Account cancellation and the thorny subject of email continuity

[#1]

Ok, so this will have a rough familiarity with you hardened experts here:-

Due to force of circumstances, I no longer have need for a Plusnet service at my house where I'm no longer living and as my current contract has expired it seemed prudent to end it before automatic migration to an expensive continuation.

SOOOOO....what do I do about my email account? I was told by the support person who handled my cancellation that my email account will lapse and that I have no alternative....I cannot even buy email continuity. This is pants: you can't unpick 10-15 years of email contacts!

Looking at the Ofcom website ( dated Nov '23) it indicates that Plusnet DOES offer free email continuity but Plusnet deny this.
Which is true?

Thanks guys.

[#2]

Plusnet used to but it was discontinued a while ago. As usual OFCOM have it wrong!

[#3]

Regarding migration of e-mail.

Luckily (?) I had a domain registered with Plusnet. I could migrate that to an external provider and still have continuity with e-mail. However that domain wasn't attracting domain renewal charges (an historical reason, for those who've been with Plusnet for some time). Support for such 'historical' stuff hasn't been easiest at times. The domain was tied to another account that had been migrated to "e-mail only", which used to be charged for (at the time it happened) but subsequently became an uncharged service.

For those (totally?) reliant on e-mail addresses/subdomains tied to their ISP account? It can be scary making the break. And a little time-consuming. It'll very likely take more than days, and likely take more than months.

My perception on OFCOM? They only tell what they get told. And expect providers to update them when things change. My perception could be possibly wrong.

[#4]

My perception on OFCOM? They only tell what they get told. And expect providers to update them when things change

That may well be right, but surely as a official body, there is an obligation on them to check that information they publish not out of date and is factually correct ?

[#5]

---

@paulsowerbutts wrote:
...... you can't unpick 10-15 years of email contacts!

---

You can, though I agree that the process is a right pain. Unfortunately, this is the problem with using a free ISP hosted service. For less than £30 per year you can have your own domain name and email service that is totally independent and can be moved to any organisation who provides the service without issues.

If you require help with your migration then please start a topic on the Email board. Remember that time is of the essence, the day that your account closes, all your emails will be irretrievably deleted.

[#6]

Who is providing your email for £30 a year? I know the domain registration itself costs something like £7-£10 a year, being the fee from the registrar, which most such providers will handle for you, adding on top their email hosting/forwarding service (since just having a domain registered to you doesn't mean emails "to" it go anywhere). The hosting company I'm with charge significantly more than £30, but that may be because they also provide (it's their minimum offering) a website. (I'm happy with my provider.)

I agree with the person that said bite the bullet and get away from any ISP-provided email address, however tedious it may be (I think it took me two or three months to get all my contacts to _prove_ - not just say - that they'd changed my email address in their records to the new one - including _companies_ who use the email _as_ the login to their site. And you have to accept that a small number will never do it.) Not only are there the possible problems if you fall out with the ISP (such as them not even _offering_ a forwarding service), but - if it's a subdomain - they may discontinue the top domain altogether. [I had the soft255.demon.co.uk site and address; the company (Vodafone by that point) eventually ceased to renew the demon.co.uk domain altogether, though fortunately I'd already made the jump to a domain registered in my name (255soft.uk) well before that happened.]

[#7]

Who is providing your email for £30 a year?

Probably Mythic beasts https://www.mythic-beasts.com/hosting . Email only account is £20/yr (if paid annually) plus £7.20 domain registration. Similar facilities to PN email i.e unlimited mailboxes & aliases subject only to total storage space of 2GB.

Will also support multiple domains on the same account, I currently have 3 hosted on mine.

If you need web space as well then the Web 25 product is only £30/yr with increased storage space and traffic limits.

Support is excellent, usually respond in < 1hr and support is manned by 'real' engineers on a rota basis not script monkeys.

[#8]

Thanks - looks (on just a glance at that first page) too good to be true, especially if manned by real engineers! (After leaving Demon - or, at least, when they closed, painfully over a few years - I was with tsoHost, and when they withdrew telphone support, am with Krystal. Who seem quite good, but are a lot more than those prices.)

[#9]

Thanks - looks (on just a glance at that first page) too good to be true

TBH I was sceptical at first when I dipped my toes in 3 yrs ago. All support being via 'tickets' with no direct telephone access seemed restrictive. So I moved a little used domain and took out a monthly email only account, its only £2/mnth so very little to lose if it didn't work out. Over the three yrs I've changed to an annual subscription (you save around 16%) and moved my main domain from Plusnet. Up unitil recently I had another domain, used for email, with Ecohosting who were charging £9.99/yr. I kept that on the basis of 'not all eggs in one basket' but this year they want to charge £30/yr to renew , so I moved it to my Mythic account for no additional cost!. Note that domains can either be registered and hosted with Mythic, hosted using Mythic DNS servers or even hosted as third party domains using other DNS servers (providing of course you can configure the DNS).

I think I've had to contact support about 3 times, each time the ticket has been answered within the hour, once was 10 mins! and has solved the issue at the first attempt. My impression is that they are similar in support effectiveness to A & A (who I use for the office voip).

I recently helped a family member move his domain used for email and website to Mythic (Web25) and it was all pretty straighforward, again a support ticket we raised was answered and fixed within 30 minutes.

If you're coming from a provider who uses say CPanel & SpamAssassin then you might find the Mythic gui a bit basic but in my case coming from Plusnet email it was no problem. 

[#10]

Thanks for the rapid and clear response!

Krystal (and tsoHost whom I was with before) use cPanel - and something "rather basic" in comparison would be extremely welcome! I found/find cPanel most complicated, I've often had the Krystal staff sort things out for me.

However, the lack of telephone support is the kicker - them removing that is why I left tsoHost. I like knowing I have at least the _option_.

(I think there was something else you said that I wanted to respond to, but I've forgotten what: this forum not letting me see the post I'm replying to, while I'm typing my reply, is irritating.)

[#11]

However, the lack of telephone support is the kicker

but in reality , is it! If telephone support means hanging on the phone for 1/2 hr waiting for a 'script jockey' agent as opposed to a reply to a ticket within 30 minutes ? I know which I prefer😁

I guess the advantage for the likes of Mythic, is that it isnt really possible to have 'real' technical people sat around or dropping instantly what they were doing to answer the phone, whereas with a ticket, they can take a few minutes to get to a sensible point where they can break off what they were doing and then pick up the ticket. The fact that they, since they are technically aware, can then provide an answer to the problem first time!.

Also, tickets mean you have an automatic trail which you can reference in the future

[#12]

Hi, thanks for that.

So are you saying that xxxxx.plus.com domain remains in place even after my contract expires. Don't these things have a shelf life anyway?

[#13]

Thanks. Yes, time is of the essence and I'm considering options!

[#14]

So are you saying that xxxxx.plus.com domain remains in place even after my contract expires. Don't these things have a shelf life anyway?

No, were talking about other domains that may be currently hosted at Plusnet. Your xxx.plus.com is patt of the plus.com domain and is owned by plusnet and it will disappear with your account closure

[#15]

Ok. So I'm not techy enriched on this subject. If I went to mythic beasts for £1/month would this be able to "intercept" my Plusnet mail and forward it?