Will Microsoft ever change?

[Pale Rider]

Yet more frustration with Microsoft today.

My hotmail account has been 'upgraded' by them to Outlook.

Fine, but the page is a bit cramped on my MacBook.

Microsoft has the answer, 'get more space' it says. 'sign up for Ad-Free Outlook'.

Worth a go, especially as the next page says the cost is a small one-off payment.

Next click takes me straight to the payment page to enter my card details.

Problem: it doesn't tell me how much I have to pay.

Typical Microsoft, it's as if they set out to frustrate and annoy.

It's one of the reasons why I will not use Windows, which is just as counter-intuitive and user unfriendly.

I have to concede Microsoft appear to make loads of money, so probably have little need to worry about the likes of me who has been using 'free' hotmail for years.

It's still frustrating, and to give the first answer to my question: I can't see Microsoft changing anytime soon.

 

[toffee]

They are not my favourite company at he moment either as my desktop running windows 10 has failed to load and it looks like a full reinstall is going to be required. Thank god it's backed up.

Derek

 

[PeteXXX]

I don't know if you can use it on Macbook, but my Firefox has Webmail Ad Blocker as an extension to block the ads in Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo.

 

[Pale Rider]

I don't know if you can use it on Macbook, but my Firefox has Webmail Ad Blocker as an extension to block the ads in Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo.

I summarised the on screen message to keep the post simpler, but regrettably have misled you.

The full text is: 'You appear to be using an ad-blocker - get more space, sign up for Ad-Free Outlook'.

That's correct, I am using an ad-blocker.

So it looks to me as if Microsoft is 'beating' the ad-blocker by denying me the extra screen space it would have given me.

I've no problem with that, they have a living to make.

 

[PeteXXX]

I summarised the on screen message to keep the post simpler, but regrettably have misled you.

The full text is: 'You appear to be using an ad-blocker - get more space, sign up for Ad-Free Outlook'.

That's correct, I am using an ad-blocker.

So it looks to me as if Microsoft is 'beating' the ad-blocker by denying me the extra screen space it would have given me.

I've no problem with that, they have a living to make.

I've not had that message. Yet.
I'll cross that Windows10 bridge when I come to it!

 

[marknotgeorge]

It seems to be £14.95 per year. Is there a mail application on that MacBook?

 

[Pale Rider]

I've not had that message. Yet.
I'll cross that Windows10 bridge when I come to it!

Knowing Microsoft, had I filled in the payment page with my card details and pressed 'pay', the next page might have told me how much I'd spent.

I'm not prepared to do that, it borders on the irresponsible and I would have no moral ground to complain to Microsoft or the credit card provider if I was unhappy with the amount charged.

When I abandoned the transaction, it sent me to a page asking why.

I filled that in, plainly and simply with no ranting, so we shall see if I get a reply.

 

[Pale Rider]

It seems to be £14.95 per year. Is there a mail application on that MacBook?

The sales page was clear, one-off payment, no subscription, and no minimum activity requirement to keep the account active.

The MacBook is a 2009 Pro and has what I think is called iMail.

Tried it a few years ago, and it does give a text box which can be resized.

But it appeared not every inbound message was forwarded to it, so I stopped using it.

 

[ianrauk]

Get yourself Yahoo mail. Hasn't failed me yet.

 

[Pale Rider]

Get yourself Yahoo mail. Hasn't failed me yet.

When I signed up for a hotmail, I chose it because it appeared cleaner and less cartoony than some of the others.

I would be happy enough to use Yahoo or Gmail now, but as you might imagine lots of my contacts now have the hotmail address so changing would be a faff.

Happily for me, I don't use it that much, so can rub along as is if I never discover how much the upgrade is.

 

[PeteXXX]

Could you not keep your Hotmail account but access and use it through Thunderbird?

 

[subaqua]

When I signed up for a hotmail, I chose it because it appeared cleaner and less cartoony than some of the others.

I would be happy enough to use Yahoo or Gmail now, but as you might imagine lots of my contacts now have the hotmail address so changing would be a faff.

Happily for me, I don't use it that much, so can rub along as is if I never discover how much the upgrade is.

Mail forwarding rule. When you reply you reply with new email and most of your contacts see it has come from different account so use that address . Some places will need a manual update like banks and subscribed but you generally receive emails from them rather than send .

That's how I migrated from AOL ( yes I know I was young n stupid though)

 

[Pale Rider]

Could you not keep your Hotmail account but access and use it through Thunderbird?

A quick google suggests that could be a good a move.

Thunderbird is said to be cross-platform, but I see it's a Mozilla product and I use Firefox, so if Thunderbird works well with anything, it ought to work well with its parent browser.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/features/

Mail forwarding rule. When you reply you reply with new email and most of your contacts see it has come from different account so use that address . Some places will need a manual update like banks and subscribed but you generally receive emails from them rather than send .

That's how I migrated from AOL ( yes I know I was young n stupid though)

Mmm, changing might not be as complicated as I thought - I can see that would work well enough for me.

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm appalled and for that matter amazed that Microsoft should ask you to pay for something before telling you how much it is. That's beyond hucksterish.

 

[ColinJ]

Will they change ... probably not! They need to change their way of treating women, for a start ...