BT no longer supporting any client em,ail apps

BT are flatly refusing to enter any dialogue with issues relating to email client systems if their webmail function is working.

We are experiencing syncing issues with MS Outlook and BT with a number of clients, where suddenly we are unable to receive emails, albeit we check webmail; and there are emails in out inbox. The "outage may happen for a couple of days or sometimes longer, before all of a sudden it works again. We have tried deleting and recreating accounts, changing passwords, none of which appear to resolve the underling problem. Its a waste of time trying to do anything from our end as it has no impact, Incidentally this happens on Windows 7 or 10.

Ofcom tells me that email is not part of their jurisdiction. so we are left to decide whether to dump BT, just dump their email, and either move to a domain or hotmail/gmail. Its strange that we have all these pseudo bodies a la Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat etc, but email notwithstanding significant security issues has no body to oversee this?

I just believe that BT is -passing the buck and really should be held to account - bet they would say this in their advertising blurb. "we only support webmail"

It might be Outlook that is the issue, are some people who use other email clients able to get things working?

Also are you using POP3 or IMAP4

As well as MrSaffron's question, are you by any chance using non-secured links in the client to the mail servers? A lot of servers are now requiring you use SSL/TLS for security reasons.

It could be you just need to change that in your email client settings, but in my case one of my mail hosts also use different mail servers for SSL as opposed to non-SSL

Ports 110, 143, 25 and 26 will be non-SSL. Ports such as 993, 995 and 465 will be SSL.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

A lot of servers are now requiring you use SSL/TLS for security reasons.

True, apart from Plusnet who don't support SSL connections on their email servers at all. Not only is that unacceptable today, it was unacceptable years ago.

Proof, amongst other reasons, that ISP email is often left to neglect and is best avoided.

Worked for BT for 3 years, and we never supported email applications, if the webmail was working, we would give settings for the app and if it didn't work, and the webmail did that was the furthest we'd troubleshoot.

Edited by BuckleZ (Tue 05-Jun-18 17:27:47)

On top of that, with services like GMail I'd never touch ISP email services.

Never had an issue with Gmail in all my years.

It may well be that BT are not interested in supporting POP3/SMTP/IMAP access to their email but they do of course provide the necessary servers (mail.btinternet.com) which have little to do with the webmail service. I have also found them unreliable, frequently timing out or not responding, there is clearly an issue and only BT can sort it.

Fortunately I have my own domain email but do have an old btinternet account I use occasionally and keep their SMTP server as an alternative to my normal one.

From 6 May 2016, we're changing the price of BT Premium Mail from £1.60 a month to £5 a month.
As we recently upgraded you, you'll still get all the helpful features you get today like unlimited storage for large files and emails, protection against online threats and access through webmail, smartphones and email programs. Not forgetting technical support whenever you need it at here.

This letter from BT a couple of years ago re my BT/Yahoo mail which even then was flaky with regular downtime, probably due to the hacking of Yahoo at that time. I rang the number quoted and the salesdroid immediately backed down and said I could have it at the old rate but I closed our account at once, moving to Fastmail. For less money, an excellent service with which I am 100% satisfied.
I have found similar examples of BT aiming for higher prices and hoping to get them by inertia. Like the 78-year-old widow whom I found stuck with BT Sport packages. She had no idea she had them, still less that she was paying for them as she has no interest in sport. I once had highest regard for BT, but no longer.

When I left BT they never closed down my email address (which was purely used as a throwaway). It makes me wonder how many people are paying for an email address which BT would have kept open for free anyway.

Sorry I should have added that mine is still working too! Now and again I try it out of curiosity and wonder that a big company could be so stupidly greedy. Mind you I thought BT Mail was the pits until I tried Plusnet's

Edited by Malwaremike (Tue 05-Jun-18 18:23:00)