Unable to set up email account in my account

[Philby96]

I have been unable to set up any email accounts in My Account. Despite several hours of talking to telephone support staff I am still unable to set up any email accounts. Does anyone know how to create email accounts for full fibre broadband users?

[Gondola]

Hi @Philby96 

You're wise to be cautious. On 15 Feb 2022 I was similarly advised that a couple of Full Fibre customers had been given by the CEO Complaints agents the exact same same solution that you've just been offered - a MailPlus subscription at £5/m plus a matching credit to your broadband account. Apparently there isn't an option to provide MailPlus for free but they have the ability to credit the broadband account for the same amount as charged for MailPlus. So the offer to you suggests that TalkTalk Mail is still going to be available and no decision yet to cancel TalkTalk Mail completely. Although that decision could come at any time.

But, given that currently the option to create new talktalk.net mailboxes has been withdrawn without prior notification to customers it'll not be possible to create any new mailboxes via any customer MyAccount including the MailPlus MyAccount. So, caution be your watchword.

I asked TalkTalk, "...is this withdrawal of creating and adding new mailboxes just to assist in a TalkTalk Mail upgrade that would see a different process for creating mailboxes as aliases of a single unified master mailbox for each customer that is a feature of Open-Xchange Cloud 8 Email."

And just to clarify further, here's an extract of LiveChat on 19 May 2023 with Full Fibre Tech Support that mentioned, without any prompting, about an impending upgrade to the TalkTalk Mail platform. Names are redacted. Original PDF of the LiveChat session is retained by me in full.

E***-TalkTalk: Yes, please allow me to put chat on hold for me to further investigate here on my resources. Thank you.
12:07, May 19
Customer: OK E***. I'll wait.
12:09, May 19
E***-TalkTalk: Thank you. May I ask, have you received an email regarding the upgraded to the new TalkTalk Mail platform inform of the
upgrade and when its due to take place?
12:10, May 19
Customer: No I haven't. Is this something you can send me?
12:12, May 19
E***-TalkTalk: Yes...

Other clues also point to the upgrade being prepared for Open-Xchange App Suite Cloud 8. I've therefore asked TalkTalk for clarity on the future for TalkTalk Mail and TalkTalk customers. Just waiting on someone with a strong customer focus ethic to put a proper announcement out.

[Philby96]

Thanks for the reply Ady-TalkTalk. 

It seems that the telephone support team can offer sign up to the premium email service with the cost of the service being allowed for by reducing the full fibre broadband monthly cost by the equivalent amount. I have chosen not to do this as it exposes me to potential additional costs if the arrangement fails to be implemented and doesn't resolve the current situation for others in the same predicament.

It is a disappointing introduction to the modern TalkTalk but I have been let down by TalkTalk many years ago. Some things never change!

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi Philby96, I can confirm that at present the ability to create new mailboxes is withdrawn for all customers and obviously there's no change for those Fibre customers who were already affected by this. I can only apologise for the lack of this service. I can provide no information on any rumours about other changes to email. 

Ady

[Philby96]

Thanks to Gondola for a frank assessment of the chances of getting an email address from TalkTalk. I will be looking into alternative email service providers, I just don't know who or how but that has never stopped me before.

[Gondola]

I'm coming to the end of 18 months as a Full Fibre broadband customer. The Full Fibre customer MyAccount has never been enabled for the creation or addition of TalkTalk Mail accounts. The published policy of TalkTalk is that broadband customers can have 5 mailboxes for free. The unpublished policy but the reality is that a Full Fibre broadband customer cannot add or create those mailboxes.

I've asked TalkTalk management for clarity on the future of TalkTalk Mail having been advised that a TalkTalk Mail upgrade is on the way. All we've been told is that mailbox creation has been withdrawn for all customers.

So, whether TalkTalk Mail is ceasing or actually going to get a long overdue upgrade to the Open-Xchange Cloud 8 platform we don't know because the required customer focus ethic to keep customers informed of changes is noticeably absent.

ISP review, currently flagging up a loss of email for Virgin Media that also use Open-Xchange as a mail service provider, is one of many independent sources that advise email users to choose an ISP independent mail service like Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Microsoft Outlook.com for example.

[Philby96]

I appreciate and thank you for your reply but note that this seems to have been an issue for quite a long time. I have been with TalkTalk for just over 6 weeks and tried to resolve my problem when I joined to no avail. Lack of email was not pointed out as a positive in the advertising information for superfast fibre broadband.

[Gondola]

Hi @Philby96 

Full Fibre customers have not had the ability to create or add TalkTalk Mail email accounts. TalkTalk have also recently advised us that the creation and addition of mailboxes has been withdrawn for all broadband customers. We haven't been advised if this is a temporary situation to allow an upgrade to TalkTalk Mail or if there is another reason. 

I've been advised by Full Fibre Support that an email upgrade is on the way and customers should receive email notifications from TalkTalk. However, there's no published information as yet.