Thanks to moosee for posting this, otherwise I would have thought I may be the only one.

I've been dealing with this same issue over the last week and wanted to share what I've learned from going through Orcon's support process in full.

After escalating through multiple staff members, I received written confirmation of two significant things: first, that there is a "confirmed known issue" affecting SpamTitan; and second, that the email service "is no longer a lifetime offering."

For those of us who have held these addresses for decades on the basis of that original promise, that second point is worth noting carefully — and it has now been compounded by a further disclosure: Orcon support has confirmed that following the Orcon/2degrees merger, the email service may be discontinued entirely. This was not communicated proactively to customers. It was disclosed in an individual support thread.

I also had four out of six Orcon support replies caught by SpamTitan — including one that was redelivered from virusalert@orcon.net.nz — which tells you something about how misconfigured the filter is.

I have put it to Orcon directly that they have a Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 obligation to communicate the merger and discontinuation risk to their entire lifetime email customer base through a fully robust method — given that SpamTitan would likely catch a broadcast email, the irony of that challenge is not lost. This customer base will include many elderly people who may have no idea their communications have been silently disappearing, or that their address may soon cease to exist.

I am now migrating my primary address and have raised the matter formally, citing the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993. For anyone else significantly affected, the Disputes Tribunal — which I am considering unless Orcon appropriately deals with this situation for its entire 'email for life' customer base — is a low-cost option worth considering, particularly given that Orcon has now acknowledged the fault in writing.

I supported Orcon when they started because they were the kiwi underdog small player at the time, and sadly, very sadly, I'm now navigating what turned out to be a surprisingly significant consumer rights matter, dressed up as an email problem. There's a lot of history attached to a string of text before an @ symbol.

Good luck to everyone else navigating this too.