Looking for a "customer email management system" similar to MailTank to deal with support emails. MailTank seemed perfect but it was a bit expensive. I tested the Email Center Pro also but thought it was too messy.
Is there something that is simple, cheap, handles 3-5 users and to assign emails and conversations to a particular user?
We use FogBugz for this kind of thing, I suspect Joel will be on in a moment to big up his product too!
They have a hosted solution which is very low friction or you can host it yourself. Pricing wise it's a shade more than Mailtank, which I know you say is too expensive.
However feature wise it's excellent value for money.
We've found it to be very effective.
There is also this existing question which may be useful to you.
Why deal with the hassle of email? Go with something like ResponseQue.com You can manage your incoming questions better and no need to worry about all the junk that comes with email based customer service software.
EnvelopeHD provides a web UI to help a team co-ordinate replying to customer emails.