Customers please read the letter below fully. Thank you.
Bayou Email Service is $10 per month per mailbox.
There is a 1 year term on the service.
To sign up please use the contact form and we will get you an account made.
Letter from Jerry 5-28-25
Greetings holders of Bayou email addresses:
All has been flowing pretty well with Bayou email this quarter.
About a third of people have paid annually which makes billing just that much easier.
On the down side Microsoft is eating me alive with these new taxes.
Yes, this means that we will have to pay taxes.
There will be a bit of taxes to catch up on - $3.18 - but for time being we remain at $10 per month per account. For this quarter the price is $30 for 3 months, plus $3.18 in back taxes we have to pay, plus taxes now at almost 11%. So $33.18 plus tax for the next 3 months.
I have turned tax on in the QuickBooks Online configuration. We shall see how it goes.
Another problem has crept up with Microsoft. When I have people pay annually I like to pay MS annually for those licenses. After a bit into last quarter I did a conversion of about 12 accounts from monthly paying to annual paying. I did this with Microsoft on the phone with me. I increased the count of annual licenses and decreased the count of monthly paid licenses. Since I did not see the decrease immediately the MS support tech said it would be at the end of this month cycle. Well guess what happened.
Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom decided that I cannot decrease the license count until contract renewal in December. In other words, they’ll take the annual money but greedily keep the revenue from the monthly for the same licenses going. Ya me. I get to pay for 12 unused licenses.
If you know anyone looking for a good email service please send them Bayou’s way. I have the extra licenses to use.
Invoices should go out first week of June for Jul - Sept, 2025. Please pay electronically. You can enter credit card or ACH credentials and have them saved, including turning on auto pay. Just click the link in the invoice email that says Review and Pay.
Letter from Jerry 3-11-25
As another quarter rolls around so does another billing cycle. Current pricing is $10 a month paid quarterly or $120 for annual service. The term runs from January through December. We are coming up on quarter #2. If you wish to pay for the rest of the year ($10 x 9 months = $90.00) let me know. I will edit your invoice and resend then move you to the annual billing list.
Please look for invoices in your email and pay as soon as practical. There should be a review and pay link on the invoice email.
I am not as creative as I used to be so my writing may be coming off as blunt. Trust me. The older I get the more I bitch and whine.
Updates:
Quickbooks continues to ding us, raising pricing by $30 more dollars making our monthly charge from QB $260. This does not include credit card or ACH fees. QB locks out a feature that I need to bill properly of which it is in their premium category therefore increasing costs enormously and profits to QB even more.
The state of Louisiana passed a tax increase on us and also added in a new digital products sales tax. I have called the tax department 4 times with just going to voicemail and not getting a return phone call. I do not have the answer as to whether email “service” is a digital “product.” Service and tangible products are two separate things. My small company is not set up to collect sales taxes. Without talking to them I cannot assess and set up properly. Please note if I have to collect taxes I will have to back bill (it’s not that much.) Please remember when these charges of 11% ish start appearing on bills it is not me it is the state.
As for number of accounts, we have 225 email accounts and 3 Microsoft 365 Business Basic licensed accounts. All these are in same boat as us .. wanting to keep our long standing bayou.com email address. If others need reliable email they are welcome to join in. Businesses too.
Not including bill phone calls I receive requests for tech support for configuration of the email accounts. Please be thoughtful and follow these rules for help.
If you have a question, password change, need tech help please email your request in to jerry@bayou.com.
You may fill out the contact form on the website, bayou.com
If you can do neither of those then you may text me at 318-599-9621, the Scroggin Networks LLC business line.
I need info to take action:
Include Account name, bayou email address you need help with, your contact information such as a working email address if you can not get into your bayou address, and a phone number plus all the details of what your need is.
As you can see with all the expenses I cannot hire a tech to do this. Due to running my other interests (I have to eat!) my time is limited.
If you are not very technical or lost in the process, rather than calling me first for help see if there is a more technical person in your household or a computer store near by. This will provide you with the great speed to resolution.
If you do need to contact me and I have to spend an hour on the phone with you helping you configure your new phone or iPad or laptop I am forced to charge you my hourly rate. The first 10 to 15 minutes I usually do not charge for. Beyond that I do. Sometimes it only takes ME a few minutes to get your phone or tablet or laptop email working. You may request an appointment to come by my office and have me configure your device. The same time constraints and charges apply. Sometimes I even take a tip! LOL
Please retain your password on your on. I cannot see passwords after they are assigned out. Your option is for me to reset the password if you cannot do it on your own. When I reset I will change the pw and get it to you. The system will prompt you to further change your password.
I am going to try to write some brief instructions to post on the website. There are some already there.
A note on phone calls .. Without caller ID I do not know whom is on the other end. With all the spam calls that come to my phone without Caller ID I do not know, assume it is spam and not answer. Usually this is not a problem for businesses contacting me as they will have caller id. Most cell phone service, however does not have that feature. The above methods are a much better alternative.
Finally, I apologize if I have missed someone that needed help. It is not intentional as I realize we are mostly an older bayou account holder and techie things may not come as easy as we all would like. I don’t like leaving someone out there dazed and confused, not knowing what to do or where to turn to. Let’s work to streamline the process so I can be a bit more efficient.
Anyone want to intern at billing time? Lol
Letter from Jerry re Renewals 12-4-24
Hello everyone!
My how time flies. Bayou.com and WNoline.com email service has rolled through 2024. We have a new year coming up and as such we must make decisions and prepare.
Costs, as they did for everyone, have increased. QuickBooks raised my monthly fees in unbelievable fashion. Email accounts not being paid for by people that signed up, then walked away from their agreement. (Only about 25 total. But I had to pay for those mailboxes for the whole year out of my pocket. Boo Hiss – Poor me. Lol)
Regardless we adjust and go on with life.
Costs:
Here is what the pricing going forward will be to account for the increase in expenses
A single mailbox will be $10.00 a month (about a .50 cent increase to help with the added expenses.) I am hoping this will be the last increase for a long while.
Annual Payment will be $120 and this will be preferred.
Quarterly payments will be $30 instead of $28.50.
Term:
Each mailbox is on a 1 year term 1/1/25 - 12/31/25 regardless if you pay annually or quarterly.
I NEED TO KNOW ASAP if you wish to deviate in any way from this time table. Otherwise continued use of the account serves as your agreement.
Additional Services:
I have had requests for more services than just email only (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, etc.) I can accommodate with a small additional service fee. If you have your own domain that you would also like to use I can accommodate that too.
We can also accommodate additional accounts. Friends .. Businesses that need professional email services .. well send em this way.
Tech Support:
My responsibility is to keep the system up and working up to and including your mailbox. If it is broke I will see to getting it fixed. If it is broke in your email configuration that is an additional cost for phone support. If you have 5 different devices that you want email on I can accommodate but with additional cost. I do my best to answer each and every question but it is difficult without funds to hire support personnel.
Phones:
318-599-9621 is my phone number to use to contact me. You may also text me as there are fewer of those and I can see whether it is real or spam much faster.
A note on spam: I get so many spam calls on my cell now (both personal line and business line) that I cannot keep up. Without CallerID I cannot tell whether it is a customer or just more spam.
You may also email me at info@bayou.com.
Payments:
Please email letting me know if you wish to be billed for the whole year up front, otherwise unless you have previously stated you will be billed quarterly.
Use the email invoice sent with the Review and Pay button to pay for the services. (Checks are still manual labor but accepted if necessary for you to pay that way.) You can store you credit card or bank account to quickly pay your bill at that same Pay button. This information is processed and / or stored by Intuit not by Scroggin Networks LLC. I cannot see anyone's banking information.
Bills will go out shortly so if you are annual please let me know soon.
Have a great holiday season.
Thank you.
Jerry Scroggin, Owner
Scroggin Networks LLC
318-599-9621