2 more reasons to be exact - IMAP IDLE and double the storage (now at ~4.5GB).

GMail certainly shook the free webmail arena not too long ago. Remember the 10 - 20 MB of storage we were getting? And the ridiculous charges for POP access? Thanks to competition (read: GMail), we now have features that is comparable to those of paid email services. In fact, I suspect that GMail’s uptime is better than some of the paid email services. That’s why I don’t use my hosting’s email anymore. I’m also sorry to say that GMail walks all over my company’s email services. Uptime, speed, features, ease of use, better interface, you name it. But what I’ve found most invaluable is that even though I’ve got close to 1GB of email stashed right now in GMail, I’ve never had an issue with retrieving a particular email thanks to the search functionality. Most of the time however, I rely on its excellent and intuitive labeling. Imagine categories on steroids. So if you find email is your poison, check out GMail.

P/S: I cheated. I admit the plain vanilla GMail can be improved. And it has been (Firefox only).

I’ve recently seen first hand how Maxis treats its customers. First let me put things into context:

1. Maxis offers wireless broadband for RM 98 for 3.6Mbps
2. Because it is wireless, connection speed can get a wee bit inconsistent, depending on area
3. Maxis offers ONLY a seven day trial period
4. After which, you are required to continue the service for 18 months
5. At the end of the 18 month contract, the service will AUTO-EXTEND for another 18 month unless you write in a month in advance
6. There is no way of canceling your subscription should the 7 day trial period has lapsed

Now before you say caveat emptor, most of the time, the dealer or sales person pushing this service does not in anyway highlight this which is unfair. The terms and conditions of the subscription is also not made apparent to the consumer.

Basically, Maxis is banking on the consumer’s naiveness to rake in big money from its broadband business. A friend of mine recently highlighted this to me (he wishes to terminate the subscription due to the paltry download speed of 7 to 8kbps). Judging from the post at the blog section of The Star, and Google search results, it looks like problems with Maxis broadband isn’t something new.

If anyone know how to resolve this quickly, please feel free to let me know via the comments section. Also, spread the word to any of your friends that is thinking about signing up with Maxis Wireless Broadband. At the very least, try out within the trial period of 7 days, cancel if anything goes wrong.

I’m wondering though, what happens to the poor consumer who suffers connection issues a few months down the line. Is it fair to have such a contract that puts the consumer in such a disadvantage? See the screenshots below of Maxis Wireless Broadband Terms & Conditions.

Buyers beware!