Moving; E-mail Address Question

BornToShop · ‎03-10-2010

DH & I are relocating to north Fla due to a job promotion (yay!). We have used ATT for years for our landline & DSL services. They do not service our new area. Will I have to lose my e-mail address I have had for 15 years with all my folders, etc. once I terminate ATT? My apologies to all "techies" who might find this a stupid question, as I am not tech savvy. My talents lie elsewhere, lol. TIA!

GCR18 · ‎07-03-2013

Yes.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

The answer is: It depends. In the old days, as soon as your account with an ISP ended, they'd shut down your old e-mail address. Nowadays some ISP's let you keep the old address for varying times, including forever, as long as the account is kept active. I'd check with ATT and see what they say. They may just let you keep it.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

jackthebear · ‎03-11-2010

@BornToShop wrote:
DH & I are relocating to north Fla due to a job promotion (yay!). We have used ATT for years for our landline & DSL services. They do not service our new area. Will I have to lose my e-mail address I have had for 15 years with all my folders, etc. once I terminate ATT? My apologies to all "techies" who might find this a stupid question, as I am not tech savvy. My talents lie elsewhere, lol. TIA!

get a gmail.com address and start forwarding all your mail there and gradually change the addresses to the gmail, which is not tied to an ISP

when you get settled you can keep the gmail or fwd to your new ISP, (which you can tweak in gmail settings)

For example, my gmail is fwd'd to my ISP but I can change that if I want

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

I just changed ISPs and had already started moving things when I was advised that your email addresses belong to you, so they don't go away.

That said, however, I went ahead and kept moving everything because I was glad to be rid of ATT. Furthermore, I have noticed that they made things more difficult for me to get in to my old email addresses (I am still checking them for things that I may have missed changing).

Leaving ATT was probably the best thing I did lately but I'll tell you what - they mess with you. Suddenly I get all these mailings, every other day, with them trying to sell me DTV and yesterday I got a letter telling me that they were sending me new equipment, as they have upgraded. WHAAAT? I quit them over a month ago!

I called ATT and there is basically nothing they can do, other than just have me send them back their stupid equipment. Furthermore, I asked the gentleman on the phone if he could see that the equipment that I returned has been credited to my account and, of course and even though they received it almost 3 weeks ago, it has NOT reached my account yet so now I have to worry about getting a bill for $150 for their craptacular modem/router.

Anyway, bottom line - you can keep the email addresses but I'm still glad I moved everything to my new ISP.

Nuttmeg · ‎03-09-2010

I have a Gmail account, and use it for mail, photo storage, and the calendar(31). It has some interesting useful features. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/56256?hl=en

Reviews of most ISP & cable systems around the country http://www.dslreports.com/

GCR18 · ‎07-03-2013

Great to know times are changing and it's possible to keep your email address when you change providers. I've always had to change it. Thanks for the info.

NickNack · ‎03-10-2010

@chickenbutt wrote:
I just changed ISPs and had already started moving things when I was advised that your email addresses belong to you, so they don't go away.

That said, however, I went ahead and kept moving everything because I was glad to be rid of ATT. Furthermore, I have noticed that they made things more difficult for me to get in to my old email addresses (I am still checking them for things that I may have missed changing).

Leaving ATT was probably the best thing I did lately but I'll tell you what - they mess with you. Suddenly I get all these mailings, every other day, with them trying to sell me DTV and yesterday I got a letter telling me that they were sending me new equipment, as they have upgraded. WHAAAT? I quit them over a month ago!

I called ATT and there is basically nothing they can do, other than just have me send them back their stupid equipment. Furthermore, I asked the gentleman on the phone if he could see that the equipment that I returned has been credited to my account and, of course and even though they received it almost 3 weeks ago, it has NOT reached my account yet so now I have to worry about getting a bill for $150 for their craptacular modem/router.

Anyway, bottom line - you can keep the email addresses but I'm still glad I moved everything to my new ISP.

@chickenbutt Did you keep your receipt when you returned their equipment? When I returned my box last month because I got the Bolt I kept the receipt. I didn't trust Comcast to take it off my account. I was going to wait until I got the bill showing it had been turned in. If you have the receipt they can't charge you for their modem/router.

The Bluebird Carries The Sky On His Back"
-Henry David Thoreau

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

Hiya Nick! Yes, one thing about me is that I keep track of stuff and cover my butt for when I do my part in an issue and have to wait for another person, or entity, to do their part.

The good thing is that ATT has this contract with UPS Stores where you just bring the equipment in and give them your ATT account number. They verify that it is you, as the info comes up, and they pack and ship it.

You get all this receipt material, including the tracking number and the identifying info that shows that you did this on xyz account.

I further checked when it was delivered and printed up the 'proof of delivery'. It was delivered on 5/31 in Arizona. I have a feeling that they just send that kind of thing there and there is a bunch of processing stuff so it takes a while to actually show as 'returned' on your account.

So, my worry isn't about it showing up as much as the hassle (that I DON'T need!) of having to deal with it if I have to fight something with them. My trust in them has waned to the point of zilch by this point, especially after I got that letter yesterday that my new ATT equipment is on the way because they have upgraded their services. blah blah freaking blah.

(sorry - that got kind of ranty again) Anyway, I guess it's just a waiting game. I tend to have a hard time with things in transition. I want to do my part, the other end does its part, and we're done - case closed. Moving on to the next thing.