@sizzlemewrote:
BT do not offer support/help for IMAP and POP3 because there are so many email app/clients to choose from that they can not be trained in all of them other than the BTMail app.
BT also have no control over email app/clients as regards any problems with them in as much as they can not alter anything with them that the user could do them selves so there is little point in providing support for them. Most email clients/app have their own help/support departments or forums if the user has any issues with them.
I have not checked but I would suspect it will be pretty much the same with other free email providers.
I am not asking that BT provide support, simply enabling the feature - like every other email provider would be sufficient. Virtually every other email provider allows users to connect via IMAP/POP3. They don't provide support for issues - other than community support. I would be fine with this. I presume you mean enable the feature in BTMail Basic. Remember, BTMail is an add on to a BT Broadband package. It was never free except to BT Broadband customers and if you ceased to be a customer your "free" email would also cease. BTMail Basic was brought in to enable former BT Broadband customers the ability to keep and still use the BTMail system for free. It is only available to former BT Broadband customers and is not and never has been free to the general public. BT have a paid service if you want that. If BT did not put restrictions on the BTMail Basic package it would mean that former customers are getting exactly the same email service for free as those that are paying for a BT Broadband package.
Generally speaking if you have a problem with your email client/app and your BT webmail is working as expected the issue is one that BT can not/will not help with. As far as they are concerned they have supplied the email service that they said they would, webmail, in your T&Cs.
I feel I have been clear - I don't have an issue with the email client/app. Unable to use email from the web UI - due to being constantly locked out. I thought you were generalising and not being specific to your problem.
IMAP and POP3 protocols are both supported in as much as BT provide the server settings to allow them to be used and if there is a server problem they will endeavour to fix it as quickly as possible.
No, using BT basic email, IMAP/POP3 cannot be used. You never specified BTMail Basic. I was speaking in terms of a BT Broadband customer who has BTMail Standard as part of their broadband package. I am well aware that IMAP/POP3 email clients/apps can not be used with BTMail Basic.
The BT paid email service is the same price as Office 365 Personal (give or take a few percent) - which includes 1TB file storage, Office apps, 50GB mailbox, proper authentication methods and most importantly being able to sync contacts and calendars - using modern protocols such as MAPI. IMAP is an old, dated protocol that can't sync contacts or calendars and falls over, frequent freezing etc when confronted with mailboxes that are more than a few hundred megabytes.
Don't get me wrong, it's become incredibly difficult to compete with the likes of Google & Microsoft, but that's the world BT are living in. They *may* have needed to price their service in the same region - but I don't know if there will be a single moderately educated user who will choose BT over the others.
I would be willing to bet that there are very few if any users of BT Premium email that were not former BT Broadband customers who did not want the issues of having to change email providers they only wanted to retain their BTMail address and its use on email clients/app. They almost certainly did not pick it because they thought is was better than the rest. In fact they probably did not even consider any of the rest because all they wanted from BT was the ability to keep their email address and if needed the ability to use email clients and apps.
In any event none of this is going to resolve your problem and BT are not going to change their BTMail offerings so there is little point in discussing it further.
