Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and lots of others offer these free or low-cost services, but if there's a snafu or e-mails with essential information are lost, you're likely to be out of luck.
Amid a tough economy, free or low-cost Web-based e-mail services such as Google's Gmail or Google Apps, Microsoft's Hotmail, and Yahoo! mail are hugely popular, not just with consumers but also with small businesses. Microsoft, for instance, operates a free service called Office Live Small Business that boasts 2.5 million customers. But while convenient and low-cost, these services also carry a lot of risks that heavy e-mail users, especially small businesses, should consider carefully before signing up.
One person who wishes he hadn't dived in with his eyes closed is Rom Mettesich. Four months ago the retired telecom engineer came up with what he thought was a great idea to save Avant Construction, a Punte Gorda general contracting firm run by his wife, Frinee, a few hundred dollars a year. The company has been pummeled by the downturn in the real estate and construction industries. Mettesich decided to move the Web site and employee e-mail accounts off Avant's old Internet service and onto Microsoft Office Live Small Business. But there was a snafu when Mettesich tried to create e-mail addresses for the company's 19 employees that would be identical to the ones they had with the prior service. He tried to correct the problem by deleting the accounts and starting over. But when he re-entered the addresses, he ran into problems. "The service told me the address I wanted to create was already in use, but I had just deleted it," he says.
lost new-business leads
The glitch proved to be more than just an annoyance. E-mails to Avant Construction's staff
