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More "progress" from ProtonMail, while they still provide no way to export emails in bulk. They recommend you forward every individual email or print it. The

by blunte 9y ago

More "progress" from ProtonMail, while they still provide no way to export emails in bulk. They recommend you forward every individual email or print it. The Export feature has been an open request since before March 2015. Another feature which would give users a way to get their mail out of PM is the ability to check mail from a client like Outlook or Thunderbird. That has been an open feature request since before February 2015. They, as with other companies that refuse to listen to their customers, will eventually fail. Of course failure may mean being bought by a larger competitor (and a few of the bad decision-makers cashing out)...

vabmit 9y ago
Try to relax a bit. It is good for your health. :) Both of those features are under development. If you would like to see them sooner rather than later, perhaps you know some great programmers that you could recommend to careers@protonmail.ch? Or, you could share ProtonMail's Careers page: https://protonmail.com/careers https://protonmail.com/careers ProtonMail is hiring!
- pvg 9y ago
  Maybe they should also be hiring some sort of customer interaction expert as well.
  - eadz 9y ago
    https://protonmail.com/careers#technical-support-specialist https://protonmail.com/careers#technical-support-specialist
  - tonyztan 9y ago
    Looks like parent is not a ProtonMail employee. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948)
- andrewvc 9y ago
  This is a great example of how not to interact with customers. Telling a customer who's been waiting on a feature for over a year to relax is just insulting. I picked Fastmail due to their excellent support reputation, you all could learn from them!
  - mi100hael 9y ago
    Sometimes the customer is either flat wrong or at least an asshole. ProtonMail sends yearly surveys to paying customers asking for help prioritizing development efforts, so suggesting they don't listen to their customers is asinine. IMAP support is in beta as a result of customers prioritizing it in those surveys. As they are likely limited primarily by funding and developer bandwidth, I see nothing wrong with their response above and will continue paying for their service.
    - Accacin 9y ago
      Fair point, but exporting email? These aren't crazy ideas from one person's wishlist. These are actual features that should be standard for any company providing an email service.
      - jbg_ 9y ago
        (Genuine question, haven't used it in the last few years.) Does Gmail support exporting email, other than using IMAP which I understand Proton also has in beta?
        mseebach 9y ago
        Yes, Google Takeout: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout I remember reading that they have committed to letting you download all you data from all their properties, and the list on that page is certainly long, but I can't tell if it's complete.
      - sauronlord 9y ago
        Gmail is pretty good at exporting your e-mail straight to the NSA too. Maybe if Protonmail receives some kickbacks from the NSA, then they could implement the feature for you as a FREE user. Oh, you're a paying customer? Then I guess their lack of export shows you how valuable their service is inspite of that feature being unavailable.
- rodrigoavie 9y ago
  Protonmail fan and user here. Guys, honestly there are better ways to respond to customers and potential customers, without the patronizing tone. That can't possibly help.
  - cal5k 9y ago
    It actually didn't seem idiomatic... I suspect that english is not their first language and they might not have realized they were being rude.
    - rodrigoavie 9y ago
      Funny, I thought about that too right after I wrote my comment.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - tonyztan 9y ago
    Looks like parent is not a ProtonMail employee. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948)
- mandie 9y ago
  You're charging people for a service, you're in no position to treat anybody like that. Translation: please don't be a dumbass.
  - sauronlord 9y ago
    How ironic that you're tone is worse that OP and then you call them a vulgar name. Your point is lost because the emphasis you gain is precisely because of your shitty tone. Maybe protonmail doesn't give a fuck. I'm more inclined to now apply to them as a developer and think that "they just get it". I'm a paying customer and found their reply humorous. People have such thin skins these days....
- aioprisan 9y ago
  And now I'm closing my account. Not the way to respond to a valid customer concern. Good to know this is how you treat customers on a premium service. I'll share it with other customers so they know.
  - bartbutler 9y ago
    @vabmit means well but he is not an employee of ProtonMail.
  - nicky0 9y ago
    Bet writing that made you feel a real big man.
- blunte 9y ago
  I was a visionary paid member when that option became available, and I used the service heavily for a year (until the performance, particularly search and email-list-paging became unreasonably slow... as in multi-second delays). While performance was going down, I noticed new features being announced. However, one key feature (exporting emails in bulk) was never done. I can assure you that is not rocket science, or rather is not a technical challenge that the brilliant minds who started PM could not overcome. As for careers, I even made an effort to contact them. Whether I was up to par or not, I suspect my resume and two decades of experience were worthy of a reply, particularly given the quality of bug reporting I had provided during my use. So honestly, the takeaway feeling was that the company was not well run or organized, which ultimately brings long-term reliability into question. And long-term reliability is very important to anyone doing real work and real business.
arosier 9y ago
If you're a paying member just shoot them an email and they'll add you to the list for the Bridge beta. See: https://protonmail.com/bridge/ https://protonmail.com/bridge/ I got in after a few weeks. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/6fbzzb/dying_without_proton_bridge/diiguuu/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/6fbzzb/dying_wi...
anfogoat 9y ago
Fastmail's Standard plan also includes up to 600 aliases and up to 100 domains. Even if you've only got one domain you'll use, I can't understand how anyone is willing to tie their main domain to servers that will only let you receive email at 5 different addresses, seems like waste of MX records. I keep hoping for a change but feel thoroughly disappointed each time I periodically check their pricing page.
- newscracker 9y ago
  Fastmail is also terribly expensive if someone wants multiple mailboxes (with separate user credentials) rather than aliases to a single mailbox. With what would cost me several hundred dollars on Fastmail, I can have that and more on Mailbox.org and Posteo.de (the latter without custom domain support). The disappointment you've felt here is the same I felt with Fastmail. So I decided to move to Posteo instead and save money.
newscracker 9y ago
These were the reasons I didn't switch to ProtonMail when I wanted to move out of Gmail and others. I didn't want to be stuck with ProtonMail and having to print or save each email one by one if I ever felt that ProtonMail wasn't good enough for me. I had also followed these requests for a little while and was frustrated that IMAP is now in some kind of beta after more than two years of requests. It's still not generally available yet! I really liked the privacy and security bits, but couldn't live with a service with these limitations.

by blunte 9y ago

vabmit 9y ago

Try to relax a bit. It is good for your health. :) Both of those features are under development. If you would like to see them sooner rather than later, perhaps you know some great programmers that you could recommend to careers@protonmail.ch? Or, you could share ProtonMail's Careers page: https://protonmail.com/careers https://protonmail.com/careers ProtonMail is hiring!

pvg 9y ago
Maybe they should also be hiring some sort of customer interaction expert as well.
- eadz 9y ago
  https://protonmail.com/careers#technical-support-specialist https://protonmail.com/careers#technical-support-specialist
- tonyztan 9y ago
  Looks like parent is not a ProtonMail employee. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948)
andrewvc 9y ago
This is a great example of how not to interact with customers. Telling a customer who's been waiting on a feature for over a year to relax is just insulting. I picked Fastmail due to their excellent support reputation, you all could learn from them!
- mi100hael 9y ago
  Sometimes the customer is either flat wrong or at least an asshole. ProtonMail sends yearly surveys to paying customers asking for help prioritizing development efforts, so suggesting they don't listen to their customers is asinine. IMAP support is in beta as a result of customers prioritizing it in those surveys. As they are likely limited primarily by funding and developer bandwidth, I see nothing wrong with their response above and will continue paying for their service.
  - Accacin 9y ago
    Fair point, but exporting email? These aren't crazy ideas from one person's wishlist. These are actual features that should be standard for any company providing an email service.
    - jbg_ 9y ago
      (Genuine question, haven't used it in the last few years.) Does Gmail support exporting email, other than using IMAP which I understand Proton also has in beta?
      - mseebach 9y ago
        Yes, Google Takeout: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout I remember reading that they have committed to letting you download all you data from all their properties, and the list on that page is certainly long, but I can't tell if it's complete.
    - sauronlord 9y ago
      Gmail is pretty good at exporting your e-mail straight to the NSA too. Maybe if Protonmail receives some kickbacks from the NSA, then they could implement the feature for you as a FREE user. Oh, you're a paying customer? Then I guess their lack of export shows you how valuable their service is inspite of that feature being unavailable.
rodrigoavie 9y ago
Protonmail fan and user here. Guys, honestly there are better ways to respond to customers and potential customers, without the patronizing tone. That can't possibly help.
- cal5k 9y ago
  It actually didn't seem idiomatic... I suspect that english is not their first language and they might not have realized they were being rude.
  - rodrigoavie 9y ago
    Funny, I thought about that too right after I wrote my comment.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- tonyztan 9y ago
  Looks like parent is not a ProtonMail employee. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032948)
mandie 9y ago
You're charging people for a service, you're in no position to treat anybody like that. Translation: please don't be a dumbass.
- sauronlord 9y ago
  How ironic that you're tone is worse that OP and then you call them a vulgar name. Your point is lost because the emphasis you gain is precisely because of your shitty tone. Maybe protonmail doesn't give a fuck. I'm more inclined to now apply to them as a developer and think that "they just get it". I'm a paying customer and found their reply humorous. People have such thin skins these days....
aioprisan 9y ago
And now I'm closing my account. Not the way to respond to a valid customer concern. Good to know this is how you treat customers on a premium service. I'll share it with other customers so they know.
- bartbutler 9y ago
  @vabmit means well but he is not an employee of ProtonMail.
- nicky0 9y ago
  Bet writing that made you feel a real big man.
blunte 9y ago
I was a visionary paid member when that option became available, and I used the service heavily for a year (until the performance, particularly search and email-list-paging became unreasonably slow... as in multi-second delays). While performance was going down, I noticed new features being announced. However, one key feature (exporting emails in bulk) was never done. I can assure you that is not rocket science, or rather is not a technical challenge that the brilliant minds who started PM could not overcome. As for careers, I even made an effort to contact them. Whether I was up to par or not, I suspect my resume and two decades of experience were worthy of a reply, particularly given the quality of bug reporting I had provided during my use. So honestly, the takeaway feeling was that the company was not well run or organized, which ultimately brings long-term reliability into question. And long-term reliability is very important to anyone doing real work and real business.

arosier 9y ago

If you're a paying member just shoot them an email and they'll add you to the list for the Bridge beta. See: https://protonmail.com/bridge/ https://protonmail.com/bridge/ I got in after a few weeks. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/6fbzzb/dying_without_proton_bridge/diiguuu/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/6fbzzb/dying_wi...

anfogoat 9y ago

Fastmail's Standard plan also includes up to 600 aliases and up to 100 domains. Even if you've only got one domain you'll use, I can't understand how anyone is willing to tie their main domain to servers that will only let you receive email at 5 different addresses, seems like waste of MX records. I keep hoping for a change but feel thoroughly disappointed each time I periodically check their pricing page.

newscracker 9y ago
Fastmail is also terribly expensive if someone wants multiple mailboxes (with separate user credentials) rather than aliases to a single mailbox. With what would cost me several hundred dollars on Fastmail, I can have that and more on Mailbox.org and Posteo.de (the latter without custom domain support). The disappointment you've felt here is the same I felt with Fastmail. So I decided to move to Posteo instead and save money.

newscracker 9y ago

These were the reasons I didn't switch to ProtonMail when I wanted to move out of Gmail and others. I didn't want to be stuck with ProtonMail and having to print or save each email one by one if I ever felt that ProtonMail wasn't good enough for me. I had also followed these requests for a little while and was frustrated that IMAP is now in some kind of beta after more than two years of requests. It's still not generally available yet! I really liked the privacy and security bits, but couldn't live with a service with these limitations.