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[Bigron]

I am unable to access my Hotmail email account, for no apparent reason. They said that somebody else has been trying to access my account, so I went through the identification procedure SEVERAL times and was repeatedly told that I had not provides sufficient information to confirm my identity. However, since most of the data needed to do so is in my contact list in my email account, this proved difficult!
I have now lost patience with the automated (and unhelpful) system.
Obviously, at the very least I will need to recover all of my contact and history information, but ideally I wish to have my account re-instated fully.
There seems to be no known way to contact a real person at Hotmail, only a robopt with standard, useless answers.
Can the mighty Forum help, please?

Ron.

[Doctor Gollum]

I wonder if this is actually a scam

Can you access it from your phone?

[STEMO]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/about/contact/

[Bigron]

No, DG - my phone is just a basic "ring, bloody ring" model!
However, it was coincident with Hotmail trying to force users to convert to Outlook. The (unhelpful) messages all have the correct logos and templates, so seem genuine. The main problem is that all the information that they want me to provide is contained within my email account, which I cannot access - for example, exact subject heading for sent emails, etc.
If I could contact a real person at Hotmail and get real answers, that would help; but they keep true contact information a secret!

Ron.

[Bigron]

STEMO, that looks a useful contact number, thanks. I will try them tomorrow, when they are awake! 

Ron.

P.S. You do realise that you are endangering your reputation as an unhelpful b*stard, don't you? 

[STEMO]

STEMO, that looks a useful contact number, thanks. I will try them tomorrow, when they are awake! 

Ron.

P.S. You do realise that you are endangering your reputation as an unhelpful b*stard, don't you? 

I changed the number in the link to the local old people's home. They'll ask for your details and come and collect you. 

[Bigron]

Ah, that's more like what I expected! Welcome back....

Ron.

[Varche]

You have my sympathy.

We use Hotmail and have done so for years. It worked well until this recent "yet more integration". This time with Outlook. Took us ages to sort out.

 We have a googlemail account as a back up and for all those applications where you have to provide an email address e.g. free airport WiFi. It just fills up with mail 99% of which is irrelevant. Except since the end of July there is nothing going in. You send an email OK but it never appears!

[Bigron]

Nice to know that I'm not the only one, Mr. Varche!
The worst part about this situation is that all of my contacts and historic messages are now lost to me.
Hotmail's best suggestion was to create a new account, but that doesn't get my data back: what a shower of chocolate teapots they are!

Ron.

[zirk]

In the ideal world Ron you should be using a IMAP Account (most are now including Hotmail) then use a PC App like MS Outlook, Thunderbird etc (I personally use Thunderbird) to use and sync your Email on your PC, that way youve got a PC Back Up of your Emails if the Server goes down, lose the Account or they decide they dont wont to play anymore, and youve also got a Server Back Up should your PC Fall over etc. 

As an extra precaution I also set up a 2nd (only known to me) third party imap Server account which I use purely (in the Cloud) to automatically back up my first and Main Email Accounts, should either of the above suddenly happen, that way Im well and truly covered, I set this up years ago and I have old emial accounts from 25 years ago all backed up in the Cloud by using free and independent imap accounts. 

[Rods2]

Microsh*t user account interfaces are well known for being to most intrusive,unhelpful account systems on this planet, which may well have locked you out for 30 days. This started for me where it wouldn't let me log back in after a Skype update, saying I couldn't login with that email address as it was already in use. I entered an alternative, but included a typo. Fortunately, I was able to create a email mailbox account which included my typo or I would have been locked out for 30 days, unless I went through their human system which MIGHT reinstate access.

It might be worth considering a more user friendly alternative like Googlemail.

[Bigron]

Zirk and Rods2, I like whatn you say but that won't get my contacts and data back. I'll look at alternatives if and when I recover my account.
What's an IMAP account and how do I get one, please?

Ron.

[aaronjb]

Zirk and Rods2, I like whatn you say but that won't get my contacts and data back. I'll look at alternatives if and when I recover my account.
What's an IMAP account and how do I get one, please?

Ron.

IMAP is simply a mechanism through which you access an email server (like Hotmail, Gmail etc), it's not an "account" that you get somewhere.