Changes to email T&C removing unused but paid for accounts.

[tjrad]

I have received emails from BT stating that if I do not use any of the email accounts that I have registered and pay for within 150 days they will close them. I find that a real bad decision considering they are not free and I have paid for these accounts for nearly 15 years.

If these were free accounts such as Hotmail or Google I could understand but considering some of these are included in my Infinity bundle and some I actually pay about £1.90 a month as premium email accounts purely for retention of the addresses, I find totally wrong.

Does anyone else think removing paid for email addresses is wrong?

[pottyperson]

The T&C for BT Yahoo! Mail are changing from 17 June, and there's further info here. No reason for the changes is given, but you could ask by clicking Contact BT at the bottom of this page > Our products > Getting information > Email us.

I'd guess it's housekeeping; if so I can't see why they would want to distinguish between included and premium email (as long as they stop the charge for the latter of course). If there's a particular need to keep an unused address, sending a message every 5 months doesn't seem much hardship.

[Keith_Beddoe]

I would be very careful, as there are a lot of phishing e-mails in circulation, especially those that give you a link to login to your account.

You can end up losing access to all your accounts, and e-mails, and spam sent to all your contacts.

Do not reply with any details, or even click on any links,

[Andy_N]

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@Keith_Beddoe wrote:

I would be very careful, as there are a lot of phishing e-mails in circulation, especially those that give you a link to login to your account.

You can end up losing access to all your accounts, and e-mails, and spam sent to all your contacts.

Do not reply with any details, or even click on any links,

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The received email is actually genuine.

I got the same (similar) sent to all of my email addresses associated with my primary. Although it explains a few things - as does the bt help pages, what it doesn't explain is that if the primary is not accessed - then any service emails will not be received.

The received email also had html hidden links which actually had a complete list of the email accounts all in the same string!

[Ectophile]

If it isn't a silly question - why are you paying for email accounts that you never use?

According to the help article posted by a previous poster, the email will only be cancelled if you never attempt to read any emails (presumably, it doesn't matter whether or not any new emails arrive).

[pottyperson]

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Ectophile wrote:

According to the help article posted by a previous poster, the email will only be cancelled if you never attempt to read any emails (presumably, it doesn't matter whether or not any new emails arrive).

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It says you have to log in and use it. I took that to mean a bit more than just reading messages, but can see that it might not. Stand by for some rows come 17 June.

[FloFosterJenkins]

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@pottyperson wrote:

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@Ectophile wrote:

According to the help article posted by a previous poster, the email will only be cancelled if you never attempt to read any emails (presumably, it doesn't matter whether or not any new emails arrive).

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It says you have to log in and use it. I took that to mean a bit more than just reading messages, but can see that it might not. Stand by for some rows come 17 June.

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very good point pp. Usual BT lack of clarity. Who oh why can't they do things simply and clearly?

Logging in is using it isn't it? I mean, if I log into webmail to check that there has been no access from Rumania or the Poland, does that count as "using" it?

Or does the user have to actually send an email?

If I "log in" via a client (say OE) and don't "use it" i.e. just automatically download to the client any emails that have arrived on the server, does that count as "use"?

if I "log-in" from a client and there are no emails to download, and there are no emails to download over a period of 150 days (I don't have many friends lol ) and I don't send any, so there is no "use" other than the automated client login, will it be deleted?

Come on BT sort it out please. Clear English, clear instructions. Think of the different scenarios, know your customer base.....

[pottyperson]

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FloFosterJenkins wrote:

Logging in is using it isn't it? I mean, if I log into webmail to check that there has been no access from Rumania or the Poland, does that count as "using" it?

Or does the user have to actually send an email?

If I "log in" via a client (say OE) and don't "use it" i.e. just automatically download to the client any emails that have arrived on the server, does that count as "use"?

if I "log-in" from a client and there are no emails to download, and there are no emails to download over a period of 150 days (I don't have many friends lol ) and I don't send any, so there is no "use" other than the automated client login, will it be deleted?

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They made it clear the the answer to the third question is "Yes".

I suppose the others depend on whether the simple act of logging in counts as use. Wait for the mist to clear.

[FloFosterJenkins]

Maybe the paragraph after the three bullet sentences makes it clear?.....

just log in before 17 June and at least once every 150 days after.

But if that is the case, why do they qualify "continue to log in":

your email account will keep working as long as:

• you continue to log in and use it from bt.yahoo.com, or
• you continue to log in and use it from your computer email software (such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird), or your mobile email software, or....

when they could have said:

your email account will keep working as long as:

• you continue to log in and use it from bt.yahoo.com, or
• you continue to log in and use it from your computer email software (such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird), or your mobile email software, or....

?

[Words]

I've got one account I'll leave up as a test. I never send anything from it, it never receives anything (except from BT) and it only gets checked when I remember. I'll poll it periodically, but nothing more and see what happens. I'm pretty confident that just checking it will be sufficient. 

Quick edit to add that the 'login and use' phrase is messy marketing speak, and probably designed to allay fears from those who have email clients but don't realize that using equals 'logging in'. All it does is add confusion.