all these references to "the guy" remind me of the movie Half Baked.
On Jan 10, 2008 10:30 AM, Don Ferguson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, I learned a lesson lat night, I guess. In my mind it's always > been about tradeoffs. With hosted Exchange, I was thinking these were > the choices: > > > > 1. 1&1, or others like them. Big provider of service. Low price. Not > so great technical support but at least they're big and I wouldn't be > vulnerable to things falling through the cracks if "the guy" wasn't > around at a given time. > > > > 2. Intermedia, Rackspace, or others like them. Big provider of service. > High price. Set minimum number of mailboxes. Great technical support. > No vulnerabilities, as long as I'm willing to pay 2x or 3x or 4x (or > even up to 8x) for approximately the same Exchange service. > > > > 3. Webville, or others like them. Very small provider of service. Low > price. Makes me and my clients vulnerable if "the guy" isn't around at > a given time. > > > > Well, I was wrong. While #2 and #3 are valid, #1 was a myth! Turns out > at 1&1 "the guy" was out for two weeks on Christmas vacation. I didn't > know that. 1&1's level 1 support didn't know that. So my problem sat > unanswered, with no apparent process to handle "the guy" being out, for > two weeks. > > > > And to add insult to injury, here is the response from "the guy" (who is > a good guy, by the way; nonetheless this is a not-unexpected but > completely unsatisfactory answer): > > > > "Unfortunately i have to tell you, that the Problem here is your Palm > with it's "VersaMail"-Application. We have seen numerous problems with > that over the last months. As we have seen before this may be fixed by > Palm with a new Release. But we can not guarantee this. > > > > So far we can only recommend to not use Palm devices with our Exchange > Servers." > > > > I am going to switch to Webville.net (Exchangehostingservice.com) and > try that out; today hopefully. It is run, managed, and supported by > "the guy", but "the guy" has already spent more time with me helping to > diagnose the calendar problem than 1&1, the company I and my clients are > currently paying, has. "The guy" also has "backup guy" who he > consciously chose to work with to handle things if "the guy" is out. > So, the very small provider also does a better job of ensuring that > things don't fall through the cracks than 1&1 Internet, the largest web > hosting company in the world! > > > > Basic message from me now is the same as that of many, many other people > out there: Beware 1&1's Exchange service! > > > > Will continue to update you, for those who care! > > > > I'm bcc'iing "the guy" to know what's being said. Not sending out his > email address to the group at this point in case he'd prefer that people > look at his site, http://www.webville.net, rather than emailing him > directly with pre-sales things. > > > > With any luck, this problem will disappear with Webville's service. > Sandy said good things about Webville with Chatteremail. I'll be using > the Centro version of Versamail 3.5, so we'll see if it works! If not, > I will be at a crossroads. Interesting things happen at crossroads, but > I have enough interesting things going on right now, thankyouverymuch! > > > > Cheers, > > Don > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Don Ferguson > Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:02 PM > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [Treo] Hosted Exchange update - and question > > > > I'll try. > > > > Let's say I have a recurring appointment on my calendar. All snug on > > the Centro, in Outlook and, of course, on the Exchange server. > > > > Now, I change an occurrence - either by moving one occurrence to another > > date/time, or changing All Future occurrences to something else. I do > > this all the time. Fortunately for me, the Palm calendar can do this, > > and until Christmas, the changed recurring appointment showed up just > > fine in Exchange and in Outlook. Then, BANG! > > > > What happens now is that the last non-changed occurrence of the > > recurring appointment shows up with an alarm, and when I try to dismiss > > the alarm, I get a message saying it can't dismiss it because it can't > > find the recurrence information. The only way to dismiss the window is > > to close it, and the alarm shows up again, each time another alarm > > sounds. The appointment no longer shows up in the Outlook calendar > > grid - not one single occurrence of the recurring appointment. The > > appointment still shows up as it should in OWA and on the Centro, but > > the only way I can get rid of the constantly popping up alarm in Outlook > > is to DELETE the entire recurring event. Not good, since I lose all > > past occurrence information about the recurring appointment - something > > I use for historical record keeping. Or at least I used to. If I > > change the occurrence in Outlook or in OWA, this doesn't happen, but > > there's a nasty feature / bug / characteristic in Outlook (been there > > since OL97) wherein if you change a recurring appointment you lose ALL > > exception information - the entire recurrence pattern - past, present > > and future - gets reset to whatever you change it to. > > > > This also is not good for me, since the exceptions to the recurrence > > pattern carry information I need, but lose. Up until Christmas, I > > neatly side-stepped this "feature" by using the Palm calendar to make > > such changes, penalty-free. Now, it's worse even than Outlook since I > > lose EVERYTHING about a recurring appointment. > > > > No joy here. And 1&1 has STILL not responded to me in any way. It's > > been 11 days. > > > > I am not happy, but I haven't found an alternative provider that offers > > the performance/price performance of 1&1. Granted, the numerator of > > that equation is rapidly going down, so I'm willing to pay more for a > > better alternative, but not as much as, say, Rackspace and some others > > charge. I'm a one man show, and many of my clients are small enough and > > frugal enough that they don't want to pay 2x or 3x or 4x (or in one case > > 10x) what they're paying 1&1. > > > > I'm just very very disappointed by this atrocious lack of service, and > > I've lost a great deal of information from my calendar already. . . > > > > Cheers, > > Don > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > > Bill Motzing > > Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 2:41 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Cc: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [Treo] Hosted Exchange update - and question > > > > Thanks for providing that info. In summary, can you describe the nasty > > problem? > > > > ----------------------- > > Sent from my Treo(r) smartphone > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: "Don Ferguson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008 8:30 am > > Subject: RE: [Treo] Hosted Exchange update - and question > > To: <[email protected]>Reply-To: [email protected] > > > > > > > > Haven't left yet. > > > > Right now I'm experiencing a nasty problem with the Outlook calendar. > > The issue for me isn't so much the problem, but their response to it - > > basically zero in the past 12 days, even though I've sent them 1) the > > initial problem report, 2) a 12-page detailed problem report complete > > with screen shots, 3) four followup emails roughly evenly spaced over > > the last 12 days; and called them twice. > > > > I'll keep y'all posted. The developer of Chatteremail said, way back > > when, that 1&1 sucked. He was focused on their 'crappy implementation > > if IMAP', but the concept certainly extends to their approach to > > technical/customer support. > > > > Cheers, > > Don > -- ============================== War Eagle
