MobileMe users to Apple: We want our mail back

The MobileMe launch debacle continues this week, as angry users complain that they're still locked out of their e-mail accounts.

Both Wired News and the Baltimore Sun report that the MobileMe support forum is alight with posts from furious users, some of whom have been without access to their e-mail accounts for four days.

For example: "I didn't ask for this MobileMe, I don't need MobileMe. I don't need to sync, grab, push, whatever!! … I want my mail back. I want .Mac back!"

Apple's MobileMe support page says that only about one percent of users are having trouble with their .mac/.me mail accounts—and indeed, after a shaky start, my MobileMe account finally seems to be working properly.

Still, it's the latest glitch in what's turned out to be a remarkably rocky launch for MobileMe, the revamped version of Apple's old .Mac service.

MobileMe was set to launch July 9, just two days before the arrival of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 firmware.

But what was supposed to be a six-hour rollout turned into days of on-again, off-again service, leaving many former .Mac users locked out of their accounts. Apple issued an apology last week and promised to comp a month's worth of service. (Apple also acknowledged that MobileMe's "push" syncing of mail, contacts, and events isn't all that instantaneous on the desktop side.) 

Over the weekend, Apple had to apologize again—this time to trial MobileMe users in Europe, whose credit cards had been preauthorized for 121 GBP rather than the typical USD$1 authorization hold. Those users got their MobileMe trial periods extended to a full 120 days.

Of course, every product launch, especially a top-to-bottom revamp of a service like .Mac, will have its share of speed bumps. But scheduling three major launches—the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 2.0 firmware, and MobileMe—within days of each other sounds like a recipe for disaster, and from the looks of it, that's exactly what Apple (and unfortunately, its customers) got.

Related:
Apple Apologizes for MobileMe – Again [Wired News]
Some MobileMe customers without e-mail for 4 days [Baltimore Sun]