POP telecom - avoid

RefluentBeans

3rdman said:

400ixl:

It says "to get your emails", I cannot find anything on the site to say they will be providing an email service as part of the broadband provision. Where have you seen that it says it does. As in actually states it provides an email service?

I've been online for 25+ years: at first with demon, until they were bought by a bunch of soulless accountants; then with talktalk until Dido "security fiasco" Harding had to admit to a Commons Committee that she hadn't a clue how many customers had been hacked, then with virgin media until it was sold to the Yanks, then with the co-op.
All of these advertised an e-mail service and actually had one, so that my address changed when I moved.
This is the first time I've encountered an ISP which doesn't have its own e-mail service and also doesn't say so.

I think you’ve misunderstood the word get. And as a long term internet user (who has switched providers) it baffles me you would want to keep the ISP provided email address. 

You seem to have expected an email address to be included in the package, and thought the word ‘get’ meant that an account would be included. This is a misunderstanding, on your part. I think it falls well below the threshold of intervention from ASA. Did you contact the company to raise an issue? Or just terminate the contract without telling them why? If the latter - they have literally no idea why you’re cancelling the contract and as such will charge the exit fee. The exit fee can be waived, but normally you ask for the fee to be waived before you terminate the contract, not after. 

Personally, I think that most of these ISP emails are on their way out. Most people will use an independent email provider with generally a better experience, better features and far higher security. From what I can tell, a lot of these email accounts are flawed in their security with no 2FA, and generally lower thresholds for ‘good’ passwords. 

Ultimately it’s up to you if you want to die on this hill and take a stand. It does seem you have a very weak case and your analogy of the ice cream man is foolish. It would be more applicable to say to get a Mr Whippy and expect it to have chocolate drizzle on it because that is what you normally have, but the ice cream man doesn’t have chocolate drizzle. 

user1977

3rdman said:

This is the first time I've encountered an ISP which doesn't have its own e-mail service and also doesn't say so.

Then you're out of date. I wouldn't expect ISPs to provide email accounts to new customers. The likes of Virgin Media only go as far as maintaining legacy accounts for existing customers.

They say broadband will give you access to streaming too, that doesn't imply the ISP is producing TV programmes. 

3rdman

Thanks for all the replies. I've submitted a form to the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

outtatune

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

3rdman

outtatune said:

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

Thanks, but no. Firstly because I have a 2-year contract with a better ISP and would be in the same situation with them, and secondly because I have belatedly read customer reviews on sites other than "Trustpilot" and found them almost uniformly negative. It also irritates me that POPtelecom's own customer service e-mail address is at... poptelecom.co.uk

RefluentBeans

3rdman said:

outtatune said:

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

Thanks, but no. Firstly because I have a 2-year contract with a better ISP and would be in the same situation with them, and secondly because I have belatedly read customer reviews on sites other than "Trustpilot" and found them almost uniformly negative. It also irritates me that POPtelecom's own customer service e-mail address is at... poptelecom.co.uk

This was raised a few weeks ago. The time to do due diligence to see if you should do business with a company should be before you sign a contract. Checking if a company is good or bad AFTER something bad happens does nothing really to help the issue. 

As far as I understand you are exiting the contract for a breach you feel they have done, after the 14 day cooling period. But it doesn’t look they offered you an email in the marketing. I hope CAB will give you more advice, but from what you’ve said, you’re going to be on the line for exit fees. 

km1500

3rdman said:

outtatune said:

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

Thanks, but no. Firstly because I have a 2-year contract with a better ISP and would be in the same situation with them, and secondly because I have belatedly read customer reviews on sites other than "Trustpilot" and found them almost uniformly negative. It also irritates me that POPtelecom's own customer service e-mail address is at... poptelecom.co.uk

just so you know, you also have a 2 year contract with pop telecom

born_again

3rdman said:

outtatune said:

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

Thanks, but no. Firstly because I have a 2-year contract with a better ISP and would be in the same situation with them, and secondly because I have belatedly read customer reviews on sites other than "Trustpilot" and found them almost uniformly negative. It also irritates me that POPtelecom's own customer service e-mail address is at... poptelecom.co.uk

Why?
That will be something they have to pay extra (server hosting) for as part of the domain name.

forgotmyname

My email address is my family name. I bought it and host it just like pop.  Everyone can have a unique email name @ family name
upto my hosting limit which is approx 200 email accounts.

Not used the ISP's email since the AOL days, I still have many AOL email addresses but many companies will not let you use
them going forward so it would be silly to use them.

Swapped ISP's almost every year since then and not once used their email accounts.

What happens if you use online banking on that email and another user gets your old email account?

3rdman

km1500 said:

3rdman said:

outtatune said:

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

Thanks, but no. Firstly because I have a 2-year contract with a better ISP and would be in the same situation with them, and secondly because I have belatedly read customer reviews on sites other than "Trustpilot" and found them almost uniformly negative. It also irritates me that POPtelecom's own customer service e-mail address is at... poptelecom.co.uk

just so you know, you also have a 2 year contract with pop telecom

km1500 said:

3rdman said:

outtatune said:

I'd suggest the MSE option would be to get POP to reopen your account, send you back the modem, and for you to reinstate your DD and open a gmail account.

Thanks, but no. Firstly because I have a 2-year contract with a better ISP and would be in the same situation with them, and secondly because I have belatedly read customer reviews on sites other than "Trustpilot" and found them almost uniformly negative. It also irritates me that POPtelecom's own customer service e-mail address is at... poptelecom.co.uk

just so you know, you also have a 2 year contract with pop telecom

It's 18 months