Can I ask you a question?

What guided you to use the mail provider you are using?

Consider your cellphone service... essential communication MOST of the time. Calls come in from family, friends, business associates... sometimes marketers... and sometimes scammers.

In its current setup, you still get to decide who gets to talk to or message you. You can block numbers if it's a scammer... you can limit or stop TXTS if they are bothersome... but YOU get to choose.

Now consider the following scenario... your cellphone provider decides they know best and hires "Call Guard", a company that starts to make incoming call decisions for you. They decide certain companies are not worthy of calling you... they decide which businesses are of value to you (maybe because they pay the provider to get through)... and they even decide that your niece is a scammer and blocks her number from contacting you.

All of this is based on contrived algorithms that a fancy recent tech graduate formulated after "intense" study of call patterns... and probably did their thesis on.

Now, consider your phone service provider does this without even notifying you.

Your niece, desperate to get through, calls your phone provider and says "Hey, I can't seem to get a call through to my aunt... is there something wrong on your end?" The first thing she's going to be told is "I'm sorry, if you don't have phone service with us, we can't help you."

So, your niece finds another way to finally contact you, and lets you know. YOU call your phone provider, and the wonderful team at Support starts to run through their binder...

"Did your niece dial her right or left hand?"
"What kind of phone is she using... is it updated to the latest software?"
"Are you sure she dialed the right number?"
"Is her phone properly registered with her current provider?"

And all this while "Call Guard" collects their hefty checks and screws up the phone service YOU are paying for and relying on.

Maybe... and I emphasize MAYBE... someone working at your phone provider has a little initiative and gets your nieces phone number unblocked. They just want to make things better for you AND your niece... but good chance they'll get chastised by the floor manager... maybe even lose their job.

"YOU DON'T QUESTION CALL GUARD!"

Welcome to the email world of Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail... and coming to (if not already arrived at) a local IT provider near you. The IT providing "gods" are now deciding what you get to see and not see... and even who you get to call. All of this of course, w/o consultation... w/o being informed... w/o having a CHOICE.

To make it even worse, we're now being trained on how to appease the gods, gain their favor, and how to "ease" our way into their world in hopes they will grant us at least temporary favor and allow our call to go through... at least this time.

To this end, now we've created fields of study and expert backed programs all guiding us on how to work with the malfeasance of these providers and appease their misguided interference... when we SHOULD be looking for and making responsible decisions on choosing a provider who respects the fact WE are the customer... not the product.

Yep... I know... fighting the overwhelming odds. We are supposed to learn to work WITH the abusive system... not try to change it. They are too big.

Well, who made them so big? Who among us gave up our freedom of choice? Believe me... when they start blocking gramma from calling you... and someone in a remote call center gives you goofy incoherent reasons why they won't unblock her... or that it must be her fault... it's going to be too late.

Rant over... for the time being.... but consider...

When your mail doesn't get through.... maybe start looking at the provider that blocked it w/o so much as a polite notification to the receiver. If this was the postal system, they'd be in jail.

PS… our “Reception Bot” winners are currently forwarding us the information we need for their free reception bots. We’ll let you know when things are ready for testing.