Ask HN: Have you had trouble with using alternative email providers?

9 points by tmoaad 5 years ago | 10 comments

A year ago I finally said most of my goodbyes to gmail and moved over to a more private email provider (Hushmail).

Yesterday, I went to go signup for Repl.it and for the first time I was told to go grovel via email to prove that my email is valid and that I'm actually a human. Sure, I stop what I'm doing and send an email. I get a reply back saying (summed up with the anger of watching the internet burn down around you) "go to our support forum and grovel publicly but if you're actually trying to reach someone send another email and we might take it seriously".

...is this really what awaits those of us who choose not to be with the largest email providers (Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo) or refuse to use SSO (Google/Github/FB Login)?

amasad 5 years ago |

Hi, Repl.it CEO/founder here. Are you saying we asked you to send us an email? You should only have gotten a "Verify your email" link.

tmoaad 5 years ago | |

Hi! Yes, attempting to create an account with my email results in an error telling me to contact support.

Support told me my provider isn't supported. I guess back to cloud9 it is.

P.S I also followed up via email.

amasad 5 years ago | | |

Just tested and it works. I also searched our support email and couldn't find any mentions of hushmail. Try again, and if it doesn't work feel free to email me directly: amjad@repl.it

amasad 5 years ago | | |

I'll fix it.

torqu3e 5 years ago |

Fastmail does email for my personal domain which is what I've been primarily using for not sure how many years and literally not once have I had any issues. Know at least a few other users in the same boat and never heard a complain.

mistermithras 5 years ago |

May I suggest https://www.cotse.net/ ? They don't do this kind of stuff. I'm a long-time user/fan of them.

replwoacause 5 years ago |

I recently switched to Fastmail after finally getting paranoid enough about Google arbitrarily snuffing out my account access. I have been very happy with the switch 4 months in.

HomeDeLaPot 5 years ago |

I've been happy with Fastmail so far. Very smooth experience with their web and Android apps. Want to try using them with my own domain soon.