Hotmail hit by new round of problems

Hotmail users are getting hot under the collar about a new round of service problems that some claim have kept them out of their accounts for as long as four days.

Microsoft's MSN Hotmail has amassed more than 40 million active members, according to Microsoft, and the free Web mail has had a rough time keeping up with demand. Complaints frequently have dogged the free service.

Hotmail product manager Laura Norman today said that the site underwent a 30-minute long bandwidth upgrade this morning. But she acknowledged that the half-hour upgrade did not account for users' complaints about service over the last few days or those that persisted into the afternoon.

Norman was not immediately able to determine what was keeping users out of their accounts, but said Hotmail was looking into the problems.

Hotmail's service troubles follow on a two-day complete outage by Microsoft's newly acquired Jump Networks, an integrated suite of Web-based applications including email and calendars that is currently in beta. Norman said the Jump outage and the recent Hotmail problems were unrelated.

Locked-out Hotmail users have taken to newsgroups to vent their frustrations.

"Hotmail appears to be down at the moment, and seems to be inaccessible regularly," wrote one user in the "alt.online-service.microsoft" newsgroup. CNET News.com today received several similar reports from readers.

Service problems tend to make themselves felt spottily throughout Hotmail's 40 million accounts, as a complaint by a user with multiple accounts demonstrated:

"I've got a problem with one of my Hotmail accounts," wrote another participant in "alt.online-service.microsoft." "For two days, I haven't been able to access it...whereas the others are working quite OK even though slowly."

And proving that you can't displease all of the people all of the time, one "alt.online-service.microsoft" participant chimed in to defend Hotmail.

"I use Hotmail.com and I love it!" she wrote. "I'm actually going to sign up for msn.com because Microsoft has really good service!"

Microsoft houses its Hotmail servers with hosting and bandwidth provider Exodus Communications, and receives Internet bandwidth from both Exodus and other providers. Norman said that Microsoft and Exodus "work closely" on maintaining service.

hotmail and msn problems

I can seem to open any of my hotmail or msn accounts, I get the sign in, and all that appears is by1.byi, or by4by4, its been like this for the past 1 week. Any idea of what that is.

[Zsnark]

Can't access Hotmail with Firefox or IE for last 5 to 7 days. However, I can get in with Chrome which is really puzzling. I wonder if anyone has experienced similar problem and/or some fix. Seems like a lot of people are having access problems.

Al W

[13Woody13]

hotmail. worked until early Thursday evening April 9th, then no inbox at all

[akwylie]

I had the same thing happen. Hotmail worked until Thurs. evening April 9th 2009, then when I tried to log in it said "You do not have an Inbox". This is so frustrating!!

[DAFG42]

Same problems for me, as well. I have tried to find some way to speed up and/or make Hotmail more reliable for months now. I finally found one. Gmail. Sorry Hotmail. 9 years with you and I've finally had enough.

[saucywow]

It has been several days since I've been locked out my hotmail account and I don't know when I"ll ever get my to read my email..

[Clariissa]

"Use Hotmail to manage your e-mail accounts
Logging into multiple e-mail accounts every day can be time-consuming. Instead, you can download your Gmail, Yahoo! Mail Plus, or other messages right into folders in your Hotmail inbox. Keep in touch with everybody in one convenient place!
Put your e-mail into one place now. " August 2009

"Come into my parlour," said the spider to the fly...

That is what hotmail promises!
Perhaps it should tweak itself first before making any promises.
I have not been able to access my hotmail account and emails on and off for more than a year now and there is practically no technical support by hotmail!

Should I still live in hope that one day my email account will be back to normal? Or should I switch over to Yahoo where I have not had a problem at all from day 1?

[patrick_omalley]

The most recent (9/1/09) Hotmail upgrade was a disaster, and caused hundreds of people to complain about lost emails, hours of upgrade hassles, etc.

The unfortunate thing is that most people may not even realize that many of their emails have been lost.

Pat
http://www.patrickomalley.com

[thomasvladimir]

that explains why several contacts have been unusually quiet.

[dannywee75]

as of today 01 OCT 2009 , most of my mails cannot sent, they just bounce back ...arghhhhhh

[thomasvladimir]

my hotmail no problem.(australia)..however did find in my inbox,just now,a threat to close my account,or confirm "wish to continue using and confirm details of account" .am right now, using friends laptop.that is emerging as a pattern?is this purported hotmail email genuine?looked suss ?

[thomasvladimir]

hotmail warning genuine.complied.

[thomasvladimir]

hotmail warning is fake.now i can not login whilst some person in nigeria is emailing my contacts to ask for $$$$ in my name.from my account.

[JasonVoorhees1]

I cannot even open the login page. Can someone tell me who to email or complain to?

[joyful9]

I am getting annoyed having to fill in the ghastly letters I have to use a magnifying glass to read..I am 80 yrs. This is happening every second letter I send approx. to several friends in one e mail. I will have to give up hotmail if this continues. This is supposed to ensure I am the correct person.
Sincerely,
Joy Rutter

[Nolongerhotmail]

Paul,

Read your 1999 article researching a situation I am currently experiencing. Evidently Hotmail still has some major customer access issues, and their customer support/feedback is lacking to the point of being unresponsive.

check out http://windowslivehelp.com/thread.aspx?threadid=ddb2e9db-3aff-47fc-ae35-98c17ba6f403

Seems Hotmail has a growing problem with users being unable to access their accounts for days at a time (my wife is going on a week).

User first gets "down for maint, wait a few hours" and then eventually just gets "account not available, try later".

No indication of any recognition that a problem exists. The only responses I've seen basically ask that you reset your password (done several times with no effect) or check your browser settings (again, no effect).

Of course, the only way to contact windows live is via their forum (the ask a question gives you the impression that you are sending your question to SOMEBODY, but it just posts on a forum). No response, reply or contact.

Unable to contact anyone who is willing to even acknowledge problem ".

Would appreciate your comments or views. If this is a real problem, Windows Live should address it (or at least tell us what they are doing).

You can just feel the FRUSTRATION in the forum entries....

Thanks for listening

[Vaterlaus]

after the maintenance outage ( 4 hrs instead of one) I now have NO mail in my Inbox- no Mail in my Sent Box- and NO CONTACTS in my contact box- .
Have been grazing through forums and xxxx mails- there seems to be lots of questions and cries for help- very few answers- and nothing that works.
I think hotmail has a major problem- people have lost contacts, files, mails- I have not seen an explanation anywhere- they should just be honest and tell people loud and clear: sorry we deleted all your mails and contacts etc- tough luck! Instead of blaming people for opening junk , not changing their password etc- they should admit they made a mistake- maintenance- why not leave things alone? More bells and whistles, more members etc.... this time more was too much.

[vronnieanne]

Someone has hacked into my hotmail account, sent outto all my contacts a "We are stranded in London and need money email" changed my password and Hotmail don't seem to care.

I cannot get any help from them and there site says change password - how can I change it I don't know what the hacker has changed it too.

I have logged the complain twice now and had no response. I don't have a record of my contacts, silly me, I should have printed it off once in a while. But its causing me lots of problems with people who are trying to reach me from the Uk as I am in the process of settling my mothers estate.

Anyone have any ideas what else I can do

[laural123]

To everyone out there using hotmail. there is a scam goi ng around and there are scammers using information in your accounts, these people are stealing your information and calling or emailing people y6ou know and asking for money. THIS IS A SCAM. It happened to me and now these people are calling my family and friends and asking for money. Please be aware that this could happen to u. u can go to windows scams before opening or responding to these emails.
Good Luck,
Laural123

[ely.33]

I am frustrated. Not able to access my hotmail acct for several days even though others I know can access their accts. My password is recognized; it is not the computer because I get the same results on different computers. Unable to get any response from Microsoft. I am too old to continue this but I would like to recover my lost messages. Any suggestions or should I just sell my Microsoft stock and move to a different service?

[howemartha]

I was unable to access my email account this morning. Then I started getting phone calls from contacts say that they are getting emails from me saying that I am stuck in London with no baggage and I need $650.00.

[thomasvladimir]

windows live restored account,only a few days.when my friends rang me to see what was going on,i told them to reply and to say,money sent.just a small chance for chaos and paranoia in scamsville.

[Holy_Donut]

I didn't notice the lockout. I did however notice everything in my important side folders was deleted. And then a few days later I lost Every E-mail in my inbox since 2008. Magnificent.

[penfold1969]

try opening the view message source screen, in IE it will not open or in any other browser it comes up with a lot of indecipherable symbols. MSN refuse to fix it so could be seen as aiding and abetting people who send fraud emails

[flotech]

My hotmail account is locked since 24th Sept 2010. Last I could sign in was 23Sept 2010. Several attempts to reset the pass word failed. Again and again it gives the " Sign in is blocked" Even forum has not been of any help though all the necessary inputs to reset the password were provided to the agent. How can I acces the mail and the plethora of data lying in the mail box. Hass hotmail security been hacked? What steps are being taken by the Hotmail service provider to help the hundreds of thousands account who have been hit by the pathetic attitude of the Hotmail service provider. Is some on in Hotmail there listening to the problems faced by the users? Geniuine users for more than ten years with Hotmail are at the mercy of hotmail as they can not do any thing. Many of us have written in blogs, in forums and whereever help could be had from, but, there are others also who are silently watching the hotmail action frustrating.

[reflections1936]

Beginning Thursday night, My Windows Live Hotmail account was empty of all 10 worth of saved emails, all my folders, all my pictures, even ones of deceased grandson. Terrible loss and lost trust too. After hours of difficulties this am including needing a mobile phone to verify my account ( that involved using a friend's as I have no mobile phone living on this remote island) I finally am able to once more send mail, but still no missing folders. I am not a happy senior!!!!

[reflections1936]

Last post: that is 10 years worth of hotmail.

[MichaelGilwood]

In August 2010 Hotmail sent me a message requesting my password. It was a hoax, i fell for it and it made my life a misery. Since that time i have sent in their validation form 14 times without success and more than 200 frustrating emails trying to convince them who i am. They bluntly deny my account saying they take client security very seriously. I dont know what to do or who to talk to as this account has all my facebook, linkedin, myspace, etc. I am a writer and relied heavily on my hotmail account. I even sent in my ISBN numbers with the links to my old hotmail account but no one replies. Can someone out there help. My name is Michael Gilwood and i am desperate.