MOBILEME / ME.COM - not as mad now, but still don't buy it

[john doe by choice]

I've been a Mac user for a while, but I have to make mention of this issue here, so if anyone is actually contemplating getting mobileme as their email service...

DON'T DO IT.

I have no idea if iphone users are forced into a mobileme contract, or if it's a choice, or what, but Mobileme is the biggest terd of a email service on the face of this planet, period.

ISSUES:

TERRIBLE tech support, manned by morons who are barely qualified to type...they even recommended to me to shut down my account because they had no answers (which now seems like a completely logical upgrade to the downgrade that is mobileme), and when I got so pissed off I had to tell them how much it sucked, they referred me to their TOS, which states, in lay terms, that there is no guarantee that it will work and I'm using it at my own risk...grrr.

CONSTANT SERVER ISSUES - 99% of the time, whatever I'm doing in mobileme will disappear, and mobileme will go back to the inbox. I can be writing a email of any length, 1 sentence to 20 sentences to whatever, and mobileme will throw it out in the middle of a sentence with no warning (it does that on the network at the apple store, too). I mean, for christ's sake, their FORUM has an autosave for posts, why the hell can't they give that to PAYING customers? I don't get it...it also throws away sent emails (they disappear without any indication as to whether or not they even made it out), and is now pulling the disappearing attachment trick.

CONSTANT ERROR CODES: No matter where I am, I'm always getting some error code, whether it be about a "folder that was moved or deleted" that never did any such thing, or a notification that service is unavailable; it gets stuck in folders so that I have to refresh the browser just to get back to the inbox - my inbox is like the damn police, never there when I need it, and always there when I don't.

I've always been a fan of Apple, but they made a huge mistake getting into communications and web apps - they just don't know what the hell they're doing, and it shows with the shaky start to mobileme, combined with the poor handling of their pricing on the iphone and absolutely terrible app store management ("Push" still barely works). Seriously, I've never seen Apple have as many problems as they do trying to cater to the cell phone market - what a joke. And now I have to go back through the last 4 years of my software registrations and change my email with every company, on top of the time I've already wasted re-writing emails, sometimes up to 4 times.

I did, however, go down to the apple store and tell them how unethical it was to charge me for beta testing their unfinished product without my consent for months on end - the store was packed, and they could tell they had someone who was pissed off at them about to tell everyone in the store how much mobileme sucks balls, so they hurriedly refunded my annual fees (the "genius" bar had no answers as to why this was happening, either - imagine that, not a genius in the whole place) and told me to go home and try their tech chat support again (they don't provide any other support than chat for mobileme - see above comment on tech support).

I will say that for every other time I've had a problem with a product, they almost always had an answer, as opposed to any windows system I've ever had. Windows support for me was like mobileme support, except they acted this way for all of their products, not just one. I'll still buy Apple computers, but screw mobileme, and the hell with the iphone, too - my centro has a touch screen, games, internet, and music on it, and it was $50.

Anyone considering getting the mobileme service - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.


/rant.

[rbro]

Don't beat around the bush now. Come straight out and tell us how you feel.

[Kodama]

What's wrong with gmail?

[john doe by choice]

I know, it's a rant, but just re-writing emails multiple times is enough to make someone go nuts - believe me, it's no fun...there's nothing like watching an email disappear mid-sentence to piss someone off, and you don't know how much it sucks until you have to constantly deal with it.

As for gmail, asking google where something is on the net is one thing, trusting them is entirely different.

[UKRuss]

strangely....I have no problems with mobileme...wierd.

[salatspinatra]

mobileme sucks. They really ought to be embarrassed. I think it's appropriate to point out when apple isn't the impenetrable sheen of perfection that they and the fan boys make it out to be. That is, it's an important lesson for any institution that gets too big for its own good, or becomes tempted to overstep reliability and modesty. Hear that ableton?

[nicka]

yea my mobile-me works flawlessly and the over the air push/sync works a dream and is pretty much near instant between the online apps, my iphone and macbook!

I dont think going into the retail store to rant is going to solve much because they deal with the retail side of things such as hardware software, u ideally need to contact the mobileme or online support as they have more power than the retail stores, maybe ask to speak to a manager for mobile me support??

[nicka]

also wanted to say iDisk is the shite especially for being used to share new music with others dj and friends, no more waiting 119 seconds for a link to appear after entering a 4 letter code and being harassed by god no's what adverts, and then being limited to 1 a day!!

[trevorc]

I've been a Mac user for a while, but I have to make mention of this issue here, so if anyone is actually contemplating getting mobileme as their email service...

DON'T DO IT.

I have no idea if iphone users are forced into a mobileme contract, or if it's a choice, or what, but Mobileme is the biggest terd of a email service on the face of this planet, period.

ISSUES:

TERRIBLE tech support, manned by morons who are barely qualified to type...they even recommended to me to shut down my account because they had no answers (which now seems like a completely logical upgrade to the downgrade that is mobileme), and when I got so pissed off I had to tell them how much it sucked, they referred me to their TOS, which states, in lay terms, that there is no guarantee that it will work and I'm using it at my own risk...grrr.

CONSTANT SERVER ISSUES - 99% of the time, whatever I'm doing in mobileme will disappear, and mobileme will go back to the inbox. I can be writing a email of any length, 1 sentence to 20 sentences to whatever, and mobileme will throw it out in the middle of a sentence with no warning (it does that on the network at the apple store, too). I mean, for christ's sake, their FORUM has an autosave for posts, why the hell can't they give that to PAYING customers? I don't get it...it also throws away sent emails (they disappear without any indication as to whether or not they even made it out), and is now pulling the disappearing attachment trick.

CONSTANT ERROR CODES: No matter where I am, I'm always getting some error code, whether it be about a "folder that was moved or deleted" that never did any such thing, or a notification that service is unavailable; it gets stuck in folders so that I have to refresh the browser just to get back to the inbox - my inbox is like the damn police, never there when I need it, and always there when I don't.

I've always been a fan of Apple, but they made a huge mistake getting into communications and web apps - they just don't know what the hell they're doing, and it shows with the shaky start to mobileme, combined with the poor handling of their pricing on the iphone and absolutely terrible app store management ("Push" still barely works). Seriously, I've never seen Apple have as many problems as they do trying to cater to the cell phone market - what a joke. And now I have to go back through the last 4 years of my software registrations and change my email with every company, on top of the time I've already wasted re-writing emails, sometimes up to 4 times.

I did, however, go down to the apple store and tell them how unethical it was to charge me for beta testing their unfinished product without my consent for months on end - the store was packed, and they could tell they had someone who was pissed off at them about to tell everyone in the store how much mobileme sucks balls, so they hurriedly refunded my annual fees (the "genius" bar had no answers as to why this was happening, either - imagine that, not a genius in the whole place) and told me to go home and try their tech chat support again (they don't provide any other support than chat for mobileme - see above comment on tech support).

I will say that for every other time I've had a problem with a product, they almost always had an answer, as opposed to any windows system I've ever had. Windows support for me was like mobileme support, except they acted this way for all of their products, not just one. I'll still buy Apple computers, but screw mobileme, and the hell with the iphone, too - my centro has a touch screen, games, internet, and music on it, and it was $50.

Anyone considering getting the mobileme service - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.


/rant.

i have exactly the same experience with mobileme - down to the last letter. i get random refreshes, starting immediately as i open the app and at irregular intervals thereafter - losing anything i'm typing at the time. often i get to the end of writing an email, press send and get a browser refresh and a lost email rather than a sent one.

i also get 'mobileme unavailable' messages pretty frequently, which was the only issue the chathelp could help me with. apparently it's a problem with safari, solved by resetting safari itself...

otherwise the best i get out of the chat guys is 'i'm so pleased you're sharing your problem with us today' and i have no genius bar to go and rant in either..

[john doe by choice]

I know that mobileme works for some people, but it obviously doesn't work for everyone, and the reason is on Apple's end, not the users. How can people on different computers and different networks using different browsers with different settings have the same problem?

I went to the Apple store because mobileme tech support is useless, and I asked for a manager on the tech chat, and got the same response as I got from the first guy on there. As for power of the Apple store versus power of tech support, tech support told me they couldn't refund my fees, but the Apple store did it on the spot, and since both the apple store and tech support are equally as clueless about this, tech support actually appears to have less power in this particular situation.

I never thought Apple was perfect, but I always had way less problems with Apple than I have on windohs systems. Their dot mac service was awesome, and yes, I am aware of how cool iDisk is for working with people miles away, whether it be video files, uncompressed waves, or whatever. Personally, if I had the option to go back to dot mac, I'd do it in a heartbeat, because it WORKED without issue.

Anyone remember the fiasco when the iphone first came out? It was super expensive, then the second one came out much cheaper and everyone was pissed off...stocks dropped, and Apple gave vouchers to anyone who was dumb enough to buy a first generation device (that also had a ton of issues with connecting to mobileme). Mobileme itself has been plagued with problems from the start...Apple has spread it self too thin trying to compete with a windows based market that has been that way for years. They hyped the iphone as the coolest thing since sliced bread, and everyone thought it would be the next big thing, but Apple shoots out of the gate and falls right on its face, and still hasn't been able to recover, almost a year later. If they hadn't gotten a huge head because of the enormous success of the ipod, the iphone never would have made it past the front door at 1 infinite loop.

Again, I'll keep buying Macs, as they do what I need without issue, but their obviously inferior attempt at taking on another market is, quite frankly, embarrassing. They should just stick to making good computers and stay out of communications, because they just suck at it.

[33tetragammon]

yup,it really is THAT good......NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

[beats me]

What's wrong with gmail?

Exactly. I have several .mac accounts but never access them on my iphone. I just access my gmail account.

I never got trying to run your life from your cell phone but I guess we have some high rollers lurking about.

[trevorc]

I went to the Apple store because mobileme tech support is useless, and I asked for a manager on the tech chat, and got the same response as I got from the first guy on there. As for power of the Apple store versus power of tech support, tech support told me they couldn't refund my fees, but the Apple store did it on the spot, and since both the apple store and tech support are equally as clueless about this, tech support actually appears to have less power in this particular situation.

I never thought Apple was perfect, but I always had way less problems with Apple than I have on windohs systems. Their dot mac service was awesome, and yes, I am aware of how cool iDisk is for working with people miles away, whether it be video files, uncompressed waves, or whatever. Personally, if I had the option to go back to dot mac, I'd do it in a heartbeat, because it WORKED without issue.

couldn't get me a refund too next time you're in there couldya? i appear to be in a non-refundable country..

i never had any issues with .mac either - maybe they're punishing me for thinking @me.com is the naffest mailname suffix ever

[Geebag]

Vista is working fine now

[trevorc]

Vista is working fine now

and so it seems is the medication