PSA: On the Free Trial of Fastmail

4 pointsdot1x4y ago2 comments

Since they're not documenting this anywhere, I figured I'll let google do its thing and index this piece of info:

During the initial month (the "free" trial) on Fastmail, they make use of an "intensive" spam filtering system that can delay your emails from being sent by days (or not being sent at all).

When contacting support, this is all expected and nothing the user can do.

So essentially, due to this policy, Fastmail's "free trial" is useless, as the mail is neither "fast" nor, in some cases, "deliverable".

I can't speak of its service after the first month, but who* in their right mind would give money to a company that has such an unreliable delivery of emails (even if temporarily) ?

* here, by "who" I mean new customers, not existing ones that "never had a problem", of course

2 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

delgaudm4y ago· 1 in thread

Think of it the other way. Would you expect a free email trial to be wide open and unthrottled? If so, how would you manage the inevitable abuse?

The only answer I can think of is what they state they do: blocking certain email to make the abuse difficult / not worthwhile.

They state the restrictions pretty clearly on the page about trial account [0] "All trial accounts are limited to sending a maximum of 120 messages per day to prevent abuse. The sending limit is raised to the full account quota as soon as the account is paid for."

This fits with your complaint, however I also think it's a reasonable restriction. I believe you'll find many HN'er who find Fastmail to be reliable (myself included). I see aggressive throttling of trial accounts for evaluation purposes as reasonable, if not necessary in order to make Fastmail reliable for paying customers.

[0] https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/trialaccounts.html

I can see how free accounts can be ripe for abuse, and throttling in accordance with the enrollment agreement is necessary.

dot1xOP4y ago

I completely agree with you, the caveat though is that I asked support if, by just converting to a paying subscriber (so foregoing the free trial), the 1 month spam filtering can be lifted.

They told me that even if I pay, many "scammers" also pay, so being a paying customer is not a reliable indicator of not being a spammer.

So, once again, Fastmail customers should be informed that once subscribed, for the first month, their emails will be severely delayed or not delivered at all due to aggressive anti-spam filtering.

This _must_ be made known as I've never heard of any other email service that is customer-friendly to have such a long "gestation" period. (For instance, subscribing to Gmail or Protonmail I have no problems sending email immediately, even as a free user)

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