Change Of Service Provider..

[janzman]

..I get my phone, broadband, including my email through btmail and TV from BT. In the next month or so the estate I live on will have Virgin cable for the very first time (they've been digging up my street today!). If I switch my services to Virgin Media, what happens to my email address and btmail accounts for example, do I have to create a new address, do I have to advise everyone that my [email protected] address no longer exists, please help me, I'm all confused.

[Sycamore3House]

You will still be able to use your BT email address and log into it in the same way. When or if you sign up with virgin you will be given a new/another email address. Likewise if you signed up with outlook/Google/yahoo that would be just an email address Without any connectivity to the Internet.

[pinkyboyid]

There is some useful info here:

https://www.cable.co.uk/guides/how-to-switch-from-bt-to-virgin-media/

Extract regarding email:-

Can I keep my BT email address?

If you have an @btinternet.com email address, you’ll need to use it regularly to keep it active once you have left; if you don’t use your email account for 30 days or more, it could be terminated. If you don’t want to risk losing it, you can opt for BT’s Premium email service, which costs £1.60 per month for unlimited storage and up to 11 email addresses


Also some info on the BT Website regarding retaining BT email addresses:-

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13140/~/what-happens-to-my-bt-internet-email-account-when-i-stop-having-bt-broadband%3F

[Sycamore3House]

I opted for BT broadband, phone and BT TV & Sport approx 3 years ago. When I transferred to this package I was given an email address @btinternet.com. I have never used it but after seeing the above link tried to log on and it worked. It must have remained active as I receive BT emails to it.

[Mosaic]

If you change email provider you can set up your old email address(es) to automatically forward all mail to the one you're using. Saves logging in all the time.

[janzman]

thank you one and all for your advice

[gness]

Janz.....I left BT some weeks ago after arranging with Virgin to supply my phone and broadband.

Virgin provided the broadband.....fitted the TV equipment.....and then when I was committed to them admitted that they could't provide a landline for the foreseeable future.....it could, they said, take weeks, months or years for me to have a landline...although they were charging me for it by now.....

The customer service I received after joining was shabby compared with the gold plated service I'd had before signing on the dotted line.

At one point they were saying, quite nastily, that I had a landline and if I wanted to know the number I should dial 174.....impossible as I had no landline!

Eventually I told them I was going to ask the ombudsman to help me sort out the mess.......they immediately admitted their mistake and have offered me £62.69 in compensation....... :-)

[VHG]

It is best NOT to have an email address linked to your ISP.

So set one up in Gmail for example ([email protected]) which is independent of your ISP.

Then whatever ISP you go with you can keep your email address.

If you do set up a gmail address then tell the people who send you emails on btinternet one by one of your new email address.

However it can take many months to move everyone across so make sure you keep checking your btinternret address for many months afterwards.

I had an old email address I stopped using but I logged on every 6 months or so. About 4 years after I stopped using it I found an email from an old work colleague as this was the only email address he had of mine so it can sometimes take years to move everyone across to a new email address.

[VHG]

btw I have Virgin cable (and have had it for years) and I am VERY happy with it.

Every so often they upgrade my speed for free and I am now on 100mbps.

And I have just had an email saying they are upgrading me to 150mbps for free.

The great thing about Virgin Cable is that it does not degrade the further you are from the telephone exchange (like ADSL does), so if they say you get 100mbps then you do, no matter where you live related to the telephone exchange.