Problems with hostel business email

[blacknight]

Unfortunately a lot of people don't really think about email usage until they run into a problem.

If you're sending large volumes of email from a "new" IP address you can get put into "purgatory" by a lot of the big email providers (think AOL, Hotmail / MSN), as they won't "trust" the IP

There are an ever-growing number of companies that offer SMTP services ie. services just for sending email.

Gmail - While I can see why a lot of people use it there is no technical support from humans unless you are paying for an enterprise version AFAIK. You'll get technical support from most hosting providers as part of your hosting plan, so why not use it?

[Shannon]

We use gmail for all of the nomads group. We have a couple of hundred @nomadsworld.com email addresses powered by gmail and it's the best thing we ever did. Much more advanced then normal webmail from a hosting company and easy to search

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by Shannon

We use gmail for all of the nomads group. We have a couple of hundred @nomadsworld.com email addresses powered by gmail and it's the best thing we ever did. Much more advanced then normal webmail from a hosting company and easy to search

What if you need technical support?

[stozza]

Originally Posted by blacknight

What if you need technical support?

Sometimes things work, so you don't need technical support.

We just moved to the paid version of gmail, and I love knowing that everything is stored safely, easily searched and doesn't require setting up if we need to change computers.

I have gone every other route first, using the ISP is the first and least clever...if you change ISP's you are stuck with a bad email address published everywhere. Using your hosting company also binds you to them in a bad way, its easy to move a web site, but harder to move your email, particularly if you use IMAP, which I most definitely do. It can be done, but if you have 2 or more years worth of mail archived it is a pain. I also ran my own server for a couple of years, and wouldn't do that again, if your internet goes down no-body can send you mail.

Using Gmail exposes you to whatever whims google might have, but because so many companies are using them, if they fail it makes front page news. They have proven to be reliable, their spam management is perfect, and they need to be in compliance with whatever data protection laws are there, so I don't need to think about them.

Mostly I love the search. We archive every email we receive, so if a guest has an issue, we can search gmail and find every email sent and received with them instantly, on any computer, even my phone. No other email system has ever allowed that so nicely.

As for technical support, it is Gmail, and if it breaks it gets fixed. It is easy to set up, and runs in a browser. I really don't see why a small business would need technical support for it. And if they do, a quick search will reveal the answers in seconds usually, which is my favorite technical support system.

[Tinker's Station]

Originally Posted by blacknight

Unfortunately a lot of people don't really think about email usage until they run into a problem.

Actually this is true. We do get e-mail problems from time to time (won't send or recieve), but 99% of the time all we have to do is go outside and wipe the snow off the satellite dish.

[LatestViking]

Originally Posted by blacknight

What if you need technical support?

I am using Google Apps for since 2007 for all hostels and other businesses within the company . I had one problem in almost 2.5 years and this issue has been solved in 20 min.
It's the best thing ever ! Has everything what you will need for your business or private communications. What they offer for the ridiculous price of $40 is more than great.

They provide also 24/7 phone and email support for critical issues.

Please check and see :
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/b.../features.html

[collegeofparty]

I agree I've been using GoogleApps for ages and there is never a problem. They also have some great tools for business like Google Analytics