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Sat, Nov 21, 2009 - 12:33 AM EST  —  AAPL: 199.92 (-0.59, -0.29%)  |  NASDAQ: 2146.04 (-10.78, -0.5%)

MobileMe users demand refund from Apple
Monday, July 14, 2008 - 09:56 AM EST

"As Apple moves its .Mac customers over to the cross-platform MobileMe web suite services, further compatibility problems are surfacing. And some customers are demanding refunds for the days when the subscription service was either unavailable or beset with problems," Lexton Snol reports for PC Advisor.

Besides some extra-dense Windows PC sufferers complaining that MobileMe Mail does not work in Internet Explorer 6 and earlier [MacDailyNews Hint: Get a real browser (not to mention, a real OS)], Snol reports that "Readers of Macworld are also demanding rebates for the days when .Mac and MobileMe services were not working or buggy."

Snol reports, "Forum goer Martin Faint is frustrated: 'After two days of this Apple should really offer an extension to the service of existing dotmac customers as a good will gesture. We have paid for this time.' At the same discussion, user danutinske has clearly lost his patience with the hiccups: 'Basically I want a refund for the nearly one week without access to my .mac account or email.'"

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: At the very least, Apple should add a week to every .Mac subscriber's term of service. An apology would be nice, too.

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Jul 14, 08 - 09:01 am Comment from: Wealthy Industrialite

I've said this before: .Mac was a ripoff, .Me is a ripoff, and these services should be free to all Mac users.

Oh, and if possible, maybe Apple could try and make this service work once in a while.

Anyone ever try and use iDisk?

I tried the 2-month trial once, what a complete waste.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:01 am Comment from: Middilay

Interestingly,

Apple sent e-mails to all of us saying that there will be outages during this time and that all syncing should be done and completed by a certain time and so on. Why is it that some people understand and accept for future abilities it is sometimes necessary to have things not work. The one thing I have noticed since I did the complete switch to Apple products two years ago was that PC people can't stand us and for good reason. This is a clear example. When your car goes in for service do you demand a pro-rated amount back on the lease? Apple winers must start to relax a little. It would make the world a lot nicer place to be if everyone lost the air of entitlement and got real about their place in life!

Jul 14, 08 - 09:05 am Comment from: Webbyswim

Well, as frustrating as the outage was to accessing .Mac through the web, my .Mac email was never down, and to me that was more critical. Am I surprised that this happened? Not from tidal wave surge of traffic the servers were hit with. Should Apple been better prepared? Heavens yes. Should people chill? A little patience goes a long way.

But while MobileMe was down, I upgraded my iPhone to 2.0 software, upgraded wife's iPod Touch to 2.0 software and was doing other important things.

It's a new week, so let's get back to dissing M$.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:06 am Comment from: Crazylegs

The reliability of this service will be something to watch. If they don't improve over .Mac, they risk alienating customers. It's way to early to tell though. We need to get through the transition process.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:08 am Comment from: jltnol

I agree with the first poster about dot Mac. In the years that I've had it it has been beset with problems, mainly very very very very very slow transfer bandwith up to and down from my iDisk.

I use if for their Sync features mostly, but even that doesn't seem to be working correctly at the moment, even with the latest updates.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:08 am Comment from: JQ

How can people complain about not working on ie6, its like saying a horse saddle should fit on a dinosaur. Frankly ie6 should be put out of its misery.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:09 am Comment from: ericdano

The Syncing was down, and that was a bummer. I couldn't sync Wednesday till Friday. It started working again Friday. The email, I can't say........I don't really use it, and it's forwarded to my Gmail account.

But, now that it .me is up, it works great.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:12 am Comment from: 49erPress

my .mac email never went down but nothing is pushing and my contacts and calendars aren't syncing between my pc, iphone and mac as advertised.

i don't want a refund. i just want apple to acknowledge the problem and give us an idea when it will be fixed.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:13 am Comment from: Macadoodle

I don't understand this - 'nearly one week without access'? One week? C'mon, it's since Friday the the new me.com site went live. I know I'm bad a math, but that feels like only three friggin' days - grow up. And what did you not have access to? Mail on a web browser? Here's a hint - check your Mac mail on your Mac until things calm down and the kinks are worked out.

Oh, and all you PC complainers about me.com not working - read the system requirements once in a while. I'm sure they state that PC users will need to use at least IE7. Better yet, just download Safari - even if you don't migrate your bookmarks, you can have it as a 'stand alone' browser just for your mobileme account.

Magic Word: Beyond
As in: Why people need to complain about the small things and cry out for a $1.90 refund is beyond me.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:15 am Comment from: DH

I agree that Apple should extend everyone's service by 1 week.

I find it incredible that Windows users are so adamant, in light of the fact that they let Microsoft crap on them forever and the only thing they did was open wider and bend over further.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:18 am Comment from: M

A week extension would be nice. My core services were only down for a day. I've not had any problem with iDisk.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:21 am Comment from: Ferf Muckmeyer

I think a week is a bit much but if will satisfy customers, so be it. We were only down two days so a week would be a good faith gesture. Not that two days didn't seem like an eternity for some of us.

So far as of late MobileMe is working pretty good, at least for me. Did not try it with Windows yet (a necessity given my work computer, unfortunately). But despite some delays the sync is pretty quick from iPhone to Mac, Mac to MobileMe, Mac to Mac, etc.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:22 am Comment from: Miike from Fernie

I was a .Mac subscriber. My contacts weren't working on .Me last night and my emails don't seem to be synching very well. Anyone else with this issue?

Jul 14, 08 - 09:23 am Comment from: Miike from Fernie

I am still using Tiger... Maybe the issues are Tiger related. Aside from Back to my Mac what features of .Me aren't included with Tiger?

Jul 14, 08 - 09:24 am Comment from: AJKphotography

Whilst it doesn't bother me personally I must say that there ought to be an alternative basic interface at least for email because even some of the world's biggest employers insist on crappy old IE6. People want to be able to access their .Mac/MobileMe email at work and now they might not be able to unless they know how to set up a workaround such as using Gmail to collect their emails.

It's great that they're using modern web standards but surely it wouldn't hurt to provide some basic access to the service for those who are stuck at work with a crap browser with no ability to upgrade.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:24 am Comment from: Jamie

I don't remember reading anywhere in the Terms and Conditions for MobileMe that it was a fail-safe mission critical piece of software.

All .Mac member were warned in good time that the systems would be down. OK, it wasn't for 6 hours like they said, but like I said in my opening sentence, this isn't mission critical stuff.

People need to chill, and more importantly look at the bigger picture... in 6 months time we'll all wonder how we got by without MobileMe. Mine is working now, syncs are going well and the web interface is fast and easy to use.

I do agree that Apple should keep people more informed. Staying silent about forthcoming products I can deal with. Keeping quiet when services people pay for and are told will be working by a certain time when they clearly aren't is quite appalling.

How about another Open Letter Steve?

Jul 14, 08 - 09:25 am Comment from: flappo

i agree with dot mac being lame

i had it a few years ago for hosting images

then discovered all the free and MUCH FASTER alternatives

Jul 14, 08 - 09:28 am Comment from: AJKphotography

I forgot to add that iDisk is working a lot faster for me now than it ever did with .Mac and Web Gallery also seems to perform better.

The new web apps also work speedily for me now.

I'm in the UK with a standard ADSL service and MobileMe is very useable now. It's by no means perfect but it's getting better all the time.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:28 am Comment from: Joshua

Why all the complaining, except for Friday when NOTHING was working, my MobileMe account is working great... things are pushing, even my iBank is syncing correctly... sheesh people!

Jul 14, 08 - 09:29 am Comment from: M.X.N.T.4.1

Whilst the delay was irritating, and perhaps too long, I wasn't one of those people who insisted to try and use the service for the entirety of the upgrade process and were repeatedly hammering the service every 5 seconds trying to log into things just to see if they were working yet. I did my syncing before hand, my mail seemingly worked throughout and I left it alone. It's all well and good complaining about poor service but it does irritate me that so many of the people complaining seem to be people who probably contributed in some small way to the whole thing taking so long.

Personally, my expectations of .Mac/Mobile Me are not high, if it was just me then I would not use it, but to sync 4 accounts of family members across 3 machines it is a relatively fuss free solution and doesn't cost a lot when you divide up the cost.

I personally don't see why people seem to think it should be free. Perhaps it is expensive, perhaps even more so for the quality of service, but that doesn't mean it should be free, it means it should be better, or cheaper, or both. GMail is free but you get ads with it, and that's why it's free and why Google offer it, they don't do it (just) to be nice, they do it to make money. If you deem it to be unworthy of the cost then don't use it, it's quite simple really. Just because you're a Mac user why should it be free?

Jul 14, 08 - 09:29 am Comment from: Mike from Fernie

AJK:

I agree, .Mac was way better and IE. .Me blows on IE and for some of us who use it at work have no other alternative. If Apple wan'ts us to use .Me then they need to fix this. Otherwise, I might as well use my ISP email or Gmail.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:35 am Comment from: ldrhawke

All this about shouting about losing 2 days worth of service.
2/365 x $99 = 54 cents. It isn't worth the time it takes to write a complaint.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:37 am Comment from: Whoa now

If .Mac was better than MobileMe, it's because MobileMe is 3 days old. I too was frustrated on Sat/Sun. But it's really because I was looking forward to what seems to be, as of this morning, an incredible sea change in the way I manage my 'stuff'. MobileMe may have a few drawbacks, but it's on a trajectory to be something really fantastic... that Mac and Win users don't want to live without.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:41 am Comment from: ron

So give the moaners their 54c back for the problem days. Plus, when the service is more than they contracted for - charge them $1.00 a day.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:42 am Comment from: iWill

I use iDisk to serve up professionally produced video for corporate clients.

Thursday we cut together a piece and uploaded to .mac, no problem. Friday, as expected, we were locked out of .mac due to updating. Today, we're back on line with mobile.me.

If patience is a virtue, we could all stand to be more virtuous in that regard. Its gonna be all right. Really.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:43 am Comment from: allgood2

I couldn't get through on the we on Friday, otherwise, my services have been fine. Though admittedly, I use .Mac for offsite backup and email—mostly through Mail.app or iPhone, so maybe the web versions were the problem. I also sync all computers using iSync, and haven't notice any downtime on that.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:43 am Comment from: HMCIV

The "Exchange for the Rest of Us" syncing appears to be functioning but the web interface service is still slow.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:45 am Comment from: James Hays

Refund for a weeks outage equals 2 bucks. It cost me more to write this response...

If you don't like .mac or .me, don't get it. Quite complaining about it to the rest of the world. You sound like a bunch of school girls bickering to each other.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:47 am Comment from: Dek

Some people are never happy!

dotMac mail, backup and Sync has not been down at all for me whilst Gmail has been very unreliable recently, and Gdisk is just useless compared to simplicity of iDisk... when I get a chance must upgrade iPhone to use all new features.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:47 am Comment from: MizuInOz

I exercised patience and I waited - like Apple so fully explained multiple times - as in each time I accessed dot mac.

So, I waited - because I know glitches are normal when you reconcile to a new service.

Fired MobileMe yesterday and Lordy! Lordy! it is one fine place in the clouds. And I have push to my iPhone 3G!!! So so so Apple cool!

All you whingers - especially supposedly wealthy industrialite (yeah right) - get a life - get to know the technolgy you berate...

In the mid-1800s, it was believed that if you road on a train faster than 60 mph, your heart would compress and you'd die...

The technology has changed but the fear mongers still live!
If MobileMe craps out for a bit because it is in shell shock... let it breath and then try again...

It just works... now.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:47 am Comment from: AAPLguy

@Wealthy Industrialite

I used my iDisk to upload and file share a 112MB archive last nite. Worked perfectly. What's your problem?

Jul 14, 08 - 09:49 am Comment from: bioness

Use GMAIL for goodness sake, as a backup.

You get IMAP, Gigs of free space and it's all stored.

I hope that one week weeded all the cry-babys that don't know how to diversify their risks.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:51 am Comment from: Jeremy

I am super pissed that mobileme is such a disaster and *still* doesn't work properly, but this idea of a refund is both too soon and ridiculous.

We are still looking at less than a single dollars worth of down time, and the costs for sending out that one dollar cheque to all and sundry would outpace the value of the refund.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:54 am Comment from: nova81426

Regarding using IE6, Apple said that MobileMe uses newer advanced techniques (AJAX, CSS, XSLT) that IE6 is simply too old to support correctly. I think it's reasonable for Apple to not want to support a 7 year old browser.

Jul 14, 08 - 09:58 am Comment from: Apple is now sayign it's not real "push"

BULLSHIT!

They advertised instant updating betwixt computer, web, and iphone... but now they are reneging on that.

Class- action lawsuit is absolutely in order on that shit. I don't want money- I want the service to be as initially explained at WWDC. exchange for the rest of us my anus.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:02 am Comment from: TheHun

First of all, I've been using .Mac for a couple of years and have not experienced the widespread service outages and problems with iDisk others are talking about. I've found it to be very reliable, but maybe I'm just lucky.

Secondly, I'm fully aware of how much IE6 blows and that there are better browsers (and OSes) to use. However, IE6 is the only web browser blessed by my corporate IT department, so I have no other choice on my work PC. I have asked our local IT people when and if they plan to update us to IE7, and their reply was "not anytime soon." So now with the upgrade to MobileMe, I can no longer access my personal email or address book from work, which was always one of the major reasons I used .Mac in the first place.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:11 am Comment from: iWill

Lets get on with our lives, shall we?

Jul 14, 08 - 10:13 am Comment from: @ Middilay

I wouldn't ask for an extension to my lease, but I would ask for a loaner vehicle. Most decent dealerships will supply one, too, at least if you leased (or purchased) the car from them originally.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:17 am Comment from: MacSoftwareList.com

I can't believe that older Macs are being left out because people have to run OS 10.4.11. It will not work with MobileMe like it does with Dot Mac. I have family members that can't afford to go out and buy a $1500 computer every time Apple decides to update something.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:18 am Comment from: nytesky

I demand the entire 27.12 cents for every day my service was interrupted!

Jul 14, 08 - 10:18 am Comment from: Quad Core

"Oh, and if possible, maybe Apple could try and make this service work once in a while.
Anyone ever try and use iDisk?
I tried the 2-month trial once, what a complete waste."

One of the companies I work for uses iDisk to essentially run the system that allows me to work remotely. I don't use it every day, but at least a few times a week, and have not had any problems. So, to me, it's worth about $60,000 each year. Oh yes, and I don't even have a subscription, just they do.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:21 am Comment from: MacBill

Apple is a bunch of liars... MobileMe is NOT true push technology... it only updates from a Mac every 15 minutes:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1155
This is blatant false advertising, and complete LIES on Apple's end. Even in the guided video on their website, they show the guy getting INSTANTANEOUS PUSH CONTACTS/CALENDAR ACROSS ALL OF HIS DEVICES! Imagine adding a very important new contact onto your MacBook's Address Book before leaving on a business trip, and then putting your laptop to sleep. Then, you go on your trip, EXPECTING to see your new contact on your iPhone! WRONG! Because your MacBook wasn't awake for at least 15 minutes after you added the new contact, your new contact will NOT show up on your iPhone, nor the MobileMe website, nor on any other computers! This is not "push" anything!

Jul 14, 08 - 10:23 am Comment from: coolfactor

I'm disappointed that .Mac had to go down while they brought the new MobileMe online. Guess there was some changes to the data storage that the two services accessed.

I'm disappointed that Apple is not communicating very well about what the status is. Now, at least, one can log in and check the status within.

That said, the service is still very worth it for me. I've happily paid the $150+tx (here in Canada) for the service every year, and will continue to do so. Anyone saying the service is crap or should be free really doesn't understand it very well or they are just spoiled brats.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:24 am Comment from: Rob

I want my money back because after upgrade from trial, I have learned that all my favorite aliases are not available, and I have some that are unique. My .mac account was long expired.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:26 am Comment from: Buster

Whoop de frikken do!!!!

If you do not like it, don't use it. Any of you whiners say the same thing when you get power outages? What about when the traffic light down your street stops working for a day? Ever demand a rebate when your kids get a snow day? Or when the teachers go on a one day wild-cat strike?

I thought not........

Jul 14, 08 - 10:34 am Comment from: If you think false advertising and being lied to i

Then you deserve to be patsy fanboys. What's wrong with getting the service advertised that you pay for?

Accepting anything less is pathetic AND ON YOU.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:37 am Comment from: Splat

I agree...what a bunch of cry babies....give it a rest! I use mine all the time and sure there were issues last week, who cares, I doubt it caused anybody any real damage. It is summer go outside....get a life, have a drink....for heavens sake...CHILL OUT!

Jul 14, 08 - 10:39 am Comment from: Pete

People should demand a tax refund every time they get stuck in traffic too?

What do these guys want? All this fuss about $1!

Jul 14, 08 - 10:41 am Comment from: Maginary

@MacBill,

Um, it's pushing to my iPhone. I can send myself an email from work and "bing!" it shows up on my phone. Happened several times this morning.

How's it supposed to work?

@Losers above: new tech may not work correctly the first few days. Deal with it. If you upgraded from 1.x to 2.0 on the iPhone, you got thousands of hours of developer's time and effort for "free." iPod Touch folks had to pay, but I would have paid for the upgrade if I had to. It hasn't been trouble-free, but few things in life are. Anybody ever use MS tech? Windows or DOS? Still waiting for those to work as advertised aren't you.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:41 am Comment from: coolfactor

@MacSoftwareList.com

A few points to keep in mind:
1) MobileMe was a *free* upgrade for existing .Mac users.
2) People with 10.4.x don't need to buy a new $1500 computer, just a $129 OS upgrade.
3) You're an idiot.

Jul 14, 08 - 10:42 am Comment from: macman

Apple should just offer free downloads like they used to with .mac. I miss those offers. Plus it was good advertising for the companies offering the free download.

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