Free-Online - Email Only Account not working correctly

[#1]

Hi, After many years, I left Plusnet (free-online.co.uk) and moved to Sky Broadband, but before I went, I requested for my account to be downgraded to an email only account on the 18th Oct.

But since then I found out that my account had been deleted. After a number of calls and online chats, my account has been restored, but I still don't get any emails coming into my email address (steve@) << add my domain + free-online.co.uk

Further calls later and it looks like something was done. After testing things myself, I could see that emails for postmaster@ can come through, but nothing to steve@ will come through, I get a '550 Invalid Recipient' (or probably anything before the @ as the free-online email allows anything before the @).

I think this has something to do with the mailbox setup, which was probably deleted when the account was deleted previously.

As I'm now an email only account, it looks like I have no access to the mailbox settings in the Plusnet Web Pages.

Each time I phone up, then I'm told that this needs to go to the Network team and they will call me back within 48-72 hours, but no one does.

Please can you help sort this out, as I've been without these emails for weeks and I just don't seem to be getting anywhere (plus I can't see any ticket updates, due to downgrade to email only).

thanks

Steve

[#2]

Hi @superjediman thanks for getting in touch. I'm sorry to see you're experiencing problems with your email account. Unfortunately due to the way our cancellation process works, we need to allow an account to cancel down fully even when an email only account is requested as we'd then carry out the necessary work to restore the mailbox.

While I can see we've changed your account type appropriately to Plusnet Mail, we didn't recreate your steve@ mailbox. I've done this now as well as enable 'Catch All' which means that you'll receive mail to anything@ as normal.

If you've lost any mail, please let me know and I'll raise a task with our NetOps team to restore your mailbox contents to how they were the moment before your account was cancelled.

With regards to logging into your account, this should still be possible so you can manage your mail online although I suspect you may have issues because the portal component has defaulted to 'Plus.net Portal Login' as opposed to 'Freeonline'

Could you try logging into your account Here using your username and password changing the 'Provider' to 'Freeonline'? If you're unable to, could you let me know and I'll raise a task with a backend team to see if we can get the appropriate portal login component manually created as there's no option for us to select this from the list of available components.

This shouldn't affect your ability to log into webmail though at webmail.plus.net or use your email service.

Let us know how it goes.

[#3]

Hi @Gandalf I've tried sending emails to steve@ and still the emails are bouncing back with:

Address not found

Your message wasn't delivered because the address couldn't be found or is unable to receive email.

The response from the remote server was:

550 Invalid Recipient

I even tried sending to postmaster@ and that had the same response.

Also with regard to logging on via the member centre, yes, that is where I was getting stuck.
Adding my username, password and choosing free-online gives me the following error:

"Invalid username or password

Please try again. Make sure your browser allows cookies, otherwise you won't be able to log in."

I hope you can help

thanks

Steve

[#4]

Hi Steve, thanks for getting back to me.

I've tried sending you an email and I've been able to replicate this, I've refreshed and reconfigured the mail component so you should be able to send and receive mail within the next 4 hours.

I've also raised a task with our NetOps team to investigate and hopefully fix the problem affecting your ability to login to your account. I'm going to be keeping an eye on this and as I finish at 4pm I'll check back tomorrow morning for you.

Let me know how it goes though.

[#5]

Hi @Gandalf 

I just tried to send an email to steve@, and it worked, the email came through

So I tried to put something else in front of the @ symbol, as I do have alternate emails I use, but this gave me the dreaded "550 Invalid Recipient", so it looks like the 'catch all' isn't configured 100%. Can you look into this please?

Plus thanks for adding the NetOps ticket regarding the account logon.

thanks

Steve

[#6]

Hi Steve, it's good to see we're making some progress.

It looks like catch all switched itself off when I reconfigured the mail component on your account, I've switched it back on now so you should be able to receive mail at anything@ although it may take up to 4 hours for it to take effect.

Assuming catch all works for you soon, final step is getting you access to your account again which I should hopefully be able to bring good news tomorrow.

[#7]

Hi @Gandalf 

The catch all is now working too 😃

Only the account logon left.

We've progressed so much on here, thanks to your help 👍

Thanks, Steve

[#8]

Hi Steve, 

Excellent! 😁 No problem and I'm sorry that this wasn't sorted sooner by the advisers you've spoken to.

Will follow up tomorrow on your account login.

[#9]

Hi Steve,

I am happy to confirm that the 'FreeOnline Portal Login' component on your account has been reactivated so you should be able to log into your account online now. Let me know how it goes.

[#10]

Hi @Gandalf 

I just got around to trying the free-online portal (sorry for the delay).

It looks like it still doesn't let me in, as I get the 'Invalid username or password' message

thanks

Steve

[#11]

Hi @superjediman no problem, thanks for getting back to me.

It's disappointing to see you're still unable to login to the portal. I've carried out some maintenance on the portal component (Refreshed and reconfigured it) Could you try again in about 30 minutes letting me know how it goes?

[#12]

Hi @Gandalf 

It looks like we've moved forward, as I can now login (and get to email settings etc.).

But once logged in, I get the message:

'An error has occurred

Your account is closing down, so you can't make any changes to your services.'

Thanks

Steve

[#13]

Hi Steve,

I think I've sorted that bit out for you now, could you try one more time and hopefully some good news?

[#14]

Hi @Gandalf 

No, I still get the same:

An error has occurred

Your account is closing down, so you can't make any changes to your services.

Thanks

Steve

[#15]

Hi Steve,

Now that's odd as there aren't any cancellation requests now showing in place to close down your account. 

I'd recommend leaving it for the night and we'll see how things are tomorrow, I'll be back in the office in the afternoon.