A Tale of Two Suppliers

The nature of my business has changed somewhat over the years and recently I’ve been busy making some long overdue changes. One change was to eliminate my toll-free number as it was rarely used. I was however always pleased with the cost, functionality and service of that supplier, formerly called GOTVMAIL and now called Grasshopper. Best of all, when it came time to part they were most helpful. Termination was quick, easy to do and acknowledged by e-mail along with, surprise, an unexpected refund for unused time. Even though I left just before it became Grasshopper, I expect that the same fine level of service I enjoyed for many years will continue. I recommend them.

Another change I must sadly make is to part ways with my long time primary e-mail provider, NetZero. Even though they do offer a very limited free service, I’ve always paid for a better level of service and was reasonably pleased for many years. Sadly things are quite different now. I use three other services for e-mail, all of which are free. The paid version of NetZero has far more advertising associated with it than any of the free ones. Until I discovered it and found out how to stop it, NetZero was attaching advertisements to my e-mails without my knowledge. Replying to some e-mails became tedious as some are placed into attached files (limiting your ability to read what you are replying to). The service has a low limit on attached file size that has prevented me from sending some attachments. Even though I paid for the service and didn’t like any of the above issues, I tended to live with it. With the most recent change, I no longer can.

NetZero now places ads in the area where you compose your e-mail. Most are animated. Some are obnoxious. Have you ever tried to compose an e-mail with a red background ad blinking away next to your text? I found that I couldn’t think straight. I started to use other services to answer e-mails received from NetZero. I contacted their customer service group to complain that the service was “unusable.” The response is that they are working on a way to eliminate such ads for paying customers. Working on it? Would any programmer out there disagree when I say it shouldn’t take a day to make that change?

The came the biggest frustration of all. Trying to copy my address files to the other services. Do think NetZero makes that easy for you to do? Do you think NetZero even talks about it? Guess again. And while Gmail recently announced an ability to help you copy your contact files from selected other services, NetZero wasn’t one of them.

So goodbye NetZero. You’ve already become secondary to other services. I’ll continue to pay for your useless service as I get the word out to everyone. But unlike Grasshopper, which I wouldn’t hesitate to use again, my termination will be permanent. And obviously I can’t recommend you.

For those who would like my new primary e-mail address, click here.

About me: Before becoming a full time educator, my career experiences included being vice president of a consulting firm, vice president - finance of a publishing company, vice president - sales support services for a manufacturing company and vice president - operations for a distribution company. As a full time educator working principally in Rhode Island (RI), Connecticut (CT) and Massachusetts (MA). I am pleased to share my experiences and business philosophies through this blog, along with an occasional rant such as today.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.