Is there any chance that Hotmail will revert these broken “improvements” they’ve made?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #50, I look at the possibility that Hotmail might roll back
recent updates and go back to an old version.

Hotmail improvements

I don’t have a solution for this particular problem. I do not know what’s
going on… in the specific sense of what’s going on with contacts.

I will say this: my experience with Hotmail (in the last nine years that
I’ve been doing this) tells me a couple of things:

• One is no, they’re not gonna move backwards.

• Hotmail only moves forwards.

They will fix things… eventually. Typically not as quickly as people would
like. But when something is this broken… if it’s because of a feature
addition or because of a change that Hotmail is making as they move forward,
they’re not gonna roll back:

• They’re not going go back to a previous version of Hotmail.

• They’re not going go back to previous versions of the contacts list.

So, my expectation is that the problem you’re experiencing will eventually be
fixed. But it will be fixed in the context of continuing to move Hotmail
forward with whatever new features and new user interface that they’re planning
on providing.

You get what you pay for…

Now, ultimately, I have to point out that Hotmail is a free service… and
you are getting exactly what you paid for in terms of customer service.
Nothing.

That means that, while you can be concerned and report these issues to
Hotmail support, ultimately they have no real responsibility to resolve the
issues for you. You’re not paying anything!

I would guarantee you that the “Terms of Service” that you agreed to many,
many years ago probably called this kind of stuff out explicitly… that
says:

• Ultimately, they have no responsibility for anything,

• And that the service doesn’t even need to work.

So ultimately, I think that many of the people who are moving to other email
services actually have the right idea. If you’re not happy with the free email
service provided, that you’re using, then by all means, find another one.

Alternate email services

I’ve got articles on
Gmail, which is the free service I recommend these days. I have articles on
what “for
pay” email providers you might want to consider simply because they have
kind-of a responsibility to make things work for you; given that you’re paying
them money every month. But there are various alternatives.

There are so many alternatives to Hotmail that I really don’t see there
being an incredible need for people to remain as frustrated as they are with
any email provider. Any email provider may end up having frustrated users. But
since it’s free, that’s kind of what you get.

It’s a good idea to consider some of the alternative providers that are out
there to see which ones will or won’t work for you.

Download your Hotmail

Now, I do want to point out one other thing and that is that Hotmail can be
accessed using an email program, like Thunderbird.

That is one way that would isolate you from Hotmail’s user interface… by
having that user interface be that of an email program running on your
PC.

Again, that’s a different change:

• It’s a more significant change as to how you might use your email;

• But it is one way to isolate you from the various changes that Hotmail
  typically does make to the user interface as they move forward in time.

How you move forward

So, that’s my recommendation:

1. Definitely continue to report the problem to Hotmail customer support.

They do need to know about it and I do believe that they will eventually
fix it. It’s not just the kind of a thing that gets fixed overnight or as
quickly as most people would want.

If that’s a problem, if Hotmail is continually frustrating you, life is too
short to be frustrated:

2. Find another email provider that works for you.

If you don’t want to lose your Hotmail.com address:

3. Consider using an offline or PC based email program like Thunderbird or
   Outlook.

That’s one way that will isolate you from these random user interface
changes and also allow you to control your own contact list on your own
PC.

Backup!

Finally, I have to say since you’re using Hotmail, a free email service,
please, please, please back that thing up.

Download your contacts. Download your email one way or another so that if
the worst happens and Hotmail really screws it up or your account gets hacked
or something else happens, you don’t lose any of your important data; you don’t
lose any of your important contacts.