BT seem to be ditching their email customers during switch to EE brand

I struggle to feel sorry for anyone who has become dependant on an ISP provided email address.

Tim

Because for those that do, which I suspect is quite a few, it is the easiest original plug'n'play solution. Extricating and trying to update everyone who uses it to contact you is not without errors and omissions.

Once you no longer have access to the original email it is nigh on impossible to change it.

Nonetheless some of us have had btinternet addresses since the days of dial-up and that's a lot of people who will have those details in their address books even if I've not communicated with them for a year or three.

If they are to be removed it is petty as it would be fairly trivial for there to be a seamless transition. Not that many running these organisations understand IT or their customers nowadays. Bean counters rule.

Back when I joined the internet, with Virgin, the likes of Gmail and other free email providers did not exist. When I left Virgin and joined Plusnet, my Virgin account remained active and I could receive emails on it for a couple of decades. But I knew it was doomed and would die one day when they realised that I was no longer dialling in (remember dial-up internet?) and didn't have an ADSL account with them.

Sadly when they eventually pulled the plug on it, they didn't give me any warning. I had to work out who I'd given the email to, by looking back over saved emails, and which companies I'd used it as a user ID.

I managed it. I think the only place where I was caught in a deadly embrace was Dropbox, where I needed to be able to receive the "change" email on the old Virgin address in order to update it to a new GMail address. So I had to take out a brand new account with Dropbox. Everywhere else would send a security token to the mobile phone number that I'd registered with them, but not Dropbox - maybe I'd never given my mobile number to them. And like all the "best" (irony!) companies, everything is automatic and you can't get to speak to or email a human being.

Sadly there are some companies which will not accept GMail and other free, ISP-independent email addresses "for security reasons" which is a bummer. At least when we took out web-hosting space, that came with "free" email accounts (at no extra charge other than the hosting charge) so there are always those if Plusnet ever pull the plug on their email accounts.

I ran my old ISP email in parallel with my own domain email for a number of years, until I was sure that nothing important was still on the old address.

I had an snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com email address for quite a while, but then moved to a different ISP in 2003. That BT email address carried on working until last year, when they finally pulled the plug.

I made a point of backing up all those emails, so I haven't lost anything.

I think they're quite important actually, as they're the place most normal users can get support with their email. Sure you can get a free gmail, but good luck with Google phone support. And getting your own paid email isn't something many people know about.

So for many people an ISP address is the best option for them.

Theo

BT are still offering me new 24 month contracts, still offering to take on new customers. However, EE are now offering 'Fibre 67 essentials' for less than 'Fibre 50 Essentials' and less than BT Fibre 1.

BT email basic; web only, but at least the email adrress will work.

Unfortunately it's happened before with previous names, Orange then T-Mobile

The vibe seemed to be move now if you want, and if you don't them we will move you anyway.

She did say that email and cloud services will cease when you move (and so by implication) when they move you.

Well at least that is better than having the rug pulled from under your feet totally. But between my wife and me I've ended up with about 7 addresses. There was a time you could create a new address when using a different dial-in number, and then aliases were allowed later on.

It has already. BT has never done email. In the late 90s, their

A year or two ago, MS stopped POP and IMAP access to btconnect.com addresses. You either used webmail and had no real means of archiving (business emails are legal documents which must be kept for at least seven years) or paid extra (£15 a month, I think) for an Exchange account with which you needed to use Outlook.

I have had three client who I advised against using BT for internet and email, all three did so anyway, all three had entirely avoidable problems with BT.

Agreed, the exception to the rule was Orange who allowed their email service to continue. I felt they were also more likely to have customer return after not pissing them off.

It can also be a supplier's Achilles heel. When TalkTalk closed my account, together with access to 2 years bills I requested access to my account as per original claim when I started, or a paper copy of each bill as an alternative. Their solution was to send 3 lots of thick A4 envelopes of those bills.

I pay BT each month for the use of my old email addresses. Hopefully that facility will remain.

Cheers

Dave R

Zen no longer offer email (from a couple of years ago) for new customers but old customers can still use Zen for sending and receiving - but I don't know for how much longer.

I still have a few places where my zen email address is used but most (all) my important contacts are using my domain address and for some of the trivial stuff a gmail address.

It is a general trend with ISPs - the "bundle" of services they offer alongside broadband seems to be getting aggressively pruned back. Presumably since they are cost centres and add additional tech support load. They are also competing with lots of "wires only" style deals.

I got my snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com address back in 1997. And it's still "live" with a few legacy services I never use.

My main one is now snipped-for-privacy@firstnamelastname.com - which is a clear signal to recruiters I can setup my own email.

Annoyingly I set SWMBO up with snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com which means her iPad has to rely on Outlook and MS "focussing" of inboxes and it's rather idiosyncratic spam filters.

I recently acquired "the<lastnames>.com" which means over time I will switch us both to snipped-for-privacy@lastnames.com and snipped-for-privacy@lastnames.com

It helps having a rather uncommon surname :)

what happens when that provider is taken over by the accountants and your email facility goes phut ?

Are you serious about using hotmail ??. I suspect more hotmail users have been successfully targetted by spammers then any other email provider.

Surely that has to be google mail