fastmail is rubbish - discuss

digp · 23 Oct 2006, 03:40 AM

fastmail lately has gone to the pan

it is utter rubbish

there support is a joke

what is the future for such a service?

William9 · 23 Oct 2006, 04:20 AM

FM is still useful to me, but in my experience it's not as fast or reliable as it was a couple of years ago. I've been a customer of FM for a few years. Each day I wonder whether the service will disappoint me again -- but I've personally had no major outages for months -- just a few short ones. In my opinion, the changes that are being made by the company to the infrastructure to make it redundant (and ultimately more reliable) have resulted in such complexity that has become difficult for it to maintain the speed and reliability that we customers require.

hadaso · 23 Oct 2006, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by William9
... I've personally had no major outages for months -- just a few short ones. ...

Same here. I just use it and almost all of the time it's working perfectly.

alistair234 · 23 Oct 2006, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by hadaso
Same here. I just use it and almost all of the time it's working perfectly.

Personally I could not do without my fastmail account and could not think of going back the crappy service Yahoo and hotmail are, fastmail has got its faults hey but which service hasn’t? Least fastmail display all its faults at http://status.fastmail.fm

You will never see hotmail or yahoo doing that, displaying its faults I mean, but fastmail in my opinion is one of the best E-mail service providers around to date.

denverharless · 23 Oct 2006, 08:30 AM

I'll have to second alistair234 on this. Regular posters to forums like this are a cantankerous bunch. The service has weathered some storms, but I don't see signs yet of any wreckage.

Sometimes I feel the same way about opninions that are expressed on the forum that I do about the opinions of students that are often expressed on course evaluations. Not only are they ill-informed, but their standards are often unjust. This is an email service after all, not a missile guidance system. And, it's provided by a very capable group of developers, but not by a vast team of engineers with millions of dollars at their disposal. Anyway, they've had some rough patches this year, but things seem stable now. I say we wait and see if the replication of the servers has made extended outages a thing of the past!

It's a great service, and I would be sad to see it go, but geesh, what a bunch of chicken-littles we have here!

JasonWard · 23 Oct 2006, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by digp
fastmail lately has gone to the pan

it is utter rubbish

there support is a joke

what is the future for such a service?

Why would I discuss something so negative and dismisive?

Perhaps if you had said "Fastmail has lost its way, no longer pioneers and no longer offers value for money" I might have had something to say.

But your "discussion" point brooks no comment other than agreement, and above all is highly subjective, making objective comment difficult.

Jason

the bishop · 23 Oct 2006, 10:50 AM

I cannot think of any other service that is a valid FM replacement - but have Tuffmail just in case and it has proven to be a potent duo.

I do not think it's rubbish, else I'd not be with FM still.

leslieb · 23 Oct 2006, 10:53 AM

I think digp must be using a differnt fastmail to me.

Aside from the one massive outage recently that affected a large portion of the userbase (including me) for an extended period the uptime has been fine, I have been a user for a few years now (I joined sometime after the "infamous NY crash" that gets brought up once in a while).

I have not had the same "massive" up tick in spam that a few people are reporting and I suspect the issue is related to specific people rather than everyone as my email at my workplace receives upwards of 10 spam sharebroker emails a day that slip through the filter, while my personal FM account only gets one a day.

While there are always some valid complaints most of these complainers will not be happy wherever they go.

For the price and the features I can't find any provider who is equal to fastmail (tuffmail is close but not quite).

There is a chance with any service you use that there will be problems. I went in to this in depth during that last outage but bascially you pay for the level of risk you want. If 100% uptime is vitally important then pay extra for it, if 100% access to all emails is vitally important then pay for it.

I would say the vast majority of people who stormed off away from fastmail have simply swapped to a differnt provider that has the exact same chance of having the same sort of problems becasue they are too damn cheap to pay for the garuantees of service they expect.

From my point of view I use fastmail for my families email. The interface is quick, even on dialup, the IMAP thing is great for accessing my email from home and work and when I am away, the spam filtering has been fine, despite being an email provider I have found the 'web extensions' great, the fact that I can password certain sections for people, setup my own subdomains for pages etc.

There are features I wish fastmail would implement sooner rather than later: a remotely accessible address book so my addressbooks on my home email client and web access are the same just like my email and an online .ics calendar thing so my at home sunbird calendar can be accessed and edited from the webinterface. Those two features would make fastmail an almost drop in replacement for outlook.

Overall though for the price I pay, I can't complain.

mac'd · 24 Oct 2006, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by William9
In my opinion, the changes that are being made by the company to the infrastructure to make it redundant (and ultimately more reliable) have resulted in such complexity that has become difficult for it to maintain the speed and reliability that we customers require.

What's your evidence on this point? Just curious.

registered_user · 24 Oct 2006, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by digp
fastmail lately has gone to the pan

it is utter rubbish

there support is a joke

what is the future for such a service?

Are you still here? Why?

William9 · 24 Oct 2006, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mac'd
What's your evidence on this point? Just curious.

It's my opinion, speculation, and my personal experience.

rmns2bseen · 24 Oct 2006, 01:15 PM

Although I've now officially downgraded back to my old Member status (mainly because Member status is really all I need, except for the flood of spam I can now expect), I wouldn't say the service is rubbish at all. It's really good and I still love the interface.

Lawrence · 24 Oct 2006, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by leslieb
I would say the vast majority of people who stormed off away from fastmail have simply swapped to a differnt provider that has the exact same chance of having the same sort of problems becasue they are too damn cheap to pay for the garuantees of service they expect.

Too damn cheap? Excuse me, but when I migrated my email to Tuffmail, I forked out a fair chunk of cash several months earlier than I'd planned on, since none of my FM accounts were about to expire. In return, I got a better account management interface (multiple user addresses all manageable from one login), more configurable spam controls, full replication, and support that actually got back to me within minutes when I had a question (on a Sunday, no less). I'd say I paid for, and am getting, the level of service I expect.

William9 · 24 Oct 2006, 02:20 PM

I have a Tuffmail account also. Customer service is really good. Send an e-mail; get a response within minutes. With Fastmail, don't hold your breath, because a response has taken days in my personal experience (Enhanced Account). My opinion is that its support could certainly be improved.

leslieb · 24 Oct 2006, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lawrence
Too damn cheap? Excuse me, but when I migrated my email to Tuffmail, I forked out a fair chunk of cash several months earlier than I'd planned on, since none of my FM accounts were about to expire. In return, I got a better account management interface (multiple user addresses all manageable from one login), more configurable spam controls, full replication, and support that actually got back to me within minutes when I had a question (on a Sunday, no less). I'd say I paid for, and am getting, the level of service I expect.

I have no doubt tuffmail is great and the service is wonderful. I looked at shifting there as well, not so much becasue of the recent problems at fastmail, just beacuse it seemed like they have a better interface for deailing with multiple accounts on one domain. However for the same quotas etc as I have at FM the TM account would have cost more and like I have said, FM is reliable enough for the price I pay.

Also, if you left FM for TM becasue of FM reliability thats fine but realise that TM has no garuanteed uptime either so if something terrible was to happen at tuffmail you would be in the exact same boat as you were with FM.

From my point of view I have seen what happens when the proverbial hits the fan at FM.

So yes, assuming you switched to tuffmail becasue you are one of the many people that were apparently losing several thousand dollars a day due to lack of access to email and wanted to know why FM didn't have a 99.9% uptime gauantee you are "too damn cheap". One of the rabid anti-FM crowd posted a link during the recent outage of a provider who had uptime garantees etc and the cost was phenominal.

But then again, if your email account is that important then it is worth the cost of the garautnee.

23 Oct 2006, 03:40 AM	#1
digp Master of the @ Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,326	fastmail is rubbish - discuss fastmail lately has gone to the pan it is utter rubbish there support is a joke what is the future for such a service?

23 Oct 2006, 04:20 AM	#2
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	FM is still useful to me, but in my experience it's not as fast or reliable as it was a couple of years ago. I've been a customer of FM for a few years. Each day I wonder whether the service will disappoint me again -- but I've personally had no major outages for months -- just a few short ones. In my opinion, the changes that are being made by the company to the infrastructure to make it redundant (and ultimately more reliable) have resulted in such complexity that has become difficult for it to maintain the speed and reliability that we customers require.

23 Oct 2006, 08:30 AM	#5
denverharless Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Denver Posts: 505	I'll have to second alistair234 on this. Regular posters to forums like this are a cantankerous bunch. The service has weathered some storms, but I don't see signs yet of any wreckage. Sometimes I feel the same way about opninions that are expressed on the forum that I do about the opinions of students that are often expressed on course evaluations. Not only are they ill-informed, but their standards are often unjust. This is an email service after all, not a missile guidance system. And, it's provided by a very capable group of developers, but not by a vast team of engineers with millions of dollars at their disposal. Anyway, they've had some rough patches this year, but things seem stable now. I say we wait and see if the replication of the servers has made extended outages a thing of the past! It's a great service, and I would be sad to see it go, but geesh, what a bunch of chicken-littles we have here!

23 Oct 2006, 10:50 AM	#7
the bishop Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: May 2005 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 676	I cannot think of any other service that is a valid FM replacement - but have Tuffmail just in case and it has proven to be a potent duo. I do not think it's rubbish, else I'd not be with FM still.

23 Oct 2006, 10:53 AM	#8
leslieb Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 17	I think digp must be using a differnt fastmail to me. Aside from the one massive outage recently that affected a large portion of the userbase (including me) for an extended period the uptime has been fine, I have been a user for a few years now (I joined sometime after the "infamous NY crash" that gets brought up once in a while). I have not had the same "massive" up tick in spam that a few people are reporting and I suspect the issue is related to specific people rather than everyone as my email at my workplace receives upwards of 10 spam sharebroker emails a day that slip through the filter, while my personal FM account only gets one a day. While there are always some valid complaints most of these complainers will not be happy wherever they go. For the price and the features I can't find any provider who is equal to fastmail (tuffmail is close but not quite). There is a chance with any service you use that there will be problems. I went in to this in depth during that last outage but bascially you pay for the level of risk you want. If 100% uptime is vitally important then pay extra for it, if 100% access to all emails is vitally important then pay for it. I would say the vast majority of people who stormed off away from fastmail have simply swapped to a differnt provider that has the exact same chance of having the same sort of problems becasue they are too damn cheap to pay for the garuantees of service they expect. From my point of view I use fastmail for my families email. The interface is quick, even on dialup, the IMAP thing is great for accessing my email from home and work and when I am away, the spam filtering has been fine, despite being an email provider I have found the 'web extensions' great, the fact that I can password certain sections for people, setup my own subdomains for pages etc. There are features I wish fastmail would implement sooner rather than later: a remotely accessible address book so my addressbooks on my home email client and web access are the same just like my email and an online .ics calendar thing so my at home sunbird calendar can be accessed and edited from the webinterface. Those two features would make fastmail an almost drop in replacement for outlook. Overall though for the price I pay, I can't complain.

24 Oct 2006, 01:15 PM	#12
rmns2bseen Master of the @ Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: USA Posts: 1,426	Although I've now officially downgraded back to my old Member status (mainly because Member status is really all I need, except for the flood of spam I can now expect), I wouldn't say the service is rubbish at all. It's really good and I still love the interface.

24 Oct 2006, 02:20 PM	#14
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	I have a Tuffmail account also. Customer service is really good. Send an e-mail; get a response within minutes. With Fastmail, don't hold your breath, because a response has taken days in my personal experience (Enhanced Account). My opinion is that its support could certainly be improved.