FIRENET email address suddenly disabled.

anotherbob

For at least six years I have used a FIRENET email address. Yesteday It was disabled and Firenet Support says its email addresses are for Firenet customers only. They want £50 + VAT to re-enable the address.
I have never been a customer of Firenet, I registered for a free email address and no-one has ever asked me to pay over the years I've been using the address. They gave no notice that it was to be disabled and I'm left in the situation of being unable to access my contacts so I can advise them I will be using a different email in future.
Anyone else experienced this, or advise what to do? I'm not paying £50!

mattyprice4004

Then you're not getting your emails.
They provided a free service, and can amend or turn it off as they wish. Shouldn't you have a backup of any important contacts?

Why should they give you something for free if they don't want to?

penrhyn

Is it completely disabled or can you still receive your emails, some ISPs allow this to happen for a period after you leave them.
Shirley all your contacts are stored on you PC in Outlook or whatever?
I guess you'll need to sort out a Gmail account or similar.

anotherbob

Thanks for your thoughts. The account is completely disabled, and I have always used the address via webmail not Outlook. I have no problem getting another account but it seems i have been caused a major problem through no fault of my own. I should have been given notice.

anotherbob

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Then you're not getting your emails.
They provided a free service, and can amend or turn it off as they wish. Shouldn't you have a backup of any important contacts?

Why should they give you something for free if they don't want to?

I find it unacceptable that they gave no notice.

EDIT:
Credit to Firenet. I persuaded them to activate the account for 24 hours.