Stupid policy, can it be changed?

[#1]

... which doesn't matter in the slightest if you've done the sensible thing and changed the contact address on the account to be an email address that you do use.

[#2]

Thanks for your opinion Jelv but I think it is up to me to decide if it matters in the slightest or not. Clearly a pair of 80+ non technical users would have struggled with this, and my original point was that it is a stupid policy to archive an account just for the sake of it. So far I havent seen anyone from plusnet even attempt to justify why this policy is in place.
Once again I am aking why is it policy to archive mail accounts of paying customers when they contain just a handful of emails, causing the owners inconvenience?

[#3]

all my post from PN goes to a Postmaster mail box.  this was set by PN.  and that is not my main mail box

[#4]

I'm surprised that "a pair of 80+ non technical users" managed to set up a separate mailbox and configure their mail client accordingly in the first place! If they could do that how come they couldn't make the far simpler change to their contact email address?

[#5]

Oh dear, Clearly they didn't Jelv. I think you are missing the point. I am not interested in if changing default email addresses is easy for non technical account holders or not. I am interested in getting a response from plusnet staff about the archiving policy.

[#6]

I don't see what's wrong with the policy. If a mailbox has not been accessed in 90 days I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption that it's not going to accessed ever and archiving is appropriate. In any case if it is accessed a message is there and as you have found the archived emails can be retrieved.

[#7]

Thanks again for your opinion which you are welcome to have, I don't happen to agree with it. Now could you please leave this for plusnet to respond? After all I have stated several times in this thread it is their policy and I want plusnets responce.
Cheers

[#8]

Hi God
I can only assume that this done to ensure the primary storage devices (which I assume consist of devices known as filers and sit behind the mail servers) respond as quickly as possiuble to requests to retrieve mail or writing new mail to the storage volumes.

[#9]

Quote from: God

I want plusnets responce.

Surely as you are omniscient you don't need to ask this!

[#10]

Now now.
We don't want a flame war now do we

[#11]

No, just an answer from plusnet.

[#12]

I'd be willing to bet that that what I said above is the reason for the policy but hopefully you'll get a response from PN soon.

[#13]

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my original point was that it is a stupid policy to archive an account just for the sake of it. So far I havent seen anyone from plusnet even attempt to justify why this policy is in place.

We don't archive mailboxes just for the sake of it, it's done as part of routine maintenance to the mail servers - the archived contents are zipped and moved to a different server, freeing up space and saving time. Given that an email server essentially indexes and hosts huge numbers of tiny files, the servers would very quickly become slow and sluggish without this maintenance. (10/10 techguy well done!)

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Cheers again, it is now available, it contains changes to terms and conditions and notices of direct debits, surely that doesn't make sense to archive the account that you are communicating important items to your customers through?

The archiving script is automated and as the mailbox remains open email is still received. As regards reading the mail, as long as it has been sent to a valid mailbox we have legally notified the customer.

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So if the account users are using an added mailbox rather than the main account mailbox will the main mailbox get archived after 90 days including all the service emails about direct debits, terms of service changes etc?

Yes, it will though the archive remains retrievable.
I understand your frustration in this case, however we don't often have complaints about the archiving script and it is most definitely a very necessary piece of automated cleanup.

[#14]

Hi Matt
Seems a shame but at least I now know why it is being done. Looks like I will have to set up a calendar event to log in to the account now and then.
Thanks for the official response.
Cheers

[#15]

If you change the contact address on the account, service notices will be sent to postmaster and the address you specify. If you make the contact address their email address you could also set up a redirect for postmaster to yourself - no need for you to log in and you both get the notices in a timely manner.