BT Email - Again!

[XFool]

"BT hikes the cost of holding on to their email address to £7.50 A MONTH for former customers"

This is Money

Hah! Well out of it. It was once "Free"; it went to "£1.50pm" - To much squealing and an alleged compromise; then to £5pm - that was it for me!; now it's going to £7.50pm. They are trying to get rid of them, surely? Though when I say "out of it"...

But let's leave it there, as that saga (Talk21) is surely now the UK Internet equivalent of the Schleswig-Holstein Question?

Perhaps, if I keep quiet they won't notice me...

[Devjon]

I moved away from BT for Broadband and home phone several years ago. I already had a Gmail address and switched to using that for my regular correspondence when BT said that they were going to start charging for Email.
Of course, all these years later my BT Email address is still working perfectly and I haven't paid them a penny.

BT Email accounts are a complete dogs breakfast, with some accounts being Yahoo, I think that over the years and with all the reorganisations BT aren't really sure what is what, and they don't want to start switching some account off in case it breaks stuff elsewhere.

[Infrasonic]

I left BT four years ago and my BT Yahoo address is still accessible, I just use it for newsletters, nothing else.
Never paid anything.

[XFool]

I moved away from BT for Broadband and home phone several years ago. I already had a Gmail address and switched to using that for my regular correspondence when BT said that they were going to start charging for Email.
Of course, all these years later my BT Email address is still working perfectly and I haven't paid them a penny.

I got into an argument with them (which I won) after the earlier price increase and their following cock-up, leaving me with a still working email account and no payments. I don't actually use it, other than indirectly or to manage it (it still has redirection in place and keeps copies of any stray incoming), as I don't know the ambiguous legal situation... A shame as it still has my (home) original and desired email address.

BT Email accounts are a complete dogs breakfast, with some accounts being Yahoo, I think that over the years and with all the reorganisations BT aren't really sure what is what, and they don't want to start switching some account off in case it breaks stuff elsewhere.

Mine is still Yahoo, even after BT's compromise over the original fee was "OK. We will be moving you to BT's in house Email, but will waive the charge for the first year." They waived the charge for one year but I'm still on BT Yahoo years later, as are others.

[stewamax]

“Go to one supplier for your email, broadband, landline phone, mobile phone, TV entertainment streaming, electricity, gas, banking, ,…”

Well … I might save a few ££ in the very short term but at the expense of a lot of pain when one or more of the services becomes substandard or overpriced.
I was a long-term customer of a large broadband / email / webspace provider. When their service became both poor and expensive it took me over a year to move elsewhere as the domain names of the many business websites were also used by the email service they employed, so moving bit by bit without any down-time was a nightmare. Phone line, mobile, broadband, webspace, email, and domain name services (DNS hosting) are now all separate.

The surprise: when I totted up the annual running cost*, I saved money! – even with the initial cost of broadband transition. And I have a far more reliable and more responsive service.

Whether this would apply to the savings from full quad-play I don’t know since I am into neither sport nor films, but my message is simply that the more eggs there are in one basket, the harder it may become to remove one egg!


* and even factored out any new customer promotional prices

Moderator Message:
This appears to be off-topic. Have asked poster for clarification (chas49)

[Breelander]

BT Email accounts are a complete dogs breakfast, with some accounts being Yahoo, I think that over the years and with all the reorganisations BT aren't really sure what is what...

..."OK. We will be moving you to BT's in house Email...

Some history for those not familiar with BT Mail...

Originally everyone was on BT Yahoo Mail. The in-house BT Mail was BT's response to Yahoo's poor security and a spate of hacking attacks. The original plan was to migrate everyone in-house.

The response of those moved to BT Mail was overwhelmingly negative. The response of Yahoo was to beef up security (like switching to https, *Doh!*). BT seem to have been taken aback by the poor reception of their own offering and quietly dropped the rest of their migration plans.

[XFool]

The response of those moved to BT Mail was overwhelmingly negative. The response of Yahoo was to beef up security (like switching to https, *Doh!*). BT seem to have been taken aback by the poor reception of their own offering and quietly dropped the rest of their migration plans.

But still went on to charge £1.60pm for the otherwise (and formerly) free Yahoo email service. And then had the gall, when later increasing it to £5 pm (still on Yahoo), to claim: "We recently improved your email service!"

[Breelander]

...still went on to charge £1.60pm for the otherwise (and formerly) free Yahoo email service. And then had the gall, when later increasing it to £5 pm (still on Yahoo), to claim: "We recently improved your email service!"

Just so it's clear for others, you are talking about a charge for retaining your email address after leaving BT.

There's no charge for a BT customer - and apparently it's beyond BT's ability/competence to close a BT Yahoo Mail account after you leave, even if you don't pay the charge

[XFool]

Just so it's clear for others, you are talking about a charge for retaining your email address after leaving BT.

There's no charge for a BT customer - and apparently it's beyond BT's ability/competence to close a BT Yahoo Mail account after you leave, even if you don't pay the charge

I assume BT must still pay Yahoo for BT branded Yahoo services? In which case, over time, as more people leave BT (despite newcomers), there will be more and more non-paying ex BT Yahoo 'customers'. So at some point in the future BT must have to do something about it? Perhaps this is even why the cost keeps rising?

Perhaps somebody should approach BT with a proposal to set up in business as Talk21 and take us all off BT Yahoo's books! 'Dot Com' revisited...

[Breelander]

I assume BT must still pay Yahoo for BT branded Yahoo services?

It's not clear, Yahoo Mail (from Yahoo itself, not rebranded by the likes of BT or Sky) is free. There is a Yahoo Mail Pro you can pay for if you don't want to see adverts, but the BT-branded one uses the 'free' type. If Yahoo charge BT for the rebranding, it may be just a flat fee rather than a 'per account' one.

[supremetwo]

Just so it's clear for others, you are talking about a charge for retaining your email address after leaving BT.

There's no charge for a BT customer - and apparently it's beyond BT's ability/competence to close a BT Yahoo Mail account after you leave, even if you don't pay the charge

I just checked my old BT ISP email xxx@btinternet.com and the BT Yahoo account is still working after many years of non-use.

There was an old warning email "Last chance to keep your email address - We need to hear from you by 14 April 2014".

[stewamax]

As I remember it, BT planned to move all their @btinternet Yahoo email customers to a "BT Mail" white-labelled service provided from California by Critical Path (a subsidiary of Openwave Messaging), and their @btconnect business customers to Microsoft O365 email.

BT and Critical Path were then investigated by the UK Information Commissioner's Office in the light of an alleged huge security breach in the transitional connection between Yahoo and Critical Path that freely exposed user credentials.

[XFool]

I assume BT must still pay Yahoo for BT branded Yahoo services?

It's not clear, Yahoo Mail (from Yahoo itself, not rebranded by the likes of BT or Sky) is free. There is a Yahoo Mail Pro you can pay for if you don't want to see adverts, but the BT-branded one uses the 'free' type.

That's weird... I just logged in, with my BT Yahoo credentials! They wanted me to pay:

ORDER SUMMARY
Yahoo Mail Pro £2.69
VAT £0.53
TOTAL £3.22

So I logged out again.

But maybe it's worth following up... It's cheaper than the BT Yahoo option and I want an 'ISP independent' email account - assuming it isn't BT Yahoo, but how can it not be if I can log in with my (treasured) BT Yahoo/Talk21 account details? Now I'm even more confused - if that's possible.

Could this be the answer to my prayers? - "How can I get to use my Talk21 email address without having to deal with BT?"

Breelander, how do you know all these things?

[XFool]

As I remember it, BT planned to move all their @btinternet Yahoo email customers to a "BT Mail" white-labelled service provided from California by Critical Path (a subsidiary of Openwave Messaging), and their @btconnect business customers to Microsoft O365 email.

BT and Critical Path were then investigated by the UK Information Commissioner's Office in the light of an alleged huge security breach in the transitional connection between Yahoo and Critical Path that freely exposed user credentials.

Hah! I remember when the original(?) BT owned Talk21 addresses were moved over to BT Yahoo. I told admin I was seeing other people's account details on my then Win 95 PC.

[Breelander]

Breelander, how do you know all these things?

Before I signed up for BT Broadband I used A 4G PAYG dongle, so to get email I registered for the free Yahoo Mail directly with Yahoo. The Pro version of Yahoo Mail has always been available (at a price) and Yahoo would occasionally suggest I might like to try it (an offer I politely declined ).

When I switched to BT Broadband I got a separate BT-Branded Yahoo Mail. I continued to use my free 'plain-vanilla' Yahoo Mail, with my BT Yahoo Mail set up to forward received mail to my Yahoo Mail. BT threatened to (but never got round to) migrate me to the in-house BT Mail, so I still have both flavours of Yahoo Mail.

Apparently those who left BT and did nothing about trying to keep their email address find the BT Yahoo Mail still works. It's when you asked to keep your address that you got conned into paying for the upgrade to a Pro version of BT Yahoo Mail, which seems to be what they are charging you for. Never having left BT I've not been asked to upgrade.

[stewamax]

BT hikes the cost of holding on to their email address to £7.50 A MONTH for former customers

Sounds more like holding to ransom...

Just goes to show the wisdom of having your own domain name and linking it to your choice of email service provider.
MSFT O365 email is £4.56 pm in VAT (or £11.28 if you want all the Office apps as well, including Outlook).
GMail for Business pricing is similar.
Both allow use of your own domain name/s.

[mc2fool]

I just checked my old BT ISP email xxx@btinternet.com and the BT Yahoo account is still working after many years of non-use.

There was an old warning email "Last chance to keep your email address - We need to hear from you by 14 April 2014".

Ditto, although I still use it once in a blue moon, just as a test account.

I ignored that email then 'cos I didn't care if I kept the address or not, as it was only in use as a test account then too, and I certainly wasn't going to pay for an address I didn't care about, so I figured, fine, I'll just leave it for them to delete, but they never did....

[XFool]

Apparently those who left BT and did nothing about trying to keep their email address find the BT Yahoo Mail still works. It's when you asked to keep your address that you got conned into paying for the upgrade to a Pro version of BT Yahoo Mail, which seems to be what they are charging you for.

I remember some upgrade to a newer Yahoo Mail version, from simple Yahoo Email, which was voluntary, it went OK, and wasn't at the time charged for. The (non) transition to the in-house BT email system, which I think they proposed charging (£1.60 pm?) for, or was that charge for ex BT? - was still the old BT Yahoo branded mail, which it still is AFAIACS. It obviously works (but I don't use in as such - don't want to be pursued by BT) as a web email client, but I always used POP3 and don't know if that would work if I tried it now on BT Yahoo. I seem to remember that from the so called in-house changeover, I had to change the email clients settings to a BT email server. Whether incoming or outgoing I can't remember. Online, I believe I may have later reverted to the simpler Yahoo Email version as it ran so much faster on my then browser and system.

Also, it looked like the Talk21 address was simply an alias to the 'proper' BT account email address.

The strange thing now is, if I log on to Yahoo Pro - but not fully log on without paying! - it does not at that point have any sign of BT branding, just Yahoo and presumably I can set up Yahoo POP3 services. If so it would seem to have nothing to do with BT, yet I would still be using my BT/Talk21 account details on Yahoo Pro. BUT, if I can do that, why can I not use the same account details on normal Free Yahoo with POP3? If you can have POP3 for free on normal Yahoo Email, it would seem to likely partially defeat there presumed business model.

I have never had an independent Yahoo account.

[cloedan]

just moved from BT to virgin media but kept my BT email I can move my email over to virgin but what do I need to do to close BT kind regards cloedan

[XFool]

just moved from BT to virgin media but kept my BT email I can move my email over to virgin but what do I need to do to close BT kind regards cloedan

Hah! Nobody knows. It's the old: "You can check out any time you like. But you can never leave!" scenario.

At least it is if we are talking about BT Yahoo Mail, which possibly you might not be. If it is BT Yahoo, have you set up a Redirect to your new email address? If so, the Yahoo system uses a Store & Forward system rather than pure Redirect. So copies of any mail redirected are kept in your Inbox. That's why I still log on periodically to delete/manage copies of these strays.

One thing about Yahoo Mail, it's quite difficult to lose messages. Copies of any redirected emails are stored by Yahoo and, when I used a POP3 client for my BT Yahoo email, I also found the 'popped' emails still in my Yahoo account, copied to the Waste Bin; another reason I logged on periodically to manage the online account.