topic Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years in Plusnet Feedback

Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Garnet — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:55:38 GMT

About 20 years ago I signed up with Plusnet because I'd been working alongside computer security professionals and it was what they used and recommended. Since then I rarely had a problem and I often recommended Plusnet to other people. But things began to get flakey in the last 2 years and now it's reached a state where for much of the time I can't get emails through to my friends and relatives. My messages sent to their TalkTalk, Gmail and Hotmail addresses bounce back with an error:

A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** [email address] ??:?

I've got about 4 months left on my Plusnet broadband and phone account and when the end approaches I will be forced to leave Plusnet. I'd do it now except that the provider I want to move to only does full fibre and that hasn't quite reached me yet. People to whom I recommended Plusnet have already got full fibre and have already migrated. I feel like I'm a case of `last man standing'. I can get emails through to businesses, universities and other institutions etc but not to friends and relatives.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Baldrick1 — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 12:38:56 GMT

@Garnet

I can understand you being unhappy with how the email transfer is going, so get that you are leaving as your way of protesting your upset. However, ‘forced’ to leave? Seeing that, as far as I am aware, no other ISP offers a free Email service, I don’t understand why this is ‘forcing’ your hand.

Over the years Email has moved to becoming an essential element of many of our daily lives and is, in my opinion, too important to trust to a tied freebie service.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

PhilipHeyes — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 12:39:33 GMT

You are not alone in suffering a complete sense of humour failure over the recurrent inability to deliver emails.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Longliner — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:00:01 GMT

Oh dear, another one! So many people unhappy with a free service. I'm wondering if the mods would make a sticky out of this, or similar wording:

I've paid a few pounds a month for an excellent email service, I can move ISP anytime and still keep my email addy, and I do wonder that so many PN customers can be bothered with this flaky facility.

Plusnet provides me with an excellent great value BB service, first ADSL and now fibre which is all that I signed up for. You get what you pay for ...

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

PhilipHeyes — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:15:26 GMT

Pay ... that is the whole point of GreenBy it is a paid for service.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

jab1 — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:30:30 GMT

@PhilipHeyes NOT for at least 2 years providing you are a Plusnet customer at the date of transfer.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Baldrick1 — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:38:40 GMT

It is a paid for service (after 2 years if you’re a customer) without the portability that comes with a personal domain. That’s the price you pay for keeping an @plus.com address.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Townman — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:04:15 GMT

There’s no context to this grumble. It’s clearly stated that email works to many businesses, professional institutions etc. The report all relates to other third party FREE email services. The question is why are there issues with those services not accepting the delivery of email?

Might it in reality be that those users don’t get what they are not paying for … a reliable email service which will accept inbound email, whereas we have seen before that users if PAID FOR Google email ARE receiving emails without issue.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Garnet — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:11:53 GMT

Hold on - what's all this about me having a free email service? I signed up to Plusnet to get email and web access in 2007 as shown below and I've been paying them for that ever since...

28/9/2007
Your new account
Great news - your account has been successfully activated.
Your account details
--------------------
- Access number: xxxxxxxxxx
- Email address: xxxxxxxx.plus.com
- Web address (URL): http://www.xxxxxxxx

09/10/2007
Thank you for choosing PlusNet Residential Generic Services Product as your new account!
To confirm, your PlusNet account details are as follows:
* Your e-mail address is postmaster@xxxxxx.plus.com, where postmaster can be replaced by any word you like or any existing mailboxes on your account.
* Your Web address (URL) is http://www.xxxxxxxxxx

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

bmc — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:19:13 GMT

@Garnet

And how many contracts have you signed since then with no mention of e-mail?

As a basic no frills provider PN took the decision to withdraw from email. They then had a choice - shutter the service after giving due notice where people lose their historic email addresses or transfrer it to an email provider. They chose the latter - much to the relief of many poeple (like me) who didn't want to lose their addresses.

You are not being forced to leave - you have may the choice to go. At least you'll keep the email addresses if they're important to you.

Brian

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

HPsauce — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:26:40 GMT

@Garnet The world moves on, as does technology and also, just as importantly, your contract terms.

In those near 20 years you will (as have I over a comparable time) have had multiple opportunities to refuse to renew on the revised terms and go elsewhere without penalty.

I no longer use PlusNet's email, in fact I recognised long ago that tying myself to a broadband supplier for email was not a sensible long-term strategy. As others have noted the norm now is to not expect or use "free" (i.e. packaged) email from your internet connectivity supplier.

So, as others have noted, PlusNet are not really forcing you to leave.

That said, the great majority of posts in this forum are about problems with the email migration to Greenby; it seems to be not going well to put it mildly. 🤣 If I was you I'd seriously work at moving to a different email platform ASAP then look separately at who is best to supply your broadband and potentially migrate you to FTTP if that's what you want.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

RealAleMadrid — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:50:36 GMT

@Garnet I have been a Plusnet customer for almost all of the last 20 years and my understanding was that email was always an add on service for which there was no charge. My bills showed broadband and phone charges but never any mention of email on a bill. So you have not been paying for email at all.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

MisterW — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 17:06:14 GMT

and in any case @Townman is referring to the destinations of the emails being users with 'free' email services

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Lordwotsit — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 10:47:15 GMT

@Garnet

About 20 years ago I signed up with Plusnet because I'd been working alongside computer security professionals and it was what they used and recommended. Since then I rarely had a problem and I often recommended Plusnet to other people. But things began to get flakey in the last 2 years and now it's reached a state where for much of the time I can't get emails through to my friends and relatives. My messages sent to their TalkTalk, Gmail and Hotmail addresses bounce back with an error:

A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** [email address] ??:?

I've got about 4 months left on my Plusnet broadband and phone account and when the end approaches I will be forced to leave Plusnet. I'd do it now except that the provider I want to move to only does full fibre and that hasn't quite reached me yet. People to whom I recommended Plusnet have already got full fibre and have already migrated. I feel like I'm a case of `last man standing'. I can get emails through to businesses, universities and other institutions etc but not to friends and relatives.

The Plusnet ship that we all knew and loved is being steadily steered towards the beach.

Like you we joined some 20 years ago having been recemmended by some of my IT colleagues. Included in our service along with internet access was email, webspace and by paying a nominal £1 a domain name of our choice, providing it was available. We even moved our phone to Plusnet when it became possible.

There are lots of us suffering the same email problems.

Oh, well. Thanks Plusnet Directors!

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

jab1 — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 10:54:35 GMT

@Lordwotsit wrote:

@Garnet

Oh, well. Thanks Plusnet Directors!

Actually, it is BT who have made the decisions - 'Plusnet' is now just the 'internet only' brand within the BT Consumer Division.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Lordwotsit — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 22:00:43 GMT

@jab1 wrote:

@Lordwotsit wrote:

@Garnet

Oh, well. Thanks Plusnet Directors!

Actually, it is BT who have made the decisions - 'Plusnet' is now just the 'internet only' brand within the BT Consumer Division.

True, but it was the directors of Plusnet, along with the shareholders, who "sold their soul" to BT. It was quite a while back now, 2007. Just take a look at the shareholders of BT "Brands owned by"

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Mav — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 23:12:59 GMT

I have been with PN since late 2002 although did jump ship in 2012 but couldn't wait to come back less than nine months later. Many things have changed in those 23 plus (no pun) years and the writing has clearly been on the wall for those looking.

I moved my email accounts to Mythic Beasts a few years back and haven't used my PN webspace for many, many years. If I wanted webspace now I would definitely choose a dedicated provider as you definitely get what you pay for.

For me, the service I get with PN is still excellent or I wouldn't advocate via being a moderator. And the fora are still second to none.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

Bookworms — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 17:43:41 GMT

I think some of the comments on here about email simply being a free/bonus add-on in addition to internet provision are a bit unfair and probably unrealistic.

When I joined plusnet many years ago, having email as part of the package was a definite plus (pun intended). I believe most of us who signed up originally considered email part of the service rather than a free extra.

It's all very well saying you should set up a dedicated email with your own domain &c but how many people do that ? (It would be interesting to see the stats on that - I haven't managed to find them after a quick google).

For IT professionals it might seem like a no-brainer to pay for a dedicated email provider but that's not the average personal user. Most people these days seem to use gmail, MS live mail etc for personal emails

Like many people I also have gmail, hotmail and other (including some seldom used) email addresses but I have had my plusnet addresses pretty much since I first installed broadband so it will be a bit of a wrench if I have to drop them entirely.

I do wonder if this is all part of an attempt by BT to quietly drop the plusnet brand in favour of EE. When I go to my plusnet dashboard, the first thing I see is big ad urgng me to move over to EE...

While losing email isn't 'forcing' people to leave plusnet, it is removing one of the major ties holding us here.

Re: Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

quelquod — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 19:29:22 GMT

FWIW I couldn’t agree more despite PlusNet's various statements. When I joined Force9 back in 1998 it was advertised with email and in fact Force9 automatically created an email account for you and the postmaster@… account was always their default communication address, it wasn’t optional. Straight afterwards they offered a domain and webspace for the not inconsiderable £1/month. Years later when PlusNet had taken Force9 and others over, the technical expertise was already running for the hills and one of their engineers blew everyone’s emails away their apologies were endless and we were given a free domain as compensation. It was long after that that PN started their “not part of the contract” fib - of course it is - always has been - and paid for in the subscription and as the compensation.

Having been bitten once by PN’s email goofs I decamped (to Mythic) as soon as the Greenby idea was floated which seems to have been a wise move. Now there’s nothing left to tie me to PN, just as I was never going to be shunted to EE for mobile, so at next end of contract it’ll be price alone that matters which more or less counts out BT or any of its subsidiaries especially after this crass treatment. It’s unfortunate that so many of the innovative early ISPs cashed in to PN but human nature of course.