Fastmail breaks UI in production • Hacker News Board

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#31

Post by jdbernard » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I think it is a result of the impersonal "contact us" intake forms companies have all moved to. You have no indication that you aren't just screaming into the wind. There is no personal touch. So you take to social media where your are sure at least someone hears you. It also scratches the justice itch: if the company doesn't pay attention it looks bad in public and you get some vindication for being ignored.

I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing to do, but I understand it.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#32

Post by jdbernard » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

bichiliad wrote: post #28

koakuma-chan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a fastmail user and I think fastmail deserves this. I don't know who asked them to change the UI.

Why do they deserve punishment for iterating on their product?

They don't deserve punishment. But they should understand that this is not just "their product" but it is also my tool. Tools like this do not need to change and absolutely should not change without there being prior notification. Yes, in many ways the UI changes are trivial. They don't fundamentally change what's possible. But my keyboard never changes on me without input. My workbench doesn't rearrange itself without my input. If they want this to continue to be my tool (I've been happy to pay them for it) it needs to respect my time and attention.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#33

Post by licyeus » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I am the OP.

I admit my second message was terse, but the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here".

Like I said, I do not have time to hunt for whatever support channels exist and file a ticket. I pay $50 a year so they can deliver a working product, including triaging their own issues.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#34

Post by outime » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I'm not a Fastmail user, but... if I were paying a company to read my emails and they shipped a new build that broke that feature due to a lack of basic testing, I'd be publicly "shaming" them.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#35

Post by TheNewsIsHere » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

bichiliad wrote: post #28

koakuma-chan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a fastmail user and I think fastmail deserves this. I don't know who asked them to change the UI.

Why do they deserve punishment for iterating on their product?

They don’t. But as a Fastmail customer, I am _really_ tiring of how much they iterate on their UI/UX without notice and seemingly decreasingly solid testing. They push stuff to prod that doesn’t hit beta (at least the public beta environment) regularly. I just stopped using the beta environment because they only test “big” stuff there, it seems.

But for the past year they’ve been nitpicking their GUIs and UX and it’s maddening. They take away or move intuitive and accessible features with no replacement, or end up making you do more clicking/tapping to get there.

I have sent feedback to support many times. Sometimes they revert changes within a week, and sometimes it’s just the canned “we strive to always enhance our customer experience” copy.

Either way, it’s disruptive and unwelcome. Their 2021 era UI was perfect. When they started announcing partnerships with other companies I think they also ended up with more users that are consumers and that creates tension with prosumers and professionals.

Fastmail used to be a haven for people who cared about email and privacy, and many of us chose them based on our own professional experiences running email infrastructure. But now it’s quickly “consumerizing” and their designers clearly have the “to enhance is to remove” mentality.

And as a reseller — don’t get me started on their new billing system and model, which is less reliable than what came before, less flexible, and was launched with no real supporting documentation.

/rant.

The service is still fantastic though in terms of speed, infrastructure, etc. I trust their technology a lot. Their UX/UI people need a time out. Whoever replaced their “Moonpig” billing system with Paddle did the users a disservice.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#36

Post by jdbernard » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:37 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #8

It didn't break anything for me. However, I am failing to understand the point of this design "refreshment". There is nothing new out there, just minor UI changes with no purpose?

Same. I don't hate it, but I do hate that things changed out from underneath me without any notice, opt-in period, or ability to go back.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#37

Post by garciansmith » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:39 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #8

It didn't break anything for me. However, I am failing to understand the point of this design "refreshment". There is nothing new out there, just minor UI changes with no purpose?

It makes access to the calendar, contacts, etc., one less click, which I think is nice. Would have preferred all that was set to buttons at the top instead of a thin side bar though.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#38

Post by yesfitz » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:44 PM UTC

jasonvorhe wrote: post #19

sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I don't know. I'm always confused when social media accounts ask to report issues over different channels when it's so much easier to just reply to customer and ask for additional (non PII) information there. In this case it's unlikely that this was the only or even first report about this issue. So why place the initial burden on a paying customer? If your social media is just a marketing channel, at least make that…

Companies make it clear how to report issues by having a separate support system. If you clicked a "Support" link and it took you to Twitter, I could better understand your confusion.

As for using social media to take issue reports: What will you do when you need PII or have to reassign the issue or reassign part of the issue and those people need to be able to contact the user?

"Why place the initial burden on a paying customer?" Because it creates a better service for everyone to have a known way of doing things.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#39

Post by Ancapistani » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:44 PM UTC

licyeus wrote: post #33

sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I am the OP. I admit my second message was terse, but the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here". Like I said, I do not have time to hunt for whatever support channels exist and file a ticket. I pay $50 a year so they can deliver a working product, including triaging their own issues.

> the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here".

I strongly disagree.

For those reading who may not be on X, here's Fastmail's response:

> Hello Andrew! Can you please contact our support team so we can look into this for you? http://fastmail.com/support

That seems entirely appropriate to me, for several reasons:

  - it's extremely unlikely that the person managing their social media profiles is a technical expert
  - their contact page likely feeds into a ticketing system, which means they can track the issue and actually make sure to respond to you
  - it's entirely possible that response was automated

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#40

Post by bjtitus » Thu, Aug 07, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

licyeus wrote: post #33

sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I am the OP. I admit my second message was terse, but the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here". Like I said, I do not have time to hunt for whatever support channels exist and file a ticket. I pay $50 a year so they can deliver a working product, including triaging their own issues.

There are many reasons why reaching out to support will be more effective. Logging may be tied to accounts, support systems may upload client side logs where appropriate, an event may be tracked to determine a point in time when you had the problem so relevant logs can be checked.

Their messaging probably could have been better here to say "we're looking into this. If you have time, please file a support request".

On Fastmail.com, the support request is two clicks away, under the big ? button in the upper right and "Contact Support". I'm not sure how much time you have but it took me less than 1 minute to find this button and submit from my logged in account.