Spark to charge for all Xtramail accounts.

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark to charge for all Xtramail accounts.

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#3204084 7-Mar-2024 12:56

I'll be changing my parents over to Outlook.com tonight. Annoying, as they have had a xtra address for a long, long time now. They've only just got Facebook, so email is the way they communicate.

Would be good if Spark could offer free forwarding for a year or so, so people in a similar situation to mine could switch across to outlook.com/gmail etc.

K8Toledo

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#3204089 7-Mar-2024 13:28

Bung:

"We’re no longer offering Xtra Mail for free

Xtra Mail has kept New Zealanders like you connected for almost 30 years. However, costs to run the service have increased significantly and it’s no longer sustainable to offer it for free.

So, from 16 May 2024, Xtra Mail will cost $5.95 a month for Spark broadband, pay monthly mobile and landline customers and $9.95 a month for everyone else."

That came into effect ages ago.

Gmail is free and at least has a spam filter.

Bung

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#3204093 7-Mar-2024 13:35

Not for existing broadband customers. There was only a charge if you wanted to keep xtra email and didn't have a Spark broadband account to attach it to.

Edit Unless you mean they've been drip feeding the news to their customers.

K8Toledo

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#3204094 7-Mar-2024 13:39

Bung:

Not for existing broadband customers. There was only a charge if you wanted to keep xtra email and didn't have a Spark broadband account to attach it to.

Edit Unless you mean they've been drip feeding the news to their customers.

Probably this.

Xtramail is unsafe given the amount of spam/phishing emails that come through.

networkn

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#3204105 7-Mar-2024 14:15

Thank Christ is all I have to say about that. Finally, finally we might be able to get people away from their awful pop3 and iMap accounts!

robjg63

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#3204116 7-Mar-2024 14:29

I am gobsmacked at the people that still cling to xtra email accounts.

The writing has been on the wall for years - ISPs dont want to run email services.

I am genuinely surprised that Spark havent just said they want to shut it down.

I suppose that would queue up the sad stories of people like "93 year old Mabel from Eketahunilton" who is crying at being forced to change by an evil and uncaring corporation.

I remember talking to someone years ago and they said 'it's too hard to change'.

You create a new gmail/outlook account.
Change your obvious stuff like accounts and subscriptions
Keep an eye on your old mailbox and just change other accounts etc to the new address.
After a month or two most mail drops to nothing - If you want to be really careful, keep an eye on the old address for 12 months.

Probably a little more difficult for a 'business' - But a business is crazy to be using xtra.

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richms

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#3204136 7-Mar-2024 15:03

robjg63:

I suppose that would queue up the sad stories of people like "93 year old Mabel from Eketahunilton" who is crying at being forced to change by an evil and uncaring corporation.

Like all the rage from the peasants about some bank making an old person upgrade their iPhone SIX to be able to use the apps.

Comments on that went as well as can be expected.

Will see the same thing "Grandparent loses email address they have had for 25 years meaning they cant contact their grandchildren" and other nonsense from people who have had an eternity to move on and not done so.

Richard rich.ms

cheshirecat

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#3204138 7-Mar-2024 15:06

leaplae:

Would be good if Spark could offer free forwarding for a year or so, so people in a similar situation to mine could switch across to outlook.com/gmail etc.

As I understand it, they will be doing this (free forwarding of mailboxes for an unspecified length of time) but check this with them

catspyjamas

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#3204140 7-Mar-2024 15:16

I haven't received this email yet. I wonder if that's because my spark account is an outlook.com one.

My xtra email is still active though never used. I've only kept it alive because it's free (I have a broadband account) & every now and again something I want is sent to that address, usually by friends or family that fail to delete my old address or reply to a really old email instead of starting a new one, or something along those lines. I've also needed it to access something that won't let you delete an original email address (only subsequent ones), & will default to using the original if you've forgotten a password or something. Jolly annoying.

Do you need to have that email before you can opt out? If not, how do you go about that?

mattwnz

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#3204153 7-Mar-2024 15:26

nztim:

mattwnz: I got the email and surprised that you have to opt out if you don't want to be charged. Surely people should have to opt in if they agree to be charged for it. Still see a lot of xtra email addresses used by tradies on business cards

There are still business and sole traders running off it

If you made people have to opt in then if they did nothing and closed or missed the memo then Spark may be legally liable

Auto opt in is the best approach most will just cancel,

This is true however other ISPs have completely shut down their services and have emailed customers to let them know, and then that data got deleted. One way is that they could just lock access to accounts until they opt in, so no data gets lost and they can access it immediately after they confirm they still need it. Otherwise they could get a lot of people complaining that they never got the email and they are now getting charged for a service that they weren't even using.

One thing I want to know is whether peoples old email addresses will able to be reused by new customers. I would hope not.

networkn

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#3204156 7-Mar-2024 15:34

robjg63:

I am gobsmacked at the people that still cling to xtra email accounts.

The writing has been on the wall for years - ISPs dont want to run email services.

I am genuinely surprised that Spark havent just said they want to shut it down.

I suppose that would queue up the sad stories of people like "93 year old Mabel from Eketahunilton" who is crying at being forced to change by an evil and uncaring corporation.

I remember talking to someone years ago and they said 'it's too hard to change'.

You create a new gmail/outlook account.
Change your obvious stuff like accounts and subscriptions
Keep an eye on your old mailbox and just change other accounts etc to the new address.
After a month or two most mail drops to nothing - If you want to be really careful, keep an eye on the old address for 12 months.
Probably a little more difficult for a 'business' - But a business is crazy to be using xtra.

It's even easier.

We forward from xtra to gmail, and then set a rule incoming to mark anything that originated from xtra.co.nz to a different colour on arrival, so the user can email back and say change my address like I asked you to!

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richms

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#3204158 7-Mar-2024 15:34

mattwnz:

One thing I want to know is whether peoples old email addresses will able to be reused by new customers. I would hope not.

Its not really up to the providers to keep the addresses out of the pool forever when they are cancelled. The bigger problem is the lazy companies that treat access to an email address as total proof of identity. Same for phone numbers.

Richard rich.ms

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#3204164 7-Mar-2024 15:50

richms: Like all the rage from the peasants about some bank making an old person upgrade their iPhone SIX to be able to use the apps.

On the positive side if you need an excuse to upgrade your satisfactory phone you can always use the "aged parent/grandparent could really benefit from the old one" line. While you're at it if their ISP isn't adding any value you should really make sure they are getting the best deal on price.

mattwnz

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#3204170 7-Mar-2024 16:08

richms:

mattwnz:

One thing I want to know is whether peoples old email addresses will able to be reused by new customers. I would hope not.

Its not really up to the providers to keep the addresses out of the pool forever when they are cancelled. The bigger problem is the lazy companies that treat access to an email address as total proof of identity. Same for phone numbers.

Apparently Gmail doesn't recycle old ones, and I would think that it would be best practice not to. IMO it could cause privacy or security issues if someone is knowingly able to get recycle someones old email address, and then use it to gain access to an old account with a third party. Especially companies that use older systems that rely on email for proof of identify. However I do recall when I first joined Xtra in the 90's I had an xtra email address. I canceled a few years later and resigned up about 10 years ago, and was able to get back my old xtra email address back again.

mattwnz

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#3204172 7-Mar-2024 16:19

richms:

This will be a boost for the signwriting businesses with all the tradie vans that have xtra on them which will have to get updated.

IMO many will likely just pay it as it isn't that much as a business expense. One thing that tech commentators haven't said is that the free options don't provide any real support, and definitely no phone support. But Spark does and that is where people see it's value, as older people can phone them up and get help with their email. If you are going for a domain name and email hosting with MS or Google, you will be paying more than $6 a month, and with Spark you do get 5 accounts.

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