Forced to leave Plusnet after about 20 years

[#1]

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@jab1 wrote:

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@Lordwotsit wrote:

@Garnet 

Oh, well. Thanks Plusnet Directors!

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

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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"

[#2]

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.

[#3]

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.

[#4]

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.

[#5]

So darewell then dear friend!

I had actually had a Force9 account since 1994 - 32 years.

Over the years - since ADSL - my mid-Victorian property in London has had numerous service outages and these have always required multiple calls to PlusNet service due to the nature of PlusNet BT Openreach contractual arrangements - and lately the lack of "copper" engineers in London SW9.

It was a mercy when I discovered the "vul;nerable user" status, which seemed to put a limit on repair delays. - and give entitlement to compensation in extremis.

The Gteenby fisasco was worse for me due to US spoofing of my email address - which occurred after Greenby took over, and their repsonse to it was  to cease my email service.

My response to THAT was to chnge my provider to Hyperoptic - no email either, but 25% cheaper tha\n PlusNet a\nd 100% faster.

My final interractions have been a demand from PlusNet for the return of my PlusNet Hub2 router  - or be billed £50.

AND a final bill for 83p CREDIT - saying it can't be refunded becuase I had cancelled my direct debit.

Natiurally I phoned customer service and pointed out that cheques still exist.

Totay I received and banked my 83p cheque refund of an overcharge.

So as I say farewell old friends.

And don't expect too many compliments in the "How did we do?" freedback form.

[#6]

@ColdharbourDave 

"So as I say farewell old friends."

"The Gteenby fisasco was worse for me due to US spoofing of my email address - which occurred after Greenby took over, and their repsonse to it was to cease my email service."

Well that's a shame. I hope things work out with your new ISP and (presumably) email address. However...

Remember! 'Correlation is not causation'.

I have seen some people here complaining about Greenby and spam, as well as mentioning they were getting spam before they moved to Greenby! Um... 🤔

Essentially, if you are getting lots of spam, then your email address is 'out there' on the spammer's lists. Same principle if you are/were getting lots of spam landline calls. The proper question is: How did it get to be 'out there' in the first place?

[#7]

I will be monitoring the situation with my new email addresses.

One possibly positive thing is I have discoverred the joy of IMAP due to the PlusNet email embroglio!

No more hoarding 10,000 dead emails.

[#8]

How?

University of Manchester (alumnus) had a data leak.

Serco blood test unit in London had as data leak.

South London & Maudsley Hospital (was a governor) had a data leak. 

Any official list must be counted a risk!

[#9]

Which points to the high-risk practice of giving the same email address to every third party ... and (conversely) the exceptional functional merits of the Plusnet email service in being able to make up ANY email address on the fly and have the email delivered to the default mailbox.

If that strategy had been used for each of the above hacked third parties, you could have just quarantined the unique email address used (legitimately) only by that sender.

[#10]

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@ColdharbourDave wrote:

One possibly positive thing is I have discoverred the joy of IMAP due to the PlusNet email embroglio!

No more hoarding 10,000 dead emails.

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Time will tell if you regret that statement................

[#11]

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@ColdharbourDave wrote:

I will be monitoring the situation with my new email addresses.

One possibly positive thing is I have discoverred the joy of IMAP due to the PlusNet email embroglio!

No more hoarding 10,000 dead emails.

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I keep all my mail on my PC server, our mobile devices get IMAP. Obviously it gets archived and the archives get compressed. The last thing I want is some ISP pretending it never said it ;)) - Still got my first emails under PN domain name.