TalkTalk charging for emails!

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Elanfan
Elanfan Posts: 9 Forumite
in Praise, vent & warnings
Many years ago when I first went on the internet so probably in the early 90’s maybe 80’s (I’m old now and forget!) I signed up to free email initially with Lineone and a second email address with Tiscali. Both these ISPs were subsequently taken over by TalkTalk.

In the last week I’ve had an email from TalkTalk stating that they were going to start charging me for my Lineone email at the rate of £50 a year. They’ve not contacted me yet about my Tiscali email address but doubtless they will want to charge on that one too.

My Lineone address is probably 30 years old, I’m sadly quite attached to it. I have acquaintances who only know or contact me via that address, I have website logins using that address and also use it as a recovery address.

I think it’s wrong for them to have taken over other ISPs that offered free email and now they won’t stand by that offer. I have complained to the CEOs office but just had a call from a totally disinterested girl call me and say that unfortunately that is now their policy!

This must affect many thousands of people. Is there something MSE can do to bring pressure or unwanted attention to them?
«1345678

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  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,300 Forumite
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    The problem with ISP dependent email address.

    We always advise now signing up for a Gmail account , slowly migrate all your old retailers login to new Gmail account and then send an email to your friends with new email. Possibly sign up for a Hotmail account for account recovery option

    They are under no obligation to give you the email for free , it costs them to maintain
    Ex forum ambassador

    Long term forum member
  • DoaM
    DoaM Posts: 11,863 Forumite
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    It's a business decision ... there's nothing anyone can reasonably do. Be thankful that you've had it free for 30 years.

    And set up a Gmail (or Yahoo, or Outlook) address and make sure your contacts are aware of the new address and that the old one will be closing. And update those website logins to change the recovery email.

    Pain in the butt? Yes. Worthwhile doing in the long run? Yes.
  • BoGoF
    BoGoF Posts: 7,099 Forumite
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    Whatever you may think, the e-mail address doesn't belong to you. Not sure why you expect the person to be interested, they are not going to make an exception for you.

    Plenty free web based addresses obtainable for free.
  • Elanfan
    Elanfan Posts: 9 Forumite
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    I understand everything you are saying but I think it tells you a lot about the morality of a company that reneges on previous promises. There are as you say many other providers of free emails (for now at least) so what makes them think they are so special that they can charge?
  • baza52
    baza52 Posts: 3,029 Forumite
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    I used to do tech support for Lineone when it first started.
    It was around 1998 that it started so about 21 years. not 30.
    Lineone was not always free to use either. Like most ISPs back in the day you had to pay for an account.
  • BoGoF
    BoGoF Posts: 7,099 Forumite
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    Elanfan wrote: »
    I understand everything you are saying but I think it tells you a lot about the morality of a company that reneges on previous promises. There are as you say many other providers of free emails (for now at least) so what makes them think they are so special that they can charge?

    They may well charge in future but the thing with some web based addresses is they make revenue by allowing advertising. So if they were to charge a fee then people would leave and advertising revenue would go down. As I'm sure you are aware Facebook makes billions and they don't charge users.
  • JJ_Egan
    JJ_Egan Posts: 20,281 Forumite
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    Lineone from memory the email was free during your contract only .
    Likewise Tiscali and all the other ISPs i have used .
  • Elanfan
    Elanfan Posts: 9 Forumite
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    1998 is probably about right - like I said I’m getting old!! But still it’s a long time.

    Never ever had an account nor a contract and never once paid them anything for it. I do get advertising and promotional emails from them so they are getting and have had some revenue through it.

    Signed up to a new free email account and am transferring my old stuff to that. TalkTalk won’t get a penny out of me and I hope everyone else moves away from them. Sad to lose my original email address but life goes on. !!!! em.
  • savemoney
    savemoney Posts: 18,127 Forumite
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    One of my earliest email addresses as I also used internet around that time was hotmail before MS took it over I also used bigfoot.com but stopped using that years ago. Glad I stuck with hotmail never ever used my ISP's addresses I now just use hotmail and gmail


    I think its time you switched wouldn't dream of paying £50
  • Elanfan
    Elanfan Posts: 9 Forumite
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    Directly above your post I said they wouldn’t get a penny out of me.


    Move away from TalkTalk they don’t deserve your patronage.
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