Hotmail vs Yahoo vs Gmail

[bananacake]

Which of these emails would you recommend to best use for replying to enquiries?

I ask because when i reply to an enquiry most of the times i don't get a reply back and my concern is that maybe my replies are going into a potential guests' Junk/Spam box instead of their Inbox

The other reason why i am asking is that I currently use a Hotmail address to reply to enquiries and i recently discovered that Hotmail has disabled their Auto Reply feature.

This Auto Reply feature is important for me as it immediately replies to an enquirer instructing them how to book (but i then send a more detailed reply once i get to my PC)

Any thoughts on this welcome

Thanks!

[Mountain Goat]

We use Gmail, and haven't had problems with 2-way communications. We're biased against Hotmail and Yahoo as they tend to be used more by scammers. Gmail and its association with Google's stable of gadgets meets all our requirements. Gmail's spam filter meets our requirements, but you still have to flick through the bin every week.

There are a few outstanding problems with Gmail, which have been discussed elsewhere. Keep in mind you can use any email address (inc. related to your website) with Gmail. Storage is generous and you can upgrade to a paid service with tech. support.

I also can't stand the Hotmail and Yahoo home pages, but that's personal.

MG
52,000 in my Gmail inbox, 676 drafts - LOL

[pepsipuss]

We use Gmail, and haven't had problems with 2-way communications. We're biased against Hotmail and Yahoo as they tend to be used more by scammers. Gmail and its association with Google's stable of gadgets meets all our requirements. Gmail's spam filter meets our requirements, but you still have to flick through the bin every week.

There are a few outstanding problems with Gmail, which have been discussed elsewhere. Keep in mind you can use any email address (inc. related to your website) with Gmail. Storage is generous and you can upgrade to a paid service with tech. support.

I also can't stand the Hotmail and Yahoo home pages, but that's personal.

With you all the way MG, right through to the bias against the Hotmail and Yahoo home pages which I find far too busy

[Musetta]

Honeslty? I would respond to all enquiries with a "real" email address and not a free one...but I'm just cynical probably I think it makes you seem more upfront and legit. I use my real address, but, if I don't get a response from a French or Italian ISP, I resend in gmail. (for some reason, my ISP blocks many addresses that are from France and Italy!)

[Normandie]

I also can't stand the Hotmail and Yahoo home pages, but that's personal.

Seconded.

I love gmail, have used it for about 5 years, have never had a problem with it (well, just one related to being half-signed out of an account occasionally; it's because I have multiple accounts and it is easy to resolve) and I do like the way "conversations" are grouped for booking enquiry purposes. Over those 5 years, I can only think of one occasion when, for a few hours, the gmail servers were down and I couldn't access my account.

I think gmail software can be downloaded to pc? but I have Thunderbird instead. In other words, I have a mirror image of my pc inbox on the gmail server so that acts as a backup for me.

( Though I do accept that there may be an error in my technical assumptions here and someone will be along to explain them to me. )

I switched off Buzz, however and do worry that Google wants to take us over in distinctly Microsoftian ways so I'm wary about signing up for Google's new ideas before the disadvantages have come to light.

I would respond to all enquiries with a "real" email address and not a free one...<snip> I think it makes you seem more upfront and legit.

I agree with that too, unfortunately. I do plan to forward my Normandie@mydomainname to Gmail but I need to figure out the POP stuff first and I've been slow doing that. It just hasn't got to the top of the ToDo list.

[vrooje]

I agree with everything MG said about Gmail.

Normandie, can you set up your Normandie@mydomainname e-mail so that it literally forwards a copy of any incoming message to your Gmail account? That's what I do, not because I didn't want to mess with POP settings, but because I needed to get around the fact that Gmail doesn't check its POP accounts very often. When a client calls you and says, "okay, I sent the contract, did you get it?", I want to be able to refresh my inbox and see the message right away. With forwarding, I can do that, but with POP, Gmail might not be set to check for another 30 minutes. (You can manually force it to check POP mail, but the option is buried in the settings, and if you do it too many times in a row, it won't let you do it at all for a while.)

With my vrooje@mydomain messages being forwarded to Gmail, and Gmail configured to make it look like replies are being sent from vrooje@mydomain, I never need to mess with POP and my clients never need to know I'm actually using a free e-mail service. And I can take advantage of all the bells and whistles from Gmail's labs, like the canned responses -- they are such a time saver!

[pepsipuss]

How do you set up the canned responses, Brooke? I have been trying to find a simple way to do that and no luck so far.

[Normandie]

Normandie, can you set up your Normandie@mydomainname e-mail so that it literally forwards a copy of any incoming message to your Gmail account?

I didn't think of that - excellent point - I'll check. Thank you. My domain name is registered with 1&1 so I need to see what their email manager will let me do but forwarding is a pretty good bet. I hope.

[Mountain Goat]

Pepsi - when you reply in Gmail there is an option underneath the To field for canned responses, and you can add them there.

You can also add different signatures for your different addresses - see Settings / General / Signatures

One setting which doesn't work for us in Gmail is setting a default account, say me@mydomain.com and hoping that will always appear in From when someone receives your email. It doesn't, and it can be a nuisance.

Keep in mind Thunderbird for backing up Gmail offline; also forwarding to another Gmail account as an alternative backup. Don't leave a Gmail account, which forwards stuff to your main account, unattended without checking spam. Whatever forwards you set up don't seem to have precedence on a suspected incoming spam.

Also, unless you have a paid Gmail account, you won't have support if your account just locks up or disappears. However, there is an excellent Gmail forums run by Google.

MG

[TTP mk2]

I'm with Musetta, use a real e-mail address, it's much more professional.

I'm still confused as to why one would forward a real e-mail address mail to gmail (or another free service) anyway, especially considering the problems that are reported here.

[Mountain Goat]

TTP, we've discussed this before.

Gmail allows you email access from anywhere to one central account with a number of sophisticated features unmatched with any other system I've come across without paying a great deal. You can feed any number of your email accounts into it with good filtering capability.

In my experience, any web-based email system attached to your domain name or website just can't match Gmail's features, but I'm willing to learn.

MG

[bananacake]

thanks so much for your input - much appreciated.

Looks like Gmail is the way to go (but better still - use a real email address)

Was wondering though if Gmail has a read-receipt and vacation reply feature?

[pepsipuss]

Pepsi - when you reply in Gmail there is an option underneath the To field for canned responses, and you can add them there.

You can also add different signatures for your different addresses - see Settings / General / Signatures

Can't find anything below the To field except Cc, Bc, edit subject, attach file and insert invitation. Am I being totally dumb or not looking in right place?

I did manage the signatures ...

[Rocket Rab]

You'll need to enable Canned Responses via Settings and Labs (top right of your screen).

[pepsipuss]

Thank you - all is now abundantly clear!