Still got an email address from your internet provider?

[bitchstewie]

Might want to reconsider that.

Email charges: 'They've got you over a barrel'

[Dave.]

entitled throbber said:

"To change something I've been using for no end of different things... when you start looking at it, if you went through the whole lot of them, and I've looked at the logistics of changing my email address, it's not something I want to waste my time doing.

"The alternative is to pay £90 per year. I can afford to pay but I shouldn't have to pay and I don't want to pay."

[bitchstewie]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Personally I think that's pretty fair though I do think some of the charges mentioned are a piss take.

But a bit like super expensive insurance quotes they should also be a hint to people that they really don't want your custom.

[Dave.]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

[sociopath]

Entitled idiots complaining about having to pay for something entirely within their control to fix

[Doofus]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yes, a non story, heralded on here with a misleading thread title.

[Zirconia]

It is pain in the ass. Finding BT to be a pain on pricing but a lot of services rely on an email. Changing them is a sod as it is taking a while but BT forgot to mention to me my email would still work via the portal. It is a con.

Problem solved anyway. No email issues any more with BT and shortly no business either.

[Baldchap]

This has really annoyed me. fking entitled s.

If you want to use via app (because the mail via web interface is free), pay for it. If you don't want to pay, don't use it.

How can they have the audacity to complain that they are using a service but shouldn't have to pay for it?

Utter fking cretins. BT should just delete their fking mailboxes.

Aaaaannnnddd rant over. Calm.

[AlexC1981]

I can see their point of view. My email addresses are through Google and Microsoft and have been for ages. If they started charging £90 per year I would be annoyed too.

[Derek Smith]

I'm with BT. As the renewal date approached a few years ago I changed a lot of my email contacts to one provided by the host of my website. It took a fair amount of work. I got a reduction in my charge, but I doubt they bothered to check. Then my host started charging for email addresses and then I changed back again.

I have mirror addresses on Gmail accounts and if I choose to change broadband suppliers in the future, I'll migrate without problems, but I wonder if Google will eventually charge.

My BT contract runs out in five months. I'll negotiate and expect reduction or something in return for no reduction of charge. I'm after an increase of online storage of 2TB. If I get that with no reduction in price, I'll stay with them.

If they refuse, I'll be able to change all my contacts to Gmail within a couple of hours.

As others have said; it's a non-story. It's not beyond the wit of most people to change addresses.

[Zirconia]

Problem is many people are lured in with cheap deals etc., they are not IT boffins and why should they be. It is all advertised as simple to set up etc. You get into the flow of things using the address for banking and such then find out you could be on a loser.

Caught me out, but now I am shifting to a system I can hop providers and chase deals. Just taking time to sort out all the signed up for I want to keep.

[Sheepshanks]

I don't think it's the problem these old people think it is - everytime my FIL had trouble accessing his BT account (which was quite a lot) he'd set up a new one - he had multiple BT addresses, Apppel ones, Hotmail and Gmail.

Bit of confusion from people when he'd email them from yet another address but didn't seem to cause any lasting issues.

[ZesPak]

Most relatives I've known have had emails like that way back when, because it's something you've got with your provider.
The only "decent" free service was hotmail back then.

Over the years when helping them with various stuff like setting up tablets or phones I've moved all of them to gmail. That makes it very easy to sync contacts and calendar as well as setting up (virtually) unlimited email storage. As far as I could I pushed them on the web client, EM client is also very good imho.
That makes changing phones (iphone or android doesn't matter)/tablets/computers for the most part a doddle.

Important, if you do it in time you can use gmail to pull in the other account using pop3 so you can have an overlap. I do this for them, then give the ones that still come in through the old email a big red flag so they know which people/services are still sending to the old address. Makes moving immediate very easy.

[The Mad Monk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yes, I think you have summed it up.

Another BBC non-story.

"Oh dear! I am in a predicament and can't get out out!"

[Baldchap]

The Mad Monk said:

"Oh dear! I am in a predicament and can'trefuse to make the effort to get out!"

A mild edit for accuracy.

[B'stard Child]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

exactly

When I first got on line 30 years ago I had @hotmail address for use in internet cafes (everyone remembers them right?)

Then I got dial up with @freeserve and had an email with them as well as the @hotmail account

Then Broadband with BT and had plenty of time to transfer over to the @btinternet address plus stand by of original @hotmail account

When I left BT and went with @Sky same deal had plenty of time to migrate over plus stand by of original @hotmail account

The @hotmail account I have now killed (after 30years) and @gmail address is the stand by

sky currently don't charge if you leave and keep the address I'd probably still migrate to another as it's not hard and there are no guaruntees that sky won't charge in future

Plus it's housekeeping and reduces the level of spam you get when you change an email address (although probably not the topic for here gmail seems to be really good at spotting spam.....)

[ging84]

Picture they choose for this story says it all really

[bitchstewie]

ging84 said:

Picture they choose for this story says it all really

I'm 50/50 on that one.

I do take the point.

But rightly or wrongly if you have a bunch of elderly who are probably not the best with technology so are the most unlikely to know what's involved with changing email address everywhere they use it is it really just business if you charge a rate well above what commercial email services charge knowing full well it's too much hassle to move or many just aren't capable?

I'm thinking what would my mum do right now if an email landed saying "Sorry but outlook.com are charging £7/month for your email address from now on".

She'd call me but if that wasn't an option who knows?

[The_Nugget]

“To change something I've been using for no end of different things... when you start looking at it, if you went through the whole lot of them, and I've looked at the logistics of changing my email address, it's not something I want to waste my time doing.
"The alternative is to pay £90 per year. I can afford to pay but I shouldn't have to pay and I don't want to pay."
BT says it offers a free service for people to access their old email address - but that has to be done by logging on via a web browser which doesn't allow people to get emails via apps on their mobile phones.
That free, web browser-only service is also not something that appeals to Mr Stuart.
"I just want to be able to use my email account as I have done for years and years."

I just want to use the service for free and CBA to change it. I mean...what a plank!

[The_Nugget]

Christine Clement says she's been with other broadband providers for years but is still paying BT for an email address she first started using around the year 2000.
"I fail to see what service I get for paying £7.50 per month.”

an email address with free storage apparently...what a bunch! Christine would have to change it in 40 places OH MY GOD, the horror.