BT broadband - anybody having problems with e-mail?

[Cluck]

I'm trying to gauge whether there's a widespread problem with e-mail on BT or whether it's localised to this area. For the last month or so I have been getting lots of calls from customers who are regularly (multiple times a day) getting errors when sending or receiving e-mail on the BT e-mail account. It's generally an error relating to being unable to authenticate the user details. Absolutely nothing changes between it working, not working and then working again.

The biggest problem is that it's very intermittent and invariably doesn't appear when I visit . However, because it's spread over a wide range of computers (I've seen it on XP, Vista, Windows 7 and with various different AV pacakages installed) and covers various exchanges (seen it now on 01799, 01763, 01371, 01223 and 01440 to name but a few) I'm seriosuly wondering if BT have a big problem on their hands and are doing the usual ISP trick of 'not our problem guv'.

So can I get a show of hands for people having the same problem ONLY on BT broadband and with BT e-mail addresses. The poll should be self explanatory ...

Answer YES if you've got BT broadband with a BT e-mail address and are getting this sort of error.
Answer NO if you've got BT broadband and don't have any problems with e-mail.

Ta .

(the poll should be private and I'm not going to be naming anybody if I do approach BT about this. At the moment, I can only go armed on a case-by-case basis and it's always the same 'nope, it must be your equipment' response)

[sideways14a]

Look... its BT, the 'not our problem guv' line is all your going to hear even if you have the MD of the company caught with chocolate and chicken feathers all over his wedding tackle.

Its still 'not our problem guv' ....

Err and i have never logged into my BT email, mainly because i prefer to use more... er secure and reliable services

[Dan@DB-Power]

Is this when using Outlook or Thunderbird?

Dan

[Lou_Lou]

Don't use the email, but our BT interwebs keep dropping out

[Cluck]

Is this when using Outlook or Thunderbird?

Dan

Good point Dan. I've seen the problem with Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Opera to name but a few . This is why I can't nail the problem down to a specific set up causing the problem and am sure it's BT's fault. But before I start telling my customers to give BT absolute hell and to persist with getting a proper answer, I need to find out if it's a local problem .

For what it's worth, I've always been right when it comes to BT-related problems . BT probably don't like me with the amount of money I've cost them purely because they can't be bothered to admit, up front, that they are at fault .

[Raceworx]

Good point Dan. I've seen the problem with Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Opera to name but a few . This is why I can't nail the problem down to a specific set up causing the problem and am sure it's BT's fault. But before I start telling my customers to give BT absolute hell and to persist with getting a proper answer, I need to find out if it's a local problem .

For what it's worth, I've always been right when it comes to BT-related problems . BT probably don't like me with the amount of money I've cost them purely because they can't be bothered to admit, up front, that they are at fault .

I work for openreach (waits for the flames) i have no problems with e-mails all sent over BT servers.. but im up north so there could be a local (ish) server issue..

Don't use the email, but our BT interwebs keep dropping out

Ring BT and ask for a broadband boost job then.. say your having sync issues and you would like a broad band engineer to come out and test the line..

but before you do make sure you do the checks they ask you to.. plug the router directly into the main test socket and with a fresh BB filter. if the problems in your house you will get charged for it.. and just double check (if you have it) your sky has a filter on it..

[sideways14a]

Somehow... i think cluck may have tramped down that particular street quite a few times..

[Raceworx]

i was refering to lous problem with the ring BT up..


if its somthing complex like a high level server issue that covers multipul exchanges then he has more chance of god coming down and fixing it that getting his point accross to a call center desk jockey..

if it goes of the script by even a word your doomed! i work for the buggers and i was on hold this morning for 40mins trying to get a line reset!

[Ghazoobe]

I use BT mail online through mail.yahoo.co.uk and often not from home through the broadband.
It often comes up with errors and sometimes reckons my password is wrong but always sorts itself out almost straight away. (and its forever freezing up in IE8)

I also use it setup with the server details on my phone and it sometimes doesn't believe my password, but that doesn't seem to be very often and it does it with hotmail too so I think its more to do with my phone.

[Cluck]

Just got back from a customer and both his PCs were doing this whilst I was there. One was running XP and had Outlook 2010 whilst the other was a new Windows 7 system (I only installed it last Thursday) and that's running Outlook 2003 SP3. One minute it would work fine, the next minute it was rejecting the password, then it would work again, then it would fail again. This is the exact pattern that customers have been reporting for the last 6 weeks but the first time I've seen it consistently do it with my own eyes.

[Dan@DB-Power]

I might be tempted to blame Outlook.

I know my system (XLN via BT line) rejected the sending of messages using mail software such as Outlook and Thunderbird.

Now using Outlook 2010 and all is fine

[Mike_S13]

Yep, it's broken.

I've tried XP, Vista, Linux, Android with Outlook, Thunderbird and HTC mail - it happens on all of them.

[Cluck]

Going to bump this because the problem is still ongoing with a lot of my customers and I now have a new problem but this time with BT's business broadband service (BT Connect). Certain e-mails are vanishing without trace once they are sent from the PC . BT are, as usual, denying that the problem is at their end despite two customers reporting exactly the same problem with different e-mails. There are no non-delivery or delay reports received and whilst one customer is using Outlook through Exchange Server (configured to use BT Connect's mail servers as a smart host), the other is using Outlook Express on a standalone PC. Doesn't matter who the e-mail is addressed to, it simply vanishes into thin air once it is in BT's system. Despite all this and despite the fact that I can forward the same e-mail to whoever I like using a non-BT mail server, BT are currently denying the fault is in their system.

I've had enough of BT and their shitty service right now - it is aggravating my customers enormously and, as such, is aggravating me as there is only so many times I can say "There's not a lot I can do except suggest you change provider or move your e-mail hosting elsewhere".

On top of the e-mail problems, last week they upgraded a customer to ADSL 2+ but didn't actually tell the customer it was happening. The customer's router was too old to support it, so the connection just went offline as the router could no longer see the ADSL signal properly. That BT also had decided to do the upgrade at 9am rather than overnight just componded the problem .

I still cannot believe that my customers, in this local area, are the only ones in the country experiencing these problems, yet BT are fobbing every single case off with a "It's your equipment, not ours" .

[Ross B]

On top of the e-mail problems, last week they upgraded a customer to ADSL 2+ but didn't actually tell the customer it was happening. The customer's router was too old to support it, so the connection just went offline as the router could no longer see the ADSL signal properly. That BT also had decided to do the upgrade at 9am rather than overnight just componded the problem .

This isn't unusual?

I'm one of the poor individuals who has been forced to do these 'upgrades' and they're all done during normal working hours?

[Cluck]

Don't take this the wrong way but wouldn't it make more sense to do the upgrades for businesses outside of normal 'office hours' so that they don't have any disruption? It didn't help that, in this instance, the customer had received no prior notification, so couldn't plan for the downtime. Anyway, that was a minor side-rant, it's the bloody e-mail problems that are winding my customers up.

[Ross B]

I see your point entirely, but for some perspective, an 'upgrade' takes the best part of 5-10 minutes depending on the exchange. 9 times out of 10, the customer wouldn't even know.

I think some of the business customers have their lines converted overnight anyway. The night teams are very busy right now. I assume it depends on their service contract.

Email I don't deal with anymore unfortunately. My access has been restricted right down to 'OMGdon'tlethimtouchanythingusefulincasehefixesit' level.