Many, many years ago, before most people even knew what the internet was, I had a dial-up account with a small company. Only geeks and freaks had that kind of thing back then.
Over the years, maybe going on 15 years now, while I've moved on to more sophisticated web access, I've kept the same email address. I've paid $50 a year for the priviledge which I think is more than enough for the convenience.
Today I got an email with a rather nasty tone saying I've been using the email without paying (WTF, don't think so) and from now on I'll have to pay $8 a month to use. That's around $100 a year.
I'm torn. On the one hand, I want to say screw you, fuckers and get myself a gmail account or something, on the other, I get random emails all the time that I don't want to lose. I've registered with a fuckload of employment agencies that contact me when they have jobs come up that might interest me - far too many of them for me to contact with a change of contact details. I have done a shitload of marketing for my writing that is all by email too.
I'm thinking of paying their shitty overpriced rates for 6 months or so while transitioning to a new address but I am really shitty about this. They are a small company that had excellent personal service in the past and now, I think, they have been taken over by another company. They have been getting $50 a year for a mail service I could get for free elsewhere and now they are getting greedy.
I've contacted them to express my feelings. I bet I'm not the only one.
Screw it, go with gmail. I've been using gmail since 2006 and I've never looked back. They seriously have the best spam protection I've ever used. I host my offices email at my work and I could only wish to get anywhere near as good spam protection with that as I do with gmail.
ReplyDeleteI hope everything works out. switching email is difficult and tedious.
Yeah I was thinking of getting a gmail anyway and transferring all my writing stuff to that. It does sound awful.
DeleteGrrr. Why do big companies come along and just irritate everyone? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I think you should keep it for 6 months, like you say, and slowly transfer everything over. Not fun, but think of all the cool stuff you could get for $100.
ReplyDeleteExactly - it's a new pair of shoes!
DeleteOh that's so crap! :(
ReplyDeleteMoving email addresses sucks (i got in early with gmail which is why I have what I have!), so 10 years now.
You could get your own URL and pick your own email (and run it through google apps, aka same layout as gmail) if you didn't want to get a generic gmail one. I think that's now $50/year though, use to be free :(
15 years and same email though! well done!
xx
It's annoying though because all the email addys I want are taken :(
DeleteI still use Hotmail.
ReplyDeleteThere. I said it.
It does mean I've had the same email address for the last 15 years though. I've got a couple of gmail accounts but I'm buggered if I can remember the passwords. Thank god for autofill, eh?
I would start migrating to something like gmail... It takes some time but it did take me a big of time to segue from my old dial up email addy from ages ago to gmail but it's doable. This can even give you the chance to segregate your emails; something for work and something personal perhaps?
ReplyDeleteYeah it's just shitty. I bet they want to get rid of their small acounts and figure this is the best way to do it.
DeleteI got in on gmail so early (beta/invite only..had to apply to get the invite)I had aloha@gmail.com but it was later taken away ...another story. I got hawaiibadboy which there are tons of sub versions out there now. I never knew you had to pay for accounts and I hated everything Microsoft because they were everywhere...now Google is...... EVERYWHERE.
ReplyDeleteimport your contacts and send them updated acct info from the old one so it's not marked spam and then migrate over...people do it everyday.
Yeah going to start on that this weekend. It's hard to get a good name on gmail now!
DeleteBtw you are so right about google. I hate their "interconnectivity" - I have shit that I want to keep seperate.
DeleteWonder if anyone will ever be held accountable and if they even care. My guess is that decisions like this are made by people who have been with the company fewer years than you've been a customer. Guess stories like this are what social media is good for? I am curious what the email looks like.
ReplyDeleteOne of those MBA-ish marketing books talks about how customer relations that have taken years to build can be blown in a matter of minutes. The freshly minted businessman (I'm probably being sexist, but women are smarter and more ruthless)... you think he graduated from Bond University?
Anyway...
The email was from the woman I've dealt with for years, but who knows who is making the policy!
DeleteI reckon it's them trying to get rid of some of the smaller clients to focus on other business.
Brutal! Bummer...
Delete