Forever blowing ... fine print
Beyond many howls of rage about Xtra's webmail outage over the weekend, a couple of readers complained they'd had to agree to a lengthy disclaimer before they can use YahooXtra's new "Bubble" services.
Says Dave:
"20 pages of fluff lawyer speak! I'm positive I didn't have to do this when Xtra switched over to MSN."
and Steve:
"I recently received an e-mail from Xtra regarding a new service. www.yourbubble.co.nz. The service looks fantastic until you start reading the terms of service:"
'Telecom says by posting any content whatsoever they can use, copy, sublicence, redistribute, adapt, transmit, publish, delete, edit and/or broadcast, publicly perform or display, and sublicence to any third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the rights granted.'
"That really does look like protection of users' rights doesn't it?
"I for one wont be using the service and I hope the guys at PC World can warn the readers about checking the fine print before they contemplate using it."
Dave admits he'd have to check if MSN every presented him with pages of bumf to approved. At a guess I'd say it did. It's hard now to think of any service, or piece of software, that doesn't ask you to "agree" to pages and pages of legalise before you can use it. Whoever reads it all, let alone understands it?
Given that you can so easily click a button to "agree" to terms and conditions without physically sighting the text, it would be interesting to see whether any of this sort of fine print would ever hold up in court.
PC World is New Zealand’s top selling computing and technology magazine.
Comments
I am going to assume that the bigwigs at telecom pay attention to your fabulous magazine, it is one of the best out there. So I'm going to paste in the letter that I sent to them more than 24 horse ago. I haven't recieved a reply, but I'm SO angry I need to be heard somewhere.
Hi again
Okay, I’ve been doing some reading around this and now find that basically there will be no web services unless I sign up to the Yahoo Bubble thing.
I have tried this, against my better judgement, but it has been unsuccessful. Which is fine because I really don’t want to sign up with Yahoo at all. I’m 35 not 15. I have no desire for sharing photo’s, IMing my friends or any of that rubbish. I just want to send and receive emails without too much fuss. Throughout the weekend I was unable to send from my outlook at home (xtra.smtp could not be found) and was hoping to send it from work today.
No luck.
I am really upset at the changes that you have made, and feel that I didn’t get any choice in this. I am thinking that I will choose to move back to a Paradise account because of it.
I actually don’t want to do this. Overall I’ve been really happy with Telecom and your service, and as I spend quite a bit of money with you guys each month I feel that we’ve bonded quite nicely :)
Can you please tell me if there will be an alternative to the teeny bopping attitude thing that you’re shunting us off to all of a sudden?
Thank you.
Karyn
Posted by: Karyn | August 21, 2007 8:45 PM
Still without email so frusted I could get hold of Adrian Littlewood,put my hands around his neck and it wouldnt be a hug
Posted by: Frances Copland | August 21, 2007 5:32 PM
Still no email from xtra. Can send not receive. Have been told mail going to mailbox, but can't be as had phone calls saying they get bounce back saying no connection. Have paid all accounts Did not want to upgrade. Upgrade!!!!! What a laugh no choice cant upgrade no service Telecom are arrogant spinners of unmitigated bull. Would love to put my hands around Adrian Littlewoods neck and not to hug him
Posted by: Frances Copland | August 21, 2007 12:32 PM
Is there a 'System restore' for this Yahoo!Xtra debacle? I'm getting emails (including spam) but can't send anything, even when I change my settings to and from the SMTP settings they suggest.
A work colleague wasn't getting any emails until she went to Yahoo!Xtra's webmail service and found emails from me and her mother in the spam box.
It's so bad I'm not even using my Xtra email address for this post.
Posted by: Sereena | August 20, 2007 9:43 PM
I have had an Xtra address since Xtra launched, perhaps a decade ago. I dont object to Telecom trying to provide a better service, but they have not. I cannot get my mail off web mail. Further, they appear to have turned their e-mail filters off since what my e-mail program collects from Xtra is junk incl. indecent material.Telecom may have created a great deal of ill will from this latest dis-service to customers. Poor shareholders. Why did they not offer me a choice to continue to use the previous service or not? After all I was paying for it.
Posted by: Roland | August 20, 2007 3:52 PM
What a joke this is.
Trying to register again is impossible. I have to click answers 3 times to progress. It says there are errors highlighted but there are no errors and the page eventually gets accepted.
It has taken fully 30 mins to reach page 4 of the registration process. Now it wont let me progress any further as there are errors on the page. You would think i would know my own date of birth but obviously not!!
I gave up and tried to login again but didnt even get past the login page.
Tried the help desk and was on Hold for 20 minutes before i gave up.
All i want to do is check my email as im expecting something important this morning.
This is really pathetic. I guess i can count myself lucky as i did get an email telling me no email for 24hrs over the weekend. Looks like a lot longer than that atm.
Posted by: Dean Whitehouse | August 20, 2007 12:52 PM