what is this I don't even

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Here's an extract from a customer email I spotted in our Support queue the other day. This lady's been whinging at us because Outlook 2007 barfs when she tries to attach really large files (as most email programs do, but especially Outlook as we all know) This is about the 4th email in 2 months she's sent on this "issue".

Late last year we communicated regarding problems with Microsoft Office 2007 - Small Business/ Outlook and pdf attachments to email.

I am going to try to do some wider lobbying this year to try to advance the issues for community benefit. The objective is to aid business development and community sustainability.

Is your team able to provide any input that will assist in clarifying the issues I identified? I do not have a reply from you. I asked if you/ your team are able to write the specification/ technicalities of why the email attachments have such limitations. Any further technical input you can provide to properly explain the issues or answer questions I have raised would be greatly appreciated.

This is after we already told her we can't get involved in "lobbying" for software improvements (the phrase we used was "we remain neutral" - frankly I'dve been far less diplomatic). But WTH woman, email wasn't designed for large attachments, Outlook 2007 is on its last legs and was never any good really... and do you honestly think MS care about "community sustainability" for one piddly small business in Australia?

And you want our ISP to write some kind of specification documentation about the "problem"!?

I mean, what.

Comments

[jecook]

Reminds me of one of our BSAs asking why people can't send out anything larger then a 10 MB attachement last week. my answer of "Because our server goes off into a corner and sulks when it tries to send the same 10 MB attachment to half the company" apparently didn't sit too well. :D

I do recall the last place I was at using some random oddball MTA that ran under windows (NOT! Exchange) that really didn't like doing it; It tended to crash when people pulled that stunt. Even worse, it took a good hour to process everyone's mailboxes on startup as well- I blame the executives, who had a habit of using their mailbox as a file storage device. :(

[owl]

Oh honestly. Sharepoint and other collaborative thingies, wikis, a network drive, anything beats sending huge files around by email. Even reasonable-sized files hog your Exchange server when you have a copy in everyone's inbox, and if anyone needs to make a change...let's say version control by email is teh fail.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

What gets me is her attitude - we're a small, business grade ISP. We have no interest or ability in making "grassroots" changes to Microsoft and its way of doing things, but she's demanding we write up some kind of technical blathery to give weight to her drop in the ocean complaint to them.

How about NO, lady.

[owl]

That's some special snowflakery right there, yeah. I can just see some MS customer service person looking at it and going "...! We must retrofit Outlook 2007 to an FTP client right now!"

[mr-scoot.livejournal.com]

How about writing up some technical blathery stating the reasons that sending large attachments via email is bad? Then that can become part of the ISP email FAQ. Dress it up enough, and she'll not realize that what you send her is actually the exact opposite of what she requested.

[phyphor.livejournal.com]

With all these people wanting to do it you would think that someone would have invented some kind of Protocol for the Transfer of Files by now, wouldn't you?

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Ha! You just reminded me of the email I got from Blogger today kindly informing me Google are dropping FTP support for Blogger-driven sites.

Good thing I dont really run mine any more, because holy wtf. But thats a rant for another time and place.

[brotherflounder]

Wha? Why?

[sithanas.livejournal.com]

Are they replacing it with SFTP?

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Nope, theyre doing away with it altogether.

Hm perhaps I should make another post about this. Just a sec.

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

I was all ready to go on a rant about how being corporate IT doesn't mean you can make manufacturers changed their product, then I realised you were her ISP. What drugs is this woman on?

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

email is not a file transfer protocol, kthxbye.

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

Note, not being snarky to you, that's actually our official position at $ginourmous ISP

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

And how many organisations/ISPs accept super-huge attachments? Our maximum message size is 10MB - I think Google's and others tend to come in at 20MB. How big were these attachments that this twit was trying to send?

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

we accept 20, but a lot of companies limit it to 10, 5, and internatioally even smaller (I've seen limits of a meg at some international companies)

[ladynisa.livejournal.com]

Completely OT, but I have MAJOR icon love for ur b5! Can I steals??

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Hahah sure, go for it! :) I do love that grumpy bugger.

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

I used to work for a major UK construction company.

I had to use *very* small word to explain to a site secretary why sending a 60MB Powerpoint(!!!) file to over 200 people was Not Very Smart.