Attention Hotmail Users

[ThePowersThatBe]

Please note that Hotmail's automated mail screening system is once again rejecting emails sent from the Realcent server. This is not the first time and probably won't be the last. Hotmail is generally not interested in fixing anything manually, they would rather let legitimate emails bounce than correct an error in their filters.

So if email notifications are critical to you, please consider using something other than Hotmail for your Realcent account.

If you do change the email address for your account, the forum software requires me to manually reactivate your account. I will do so as quickly as possible but I can't be at the computer constantly, so you may be unable to use your account for a short time after changing the email address.

[dannan14]

Would white-listing the Realcent email address be a viable workaround?

[ThePowersThatBe]

Would white-listing the Realcent email address be a viable workaround?

Nothing a Hotmail user can do to whitelist it. Microsoft would have to do it (Hotmail is now Outlook.com), and so far I have not been able to get in touch with them. When I finally get through the convoluted contact forms to submit a case, I just get a Page Not Found error . And there is no front door to even contact them about an issue like this, you have to try to submit a case in a slightly different context and get them to move it to the right department...

[dannan14]

Ack! Well, thanks for trying.

[ThePowersThatBe]

I finally got to a chat session with the general Hotmail/Live/Outlook email support system, and they advised me that they are not able to resolve this issue, only Microsoft Professional Support can help. They gave me a phone number.

Turns out Professional Support is $499 for one incident or $1999 for a 5-pack support contract. No thanks. (The chat agent failed to mention this). Going to the Professional Support page and trying to contact them online instead of by phone just takes me back to the same general support system that led me to the chat agents who can't fix the problem.

My advice would be not to use a Live.com/Hotmail.com/Outlook.com email address for your Realcent accounts at this time. I don't know how long it will take for their algorithm to clear things up, we ran into this for a period of at least several weeks last year.

I just tested Yahoo and Gmail and they seem to be working fine, along with all the Verizon/Comcast/etc. ISP-provided email accounts.