Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 11 April 2007, 2:30 PM
AOL's incredible disappearing emails
Pity poor Jacqueline Fleming, who has seen thousands of her AOL-stored emails go bye-bye. As Which? points out, AOL's stance was something along the lines of "tough luck, lady", which can't be terribly heartening for its customers.
AOL told her that "it was not liable and gave different explanations each time, including having too many emails in her inbox and that there was probably a problem with her computer". A similar report found its way to Which? from "Heather Sager, who uses AOL for business". Sager and another user called Robin Harrod also lost their saved emails on several occasions, yet AOL somehow managed to claim that Fleming's had been the only such incident they knew about. Great.
And the moral of the story is: if you want to keep your emails, back 'em up yourself - web-based providers are under no obligation to do so.
PreviousComments on this post
I think it's costly but sure lesson not to use AOL , hotmail or alike for your business, especially for mission critical communication.
People who keep using services of shattered reputation companies remind me of people that find excuses to stay in abusive relationships. (he really loves me, I can change him, he's not himself right now and thats why I have broken jaw ,both eyes black and my lip busted) in fact thats what these incompetent services do to your business.
There are plenty of companies who offer business email hosting. All you need is your own domain name. For a small fee, like webmail.us or free email hosting from drivehq.com - WITH email backup software already installed with auto backup options.
Thanks for that vebotten - a good point, and a reasonable analogy. From my point of view, I think the analogy was a little bit... how shall I put this... overextended (?) but, as I say, the point is valid.
