I Hate Hotmail

I’m about to f*cking scream.

I have had a Hotmail account since it was invented. I never did like it. It’s clunky, slow and messy. Sometimes, it’s not even accessible, depending on their server load. I don’t really care, since I use GMail all of the time at this point BUT I’ve had the Hotmail account so that I could manage my web logons for clients and for InterNIC, which uses an antiquated, e-mail-based system for handling handles and registrations.

Since I am so old, I actually write down, or rather, store in a PDA, my passwords. They’re not stored in plain text. I have an algorithm that I use to decode the PSWs based on what I store in the PDA. Of course, I freakin‘ forgot the PSW for the PDA!

After I cracked that, I retrieved my Hotmail password and sure enough, it doesn’t work. I don’t know why that should be. Of course, if I want to reset the password, Hotmail will send me a reset e-mail – to the account I CAN’T ACCESS. Further, although I’m inputting the right reset info (I have one and only one set – e.g., favorite team, zip code, sh*t like that) THAT DOESN’T WORK EITHER!!!!

So, I have e-mail details for work I did for a client that they now say I never did. I did them a favour and billed for only one-quarter of the time I spent and they never paid it. My fault for not being my typical asshole self and chasing after them like the dogs they are. I figured, why burn a bridge? Now, I’m going work for them and I want to collect. They say I never did the work and have some bizarrely convoluted logic about why this is so. Like the good business person I am, I simply said, “Well, look: I’ll dig up the e-mails that support the billing and then you can review it. If I’m wrong, I apologize and if I’m remembering correctly, you can decide whether you should be taking care of that amount.” Simple, no?

Because it was consulting work, I made the HUGE mistake of using Hotmail to store the dozens and dozens of e-mails that went back and forth on the friggin‘ project. And now, I can’t get in. Now – I did about $1500 worth of work, probably more, since I’m such a god damned perfectionist, but I know the billing was about $1500. I want to collect about a quarter of that. I bill $125 an hour. I’ve already spent three friggin‘ hours trying to get into my stupid Hotmail account – that’s $375. And I’m still not in, so I can’t even break even. F*ck!

Oh, I can log into my Live Windows Password Net Key or whatever the freak it is, but NOT the e-mail. What the fruit? God, am I steamed.

Do yourself a favor – if you don’t have a GMail account, get one. Now. Right now. I’ve never had a problem, not once. It’s secure, it’s free, it doesn’t carry the low-brow Hotmail stigma and, most importantly, IT DOESN’T SUCK. God, as Napoleon Dynamite would say.