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Old 30 Jan 2017, 07:50 AM   #196
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TechGuy2000 View Post
[Copy of e-mail sent to Jeremy Howard, Rob Mueller, and FastMail Team]

Jeremy, Rob, and FastMail Team:

I am profoundly disappointed to learn that FastMail has decided to discontinue the lifetime Member level plans.*I first signed up for FastMail in October 2002 after being referred by a friend who was excited about your company. For the vast majority of my time as a FastMail member, I had a FastMail Enhanced subscription, but for financial reasons I decided not to renew my subscription and to take advantage of my membership and revert to a Member level plan. One of the reasons I signed up for FastMail over 14 years ago, paid for a membership, and paid for an Enhanced subscription for so many years, was the assurance that, as long as FastMail remained in business, I would be able to keep my e-mail address forever--even if I chose, at any point, to stop subscribing to the higher level plans. That Member level fallback benefit was something FastMail specifically designed and marketed, and it was a big selling point for me. When I paid for the Member account and when I subscribed to the Enhanced subscription, the FastMail website expressly stated that the Member account as a "lifetime 'Member' account" (see:*https://web.archive.org/web/20021215....fm/mail/login).

FastMail continued to reassure those of us who had signed up to become lifetime "Members" that our paid membership would continue (see for example: https://blog.fastmail.com/2003/02/25...criptions/*and https://blog.fastmail.com/2008/12/16...to-be-removed/). If you paid a fee to become a lifetime member of some other organization (such as:*https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/...ife-membership) and then the organization decided to end your lifetime membership and require you to start paying annually to be a member, wouldn't you be justifiably upset? Many businesses that offer other kinds of services offer a lifetime service option (such as lifetime wheel alignment service:*http://www.sears.com/lifetime-alignm...9016032000P*or lifetime service agreements for power tools:*http://www.homedepot.com/c/SF_TH_PR_...Tools_Warranty).

It is clear that FastMail offered the Member level plan as a "lifetime" plan, and I expect many other people signed up for FastMail's Member plan for the same reason that I did. For example, see:
Rob Mueller's acknowledgement that FastMail had offered a lifetime Member plan:*http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=42971
See media article re-posted by Jeremy Howard discussing the lifetime Member plan:*http://jhoward.fastmail.fm/media/slicker_wheel.html
Jeremy Howard's statement that the Member plan was designed and intended to be a one-time, lifetime membership and that it was carefully designed to be sustainable:*http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...8&postcount=33

I understand (as discussed here:*https://blog.fastmail.com/2010/05/30...-all-accounts/) that the one-time membership fee associated with the Member level account means that FastMail cannot increase the storage and bandwidth quotas--and I would not expect you to do so.*I can't believe that it costs much of anything for FastMail to support Member level accounts with a 16MB storage quota and an 80MB monthly bandwidth quota.

When a company makes the business decision to offer a service for a one-time fee, it is responsible for taking into account the costs of that lifetime service. (And based on Jeremy's comments linked to above, it appears the FastMail did just that.) If the company later decides it made a bad business decision, it can stop offering the service for a one-time fee. It can also attempt to incentivize customers to voluntarily give up their lifetime service (as FastMail did in the past when it offered a voluntary incentive for members to trade in their memberships for a $14.95 credit toward the purchase of a Full or Enhanced subscription, which would mean that such users would fallback to a Guest level plans rather than Member level plans if they didn't renew (see: https://blog.fastmail.com/2004/08/14...o-2gb-storage/). But the company is NOT free to unilaterally change the terms of the deal after customers already paid for the lifetime service. And if you continue with your plan to cancel the paid memberships of your customers, you will demonstrate that FastMail is untrustworthy as a company. Why would I trust a company that changes the terms of an agreement after I sign up?

Over the past 14 years that I have been a FastMail customer and member, I have respected your company and have referred others to your service. I joined FastMail back in its infancy, and after paying to become a member, I truly felt like part of the FastMail family. I remember back in the early days when Jeremy had periodic health problems and the outpouring of concern, prayers, and encouragement that the other members and I shared for him (for example:*http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...ad.php?t=13597)

I respectfully ask that you re-consider and stand by your advertised offer of a paid lifetime membership and allow those of us who have Member plans to keep them. Please do not undermine the trust I put in you--and the trust I encouraged others to put in you.

But if you choose to continue with your plan to cancel my paid lifetime membership, rather than a service credit, I would ask that you refund the $14.95 membership fee I paid you when the Member plan is discontinued on July 31, 2017.

Respectfully,
************
I have a lot of sympathy for your point of view. However, you should be aware that Jeremy Howard has had no involvement with FastMail for a number of years. I personally believe that, if he was still the decision maker, this certainly would not have happened. Jeremy had a customer focused approach that is not common with IT services. Unfortunately, with Jeremy's departure, the culture at FastMail has slowly changed. Technically, the product is better than ever, but they no longer see a loyal and enthusiastic base as a priority.

I believe you will get your $14.95 refunded, though this is a symbolic gesture rather than one that will make much difference.
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Old 30 Jan 2017, 12:15 PM   #197
Bamb0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TechGuy2000
But if you choose to continue with your plan to cancel my paid lifetime membership, rather than a service credit, I would ask that you refund the $14.95 membership fee I paid you when the Member plan is discontinued on July 31, 2017.
I hope your email isnt just deleted!
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Old 30 Jan 2017, 02:01 PM   #198
David
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Originally Posted by Bamb0 View Post
I hope your email isnt just deleted!
I hope that your post, likewise, is also not deleted, Bamb0.
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Old 30 Jan 2017, 04:17 PM   #199
Bamb0
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Well really we are all @ the mercy of the staff Dave .. If they dont like something we post they can simply remove it and we really dont have any say right??

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Old 30 Jan 2017, 04:35 PM   #200
David
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Originally Posted by Bamb0 View Post
Well really we are all @ the mercy of the staff Dave .. If they dont like something we post they can simply remove it and we really dont have any say right??

Right, but the more posts there are, pertaining to the question in hand (in this case the refunding of the funds paid for the member account) the greater the chances are that all the posts will not be deleted
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Old 30 Jan 2017, 05:04 PM   #201
NumberSix
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Originally Posted by Bamb0 View Post
Well really we are all @ the mercy of the staff Dave .. If they dont like something we post they can simply remove it and we really dont have any say right??

I'm not aware that such behavior on the part of FM staff has ever been an issue on these forums. Have I missed something? Yes, I see the smilies attached, but just checking.
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Old 30 Jan 2017, 05:29 PM   #202
Terry
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bamb0 View Post
Well really we are all @ the mercy of the staff Dave .. If they dont like something we post they can simply remove it and we really dont have any say right??

Fastmail dont run the forum, it's run by http://www.emaildiscussions.com/

As far as I know Fastmail have never had anything deleted, but the Mod's have been know to delete a few posts...
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Old 30 Jan 2017, 05:29 PM   #203
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bamb0 View Post
Well really we are all @ the mercy of the staff Dave .. If they dont like something we post they can simply remove it and we really dont have any say right??

Whatever might happen to emails or private messages, I am quite confident posts in this thread that do not violate the forum's rules will not be deleted. A conscious decision in the beginning was to create a forum that was free of company influence and, thus, could be trusted by prospective new users.
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 12:51 AM   #204
David
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Posts do disappear (often years later) - that I do know.

Many of these (I suspect) have been at the request of the original posters, who have appealed to the powers that be.
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 07:18 AM   #205
Terry
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If someone closes their account I think their posts then may get deleted.
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 07:31 AM   #206
David
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Originally Posted by Terry View Post
If someone closes their account I think their posts then may get deleted.
It is impossible to close your account Terry. There is no way to do it.
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 08:43 AM   #207
Terry
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Oh Ok I thought Edwin could do it.
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 02:10 PM   #208
neoforum
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TechGuy2000 View Post
[Copy of e-mail sent to Jeremy Howard, Rob Mueller, and FastMail Team]

Jeremy, Rob, and FastMail Team:

I am profoundly disappointed to learn that FastMail has decided to discontinue the lifetime Member level plans....
Nice letter. Let us know in a week or two whether you get a response.
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 06:45 PM   #209
Mugwhamp
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Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
Nice letter. Let us know in a week or two whether you get a response.
Um, yawn...
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Old 31 Jan 2017, 08:59 PM   #210
samhu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neoforum View Post
Nice letter. Let us know in a week or two whether you get a response.
And I hope the response will be from a real person, and not some bean-counter recent-arrival at Fa$tMail.
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