topic Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email" in Billing

Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

jamieburchell — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 14:39:58 GMT

Received a stuffy letter from TT today to say that they are going to start charging me £2.75 per month unless I "fix my email".

Well, I have an inbox full of emails from TalkTalk (and every other service I use) which say otherwise. I also get the bills that they send (which I delete, because if I want to see my bill I can login to my account).

Where do we go from here, because I'm not paying for paper bills?

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

typoid — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 13:10:20 GMT

Same letter here.

Received all emails in my inbox. These include the bill. Why would I need to go through the login process to see bill.

Also been threatened with the £2.75 a month for paper bills.

Email is very active

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 13:31:09 GMT

Hi jamieburchell

The billing system has automatically put a stop on sending to the current MyAccount login email address due to non-delivery.

The workaround is to set a non-TalkTalk email address as the MyAccount login. Revert to email notifications, wait for the next billing notification to arrive. Once there's been a successful delivery and the paper billing reset to email notifications you'll be able to revert to a TalkTalk email address if you wish. My advice is to stay with the non-TalkTalk email address but it's your choice.

Here's the guidance on eBill notifications that are mandatory notifications that a bill is ready to view in your customer MyAccount. The billing system uses a different mail sender to the other TalkTalk mailings.

There will have been an issue, usually transient but present when sending eBill notifications, that stopped the billing system getting emails to your MyAccount login email address. So what then happens if there's a further issue with delivery, is that a protection measure by the billing system mail sender puts a stop on sending to your email address. Because it's then mandatory to get a notification and bill to you each month you get reverted to paper billing at a charge of £2.75/m unless you receive your bills in large print (or Braille or audio format).

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 13:34:51 GMT

Hi typoid

For security, TalkTalk does not send bills by email. TalkTalk sends only billing notifications that there's a bill ready to view in a customer MyAccount.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

typoid — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 13:57:07 GMT

Thanks for reply. My talktalk email has Account number. Amount due in pounds and payment due date.

It seems have regular bills monthly.

How do I correct this. I'm not sure what to do next 😞

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 14:13:59 GMT

The eBill Notification does have a brief summary including the amount due. But there are no itemised details or how the bill is calculated as that's only on the bill that's viewable in your customer MyAccount.

It's possible in your case that the billing system mail sender got a bounceback delivery error message but in fact the delivery was deferred or delayed.

If the billing system has notified you that your account is being reverted to paper billing then simply follow the advice I gave earlier.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

jamieburchell — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 23:18:26 GMT

@Gondola I never said it was a TalkTalk email address (it isn't).

Seems like a TalkTalk problem, especially since two other people have just posted with this issue. And I do get the billing emails anyway!

Heads up, if I'm charged for paper bills I'll be leaving TalkTalk. I don't even want to receive the email.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 23:25:44 GMT

Whatever your TalkTalk MyAccount login is currently it's that address that has bounced back a delivery status notification to the TalkTalk billing system indicating a problem with delivery. So just change that MyAccount login to another email address to avoid being put on to paper billing.

It's mandatory that you have a notification of a bill being produced. It's not optional.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

jamieburchell — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 23:33:58 GMT

I'm not creating another email address/login just because TalkTalk can't work out how to configure their email systems. I'm already getting the TalkTalk billing notification emails and all the other TalkTalk emails. Literally the only service that's apparently got an issue emailing me.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 23:48:36 GMT

When the eBill notification doesn’t reach you (bounces) TalkTalk will advise you of this, to ensure that future eBill notifications reach you successfully. It's not the TalkTalk system that needs configuring. Your current email address wasn't able to take delivery at the time of sending a notification email.

The notifications of email delivery failure don't get sent on a whim. They're sent to notify you of a problem.

I'm just trying to tell you how to work around that problem.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

jamieburchell — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 23:51:42 GMT

Is it not a little strange that 3 people have recently appeared in the forum highlighting this very issue? Unless of course the sending of the letter is a new thing.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 00:04:22 GMT

There are over 4 million eBill notifications going out each month. The system runs on the basis that almost all notifications get delivered without a problem.

But if the billing system is notified of a delivery failure that's when the backup paper notification comes into play. We may see a few reports each month. If there was a major issue we'd be well aware because of the potential 4 million individuals impacted.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

jamieburchell — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 09:25:33 GMT

I don't know how TT classifies a delivery failure when I get the email, but I do know that in my line of work I deal with mail systems (postfix, relaying, Mailgun, SendGrid, DKIM, SPF, DMARC et al) and soft failures are retried several times before giving up with a hard bounce. It can't be a hard bounce if I'm actually receiving the email.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 09:47:04 GMT

In that case you know full well that it's possible that the billing system mail sender got a bounceback delivery error message but in fact the delivery was deferred or delayed. The billing system doesn't know if the mail eventually got through to your mailbox because there will have been no 'successful delivery' bounceback after deferral for scanning. The billing system mail sender does do the normal retries after soft fails but these will time out.

As you are an expert in email you know exactly what's going on. I've told you the workaround. Just out of interest, in case there's a common email recipient system what's the mail service you're using? e.g. Gmail, Yahoo Mail, BT Mail or another?

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

jamieburchell — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 12:56:35 GMT

Why can't the sending mail server differentiate between soft and hard bounces? When relaying mail through Mailgun for example, the logs can show soft bounces and hard bounces with soft bounces being retried until giving up. Are you saying that soft bounces trigger a letter? It seems like a flawed system to send customers a letter unless you're absolutely sure there's a long term problem.

I'm using my own domain with MX records pointing at the forwardemail.net service to a Gmail address that I don't give out (so I can switch service).

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

iani2112 — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 13:04:26 GMT

Also received a letter telling me that e mails about bills not getting delivered. E Mail account is active and no problems receiving other e mails.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gliwmaeden2 — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 13:56:07 GMT

Best to start your own thread for this, @iani2112.

Staff only reply to the original poster.

They will be back during the week.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Gondola — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 14:17:17 GMT

Your mail service has sent a bounceback delivery fail. So what if it is a soft fail for a deferred delivery. What if your mail server decides to silently drop delivery? The billing system notifies of a potential issue in Month 1. But if there's another bounceback in Month 2 then you get reverted to paper billing.

I've given everyone posting on this thread the fix to change the email address at least for one billing cycle to avoid being put on paper billing. Anyone choosing to ignore that advice is welcome to paper billing but can opt back to email notifications on changing the email address as TalkTalk would have put a stop on sending to the bounceback email address after the second bounceback.

Nothing else I can add.

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

Winston196328 — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:45:54 GMT

Same here despite having emails received into my inbox, not impressed . 😣

Re: Being threatened with a £2.75 per month charge because you "can't reach me by email"

typoid — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:46:40 GMT

Thanks for the workaround.

However, how can it be a delivery failure if I am receiving the emails? The bounceback seems too sensitive.

Plus i receive mail from every other service.

Right now to setup another non TT address and it's frustrations is beyond me with my mental state.

Thanks anyway