Keeping F9 email after leaving and SMTP auth

[#1]

@Gandalf thank you - we've just checked and all appears good now. Thank you again for your help today to get this reinstated and sorted.

[#2]

Thanks for getting back to me @hkeys

No problem at all let us know if there's anything else you'd need help with

[#3]

Hi there...I am so hoping you can help me too. I had exactly the same happen to me as hkeys Mum. I reluctantly left PN after 20+ yrs to join BT as needed strong wifi to cope with wfh. I specifically asked for reassurance from PN that I would not lose my f9 email and was reassured I would not. It was lost though and when I followed up I was reassured it would be reactivated within 48hrs. It didn't happen and after some back and forth I was told there was no possibility of it being reactivated. I am so concerned as I have lost so much as the email was attached to so many services which I am still only being made aware of as written letters arrive in the post telling me they have tried to contact me by email with no success. I called again today and a helpful fellow put me on hold to speak to someone again and came back with a categorical no. Is this the thread I see from @Gandalf that it is possible and would be so very grateful if mine could also be reconnected. it was alison@agowans.f9.co.uk. - I would be so very grateful if I could be reunited with it....happy to pay! yours hopefully - Ali

[#4]

@AJG1 The first question we need to ask is 'how long ago did you move away?' - old accounts and associated facilities are cleared from the system when your final bill is generated, although some components 'disappear' earlier, including the email one.

[#5]

Hi John….I move in April this year.

[#6]

When I spoke with PN days after moving I was told I was reconnected and it might take 48hrs to be up and running. It was never reconnected. I did follow up by phone and people were most helpful and reassuring….until it got escalated and then seemed to hit a brick wall. 😔

[#7]

Hi @AJG1,

I'm sorry to hear that the emails were deleted. Having had a look over the account you'd mentioned, I'm afraid that we wouldn't be able to recover the emails at this stage, due to the amount of time that's passed since this occurred.

As a general frame of reference for anyone who may stumble onto this thread, if the deleted or archived emails/mailboxes haven't been active for over 30 days, they're most likely lost forever. There are circumstances in which we may be able to recover emails if we're notified within 30 days of them having been deleted/archived, but this isn't always guaranteed, so it's best to get in contact sooner rather than later.

[#8]

I don't think, after that length of time there will be much chance of recovery, sorry, but I will ask the mods to split your question and the replies to their own topic, and then ask @Gandalf if there is any chance.

Ooops - @TheMightyAJ answered while I was typing - must type faster.

[#9]

Thank you for replying swiftly…although it is tough to lose past emails…I can cope with that. My question is can I have to email address restored to me so that services and clients can reach me? I can accept that past emails are not recoverable but my issue is that I really need that email address to be reconnected. I had it for over 20 years and it is attached to so many things. I was reassured I would not lose it and yet I have. I would be so grateful to have it for as long as the legacy will exist. I am sure it must be possible …as I said…I am willing to pay if that’s what it takes?

[#10]

Thank you for your efforts…I was onto it very soon after it happened and was told I was reconnected and just had to wait for 48 hrs …that never happened and when I followed up the trail went cold once escalated. I must confess to losing faith but a few things happened this week which alerted me to still losing business and services due to it no longer being active. I so hope someone can help…🤞

[#11]

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@AJG1 wrote:
When I spoke with PN days after moving I was told I was reconnected and it might take 48hrs to be up and running. It was never reconnected. I did follow up by phone and people were most helpful and reassuring….until it got escalated and then seemed to hit a brick wall. 😔

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Unfortunately the ability to retain an email only account is not used to any great extent, and some first-line agents either don't know about it, or are ignorant of the documented procedure for handling such requests - I know, because I nearly got caught.

[#12]

@AJG1 Hi Ali, thanks for the clarification. 

I'm really sorry for the issues with keeping your Force9 email address after having moved your broadband away from us. 

Our documented process says for F9 accounts, we sadly can't so you've been given the right answers. If we've told you initially you can that'd have been incorrect information and something we'd feed back internally.

From earlier in this thread...

@Gandalf wrote:

Retaining your F9 email addresses after cancellation I’d say there’s a good chance we’d be successful but we’d be stepping outside of process due to how we’d need to put the changes through in our systems, so there’s also a chance it’d go horribly wrong which I suspect is why the process is as it is that the adviser you’ve spoken to has followed when advising it’s not possible.

Having attempted a couple of reactivations since then, I'd revise that to there's less than a good chance we'd be successful. It's not a case of you paying us to make it possible, it'd be due to a limitation of our systems. 

Now with that said, I've actually managed to reactivate your account with hopefully no ill side effects. This is the first time that's ever happened for me, I very much suspect it's due to the particular legacy account you had. 

I'd like to stress for anybody else looking that because it's worked here doesn't mean it'll work again with another account, which is one of the reasons we have the process in place we do and I'd say that expectations should ideally be set before the account's cancelled, so you can make an informed decision while you still have your F9 emails. 

If you go to manage my mail at plus.net/email you should be able to re-setup your email addresses etc.

As Alex has said though, we can't get existing messages back sadly as they'd be long gone and deleted by now. 

I hope this helps.

[#13]

Nice one, @Gandalf 

[#14]

Oh my …😳.. THANK you for trying for me and for persevering with it….I am sooo very relieved and grateful and delighted!! 😁👍🙌 as has been said by another…nice one! Thank you 🙏

[#15]

No problem at all @AJG1 

After having done it and posted my reply, I re-read everything and I was really glad it all worked out well!

Really sorry again for the bad experience and the stress you’ve had as well as missing emails.

Let me know if there are further issues or absolutely anything else you’d need help with. 

Also thanks for your loyalty to us over the last 20 years, we do very much appreciate it! Completely understand your move to BT but hopefully we’ll see you back to us for broadband at some point in the future.