Options for keeping an @xtra email address

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raytaylor

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Topic # 198998 31-Jul-2016 12:59

Hi Guys

Do you know what the options currently are for keeping an @xtra email address?

I have been told you can either

- Pay $20 a month for the yahoo bubble account to stay active
- Pay $10 a month for a dialup plan you dont intend to use
- Reallocate the email address to a smartphone cellular data account

The last one interests me most because some people have told me Spark can do it, and others have told me they wont.

Spark dont seem to mention the options on their help site

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

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Reply # 1601623 31-Jul-2016 13:19

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What did spark say when you called to ask them?

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mattwnz

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Reply # 1601648 31-Jul-2016 13:31

I didn't think they did the dial up plan anymore. I recall them saying that $20 was the cheapest option for keeping an extra email address.

thecatsgoolies

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Reply # 1601651 31-Jul-2016 13:34

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Friends don't let friends use an ISP provided email address

surfisup1000

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Reply # 1601654 31-Jul-2016 14:01

I cancelled all of my telecom and spark services but then xtra email address still works just fine.

So, maybe it is free now? Surely no one would pay for an email address these days.... I stopped using the xtra account mostly anyway... Just check once or twice a month in case an old colleague tries to contact me.

sbiddle

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Reply # 1601655 31-Jul-2016 14:07

surfisup1000: I cancelled all of my telecom and spark services but then xtra email address still works just fine.

So, maybe it is free now? Surely no one would pay for an email address these days.... I stopped using the xtra account mostly anyway... Just check once or twice a month in case an old colleague tries to contact me.

No it's not free. You were obviously lucky cancelling your account and either not facing this charge and the account not being cancelled.

surfisup1000

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Reply # 1601657 31-Jul-2016 14:12

Then spark need to improve their disconnect service event to check whether it is the last service on the account...... But how do they start charging for the email address after the last account service is disconnected? Does the subscriber need to request the email address and then it is added as a new billable service?

Regardless, I don't care if they kill it off. As someone said above, you should not use isp provided email anyway.

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Reply # 1601660 31-Jul-2016 14:22

surfisup1000: Then spark need to improve their disconnect service event to check whether it is the last service on the account...... But how do they start charging for the email address after the last account service is disconnected? Does the subscriber need to request the email address and then it is added as a new billable service?

Regardless, I don't care if they kill it off. As someone said above, you should not use isp provided email anyway.

You shouldn't - but many people have legacy xtra accounts so it becomes a customer lock-in scenario. Changing email addresses can be a massive process.

chevrolux

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Reply # 1601708 31-Jul-2016 14:45

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The $20/month scenario is the ones we come across most and seems to be the most consistent answer. Hadn't heard of the dial-up or mobile option.

Its a great thing for us - we tell the customer for $20 we can give them an email with their own domain and it won't be locked to anybody! Our advice (depending on how deeply entrenched the mail account was) is keep the xtra account for a couple of months with all mail forwarding to the new account, migrate address book (if any), send mass email notifying of new address and reply to everything from the new account. Seems to work well.

Jedsdad

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Reply # 1601753 31-Jul-2016 15:59

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In my view the only option is to create a new Outlook.co.nz or Gmail account and best of all its free.

The other issue about moving from an xtra account or any other for that matter is that you also need to update all those services that you may get emails from like Fly Buys, One Card, Your Bank, IRD, Farmers and so on.

These are the ones that are not usually kept in your address book or contact lists.

I made up a spreadsheet and started listing all those different places I get emails from and then gradually went through and changed them all, I had over 40 to change

Generally it just required me to login and update the records

raytaylor

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Reply # 1601772 31-Jul-2016 17:16

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timmmay:

What did spark say when you called to ask them?

I wasnt going to sit in the queue and wait so I thought I would ask here :-)

It seems people are really getting inconsistent information depending upon who they talk to, and I couldnt find a definite options list on their website.

I dont really want this discussion to turn into a pro's / cons of having an xtra email address. The fact is some customers have their @xtra address on business cards that have been handed out over the last 10 years so its not possible to change. I was asked about it today and I didnt want to give out the wrong information so was hoping someone knew more about the options to keep it than I did.

Basically the conversation went

"Ray I have changed ISP but want to keep my @xtra address, there is no way we can change it due to business reasons"

I said "Okay you can pay $20 a month to keep it going and use any ISP you like"

They said "Oh really? Thats expensive when other companies give them away for free"

Then another person at the table said "Oh I had mine switched to my cellphone. They let you keep it if you have a telecom cellphone"

Skip forward to today and she rang me up and said
"No even though I have a telecom cellphone on my account with internet on it, they wouldnt let me move the address to it"

And thats the part that I found interesting because multiple people have said that to me in the past that the CSR said they could when preparing to change ISP and that became their plan of attack but I never followed up with anyone to find out if they were successful.

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

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mattwnz

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Reply # 1601810 31-Jul-2016 18:42

It may depend on the cell phone plan. eg They may do it for someone paying $100 per month, but not do it for someone on a $20 per year prepay. I am guessing it is something they do on a case by case basis.

BarTender

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Reply # 1601830 31-Jul-2016 19:27

If you have a Mobile Broadband plan then you can transfer your xtra email address over to that active account. Not sure if standard plans (Voice, SMS & Data) also apply but I think if you have a Broadband only plan or addon then you should be away.

I would use online chat and ask them.

andrew027

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Reply # 1602092 1-Aug-2016 11:00

I'm still using the @xtra.co.nz email address I've had since getting Telecom dial-up internet 15-odd years ago. I also have a company and the business email address is an alias for my xtra account so business emails are sent to my personal inbox too. While I understand there are several good reasons for not using your ISP's free email I'm happy enough with this arrangement for now.

I also have an @gmail.com email address that I created when I bought my first Android phone because... well you have to, right? But I mostly just use this for app and phone related stuff.

What I have done in the last couple of weeks is get set up on outlook.co.nz. The xtra and gmail accounts are added to outlook so I get all my email in one place. It took a while to get my calendar synching properly across devices but now that's working I'm very happy with it. I can now start advising people to use my outlook email address instead of the xtra one to "cut out the middle man", while leaving the xtra account in place so nothing gets lost. And although I have no plans to dump Spark any time soon, this will give me future ISP independence.

deadlyllama

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Reply # 1602112 1-Aug-2016 11:33

$20 to keep your email address is a great way to cause some leaving customers to stay but become angry, and other leaving customers to leave and become angry.

Waited in the online support queue. Spark still sell dialup ... for $20/month. Unlimited!

BarTender

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Reply # 1602132 1-Aug-2016 12:04

My understanding of the 2 options you can have for keeping a Xtra email account if you don't have Broadband with Spark as it is all attached to the Security Suite bundle.

http://www.spark.co.nz/myspark/myinternet/premiumservices/security/

The following customers with an Xtra email account can have up to 5 Spark Security Suite Licenses for FREE

Spark Broadband customers
Spark Mobile Broadband customers with a Pay Monthly Plan
Spark Dial-Up customers

With Dialup it's $20 per month.

Or if you have a postpaid Mobile Broadband plan then the cheapest is $16 ($15.99) for 500MB. For this I think you need to use online chat to get the plan added to your mobile account as it's not done via the app/Online self service portal.

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