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FastMail Forum All posts relating to FastMail.FM should go here: suggestions, comments, requests for help, complaints, technical issues etc. |
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16 Feb 2021, 08:39 PM | #31 | |
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$5/month is not unreasonable today. |
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16 Feb 2021, 08:46 PM | #32 | |
Master of the @
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17 Feb 2021, 01:21 AM | #33 | |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 278
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The main problem with the basic account is that it doesn't support hosting, so you are locked in to their domains. If they end up targeting Hey's price points that could prove expensive. |
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17 Feb 2021, 07:44 AM | #34 | |
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They sell the phone, but didn't include the fast charger for the phone like other android cell phone has. They sold it separately for more money. They could have included it. They also sold their Mfi technology to any company that wants to produce charging cable, but each cable the company sells, Apple will earn $5/each. Fastmail is just an ant comparing to the big "Apple", but they're trying to get where they want to be. |
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17 Feb 2021, 06:15 PM | #35 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Melbourne, Oz
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Similar thing happening with Lastpass: http://emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=78511
Maybe we're seeing a more general trend to encourage people to pay for services. |
17 Feb 2021, 09:54 PM | #36 | |
The "e" in e-mail
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17 Feb 2021, 11:13 PM | #37 |
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Every for-profit company charges what they think the market will bear and will maximize their profits. This is nothing new. Prices change too. Everyone uses free services to entice new customers, and then they try to design the systems to make it difficult or unpleasant to leave. Some recent examples that come to mind include Google's charging for Photos and Drive storage or a few year's back Microsoft OneDrive going from unlimited storage to paid. It isn't unethical or surprising at all. I understand it is painful for those that see the price increase or service degrade, but it should always be expected. We all need to avoid lock-in as much as possible, and have alternate products and services in mind in case a change becomes too painful for you.
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18 Feb 2021, 01:16 AM | #38 |
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There are at least few provides that offer similar specs at similar prices as the Fastmail's $5 plan. There are some (inbox.eu) that are way cheaper. But I am not questioning the utility of the $5 plan. What I am questioning is the unnecessary (at least for me) lack of a basic functionality on a paid plan (the $3/mo). For me all paid plans should have all basic functionality and the differentiation should be based on numbers (size of storage, numbers of aliases), or on premium features, but not on the basic ones.
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18 Feb 2021, 02:16 AM | #39 |
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This is my take as well. It's not so much that changing in the Basic plan was unethical; it was that removing such basic functionality comes across as kind of a jerk move on FastMail's part. Perhaps there are mitigating reasons that make the decision understandable, but my current perspective is that it's really just a way to get customers to pay for features they don't need (like large quotas) to get a basic one they do.
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18 Feb 2021, 02:24 AM | #40 |
Intergalactic Postmaster
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Location: Irving, Texas
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I think that most new prospects for the Basic account will be younger people who use apps on a mobile device or tablet. They can still use the Fastmail iOS or Android app with a Basic account, and on a PC they can use webmail. If they use an email client, it's probably only for their job which requires use of Outlook. Nearly everyone I know uses Gmail, Outlook.com (old Hotmail), and Yahoo email using a browser if they are on a PC or Mac.
The concept of an "email client" is technobabble for the vast majority of people. Their phone or tablet is always connected to the internet while in use, and they are only using an app or a web browser. The people who come to this forum are not a representative sample of new Fastmail Basic users, who use text messaging and other messaging systems for most of their casual conversations. Few of them will notice the loss, and Fastmail will have less chance of spammers using Basic accounts. Bill |
18 Feb 2021, 02:49 AM | #41 | |
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18 Feb 2021, 03:17 AM | #42 | |
Intergalactic Postmaster
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Of course, Fastmail wants more users on higher plans. It's hard for us on the outside to know of their reasons, but my guess is that very few prospective new Basic users will notice the loss of IMAP/SMTP, since they never use email clients. |
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18 Feb 2021, 06:27 AM | #43 | |
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18 Feb 2021, 06:52 AM | #44 |
Master of the @
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Exactly.
This is just an exercise in money grabbing. Fastmail have removed the ability to use your email out of the box with Apple Mail etc. |
18 Feb 2021, 10:20 AM | #45 |
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I have a 'legacy' standard account I guess. Anyway individual App passwords (and specific passwords for different services) are available to me now and I hope they will be still part of my renewed account when my renewal is due in September. Last year I decided to renew for another 3 years. I think a Support question Ticket or something is in order here. Good thing there's a few months before I have to really decide if this is an important enough task to proceed with.
- Bruce |
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