PlusNet have deleted all of my mailboxes

In mid-February I migrated from PlusNet ADSL to BT FTTP. I informed PlusNet of the move on 26th February and requested on ticket 99959715 to move the account to an email only account. I need this because my sons access their email with IMAP and needed time to move important emails over to our new email host.

On ticket 99959678 the ADSL closure was put on hold until 10/03/15.

So this morning I was surprised to receive emails telling me that all of the mailboxes on my account have been deleted. This is both against the information provided on 99959715 and the date on 99959678. Unsurprisingly I can no longer access the Customer Centre. So how do I get access to the account and the mailboxes restored as was agreed on the 2 tickets?

If they are using IMAP the emails are on your son's own computers in their email clients, up until the moment that Plusnet deleted the mailboxes (Edit: ) up until their last access before Plusnet deleted the mailboxes).

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 06-Mar-15 12:58:07)

Hi,

Sorry about this. I think we've been dealing with this over on the community site too, hopefully we'll get it sorted soon for you.

Thanks Chris. All mailboxes are restored, abet with different passwords which is a bit of a pain but better than no mailboxes.

I may be wrong, but with IMAP, I thought the client only had the *headers* from the mailbox, unless the user chose to (a) download the body of the message for viewing, or (b) copied from the IMAP mailbox to local folders (and thus caused the body to be downloaded). That's part of the beauty of IMAP, you don't have to download GB of spam (imagine various 5+ MB HTML brochures with loads of images in), you can decide from the headers what you wish to view in full, and then just download the body of those messages you choose to view.

Means that from a mobile, one can find the message about a meeting being cancelled, or travel / hotel arrangements, without having to download lots of other messages, which could incur significant charges (eg if roaming while abroad).

These days, I'd recommend people get separate web/mail hosting than depend on ISP-based mail. For one thing, it means switching ISP is far easier, and for another, it can be assumed that the priorirty for the service provider is to handle/manage that hosting and keep it secure. Many ISPs offered "extras" but one by one those have gone away. For example, years ago, it was common to find an IRC server, and USENET news, but those are seemingly rare (at least in the case of NNTP with binaries).

Typically if you have an email client using IMAP you download just as you do with POP3. You can also do as you suggest when using a phone or tablet - I sometimes access mine from a smartphone or iPad. I think basically you are probably then using it almost as webmail.

I agree with you re ISP-independent email. I've been pushing that on these forums for years.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I agree with you re ISP-independent email. I've been pushing that on these forums for years.

You can retain your Plusnet email accounts for £20 p.a. after leaving them. Much cheaper than TSOHOST memntioned in you link.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I agree with you re ISP-independent email. I've been pushing that on these forums for years.

You can retain your Plusnet email accounts for £20 p.a. after leaving them. Much cheaper than TSOHOST memntioned in you link.

Still leaves you liable to any ISP rebranding if Plusnet or their owners decided to close down, or rename etc. You can get a MS Exchange mailbox with 50GB storage from Microsoft direct for £2.90 a month. Exchange sync's mail, contacts, calendars and todo lists between various devices. Desktop / laptop (mac and windows), iPhones, iPads, Android Phones, Android Tablets, Windows Phones, even Blackberry etc.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 27-Mar-15 17:40:05)

Lite Hosting, which is all most people need, is £14.99pa. A domain is £6.70 per two years = £3.35pa. £14.99 + £3.35 = £18.34pa, = equiv. £1.53pm. Including webspace and email for two domains.

But the thread has been dead for weeks. Ultra re-opened it with an IMAP query.

The OP has his Plusnet mailboxes back and is happy with that.