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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altered-ego
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#3204371 8-Mar-2024 09:53

YvonneW: So I want to change. I would like a free email account. Best options please.

Sorry, can't help but laugh. One mans bread is another mans poison. It would help if you at least clarify what email client / platform you are currently using. Desktop or mobile or both? iOS or Android.

The big three are

Yahoo - How much advertising can you stomach?
Google - How much privacy invasion can you stomach?
Microsoft / Outlook - How much corporate overreach can you stomach?

The above three are supported by all major email clients.

YvonneW: ... I have a Outlook account that I never use but my husband and I share an xtra account. I have tried to register for a new Outlook acct that we can both use but the link just takes me to my acct. How do I change that address or register for a new one please?

Browse to https://www.outlook.com in Incognito / InPrivate mode or use an alternate browser temporarily. Then sign up.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

Bung

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#3204374 8-Mar-2024 10:01

Why not use your existing Outlook address? I have no problem sharing a bank account but found sharing an email account more trouble than it was worth. My wife took over my Xtra account with an alias and I've gone to Gmail to avoid all the complaints of my emails cluttering up "her" account 😀

YvonneW

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#3204386 8-Mar-2024 10:26

We use both webmail via laptops at home or work computers.Also Android phones.

The reason we don't want to use my old account is that the email is in my old married name! It would be great to change that, but don't think I can.

I know nothing :-)

richms

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#3204413 8-Mar-2024 11:09

YvonneW:

So I want to change. I would like a free email account. Best options please. I have a Outlook account that I never use but my husband and I share an xtra account. I have tried to register for a new Outlook acct that we can both use but the link just takes me to my acct. How do I change that address or register for a new one please?

Outlook doesnt handle multiple logins at once in the same browser so you have to sign out and then sign in with the other one. Gmail lets you have many logins at once and swap between them so it my go-to for all my accounts that only I access.

If you have a shared account and use android phones this leads to issues where you are sharing full access to your phone as the gmail login is tied to the phone, but on phones the outlook app will handle multiple accounts fine.

If you use on phones mainly then I would persist with outlook and just log out on the browser before you make the second one.

Richard rich.ms

WilliamNZ

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#3204605 8-Mar-2024 17:15

@catspyjamas - I have had a response from Spark to the complaint I sent in yesterday about them allowing the reuse of email addresses. Apparently the person I was talking to was wrong (even though they had to ask someone else) and they no longer recycle them. Here's the relevant part from their response:

I'm sorry you were incorrectly advised the email address may be reallocated to another customer. I've passed on feedback to the agent's manager and this will be addressed with coaching in line with our HR policy.

In the past we allowed mailboxes to be re-cycled after 2 years; however this changed last year and now email addresses cannot be reallocated to a new customer.

To clarify, 90 days after an email address is terminated the mailbox data is deleted. The original customer can request to reinstate the email address, but if it's outside the 90 day window the mailbox will be empty.

mattwnz

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#3204611 8-Mar-2024 17:24

WilliamNZ:

@catspyjamas - I have had a response from Spark to the complaint I sent in yesterday about them allowing the reuse of email addresses. Apparently the person I was talking to was wrong (even though they had to ask someone else) and they no longer recycle them. Here's the relevant part from their response:

I'm sorry you were incorrectly advised the email address may be reallocated to another customer. I've passed on feedback to the agent's manager and this will be addressed with coaching in line with our HR policy.

In the past we allowed mailboxes to be re-cycled after 2 years; however this changed last year and now email addresses cannot be reallocated to a new customer.

To clarify, 90 days after an email address is terminated the mailbox data is deleted. The original customer can request to reinstate the email address, but if it's outside the 90 day window the mailbox will be empty.

That is good to hear, and that they have changed their policy, as obviously that could be a major security and privacy issue. A pity Spark didn't mention this in their email to customers. But do wonder why their terms haven't been updated to reflect this?

Mighty Ape

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catspyjamas

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#3204618 8-Mar-2024 17:39

Thank-you so much @WilliamNZ. That's good news. My email address is made up of my 1st initial & my extremely common surname (yes it is a very VERY old email address - 25yrs ish!), so the chances of it being snatched up by someone are very high.

This policy removes the risk of temporary logins & password reset emails etc being sent to someone else, as unfortunately there are a few sites I belong to that just won't let me get rid of my original email address, or use it as a login name, or still use it for communication in spite of me changing it several years ago.

mattwnz

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#3204625 8-Mar-2024 18:46

richms:

YvonneW:

So I want to change. I would like a free email account. Best options please. I have a Outlook account that I never use but my husband and I share an xtra account. I have tried to register for a new Outlook acct that we can both use but the link just takes me to my acct. How do I change that address or register for a new one please?

Outlook doesnt handle multiple logins at once in the same browser so you have to sign out and then sign in with the other one. Gmail lets you have many logins at once and swap between them so it my go-to for all my accounts that only I access.

If you have a shared account and use android phones this leads to issues where you are sharing full access to your phone as the gmail login is tied to the phone, but on phones the outlook app will handle multiple accounts fine.

If you use on phones mainly then I would persist with outlook and just log out on the browser before you make the second one.

How does Outlook handle older versions of the Outlook client for POP / IMAP access, such as Outlook 2010? I know that Xtramail works fine in Outlook 2010, but Gmail doesn't work any longer in Outlook 2010, and I know that is why some people were continuing to use Xtra, because they couldn't get Gmail to work with older Outlook versions, and they didn't want to subscribe to office 365 just for the newer version of outlook. I suspect a lot of Xtra users will have old versions of Outlook.

AndyT

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#3204761 9-Mar-2024 12:17

I'm unclear whether this new Spark charging is (i) per email account, or (ii) per broadband connection? Can anyone please advise.

For example, we have four email addresses and two broadband connections at different residences. So will it be costing us 4 x $6/mo = $24/mo or 2 x $6/mo = $12/mo?

The Spark media announcements and notification email are not clear and needless to say I can't get through to them on the phone (gave up after two attempts at 20 minutes each) and no response to my messages to them. Dreadful customer service.

I'll likely be pruning our accounts, and possibly switch ISPs, but shall be trying out Outlook.com in parallel to see how it goes.

Thanks, AndyTNZ

Rgds Andy T

Bung

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#3204770 9-Mar-2024 12:50

Addresses (aliases going to same mailbox) or separate mailboxes? Regardless only one broadband connection would be needed for those so $5.95 assuming you have 1 invoice. If you created email accounts on 2 broadband accounts invoiced separately you could get charged twice but they should be able to tidy that up.

AndyT

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#3204773 9-Mar-2024 13:00

Thank you Bung, I think I understand.

We get one invoice from Spark listing the two broadband connections, 'phones etc. The email accounts are aliases set up off my primary email account but my wife's emails are received separately to mine in Mail or whatever app she's using.

So I think I'm only going to be hit up for $5.95/mo?

Thanks, AndyT

Rgds Andy T

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Batman

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#3204805 9-Mar-2024 14:54

i didn't realise i had an xtra email account which i have never used which got given to me when i signed up to telecom 20 years ago

i have opted OUT but got no confirmation

mattwnz

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#3204818 9-Mar-2024 16:19

AndyT:

I'm unclear whether this new Spark charging is (i) per email account, or (ii) per broadband connection? Can anyone please advise.

For example, we have four email addresses and two broadband connections at different residences. So will it be costing us 4 x $6/mo = $24/mo or 2 x $6/mo = $12/mo?

The Spark media announcements and notification email are not clear and needless to say I can't get through to them on the phone (gave up after two attempts at 20 minutes each) and no response to my messages to them. Dreadful customer service.

I'll likely be pruning our accounts, and possibly switch ISPs, but shall be trying out Outlook.com in parallel to see how it goes.

Thanks, AndyTNZ

It is per Spark account from my understanding and they limit you to 5 email accounts. However if you already have 10 email accounts, I understand you can keep all of them. You just can't setup additional ones. That is my understanding.

My street has a contact list that is updated regularly and I noticed that 7 out of the 32 houses are still using Xtra email addresses. Most of the rest are using Gmail and a few using custom domains. So there must still be quite a lot of xtra email users. I read that some tech experts thought there were 60k xtra addresses in use a few years ago, but that it may now be only 20k. I am not sure about that TBH