they wouldn't have been flagged!!
The most likely cause is that some spammer tried to register multiple accounts with them using stolen credit card info. They can do nothing about it until they see many transactions rejected.
Quote:
And what a stupid amount to complain is unpaid! ($0.01)
The tweets supply very little information about what happened. Probably after a recurring payment failed the system generated an automatic notification that a payment is missing, and in order to continue using his paid account he has to make the payment. Most people that get such a notification would just pay the missing payment and make sure the next payment is not rejected by their bank.
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Old 8 May 2022, 08:23 AM   #13
Berenburger
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Off topic

Quote:
Originally Posted by ioneja View Post
HOWEVER, I do agree that there are issues with Fastmail's support, and that is precisely why I have recently moved all my business email out of Fastmail. […]
May I ask you, where did you go to?
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Old 8 May 2022, 10:24 AM   #14
ioneja
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Berenburger View Post
May I ask you, where did you go to?
I think I mentioned it in another thread somewhere, but I can't seem to find it.

I use a bunch of other services for various projects I'm involved with, so I had some options I was very familiar with (and thanks to this forum for your help over the years learning about them) -- but right now the business duties that were with Fastmail are now mainly being covered by Mailfence, Runbox, and ProtonMail, depending on projects/clients/needs.

I think spreading things out with other providers I already have some degree of confidence in was the right move in my case. For the business stuff, Mailfence, Runbox, and ProtonMail are currently doing fine. I may mix that up a little more since I also like other providers, like Startmail (very good service IMO!), and I was considering another shot at Hey.com again since they have settled down after their internal issues last year, and I think they've got some great features that would help my business. I've tested dozens of providers over the years (again, thanks to this forum!), but those above are on my short list for various reasons. Some are better in features or workflow, some better in jurisdiction, some better in random UI element, or subtle preference I have, etc.. but those are all generally good providers in my book.

I'm not interested at all in any of the "major" providers like Google and Microsoft, etc... (too many reasons to list) but if all else fails and I want to eat my own words and go back to them, and if hell freezes over, or the apocalypse has happened, I'd maybe consider them again if I was truly, utterly desperate.

BTW I also signed up for an account with Purelymail based on recommendations from some people here, and that might take over some personal email duties once I test them. I still have to migrate out my *personal* Fastmail account which has tons of aliases I idiotically set up on Fastmail's domains. Oh, and I was also going to check out Rollernet as an option too.

Reality check of course is that not everything is greener on the other side of the hill -- i.e. Runbox has been having some of their own issues recently, so I'm keeping an eye on how things go with them before I put too much more in them.

But there's really no reason for me to stay at Fastmail anymore. Plus, I think they've changed in the last few years... and I also think I've personally moved away from the direction they have been heading. In any case, their customer support resolution is not cutting it right now and along with a few other issues I have with them that have been bugging me, I hit the end of the road with Fastmail. At least for the foreseeable future. Nothing personal, and nothing against the good people at Fastmail. But I'm out.
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