@Anneyc wrote:
Has anyone tried escalating this ongoing issue to the powers that be? And got any response? Greenby have suggested I raise a formal complaint about the issue of not being able to send emails to certain accounts. I had Chatgpt help me with this. But then I decided a broader complaint encompassing everyone else's issues should be mentioned.
This is what Chatgpt has written, and probably what I intend to send to Greenby, Plusnet Executive Complaints and BT Executive Complaints (CGPT gave a name):
I am writing to formally complain about the widespread issues affecting former Plusnet customers following the migration of Plusnet email services to Greenby.
Although this letter is prompted by my own recent experiences, it is not solely about my individual circumstances. Having followed the extensive discussions on the Plusnet Community forum over the past 9-10 months, it is evident that many customers have experienced similar problems since the migration. The volume and consistency of reports suggest a systemic failure rather than isolated faults affecting individual accounts.
Many of us remained loyal Plusnet customers for years because of the company's reputation for reliability, honesty and excellent customer service. We accepted the migration in good faith, trusting Plusnet's decision to transfer its email customers to Greenby and expecting the replacement service to provide an equivalent standard of reliability and support. Unfortunately, that has not been the experience of many migrated customers.
The problems reported across the customer community include:
- Legitimate emails being rejected by Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail, BTInternet and other major email providers.
- Emails being routinely delivered to recipients' spam folders.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication failures resulting in rejected or quarantined messages.
- A significant increase in unsolicited spam reaching customers' inboxes.
- SSL certificate and authentication problems.
- Confusion caused by changing or inconsistent email configuration settings.
- Difficulty obtaining accurate technical support, with customers frequently relying on other forum users to identify solutions.
- A lack of confidence that important emails are actually reaching their intended recipients.
My own experience reflects many of these issues. Most recently, legitimate emails sent from my mailbox to Gmail recipients were rejected outright because of authentication failures originating from Greenby's email infrastructure. I have also experienced delivery failures to BTInternet, Hotmail/Outlook and other providers.
When I contacted Greenby support, the automated response immediately acknowledged that the company is already aware of widespread delivery issues affecting Gmail, iCloud and other providers due to DKIM-related problems and advised that Greenby is working with BT on a resolution.
This raises an obvious question. If these are recognised, widespread issues, why have customers not been proactively informed?
Instead, customers have largely been left to discover failures for themselves, search the Plusnet Community forum for answers and rely on automated responses that acknowledge known problems but provide little meaningful information about the cause, the scale of the issues or realistic timescales for resolution.
For many customers, confidence in the service has now been seriously undermined.
Email is not an optional extra; it is an essential means of communication used for banking, healthcare, legal matters, government services, employment, business and personal correspondence. A service that cannot reliably deliver legitimate email to major providers cannot reasonably be regarded as fit for purpose.
Equally concerning is the reputational damage caused to customers themselves. When emails are rejected by Gmail or treated as suspicious because of problems originating from your email servers, recipients naturally assume the sender is at fault. Customers' personal and professional reputations are therefore being affected by failures entirely outside their control.
The significant increase in spam reported by many customers further compounds the problem. Long-standing users who previously received very little unsolicited email are now finding their inboxes inundated with spam, suggesting that the migration has affected not only outbound email reliability but also the effectiveness of spam filtering.
What is perhaps most disappointing, however, has been the lack of communication throughout the migration.
Customers were not warned that these issues might arise, nor have they received regular, transparent updates explaining what has gone wrong, what work is being undertaken or when a permanent resolution can realistically be expected. Instead, the Plusnet Community forum has become the primary source of information, with customers often learning more from each other than through official communications.
I also believe Plusnet continues to bear responsibility for this situation. Customers did not choose Greenby as their email provider; Greenby was selected by Plusnet as the successor service. Having encouraged customers to place their trust in that decision, Plusnet cannot simply distance itself from the resulting service failures. Both organisations share a responsibility to ensure that migrated customers receive a reliable service and are kept properly informed when significant problems arise.
I would therefore appreciate a detailed response addressing the following questions:
- What is the root cause of the widespread authentication and email delivery failures?
- Why have these problems persisted for so long following the migration?
- What specific technical work is currently underway to resolve them?
- When do you realistically expect the service to be fully restored?
- What action is being taken to reduce the substantial increase in spam experienced by migrated customers?
- Why have customers not received regular, transparent communications regarding issues that are clearly affecting a significant proportion of those migrated to Greenby?
- What steps will Plusnet and Greenby take to rebuild customer confidence once these issues have been resolved?
I would ask that this complaint receives a considered response from an appropriate senior manager or technical representative rather than a standard template or AI-generated reply. Customers deserve accurate information, honest explanations and regular updates when a service as fundamental as email is experiencing widespread failures.
I also urge Greenby and Plusnet to improve communication with customers immediately. A publicly accessible service status page, regular progress reports and clear technical updates would demonstrate openness and go a long way towards restoring confidence.
I would appreciate a substantive response within 14 days. If additional time is required to complete technical investigations, I would at least expect an acknowledgement together with an indication of when a full response will be provided.
I sincerely hope these issues can be resolved without further escalation. However, the growing number of customers raising similar concerns suggests this is now more than a collection of individual technical faults. It represents a significant service issue that has affected the confidence of many long-standing Plusnet customers. Unless there is a demonstrable improvement in both service reliability and customer communication, I believe this matter is likely to attract increasing attention from consumer organisations and the media.
I look forward to receiving your detailed response.
Yours faithfully,
