BT Yahoo email layout changes

[mm2]

has this happened to anyone else?  about a month ago I logged into my e-mail and found the layout had been changed overnight, the colour has been changed from a serene blue to a violent, apoplectic purple and an annoying advert has appeared at the top of my inbox which can't be deleted

opened  'settings' to restore 'basic mail', assuming I'd been 'upgraded' to 'full feature mail' again, and the 'change view' option has vanished

advice from BT support was to use the 'change view' option … reported that this had vanished, no reply apart from a few voicemail messages that were so garbled I can't understand a word

I can see a message on the login page about 'improvements' to webmail but clicking the link, it says these 'improvements' don't affect Yahoo, only BT mail

so why has my Yahoo mail been messed up and how can I get it back to the old layout?  I have always stayed with 'basic' mail because last time the full-featured mail was 'improved' it became so messy and cumbersome, plus those annoying additional adverts that have now popped up in my inbox, which were suppressed in 'basic' mail

I know the adverts supply revenue but I'm a paying BT customer, I don't see why BT can't host a decent, simple mail service at no additional cost to the line rental/package I am already paying for, especially when their support staff don't seem to know how it works

[licquorice]

The BTYahoo basic mail view has also recently changed, there is no going back. If you use an ad-blocker on your browser you won't get the adverts.

[mm2]

seems that once again, BT support staff don't know their own product!  it's a browser issue

although BT recommend IE11 (which I use) on their 'improvements to webmail' page, it does not support the 'switch to full feature mail' option

Microsoft Edge does, and using full feature mail I can change the view

as the basic mail option has now been changed to include the annoying inbox ads that only used to appear in the full-feature version, there's now no point in sticking with it, at least I can get rid of the hideous purple which as been imposed on the basic version

clearly BT support staff don't know IE11 users can't follow their advice

BTW ad blockers don't stop the inbox ads, which is why they are put there, irritating but fairly easy to ignore so totally pointless

[licquorice]

I never see any sort of adverts or purple banners because I wouldn't entertain the idea of using a web browser to read mail in the first place, I use a mail client, the right tool for the job.

[mm2]

interestingly, when I logged into webmail this morning, I got a pop-up telling me my browser does not support full feature mail and inviting me to use a different browser or  continue with basic mail

only took BT 4 weeks to work that one out!

why do you feel a mail client is the right tool for the job?

[licquorice]

The clue is in the names, a mail client is designed to collect mail, is more secure, simpler to use, no adverts, no cookies, no trackers, the UI isn't changed at the whim of a web designer. Whereas a WEB browser is designed for browsing the world wide web, not collecting mail.

[mm2]

thanks for that, we used to use a dedicated mail program for a 20-user network running on ADSL with a lot of group & external mail going both ways, a private single-user system on fibre is different and it's one more link in the chain to go wrong

my issue was more with being given dud advice by BT support staff, which took them a few weeks to find an answer I found myself yesterday

[gg30340]

Can you post a link to where you found that IE11 is recommended for  BTYahoo email. 

I could only find the following links which states that IE11 is not a supported product for BTYahoo

https://uk.help.yahoo.com/kb/bt/SLN4556.html

The other page which I think you may have been are referring states IE11 is supported but states it is for BTMail customers.

https://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/64151

[mm2]

it's BT's communication standards that make life difficult! 

for some time now, using BT Yahoo Basic Mail (in preference to their full-feature mail) a banner has appeared saying I was using Basic Mail because of my browser

I wasn't, I was using Basic Mail because I preferred it and made a conscious choice to select it through the 'change view' option

nothing ever appeared on my mail screen saying IE11 was being dropped by Yahoo

when the mail screen changed without notice and BT told me to use the 'change view' option I sent a screen grab showing the option wasn't there, and the Yahoo logo was clearly shown on that

they said: "Thanks for your response. I am sorry that you are not happy with new email format and I am sorry that we cannot help you to go back to old format. However if you want to use classic
format than you can use Internet Explorer and through this browser you will be use old classic format. Yours Sincerely "

I told them I was using IE11, they said: "I am sorry that BT did not informed our customers about this new email format and this changes has been made by BT hence I am afraid that we won't be able to retrieve your new email format."

you have got to agree that this second answer is gibberish?

if you were able to find a help page stating that IE11 is no longer supported by Yahoo, then BT support should have been able to do the same and tell me! BT support staff are paid (out of my subscription charges) to do a job, so my first line of help is to ask them, not spend my time trawling through help pages myself

when my clients have a tax question I don't tell them to look on HMRC's website, I do my job

it would also have helped if BT had not limited their 'improvements to your webmail' message to BT Mail users, by saying the changes did not affect Yahoo, the implication is that Yahoo mail had not changed

[gg30340]

I suspect that the main problem is that BT are using two email systems, BTYahoo and BTMail. Since 2014 any new customers to BT have automatically been put onto the the BTMail system. 

It appears that in the vast majority of cases the help pages on the BT website are in relation to the BTMail system and I suspect that the Customer Service agents are trained on the BTMail system more than they are in the BTYahoo system so automatically "default" to the BTMail solutions to problems rather than the BTYahoo solution which may be different.

I agree with licquorice about using an email client but if you decide to continue using webmail you may find that you can still use the classic view if you use the Chrome browser .