Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 16:32:06 -0400 From: "Jordan Clifford" <GrooveHolmes394 at hotmail dot com> Subject: Hot Mail Abuse responses/ my final word
I would like to thank Tim <tfoster6272 at comcast dot net> for understanding my point of view completley and standing up for me when no one else did(well, maybe a few people did and I thank all them too). I continue to be frustrated, dare I say outraged at the responses I have gotten, and the responses Tim has gotten from Mike Dickson.
Let me try and set the record straight here: I DID NOT CHOOSE TO PUBLICLY DENOUNCE ET, I only posted on ET as a final action. And let me add another important fact, that was probably the 4th time I tried to post on ET about this since I got absolutely NO response from ET or anyone I emailed at ET about this. I must have EMAILED anyone I could get a contact address for privately at least 5 times. I did not want to Post this on ET, especially because it had nothing to do with KC. However, I knew that Toby seems to look at every post that goes through, so TOBY was the person I addressed my final published complaints to. Like I said, this was after many other attempts to post respectful and calm questions and concerns about what was going on with my service. Since there is NOWHERE to address such issues, and I got no response from the available email addresses, I had to turn to the newsletter to see if maybe Toby would read my posts which obviously called out to him personally, asking him to please respond to me PRIVATELY about this so I can find out what is going on. When that didn't happen, and the months kept passing I started to get really upset about it. Up until then I had no expectations of this newsletter to act as if I'm paying them. I don't feel that way now either. It did occur to me though, that the only post that showed up on the news letter or that I got any response to was the one was was slightly "abusive".
Now that I found out the hard way what the problem is, it is entirely possible that ET didnt get all my posts, but what troubles me is that I recieve all my regular email, including every single other free mailing list I am on. So please tell me how I would know to assume Hotmail was the problem? there was no way for me to know, why do you think i was ASKING? Since you didn't try to contact me personally, you really wouldnt know if that would work or not.
Furthermore, take this as you will, I believe that when you choose to publish a free public newsletter to a large number of peolpe all over the world, you assume a certain responsiblity to do your best to help those faithful subscribers with their technical problems regarding your newsletter. If you want to be paid for that, ask for money. If you like putting in your own time to put out a great newsletter, you know that there will be some problems with email. This could have all been avoided if I got the help I wanted when i asked politely... 5 months ago.
I was just a fan of your newsletter, so much so that I was anxious to get it every week, and suddenly it stopped coming.
That is all I knew of the situation. Just that one day I got it, the next day I didnt, but I continued to recieve all other email including mailing list email. Was I wrong in trying to contact everyone I could find about this? No, but did I get any response? No.
Perhaps you never got my emails, who really knows at this point? if that is the case, i never got your newsletter, you never got my emails, I had no way of knowing it was an email problem, and maybe you had no way of tellling me. the months went passed, I grew more and mroe frustrated, as anyone would, and then finally the one nasty post I send gets published and I suddenly get publicly yelled at for having no respect or gratitude.
Look at things from both sides.
Obviously other people are having trouble with their hotmail regarding this newsletter, perhaps there was a way that you could have addressed that problem on the news letter (if not possible through email) before you randomly and without notice cut all hotmail customers off? Maybe if you knew that I was using hotmail and having this trouble you might have thought to yourself that I got so frustrated because of Hotmail and I had no idea, so now you could finally straighten the problem out. It does not seem mature to me that if you think I am acting rude to act rude right back to me to prove a point. But thats how you wanted to do it, and thats how you did it with Tim as well.
Toby came to Mike's defense saying that he and only he sees and approves all the posts that go on ET. So then did you get all my other posts that started out saying something to the affect of : followed by something like : Toby- I dont know if this will get posted for the newsletter because its not KC related but I have not recieved my ET for a month now and Im really curious why. was there some reason my subscription was canceled? let me know, i just want to continue recieving it in email. thanks
if you didnt, well then Mike's response might be somewhat justifiable. However, since you see everything that comes as a post to ET Toby, I would have thought you'd intercept some of my earlier posts before it got to the point where I felt I needed to get nasty to get your attention. Perhaps that was the wrong approach. Looks like it worked though.
I completely understand and appreciate all the work that goes into this newsletter, really I do. This whole thing was never intended to question that or insult anyone or anything like that. I dont know why Tim could see where I was coming from and neither you (Toby) or Mike could. In fact, you both seem to have taken it very personally. At least Mike did. Maybe I approached it (on the final try) as if you had something to lose if I was no longer reading ET, as if i paid for your service. I dont, I know that. But do I really need to pay you in order to get one question answered, especially if that question is How come I'm not getting ET anymore?
Mike tells me I have no right to even think of complaining about a free newsletter, a "GIFT" as he put it. I suppose then I should be thankful for the times it comes, and keep my mouth shut if I start getting it in chinese? I mean, after all it is free. I have teh same amount of money in my pocket whether I get ET in english or chinese, so how could I even consider complaining that I can't read it? Well, what do you have to say to the other customers who also responded to this by saying they also had trouble with hotmail, not knowing it was hotmails problem and not ETs and stopped getting ET. For a while I didnt realize I could read ET through the website, so since I have no right to ask why I stopped getting ET, you have no reason to respond to such an offensive question, and for all I could have known that would be the end of ET for me. I hope you have a better answer for all the other subcribers who are no longer subscribed without an explination, whose only explination comes from this disagreement?
Now that I found out what the problem was through your helpful and kind assistance, I can understand that this is hotmails problem, therefor my problem and not ET's. I'll let you know when I get a new email address, until then I'll be more than satisfied reading this wonderful free newsletter from the ET website.
Seriously, I appreciate the newsletter, all I wanted from the beginning was simply to be able to read it.
Jordan
[ I'm sorry that there have been problems. I don't like having dissatisfied ET readers -- but occasionally things go wrong with communications and with email systems. It's true that I read every post that comes to ET, which, as you might imagine, takes some time. Sometimes private queries to me from ETers may slip through the net. I do my best to ensure that this doesn't happen. --Toby]