BT Premium mail

[mopardave]

I've ditched my BT internet package because the service was poor.....and the customer service even worse! I've been a BT shareholder for years so I tried to be loyal to them......but I just can't take another fractured conversation with a foreign call centre. Shame is, I wanted to keep my BT email address and convert to premium mail for £5 per month.......oh my god, I don't know how many hours of my life I've wasted on this! If anyone is thinking of getting premium mail.......good luck......you'll have to deal with some right cretins first! Rant over!
MD

 

[GoatBoater]

What in earth is premium email? BT have one of the worse email services of any large ISP. Premium for them could start with not ignoring established email protocol and blocking email delivery without sending notification. I use BT for my home connection, for which they are adequate. (and most importantly, not Virgin). I wouldn't let them anywhere near my email though.

I administered business hosting and email for 2 decades. My advice to most people these days is to register their own domain and run the email through Gmail. Total cost will be about £5 per year and it's pretty much bombproof.

 

[mopardave]

Thanks GB.......in a nutshell, premium mail is for people who've left BT internet but want to retain their BT email address. Until fairly recently it was free.......but BT being BT, thought they'd charge for the privilege of having a BT email address!! I should have left them years ago but, like I said, I'm a BT shareholder so felt a bit of loyalty....what a mug! They really are the pits!! Is there any way I can import all my emails into gmail?

What in earth is premium email? BT have one of the worse email services of any large ISP. Premium for them could start with not ignoring established email protocol and blocking email delivery without sending notification. I use BT for my home connection, for which they are adequate. (and most importantly, not Virgin). I wouldn't let them anywhere near my email though.

I administered business hosting and email for 2 decades. My advice to most people these days is to register their own domain and run the email through Gmail. Total cost will be about £5 per year and it's pretty much bombproof.

ress

 

[GoatBoater]

Yes - you can import. Getting them out depends a little on how you had your BT mail set-up. It's a little different depending on whether you had it running as pop3 (mail downloaded onto your computer via outlook or similar) or IMAP (mail sits on the server). IMAP is easier, but both are possible as long as you know which have at the start!

Thanks GB.......in a nutshell, premium mail is for people who've left BT internet but want to retain their BT email address

Bastards. This is why you never use the email address the ISP gives you - hence me suggesting having your own domain. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

[PukkaT6]

Gmail is perfectly fine and tbh my hotmail accounts seem to do a job - although totally filled with spam as I use them when signing up to things.

 

[Pauly]

FWIW @btinternet.com is the only English domain we regularly have issues sending forum email to and yes you guessed it no failure notifications.
90-95% of all people who contact us regards not receiving their verification email when signing up to the forum are BT email users

We also pay Google to host our email for the forum, best few quid a month we spend, rock solid always works and you know there's a team of people keeping you off the blacklists

 

[DaveBos]

I use gmail, but on another note, I was with Tiscali(now talk talk) for years and last year changed to EE fibre and I am still able to access my tiscali mail.

 

[Davenjo]

I went through the same with BT last year after moving to Virgin (after being a loyal BT customer for ever) - by the time I got around to trying to set up premium mail and was able to talk to someone in India I was told I was too late and my account had already been flagged for deletion - thought I had 90 days but apparently it was only 30 - instant panic to move everything over but, 12 months later, my BT email account is still active without paying the £5 per month I had built into my switching decision!

I would have considered a move back to BT when my Virgin commitment expires but after the £30 penalty I was charged for leaving BT Infinity, after being one of the first to take it up and years out of any contractual commitment, I now despise the company and will never go back!!

Rant over!

 

[GoatBoater]

FWIW @btinternet.com is the only English domain we regularly have issues sending forum email to and yes you guessed it no failure notifications.
90-95% of all people who contact us regards not receiving their verification email when signing up to the forum are BT email users

We also pay Google to host our email for the forum, best few quid a month we spend, rock solid always works and you know there's a team of people keeping you off the blacklists

BT have a horrendous system of grey listing and blocking mail. They completely ignore the normal protocols of email. In my mind, what they offer their customers is not even email as it does not function as email is supposed to.

Website registration emails are a huge issue (online store order confirmations too). It's been going on for over a decade that I remember and they seem happier to secretly screw their users rather than invest in providing an adequate service. Shame, because they've improved a lot in other areas.

When I used to run forums we used to throw up warnings to BT users and urge them to use different addresses or manually email to register. Dumb.

 

[mopardave]

Those bloody Indian call centres drive me mad! I asked to be put through to a UK call centre to make a complaint....they said they wouldn't because I wasn't a customer.......I nearly blew a gasket!

 

[DaveBos]

Tried getting the broadband fixed with Talk Talk, got through to the Indian call centre on the landline, he said I needed to put the phone down and he would call me back on my mobile while he tested the line because I needed to tell him what the lights were doing on the router, I said I didn't have signal on my mobile at home. He hung up
and must have tried phoning me as I got a voice mail the next morning. This happened three times and eventually someone turned up and fixed the line.

 

[mopardave]

I'm so pissed off with BT......can I export my emails to gmail? I just don't want to lose my emails.......should have ditched them years ago! Another reason I'm persevering with the bt email address is because I may get an offer of employment in the next couple of months......long story, but I daren't change email address just yet as I don't want to miss anything!

 

[DaveyB]

I have BT broadband (and email). Only choice as I HAVE to be able to get my MotoGP fix and BT Sport are the only viewing platform I've found.

 

[Pauly]

BT sport is free on virgin !
At our house virgin = 150 meg
BT = 0.8 meg (yes really) can't even watch YouTube

 

[DaveyB]

No Virgin cables around here.

 

[Richard]

I don't know whether Zen Internet provides the services that you are looking for - I have had just email with them for some years now. Although small, they have always had a good reputation and are a Which? Recommended Provider [1]. On the two occasions that I have needed help, they have been excellent. Both times, it turned out to be BT's failings. A firm that is happy to have one month contracts must be pretty certain that their service is so good that you won't leave. It's only firms whose service is rubbish that require one to be tied to them for 12 or 24 months - or even longer.

[1] Zen Internet broadband review - Which?

 

[GoatBoater]

I have BT broadband (and email). Only choice as I HAVE to be able to get my MotoGP fix and BT Sport are the only viewing platform I've found.

You can (and should!) use email from another provider. I've spent decades encouraging people to unhook their email address so that you can change ISP without losing your email. ISPs love people using their @bt / @virgin email addresses as it makes it harder for the customer to move away when they inevitably provide bad service.

I have my personal email on my own domain (£5/year). I currently forward that to gmail as it is the best mail service (and free), but can move that it I want. I use BT and O2 as ISPs, but have used many others over the years without losing that email address.

 

[mhill]

We also pay Google to host our email for the forum, best few quid a month we spend, rock solid always works and you know there's a team of people keeping you off the blacklists

Run multiple business email accounts through G Suite its not cheep but it’s worth every penny. Any issues and you get great support from people who speak English as a first language and really want to help.

 

[Pauly]

Run multiple business email accounts through G Suite its not cheep but it’s worth every penny. Any issues and you get great support from people who speak English as a first language and really want to help.

Absolutely agree, we only run the main forum email account through G suite so it's only a few quid a month but for the volumes we send it's worth every penny