"Warning: This consumer reports bad shopping experiences to ConsumerAffairs.com" reads the appendage on every piece of e-mail generated by the system.
"We hope consumers will use this free service for their everyday correspondence, but especially when they are trying to get action out of someone who's done them wrong," Hood said.
The free version of the e-mail is supported by advertising but consumers who want no ads, more storage space, virus and spyware protection and other advanced services can upgrade to packages priced at $2.04 and $4.16 per month.
"It's a good idea for consumers to have at least one Web-based e-mail account," Hood said. "They can check their mail from anywhere they happen to be and they're not dependent on their employer or Internet Service Provider for their e-mail address."
Also, Hood said, consumers can have a "public" e-mail address that they use in Web forums and when signing up for newsletters and other subscription services and another "private" email that they provide only to friends and family.
The new Web mail service, operated by Everyone.net, provides e-mail addresses ending with "consumeraffairs.org." Hood said it is the first step in a Web-based, grass-roots consumer community that will work to educate and empower consumers.
ConsumerAffairs.Org, incorporated as a not-for-profit Virginia corporation, is also producing the first of a series of consumer education videos that will be available later this year as streaming video and on DVD.
About ConsumerAffairs.com
ConsumerAffairs.com, established in 1998, is one of the Web's largest consumer news and resource sites. Its award-winning journalists cover automotive, financial, health, homeowners and travel news and compile safety recall notices. The site also publishes tens of thousands of consumer comments on every imaginable product and service. It is based in Santa Monica, California, and also maintains a news bureau in the Washington, D.C. area.
About Everyone.net
Based in San Jose, California, Everyone.net offers highly reliable, secure, hosted email solutions for businesses, service providers, and individuals.The company's mission is to provide the advantages of carrier-class email without the expense or complexity, thus enabling customers to focus on what they do best. The company's fully customizable email solutions are built on a highly scalable infrastructure, and include advanced services such as IMAP and push email as well as anti-spam and virus protection. Having provisioned over 30 million mailboxes for over 300,000 domains, Everyone.net has been reliably delivering email solutions around the world since 1998.
