Yet again I have spent too long on the computer browsing through my e-mails and the internet. An overly large proportion of that time has been spent trying to connect; through various means to my e-mail account. Another fraction of this time was then spent trying to decipher what was what, and to fish out the rubbish. This morning I had 81 e-mails to sort through!
The other day, following the obvious collapse of OceanFree, my e-mail provider; I phoned their technical support line; only to discover that it is now out of service. In a fit of peak I then rang Esat/BT’s help-line only to be given another number for OceanFree, this was also no longer in service. This didn’t bode well; so dreading the worst I rang Esat/BT a third time, only this time I rang what is termed their residential help-line.
Success; at last! I connected with a very nice young man who informed me that the account was indeed very old and was being phased out. Apparently I should have received notification of this, in writing and; would you believe, e-mail! I haven’t. It was suggested that this proposed action could be responsible for my problems. Ultimately, my call was transferred to the relevant technical help desk where my predicament was swiftly resolved.
The techie whom I spoke to was very helpful, and exceptionally pleasant to deal with; while personable, his manner was professional and he obviously knew what he was talking about. First he enquired if it could be a line problem, then if perhaps a server problem and when all other possibilities were exhausted he informed me that there were indeed issues with my server; ie OceanFree and steps were being taken to resume normal service.
I was reassured by this techie that I would probably have to wait, at least twenty-four hours; but that normal service would be resumed because of this interruption! He even gave me an alternative way to access my mail during this close-out & stayed on the line while I tried it out. He very kindly talked me through, when I made a silly mistake with the URL: http://www.mail2web.com. All in all; his service left nothing to be desired and he has to have been one of the most helpful people I have had the pleasure of speaking to in a while.
Should you be unfortunate enough to have similar problems onto this URL; enter your e-mail account details and pass word, then pick up your mail. It will work from wherever you are, whichever server you use, from which ever computer you choose! I’m not sure what other services they supply, as I haven’t looked into it, but the good news is that collecting your e-mail is free of charge!
One thing I would suggest is that when writing down numbers and URL’s; do be sure to repeat it back & hopefully this will avoid any costly mistakes. Always check whether the number two is written in long or short hand, which was the mistake I made, which is easy to make. I always ask if the techie’s can stay on the line while I go through the relevant stages as it is always easier to keep them; once you have them than to have to ring up a second or even third time. Sure, it might cost a little bit more, but ultimately it will cost less in terms of time, frustration and money if the call has to be repeated in the event that the suggested reparatory work doesn’t work the first time.
I hope that no-one out there ever has to resort to doing what I did, but if so; I hope that this will be of some help. Incidentally, while I was able to pick up my messages on the mail2web.com site a lot of them were in html which to many, ie me; is indecipherable! The important messages came through okay, as did some spam!
After I had quickly whizzed through the incoming, I was able to delete at least forty messages prior to the remaining 81 being patched through to my account once service was resumed! The reason there were so many is because of a number of subscriptions to various sites, and bloggs; ie FlyLady, and google alerts for references to myself or my bloggs – after all; it pays to know that I am out there somewhere!
I’m going to get myself up and moving now, as I have a busy afternoon ahead of me.
Bye for now,
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