Hotmail Sucks

Although I can’t identify the problem exactly, it appears that Hotmail is rejecting a ton of mail right now. Some of it bounces, so the sender sees that the message didn’t get through, but in many cases it just disappears into a black hole, and neither the sender nor the recipient ever finds out that the message wasn’t delivered. Some have suggested that this is connected to the Mydoom epidemic, but I have some evidence that it predates the latest worm by a few months. For example, a Hotmail subscriber to an email list I administer just told me she had never received any messages from that list over the past two months, although I’ve never received any notices that her address is bouncing.

If anyone has more insight into exactly what’s going on, please comment on this entry. In any case, I’m hoping to spread the word that Hotmail is very broken, and since I can’t email Hotmail subscribers directly, this is the best I can do.

85 comments

  1. Natalia Jan 19

    Hotmail really bites. I’ve been having problems with them since 6/2007. Haven’t been able to log in and read my mail since then. Support is quick to return an email to me when I inquire about it but you can tell it’s a canned response (type customer’s name here, type thing!). What BS. I had a lot of contacts that I have lost emails for because of this! Bummer!

  2. James Thomas Jan 21

    Hotmail really does suck. If you move some of the mail marked by hotmail as “junk” to the hotmail inbox and then purge the junk mail folder before going to your inbox the mail you thought you moved to the inbox is purged with the rest of the junk mail. I was in the middle of writing to hotmail about it (it’s happened to me several times and I’ve lost some important mail this way) when I was kicked off the site and now it is not accessible! I’ve also had this happen with some frequency in the last couple of months. Just can’t get on hotmail. I hate to change my email address but I’ve had it with hotmail.

  3. mamahoola Jan 30

    I was totally oblivious, but now I have seen the light, and when it dawned on me i googled, “hotmail sucks” and came to this site. Reading the comments makes me feel so much better.
    1. the damn line down the side of my letters makes for cutting and pasting text a bitch because you can’t not highlight the line too.
    2. forwarding is only allowed to hotmail, msn or livemail sites, not Google. wtf?
    3. when you send someone an email, it always slaps on an ad the bottom.

    GMAIL doesn’t do any of this nonsense…

    Lets join together and start the revolution today, tell microsoft to…. well use your imagination.

  4. Lee Feb 26

    Hotmail is down this morning of 2/26/2008. Getting “Service Unavailable” How do they get away with this? Doesn’t it bother them that gmail, yahoo mail, and all the rest perform much better.

  5. Andy Feb 26

    At least the feeling of frustration is shared! Ever since Microsoft stuck their nose into hotmail/msn’s business it has been nothing but problems. I have had an account for about 7 years, and I do not recall one similar issue. “Upgrade” my &$$! Screw Bill Gates and his whole frickin crew!

  6. Lee Feb 26

    It is now a several hours outage on 02/28/2008. It’s unbelievable that a company with as much capability and money as Microsoft would deliver such a shoddy product.

  7. Lauren Feb 26

    I haven’t been able to check my email ALLLLL day. At one point I was able to get onto the log in page but that’s it! I have important emails I need to get to….I am hating hotmail right now

  8. Lost customer Feb 27

    20 hours since hotmail last worked for me (checked every 2 hours for duration and submitted “feedback” requests that I could not get in). Of course this happens on the day I really need to get information from my account (to the point where I’m checking every 2 hours all night long) . After 10+ years of using hotmail this has given me the motivation to switch to a new provider.

  9. Lee Feb 27

    Yep, the outage continues today 02/27/2008. I can intermittently log in but most of the time you get a “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”. What would be very concerning is if they are dropping emails, which they seem to have no problem doing in the past. “Oh well, those paying customers didn’t need those emails anyway….”

  10. Brandan Mar 3

    3/3/08….
    For the past 4 weeks I have had severely intermittent service w/ Hotmail. I will log in, see emails, but when I try to click one the site hangs for a while then tells me to try and go back to hotmail. After a while I will get back to my inbox only to find many of the emails I clicked no-longer highlighted as being unread. This makes finding these new/unread emails hard to find. I have GMail but keep the hotmail acct in use for the off hand chance a contact from way back tries to get in touch with me.

    Hotmail is very weak, but its free so it seems there is no recourse… however if they are bankrolling advert fees because they have so many users maybe there is some sort of recourse.

  11. Andy Mar 7

    Update! Give the New Yahoo a try. I have avoided them due to their soft image for a while, but recently tried them again due to the whole “hotmail sucks” thing. Yahoo did a great job with their enhancements adding new features…that actually work, unlike hotmail! You won’t be sorry. :)

  12. Chris M Mar 10

    Hi everyone,

    My Hotmail does have many problems. I have tried everything: HM-HM, Yahoo-HM, Gmail-HM, Comcast, Starpower, Cox, .edu, .com, etc. etc…

    It’s very embarrassing to tell all your contacts that you didn’t receive anything and to apologize for not replying. Then, have to make a new account with another provider that it equally unreliable. For instance, Yahoo’s new mail is consistently unreliable for ME [“spam-like qualities” to other accounts]. There seems to be bugs in their new mail as well as old mail; such as, unable to log in, problematic issues with no received or sent. I have experienced up to a 3-10 day delay in sending and receiving since I made the yahoo account in July (I have made 2 at this point b/c of this). Bottom line, emails have been unreliable for me in the last 8 months [and I mean all providers]Does anyone know what may be causing this? Currently, I have about 8 that work somewhere in the realm of 1-2 out of 10 times. Unfortunately, I have to rely heavily on emails tremendously for work and school. Maybe we should IM or text from now on…

  13. Lu Jul 30

    Tell me about it guys, HOT MAIL totally SUCKS………

    I can’t access my inbox for days,wtf….

    and speaking of MSN chating,msg got delayed often, even missing.

    alas….

  14. bert Aug 11

    my hot mail account suddenly vanished into thin air, and after a month of trying to get an awnser from hotmail,i had to go to live.com, which is the only reply i got from hotmail,to as where my account went??? they said “update to live.com” in other words ,your fucked???

    where the hell is my hotmail ??????????????????if anyone has lost thier hotmail account, and has found it?? please let me know where to look for mine??? ienhorne2000@live.com

  15. wtfh Aug 17

    why the fuck would anyone ever, everevereverevereverever use the steaming piece of cockshitsmeg that is hotmail?

    its a fucking piece of garbage, it will delete your email without a bounce, I have an internet company that registers with your email addr, 30% are hotmail users, 30% are gmail and the rest are yahoo/ISP based
    well 80-90% of the support emails come from hotmail users for one simple reason, hotmail users are fucking retards! stop being a retard, and stop using hotcockmail
    fucking idiots…

  16. Fred Oct 8

    Every time I try to contact an entity that uses this service I cannot, even if I try to log on. This is fucking stupid! Wat the fuck do you want? You dumb shits are screwing yourselves! Sorry about the crude language but you don’t seem to respond to civilized responses.

  17. justine Nov 1

    I have always used hotmail for everything including my business,last week I couldn’t get on for at least 3 days I figured my way in,some how after some one hacked into it and left stuff about the election…a ton of it! Whatever,anyways last night after leaving a message for a customer and asking for a reply Now i can’t even get into my mail it is saying my password is invalid even going by security question I can’t get into my mail and I have important mail on it that i need to get.Maybe we should all band together and see what can be done.This is crazy and it scares me to think what is going on .Some idiot sitting at home with nothing better to do then mess around with other peoples lives and hacking into their accounts.Perhaps it is Fred???Maybe Joe the plumber who hasn’t a job…???Someone needs to take some time off their hands maybe even think about getting a job like the rest of the civilized world

  18. fuck you Nov 13

    fuck hotmail, theyre always tryin to fix and improve shit.. i remember wen i first signed up years ago it was awesome and fast and you could see all of your emails on one page but now they just continue to force all this “new and improved” software on you and now this new windows live or whatever the fuck its called doesnt even give you any option to go back to any of the older versions FUCK HOTMAIL, TIME FOR A CHANGE..TAKE THE POWER BACK PEOPLE AND SAY FUCK HOTMAIL AND SHOW THESE FUCKIN IDIOTS WHOS IN CHARGE, DELETE ALL YOUR HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS AND FIND ANOTHER WAY TO SEND EMAILS

  19. Coregon Nov 17

    I agree with all of the above. They refer you to help sites which have a list of THEIR questions..not yours. Then it dead ends. The latest problem is with Windows Live..which they offered years ago as an OPTION to their users. Many people tried it, hated it and went back to old version. Well guess what. I sign on couple weeks ago..and THEY decided to convert my account to Live, whether I wanted it or not. Now my email freezes everytime I try to open mail and all my sent mail is being returned to me saying “unknown address”. WTF??? I finally found ONE tech person on a discussion group and his response was that maybe we don’t have enough ram and that is why our hotmail screens are freezing. (I have new computer with 3 gig ram available..nice try!) Or they say MAYBE its our AVG..we need to download new security software. (What– a version Windows puts out??) Windows LIVE Hotmail..what a joke..can’t find a LIVE person to help you! If you open a new account with another company..can hotmail be forwarded to you? Sounds like NOT. I’ve had this email account 13 years..and I’m pizzed…if it ain’t broke..don’t “fix” it!!! I have one thing to say to Windows LIVE …DIE!!!

    P.S. If anyone finds a tech support person (LIVE) or a website to go to with these issues..please post it here! Hey let’s look up Bill Gates email and forward this site to him.

  20. Joe Dec 3

    I signed up for hotmail a LOOOONG time ago, before Microshaft bought it. It was pretty good, and actually worked. Then along came Microshlock and they have been slowly taking large festering dumps on it ever since. Just gets worse as time goes on. There’s a special place in hell for the jerks that ruined hotmail.

  21. Tom Dec 6

    Myeah. Back when hotmail was cool (1997?) got heavily into it. Then microsoft bought them, and started poisoning the well. When things went “Live” – I couldn’t send email anymore (dunno — mozilla from linux broke, mozilla from windows sorta worked, IE was just ugly).

    I opened the gmail account about 2 years ago, and just last week found the last email list that was still sending to my hotmail account. Sayonara losers — don’t “I’m going to quit” — quit, and move on. I still keep hotmail as my “spam trap” — when I have to “sign up” at dumb ass sites, but I just use it as a rubbish can now ….

    Get yer gmail (yahoo, if you must). Get an internet alias — I have one from a organization I belong to – they don’t /receive/ email, they just forward it. That is my advertised address now, so I can redirect away from gmail when that becomes suckdom …..

  22. Saipan Mar 28

    The god damned Hotmail eats emails. Every time I’m in the middle (usually toward the end) of very long complex email with attachements etc. Hotmail decides it’s time to log in again before sendng it, losing all email and one can start again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I should have write it in WordPerfect first and then just copy into Hotmail. Next time if I don’t forget :(
    Wonder if Yahoo is better.

    Are the god damned geeks really that stupid?

    Ed

  23. Mary Mar 30

    Hotmail love blowing their own trumpet about how great they are when in fact they suck. I have been getting emails that are not even addressed to me. Emails about sex, viagra and huge members. I’ve never gone to such a site let alone ordered blue pills. I emailed the stupid hotmail people twice and shock horror – no response. Will be changing to Yahoo or Gmail. Anything will be better than the useless dimwits at Hotmail.

  24. Sally Apr 10

    Hotmail is a piece of shit, why is it trying to update everything, it was fine the way it was. Why the fuck does it say I have no inbox yet, when I have been using it for 6 fucking year!!!

  25. Jen Apr 10

    I agree with Sally about hotmail being a piece of shit. I had logged into my inbox earlier this evening and then when I tried a couple of hours ago it basically told me I had no inbox. Also, it appears that the account I had linked to my main account no longer exists either. I have had my main account for over 10 years now. I email support and their first response was to make sure I was using the correct information and was typing everything correctly. Are you kidding me? Read my message before you send me some default response. I am so sick of their stupid issues and thankfully can get my contact list out of hotmail so I can go elsewhere!!

  26. StaykoolMan Apr 10

    Hello there,
    You cant be everything to everybody, but its seems Microsoft tries to be.
    I am glad Microsoft could not purchase Yahoo. I remember not long ago company called Hotmail… and MS purchased it. My spouse complained of INTRUSIVE POLICIES with IE8 and Hotmail Live … I don’t know, I don’t have the latest from MS.
    Now, how to leave Hotmail!
    1. Open account with Gmail or Yahoo.
    2. Keep checking your old Hotmail account but do not reply to your friends trough it. Just read the mail.
    3. Reply to your friends via your new Gmail or Yahoo as you open a second tab on your browser. Soon they will start responding to your new e-mail.
    4. Check your Hotmail once every … 3 months, and see how Hotmail are doing on their INTRUSIVE SERVICE policy.
    Hey the days of steam locomotives and typewriters are over. MS get real.
    Hotmail sucks, but its free. I guess you get what you paid for.
    Best. ST

  27. delquattro May 28

    My criticism of hotmail has to do with the way they make you jump through hoops to view your own mail.

    Most of my email goes directly to junk. I scan it, read a couple, then delete it all. When I pick one to read, hotmail makes me click three different times in order to view each email.

    Even in my inbox, if my wife forwards me something from craigslist, hotmail makes jump through hoops, again.

    Lately, after reading my emails in my hotmail inbox and deleting the junk mail, if I come back to the site a few minutes later, all of the deleted mail will be there, again…until I click on “inbox.” Then it disappears, again. This will happen several times.

    I have a gmail account, but I can’t get used to the whole “threading” format.

    Anyway, hotmail sucks, but google mail is run by Marxists.

  28. Marxist Aug 7

    Gmail is definitely the way to go. Hotmail has had even more downtime than usual since the launch of Microsoft’s new superfluous and shitty search engine, Bing.

  29. Dave Sep 19

    Started when hotmail did. got a good email addy. Now I have to leave hotmail because Microsoft has finally screwed it up so bad as to be unusable. may microsoft burn in the basement cess pool of HELL.

  30. greg Dec 6

    It’s all true.
    With my reoccurring errors one way or another, hotmail has turned into my spam- box.
    So pissed about the lack of options too-
    The next time I loose an important email through any service, I’ll blame hotmail for their starting my ongoing email frustrations; I’ll cut hotmails throat and drink their blood.

  31. mike Mar 3

    Hotmail won’t let me delete an email or send an email. Totally sucks. This is the second time I have had this happen to me. Not any more. I am cancelling my preferred email account and going to Firefox and gmnail. These guys couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag.

  32. shay courtney Apr 22

    Hi there.
    My hotmail address has been closed, me having been accused to “abuse of the hotmail address”.
    My hotmail address book was hijacked and a lot of rubbish sent to all on my address book.
    I have important family pics & documents on my hotmail account files & I need to retrieve them.
    How can I do this or who do I contact about this ?.
    Shay

  33. jeannie Jun 1

    Cant log on either

  34. Penny Jul 19

    why do i get other peoples email in my junk box? i get gmail and yahoo too in my junk box.

  35. Keir Feb 6

    I only use hotmail when having to submit an email address when commenting on sites. Automatically signs me into Messenger. Unlimited amount of spam. Self-congratulatory Americanisms “Hurray- no junk mail!” after I had to delete 132 pieces of it myself because damned if hotmail will. Having to constantly click just to read emails. Focus on shoving its bing et al. down our throats instead of simply giving us a proper service. Its censorship of blog entries to appease the Chinese fascists to keep its foot in the economic door.

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