In reply to a post by MHC:

And depending on which version of Outlook it also allows you to set both Start and End dates so that it turns itself off automatically.

Good

Yep, 2010 definitely does. And OoO messages predate Outlook from what I remember - so not an MS thing but an "industry standard". Outlook also allows you to set different message for internal and external recipients (or in my case they are disabled for externals as I generally don't want to advertise to random people who might send me email that I have gone on holiday!).

They reply to me after 23 days waiting!

Think you're seeing this as the wrong way.

This is basically a lazy way of saying "Yes, we have got your e-mail and we will reply to your e-mail within xx working days.

They leave their OoO enabled at all the time so whoever emails at any time to this mailbox will get the OoO reply to let you know that they have got your e-mail.

You can set it to reply to only people in your address book, and have separate messages for internal and external addresses. It will also only send the message once to each address.

Indeed. But I don't use my address book much

In reply to a post by ian72:

And OoO messages predate Outlook from what I remember - so not an MS thing but an "industry standard".

Unix or VMS program called "vacation" I seem to recall

What I failed to mention was that two previous emails to them on 12th Sep and 22nd Sep were not responded to in any way. No "Out of Office" just ignored. The "Out of Office" reply was the first response I had had, hence the post re. odd office hours.

".....there should be no surprise they do not deal with consumer stuff very well. "

Shocking! So is there a department with an email address staffed with people who can and will deal appropriately with the people who's custom helps contribute to their salaries or do we just suck it up and accept we are dealing with a virtual monopoly?

I think nga is no longer to reply to customer now.