The serious consequences of losing an email address

[#1]

I became a PlusNet customer on 22 October 2002. I was incentivised by the email service offered by PlusNet and chose PlusNet because I liked the look of its email.  In 2004, PlusNet obtained for me a .co.uk domain and I have been using it for email ever since.

With time (like 20+ years), an email address becomes enormously important asset.  The loss of it can potentially destroy the life of the user.  An email address is a personal identity used for doing one's personal business on the internet, banking, medical prescription requests, the list is endless.  PlusNet should have indicated long ago that its email service was vulnerable to being terminated and provided a definite termination date.  It has at no time given formal notice of its email service future and so its email users have been allowed to continue deluding themselves that it would continue long term.  If PlusNet is to discontinue email, It should provide a generous notice period of at least a year.

BT says "Until your broadband ends, you'll still be able to use your (BT) email as normal" so why can't BT's email facilities also continue to host email with .plus.com addresses?

I my case, I had a domain name registered on my belhalf by PlusNet in 2004.  This bit of foresight would now allow me to transfer my email service to Ionos but after being a PlusNet customer for 20+ years, my loyalty to PlusNet is very strong.  The availability of email has kept me being a PlusNet customer but the threatened termination of email now makes me feel that PlusNet is no longer special and I might feel better getting my Internet and phone service elsewhere.

I think that PlusNet/BT should be mindful of the potential severity of the consequences of closure on users of PlusNet email, especially elderly PlusNet customers of many years standing.  Loyalty works both ways.  Cutting off the communications of oldies can start a progression that ends in a care home.  It's that important.  The same goes for ending landline phones for old customers.  I am anticipating full fibre and the question of a continued landline is by no means certain.

[#2]

I wholeheartedly agree.
I've been with Plusnet since Force9 days and have stayed mainly due to having a number of domains and email addresses with them. Even the fact their domain renewal costs were much more expensive than many places did not sway me to move.
I could probably live without any webspace as my sites died long ago, but the email addresses I have been using for over twenty years are very important to me, and at the very least a decent notice period to allow them to be moved not in a last minute rush would be good.

I have a Gigaclear box outside but rather than jump to a much faster and cheaper service I signed up to a new contract with Plusnet not long ago specifically because of email....

[#3]

@hake There are no current plans to terminate the Plusnet email service for those who have one, but as the parent company (BT Consumer) is busy decimating PN, who knows what may happen? That said, however, should the service be withdrawn - at some future date, then there should be a reasonably long notification period for those users to make alternative arrangements. I stress though, these unfounded rumours are exactly that - rumours.

[#4]

You mention a .co.uk email address / domain which you can easily move to anywhere you choose.

What BT Retail does has nothing to do with what Plusnet does … beyond what BT PLC might dictate.

BT PLC is a corporate conglomerate of many houses - it would be foolish to expect commonalities across them.

As @MisterW has said - until announced, any talk of futures is pure speculation. Where other legacy brands have been demised (think JLP) they have been announced well in advance of their termination dates.

Which reminds me that I need an exit plan for the business account.

[#5]

Thanks for that information.  I feel better now to have the expectation that such an event is not imminent. However, I do have a moral responsibilty to deal with email loss for a few people to who I recommended PlusNet quite a few years ago.  In particular, my wife's sisters who are in their 80s are vulnerable to severe upheaval because they have been PlusNet email users for the past 16 years.

Email addresses are personal identities and I dread the consequences of loss for my sisters-in-law in particular.  It was unusually far-sighted for me to get a domain name in 2004 and am looking at Ionos as a host.

I would be sad not to be with PlusNet as I have been a customer for more than 20 years.  The support people are still great but some of the misinformation I have received about email cessation has caused me much worry.

I worship at the chapel of St Joseph of PlusNet and would not want to betray him. 🙂

[#6]

Why don't you transfer your domain elsewhere? There are literally thousands of companies that will offer you a complete email solution in your own domain, starting with Google (Google Workspace) and Microsoft (Office 365), and most if not all web hosting providers. Granted, most are not free (they can cost a fiver a month), although free offers can also be found (many domain registrars will offer you a free mailbox if you maintain the domain with them).

Just remember to take the domain from Plusnet to a different registrar beforehand.

[#7]

@hake

Slow down here - the have been NO ANNOUNCEMENTS about PLUSNET branded email service closing.

The JLP branded services are the only ones for which there has been an announcement referring to closure.

There is anecdotal evidence of support agents adding 1+1 here and making 5.

@kashmiri

Registrar transfer can happen anywhere in the process which the user finds most suitable. Personally I would commission the new service first (set up the mailboxes and get the clients connected) before starting the process of dismantling what is working currently.

[#8]

That would depend on whether Plusnet allows full DNS management for the domain. Many email providers (at least the big ones) will verify that you own the domain before setting up mailboxes, and they do that by requesting special DNS records.

[#9]

That is more than a tad inconvenient and somewhat ensures down time.

There are other ways of verifying ownership, if nothing more than checking the registration details with the existing registered owner in Nominet.

If anyone has more than a couple of mailboxes, such as one for each family member (or other purpose), along with aliases and / or redirects, a wise person would set all of these up with the new hosting provider BEFORE migrating the domain routing.

[#10]

I have Ionos ready to assist me.  If only PlusNet would send me an EPP, I could proceeed. Nominet conforms that PlusNet is presenly my domain registrar.

[#11]

I'd steer clear from IONOS, earlier called 1&1 Internet. Just read reviews.

Any domain registrar will help you.

EPP is not used for .uk domains (and never has), IONOS are just incompetent.

.uk domains are transferred using TAG, which is a different concept and works differently (domains are not "pulled" by the new registrar, but "pushed" by the existing registrar).

[#12]

@kashmiri I've been using 1and1 now Ionos since 2006 without issue.

[#13]

---

@kashmiri wrote:

I'd steer clear from IONOS, earlier called 1&1 Internet. Just read reviews.

Any domain registrar will help you.

EPP is not used for .uk domains (and never has), IONOS are just incompetent.

.uk domains are transferred using TAG, which is a different concept and works differently (domains are not "pulled" by the new registrar, but "pushed" by the existing registrar).

---

I have been using 1&1 (now called Ionos) for over twenty years without any problems. I have my own domain and and 5 email addresses, one is a catchall so I can allocate unique email addresses when I register an online account with a different company (e.g. tsb@mydomain if I registered with TSB). I also set up a domain and similar email service using Ionos for my daughter.

The last invoice for my email was £5.62 for the year and my daughter's was £9.94. I don't know what other providers charge.

[#14]

I was with IONOS/1&1 for a good few years (up until 2 or 3 years ago), and never really had a problem with them during that time.  My only little complain would be that I had a few rather forceful sales calls from them whilst I was a customer trying to get me to take on other packages.  I stayed strong though and resisted.  My leaving was down to a change of needs/wants on my part, not through anything they did or didn't do.

[#15]

Well, I've used Ionos as a domain registrar on a couple of occasions, and found their domain transfer process extremely user unfriendly. I mean, to the extreme. Once they even demanded to be sent scans of my identity documents, and the domain transfer process took weeks. Seriously? They are just a domain registrar but acted like a government authority.

OVH is another one I'd recommend to steer clear of due to slow customer service (they take weeks or months to respond to a ticket) and very buggy online system. But they are cheap.

There are countless others that have worked for me without issues: Google Domains (appreciate free DDNS), Namecheap, Porkbun, Cloudflare (currently cheapest out there, excellent DNS but fewer management options), Namesilo (a bit slow and old-fashioned), Netim and many many others.

Of course, YMMV.