Fastmail account blocked

[pfdstudio]

Yesterday I received a couple of phishing attempts that appeared to be from Fastmail support, but which contained bogus links. I reported these to Fastmail support, and a few hours later, my account was locked. I got instructions to 1) change my password, and 2) file a support ticket to get the account re-opened.

I did both of these last night, but it's now been over 14 hours with no response from Fastmail at all. I can't access my account, and I can't seem to get any action on the ticket. Its status is "New - waiting for support to take."

Anyone know what's going on there? This is a major problem.

Thanks,
-pd

[Berenburger]

Originally Posted by pfdstudio

Anyone know what's going on there? This is a major problem

What account do you have? With an Enhanced or Premier account you have priority support. I expect with priority, within 8 hours. Generally speaking, FM has a bad track record in response times.

[pfdstudio]

Originally Posted by Berenburger

What account do you have? With an Enhanced or Premier account you have priority support. I expect with priority, within 8 hours. Generally speaking, FM has a bad track record in response times.

Thanks. I have an Enhanced account.

I could understand long wait times for questions and other non-critical issues, but I have no access to my account. That seems pretty critical to me. Moreover, I don't know why it was blocked.

[pfdstudio]

Ok, my account has now been unlocked, a mere 18 hours after being locked.

They gave no reason for locking the account, and had the audacity to recommend that I be more careful of security, though there was, in fact, no security problem.

[werewolf]

So far, other than an automated response, they haven't responded to my complaint. If I don't hear from them by tomorrow I'll start switching all my email over to Outlook free. Fastmail has been a big disappointment.

[lane]

Originally Posted by werewolf

So far, other than an automated response, they haven't responded to my complaint. If I don't hear from them by tomorrow I'll start switching all my email over to Outlook free. Fastmail has been a big disappointment.

Well, lots of luck getting a response from Microsoft, unless of course you will be using a paid plan.

[werewolf]

Originally Posted by lane

Well, lots of luck getting a response from Microsoft, unless of course you will be using a paid plan.

Microsoft? Is Fastmail part of Microsoft now? Anyway, I am using a paid FM plan, and not a word from them, so I'm going through the hassle of switching all my emails to free Outlook today. Signing up with Fastmail, and sending them money, and figuring out how to set up my own domain and all, was a big waste of time and a big disappointment. Screw you, Fastmail!

[chuckster]

Originally Posted by lane

Well, lots of luck getting a response from Microsoft, unless of course you will be using a paid plan.

free or paid you pretty much don't need support if the email service like outlook that is consistently reliable. fatsmail on the other hand is frequently down, support is always on vacation.... perhaps FM stands for "frequent maintenance".

[werewolf]

Originally Posted by chuckster

free or paid you pretty much don't need support if the email service like outlook that is consistently reliable. fatsmail on the other hand is frequently down, support is always on vacation.... perhaps FM stands for "frequent maintenance".

I had good old Yahoo free email (which has now been trashed) for many years and I don't recall ever needing support. It just worked, and it worked intuitively and smoothly.

[John Denison]

Ok, my account has now been unlocked, a mere 18 hours after being locked.

Thats quick. My wives account got block and it took three days for them to sort it. It caused her a back log of some 800 email and she's self-employed. This is after paying them some $165 to renew our family account some weeks beforehand.

[William9]

I had an experience (a long time ago) where I had no access to my FM account for several days. That's why I stopped using FM for my business.

[danieldk]

Originally Posted by werewolf

Microsoft? Is Fastmail part of Microsoft now?

No, but Outlook is . As others are saying, I'd expect little or no support if you take a free Outlook.com account. Exchange Online (paid) or Office 365 are different, there you can actually call them.

[werewolf]

Originally Posted by danieldk

No, but Outlook is . As others are saying, I'd expect little or no support if you take a free Outlook.com account. Exchange Online (paid) or Office 365 are different, there you can actually call them.

I don't need any support if the email works properly. I never needed support on old yahoo email, for years. And I certainly don't need Fastmail's "enhanced support", the online equivalent to, "please do not hang up your call is important to us."

[paul29]

I have the Enhanced account too and I have to agree that support response is rather slow in the scheme of things. I've filed 2 or 3 tickets and just lived with the delays, but I didn't have blocking issues like email access being locked. It does seem to me that FM should work on improving this. That said, I'm basically happy with FM as the stuff works pretty well without human intervention. I don't live my life around email so if there's a brief network outage or something, I can just sit it out. That happens with gmail too after all.

[danieldk]

Originally Posted by paul29

That happens with gmail too after all.

I have used Google apps for years, and never had any noticeable downtime. And I do use email pretty much all day. The price is approximately the same as Fastmail, except that I'm grandfathered in one of the old free accounts. I also have an enormous amount of storage that I got when purchasing a Moto X.

I have a Fastmail account to see if it would be a worthwhile alternative. But between the slow support, lack of push, and IP blocks, I'll probably not renew after a year. Though I do think they're doing great stuff, contributing to Cyrus and such.