[IMail Forum] OT: customers caught in the middle

[Matrosity Hosting]

I just got off the phone with a telco in Atlanta who refuses to allow one of our clients access to their smtp server even though it's clearly defined in their contract for a T1. Apparently, there's a loophole in the contract that allows them to remove this service. At any rate they're doing this with many clients in the Atlanta area saying they must use their hosting company's smtp server. Since we've had out phone system lit up like a christmas tree a couple of times when ISP's turn off this kind of access we've advised customers to use their broadband providers' smtp servers. Now it seems that some ISP's are turning the customers back the other way. #1 reason is so we don't have an instance where our customers cannot suddenly send email and blame us. Obviously, saving the bandwidth and load on our server is a reason as well. It's also kind of foolish for clients in other countries to connect across an ocean to send an email to the next desk in their office. Just wanted some thoughts on the subject of how most will move forward.