Telecom advises I'm losing my Flickr account...

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom advises I'm losing my Flickr account...

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6434 posts

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#715717 12-Nov-2012 11:21

nzlpablo: I decided to register here just to add my complaint to the pile...

After being a Telecom customer for over a decade (even working for them for ~5 years) I'm now losing access to years and years of emails (plus having to update the email address for every website/forum/whatever I've ever registered for online, ever).

So what, you're not a Telecom customer anymore? You might say. Well, two things I'd like to point out:

1) Anyone can go and register for a free yahoo.co.nz email address. I would have done that at the start if I realised that Xtra would hold my email archives captive if I end my services with Telecom.

2) It just serves me to never want to return to Telecom as a customer, and never to recommend friends or family to use them.

I'd be happy to pay $2.95 a month to keep the address if that was an option.

Also, as a final thought, compared to most free email services, Yahoo!Xtra has the highest amount of advertising, the most INTRUSIVE advertising (full-colour flash-based ads in a side-bar in every email folder and message, that you can't get rid of), and the most downtime/glitches/delayed messages. The mind boggles.

couldn't you forward all the emails you want to keep to your new email address?

( and you have now leart a valuable lesson about the dangers of bundling services that you may want to 'unbundle' when you move ISPs :P )

I know Orcon do 'free email for life' (good on them) but what happens at other ISPs (vodafone etc) when you leave but want to retain your email address? Isn't it basically the same thing?

nzlpablo

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#715738 12-Nov-2012 11:44

plambrechtsen:
However you don't include the fact that having an Xtra account includes premium services which cost money including Flickr Pro and Dialup Access which isn't provided free from a Yahoo.co.nz email address so you're not comparing equivalent services.

I'll give you that, but with the counter that it's disingenuous to promote Yahoo email as a "premium" service for being an Xtra customer, when any Joe Bloggs can sign up for it (unless you count have a "xtra.co.nz" address instead of "yahoo.co.nz" as a premium service).

It's like advertising "free breathable air with any purchase". It's a borderline breach of the FTA in my opinion...

http://www.telecom.co.nz/packages/packages/existingcustomer/premiumservices/

Free Yahoo! MailAs a Telecom broadband customer you get a FREE Yahoo! Mail account, powered by Yahoo! the world's number one email service provider.

I would expect that any reasonable person would take that to mean that a Yahoo mail account wasn't free if they weren't a Telecom broadband customer. No?

mattgreen:
Can't fix the change of email.. But in terms of your archives.. Setup a gmail account then set it up to download your mail from your @xtra.co.nz account.

Go into Settings -> Accounts and Import. I had mine setup as a pop3 account. Just use pop3r.xtra.co.nz, port 995 and your username as if you were setting up an account in any mail program.

You may also be able to use the "Import mail and contacts" option as it's designed to work with Yahoo! mailboxes (which is what they are) but I've never tried it myself.

Thanks Matt. That was the first thing I did. It's not a perfect solution - some emails didn't get "sucked through" and I had everything neatly stored in Xtra folders and now of course they're all in one huge folder. No biggie.

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

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#715739 12-Nov-2012 11:45

nzlpablo:

plambrechtsen:
However you don't include the fact that having an Xtra account includes premium services which cost money including Flickr Pro and Dialup Access which isn't provided free from a Yahoo.co.nz email address so you're not comparing equivalent services.

I'll give you that, but with the counter that it's disingenuous to promote Yahoo email as a "premium" service for being an Xtra customer, when any Joe Bloggs can sign up for it (unless you count have a "xtra.co.nz" address instead of "yahoo.co.nz" as a premium service).

It's like advertising "free breathable air with any purchase". It's a borderline breach of the FTA in my opinion...

http://www.telecom.co.nz/packages/packages/existingcustomer/premiumservices/

Free Yahoo! MailAs a Telecom broadband customer you get a FREE Yahoo! Mail account, powered by Yahoo! the world's number one email service provider.

I would expect that any reasonable person would take that to mean that a Yahoo mail account wasn't free if they weren't a Telecom broadband customer. No?

mattgreen:
Can't fix the change of email.. But in terms of your archives.. Setup a gmail account then set it up to download your mail from your @xtra.co.nz account.

Go into Settings -> Accounts and Import. I had mine setup as a pop3 account. Just use pop3r.xtra.co.nz, port 995 and your username as if you were setting up an account in any mail program.

You may also be able to use the "Import mail and contacts" option as it's designed to work with Yahoo! mailboxes (which is what they are) but I've never tried it myself.

Thanks Matt. That was the first thing I did. It's not a perfect solution - some emails didn't get "sucked through" and I had everything neatly stored in Xtra folders and now of course they're all in one huge folder. No biggie.

I refer back to my previous edit on my last post:

Edit: Sorry I hadn't realised I was being trolled by nzlpablo.

I don't think Vodafone offer the service for Free to keep your email address when you leave them. So lets leave it at that.

nzlpablo

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#715741 12-Nov-2012 11:48

plambrechtsen:

I refer back to my previous edit on my last post:

Edit: Sorry I hadn't realised I was being trolled by nzlpablo.

I don't think Vodafone offer the service for Free to keep your email address when you leave them. So lets leave it at that.

I work for Vodafone, but as always my views are my own.

Nice way of dodging the issue though.

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

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#715744 12-Nov-2012 11:54

nzlpablo:
plambrechtsen:

I refer back to my previous edit on my last post:

Edit: Sorry I hadn't realised I was being trolled by nzlpablo.

I don't think Vodafone offer the service for Free to keep your email address when you leave them. So lets leave it at that.

I work for Vodafone, but as always my views are my own.

Nice way of dodging the issue though.

Not dodging the issue at all. I just think it's extremely unlikely that you as a Vodafone employee would be recommending Telecom to any of your friends or family, so I don't think you were being honest with your initial post clearly disclosing you are a Vodafone employee.

An xtra.co.nz email address is included as part of the premium package you get when you have a Telecom Dialup or Broadband account. Just like it is with Vodafone.

When you cease you billing relationship with either company they close the attached account.

Vodafone does it, so does Telecom. You sat in limbo for a few years and received free service including the ability to access the premium services including Flickr Pro and McAffee.

To compare "just" an xtra.co.nz to a yahoo.co.nz email address isn't fair since they aren't the same product with the same services included.

freitasm

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#715745 12-Nov-2012 11:55

nzlpablo:
plambrechtsen:

I refer back to my previous edit on my last post:

Edit: Sorry I hadn't realised I was being trolled by nzlpablo.

I don't think Vodafone offer the service for Free to keep your email address when you leave them. So lets leave it at that.

I work for Vodafone, but as always my views are my own.

Nice way of dodging the issue though.

It would be polite at the best to add "I work for Vodafone" on your first post shooting at the competition.

nzlpablo

15 posts

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#715751 12-Nov-2012 11:59

plambrechtsen:

Vodafone does it, so does Telecom. You sat in limbo for a few years and received free service including the ability to access the premium services including Flickr Pro and McAffee.

To compare "just" an xtra.co.nz to a yahoo.co.nz email address isn't fair since they aren't the same product with the same services included.

For what it's worth I didn't sit in limbo for a few years - I worked for Vodafone and continued happily paying Telecom for Mobile AND homeline AND broadband for a period of time. And I STILL want to give you my money, just to get a FREE service :D

In regards to your last sentence there though, what is the difference between a "xtra.co.nz" account and a "yahoo.co.nz" account"? I'm genuinely unaware of a difference.

Wise

Send money globally for less with Wise - one free transfer up to NZ$900 (affiliate link).

nzlpablo

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#715754 12-Nov-2012 12:03

freitasm:

It would be polite at the best to add "I work for Vodafone" on your first post shooting at the competition.

You're right, I didn't consider how that would be viewed. What a fool! My bad. It is genuinely personal opinion though.

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

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#715759 12-Nov-2012 12:16

nzlpablo: For what it's worth I didn't sit in limbo for a few years - I worked for Vodafone and continued happily paying Telecom for Mobile AND homeline AND broadband for a period of time. And I STILL want to give you my money, just to get a FREE service :D

In regards to your last sentence there though, what is the difference between a "xtra.co.nz" account and a "yahoo.co.nz" account"? I'm genuinely unaware of a difference.

Well if you had a billing relationship with Telecom including Home Broadband or Mobile Broadband then there wouldn't have been the issue with your xtra.co.nz account.

In regards to the differences between a xtra.co.nz and a yahoo.co.nz account. One is an account provided to you by Telecom, the other is provided to you by Yahoo. To me it's like comparing a Vodafone.co.nz, or a Paradise.net.nz email address or any other ISP provided email address vs a hotmail/gmail/outlook/... free "email" address.

By having a Dialup / Fixed / Mobile Broadband connection with Telecom you get the email address included as part of the package, and all the premium services bundled too. The xtra.co.nz email on it's own can't be easily unbundled.

Just because the xtra.co.nz happens to be hosted with Yahoo doesn't change the fact that it's managed by Telecom. I'm also fairly confident (but I could be wrong here) that Yahoo have dedicated infrastructure to run the xtra.co.nz domain within their own Datacentre.

Here is the differences Yahoo show between a xtra.co.nz and yahoo.co.nz address: http://nz.docs.yahoo.com/help/

nzlpablo

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#715769 12-Nov-2012 12:27

That page just tells me that Telecom support Yahoo!Xtra mail, and Yahoo! supports Yahoo! mail.

I've just created a yahoo.co.nz account now, and it looks identical to my xtra.co.nz account.

I still don't get it :S

mattgreen

133 posts

Master Geek

#715770 12-Nov-2012 12:27

nzlpablo:

Thanks Matt. That was the first thing I did. It's not a perfect solution - some emails didn't get "sucked through" and I had everything neatly stored in Xtra folders and now of course they're all in one huge folder. No biggie.

Good thing gmail has decent search ;)

Ragnor

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#715775 12-Nov-2012 12:34

nzlpablo:

I still don't get it :S

How hard is that to understand that the xtra.co.nz email service is bundled with Flickr Pro and McAffee anti virus which Telecom pay for?

If you're not a customer it's unrealistic to expect they should they provide you with an email service with these bundled features anymore imo.

Heck it's even unrealistic to expect to continue to use an xtra.co.nz address when you are not a customer anymore imo.

Also their is nothing is stopping you from copying/exporting your existing email archive to another account or service, which it sounds like you are doing.

NonprayingMantis

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#715780 12-Nov-2012 12:49

nzlpablo:

2) It just serves me to never want to return to Telecom as a customer, and never to recommend friends or family to use them.

Who would you reccomend?

(presumably not vodafone since I beleive their email service works the same way i.e. if you ditch BB you have to ditch email or pay $20 per month for a dialup service)

nzlpablo

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Inactive user

#715783 12-Nov-2012 12:52

Ragnor:
nzlpablo:

I still don't get it :S

How hard is that to understand that the xtra.co.nz email service is bundled with Flickr Pro and McAffee anti virus which Telecom pay for?

If you're not a customer it's unrealistic to expect they should they provide you with an email service with these bundled features anymore imo.

Heck it's even unrealistic to expect to continue to use an xtra.co.nz address when you are not a customer anymore imo.

Also their is nothing is stopping you from copying/exporting your existing email archive to another account or service, which it sounds like you are doing.

How hard is this to understand:

If you get a Yahoo! mail account, it's free and you can keep it forever.

Telecom offer you a Yahoo! mail account PLUS premium services. They say it's "just like a regular Yahoo! mail account" but it's NOT the same as a regular Yahoo! mail account because you don't get to keep it if you cease your billing relationship with Telecom.

Please show me where this is detailed in Telecom's terms and conditions. I've been searching through them (there's a lot of T&Cs) and it must be buried in there pretty deep if it exists.

nzlpablo

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#715784 12-Nov-2012 12:53

NonprayingMantis:
nzlpablo:

2) It just serves me to never want to return to Telecom as a customer, and never to recommend friends or family to use them.

Who would you reccomend?

(presumably not vodafone since I beleive their email service works the same way i.e. if you ditch BB you have to ditch email or pay $20 per month for a dialup service)

TelstraClear

;)

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