SaskTel Email Sucks


I don’t think I gripe on this blog very often, but I have had so many problems with SaskTel email in the last month or two that I just have to gripe. For those that read this blog not from Saskatchewan you might not know much about SaskTel. SaskTel is the telecommunications company here in Saskatchewan. They are government owned and have a monopoly in providing phone service to people in the province. Shaw is starting to offer some voice over ip options but for the majority of places in Saskatchewan if you have a land line phone you have a SaskTel account. What does any of that have to do with my problem? Nothing really just some background.

In any case SaskTel is also one, if not the largest, Internet service providers in Saskatchewan. It makes sense really since SaskTel has the infrastructure to provide Internet service over the phone lines that they own. I get my high speed DSL connection from them. However I don’t use SaskTel for email. I use GMail. Mainly becuase the web mail option from SaskTel is an old clunky interface, and for the most part sucks. GMail is a much better system. The problem I have is I create my invoices as PDF files and email the invoices out over email from my GMail account. Most of my clients in Saskatoon and north are on SaskTel accounts and use SaskTel for email. Any email I send to my clients on SaskTel that are in Saskatoon and north never receive the email. It simply disappears into never never land never to be delivered or seen again. The mail does not bounce, it is not marked as spam, it just is gone.

I have tried explaining this to SaskTel support but when they try testing it they are sending mail to people that are either in Regina or Moose Jaw. Nowhere close to the Saskatoon and north. When I tried sending mail to SaskTel support it of course works perfectly. I try sending an email to one of my clients in Rosthern with an attachment, it disappears. Needless to say I have not been able to deliver any invoices to people in Saskatoon, Rosthern and Prince Albert by email. I have had to either hand deliver the invoices, use fax or old fashioned snail mail. This has been happening for over two months. I recently just tried email out new invoices to clients in Rosthern that are all on SaskTel email, guess what? None of them got the emails with attachments. I even tried sending it to my SaskTel email account. One email with an attachment, one without an attachment. I got the email without the attachment. The email with the attachment disappeared.

I know that no one will guarantee email service, but this is ridiculous. If you are using SaskTel for your email I highly suggest you switch to an email provider that is more reliable. I have been very pleased with GMail, and use it for the majority of my email. I can download it using POP3/IMAP and use my favourite email client to read and reply. When I am away from the office I can use the web to check and reply. Until I get my clients all switched over to GMail I suppose I will have to hand deliver my local invoices, otherwise I will never get paid. Thanks for nothing SaskTel.

Well I feel better now.

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