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General discussion

Verizon & AOL Mail Merger Problems

Apr 14, 2017 10:23AM PDT

Anyone else tripping over the Verizon decision to end their email service as an ISP and turn it all over to AOL MAIL now? Seems you get one account changed to AOL, then Verizon assumes that means all have been changed over, and you can no longer access any of the other email accounts. This is particularly the case if you fail to transfer the subaccounts FIRST and instead transfer the main mail account FIRST. Verizon then claims it's in AOL's hands and AOL's foreign accent (Indian) help service blames Verizon and claim they still have the missing mail accts. Verizon says 'they now have our mail servers, so we can't do anything" and AOL claims nobody gave them those particular email accounts and ONLY Verizon can do something about it.

I see a class action suit coming out of this later as this debacle continues and grows.

Discussion is locked

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Here's the big missing part of the lawsuit.
Apr 14, 2017 10:52AM PDT

If the email service was free, when it goes away, you can't sue. No money = no contract.

Get a lawyer to explain this area if need be.

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Verizon Wasn't Free.. And Here, They Switched To Frontier...
Apr 14, 2017 1:12PM PDT

Verizon kept their wireless accounts but gave all their landline stuff to Frontier. Here, my DSL account at home and another at a remote office at work was originally through Verizon. When Frontier took over here, all the email addresses remained the same, with a *@verizon.net address but all the the webmail went to AOL. The customer could still access all local email accounts, using an onboard email client, such as Outlook, but the webmail went to AOL. Luckily, I only had a single Verzion.net email address and it transferred over to AOL and no changes were needed with Outlook. In addition, I hardly ever access that account online so I've not had any problems other than the original transfer setup to AOL which required some fancy footwork to create a new password for the AOL access, plus jumping through some of their hoops.

The work account was a Verizon Business account and it had 8 or 9 different sub-email addresses setup on the one account. Thankfully, I retired a few years ago and I don't have to resolve the AOL issue there but I'll guess they are having the same issues James is dealing with.

But since I'm not dealing with the issue, I don't have any good suggestions for James. Sorry.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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I had a discussion with a vendor on this.
Apr 14, 2017 1:25PM PDT

They avoided the lawsuits by calling/labeling it a free feature. If you paid for Verizon email, you are a rare exception and about all you can do is keep paying as you litigate.

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Interesting.. But I Paid For The Verizon Service & That....
Apr 14, 2017 2:16PM PDT

...included a telephone number and connection, an internet and email account which was required in order to use their internet access, a router, and their customer service support. All of which I paid for monthly, except the router, which I paid for with a one time purchase. And it's not "rare". Everyone who has a Verizon email address paid to get it and they couldn't use the internet account or the email service unless it was paid for.

Yes, there are free email account available, such as Juno and Netzero, but Verizon is NOT one of them. The customer has to pay to get a Verizon email address. Simple as that, despite what the vendor says. But... then again, that's exactly what law suits are all about. Letting the courts decide who's wrong or right.

Grif

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And that was how they avoided legal action.
Apr 14, 2017 2:42PM PDT

The service was for the phone. The others were benefits or free.

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I Paid Separate Charges For Each
Apr 14, 2017 3:21PM PDT

I had Verizon here for a long time. Originally, I only paid for phone service because that's all I wanted. A few years later, I chose to get internet service, at which time I paid more money, each of them a separate service on the bill, was required to create an email account with them and was given internet access using that email account. Nothing here was free.

Grif

Post was last edited on April 14, 2017 3:23 PM PDT

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What I'm also running into
Apr 14, 2017 4:23PM PDT

Are folk that left Verizon and get uppity when the email dies. True....

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Here, Verizon Left Us...
Apr 14, 2017 4:50PM PDT

...and Frontier took over along with AOL, which hasn't been the greatest switch. For me, if I'd left Verizon, I would have EXPECTED to lose my email.

Grif

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I didn't leave them.
Apr 15, 2017 7:19AM PDT

They've left me, far as email goes. Only one email acct transferred and works, the others are dead, unable it seems to be revived. One they've even said they have no record of, it was a forwarding acct, yet it was working previous to this "corporate failure to change over".

I've been wasting minutes and airtime on cellphone, since I'm not at home, trying to get it fixed. Costing me extra money.

Leave them on everything, including the TV, and internet service? YES, giving it every consideration after this. If it wasn't for my wife, I'd already have cancelled EVERYTHING with them after days of getting nowhere with their online support.

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EXACTLY!
Apr 15, 2017 7:14AM PDT

I've kept one email acct secure for over 20 years, going back to when it was bell atlantic and I was on dialup. Who knew it would be Verizon and AOL who would gang up together to hack/destroy that account?!! The biggest threat to my verizon email........IS VERIZON!

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FREE???
Apr 15, 2017 7:11AM PDT

You must be dreaming of some unknown ISP. It's a part of their service, so yes, it's paid for. I don't intend to pay them a penny more until they get this fixed. "It's AOL's fault" , then you hear "It's Verizon's fault". "They have our email servers" , "yes we are running the servers, but they control the accounts till switched from them to us". Both "we can do nothing" ad nauseum.

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So your email. You do back it up?
Apr 15, 2017 9:03AM PDT
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I use POP3
Apr 15, 2017 9:47AM PDT

So all emails are saved locally. Even for IMAP have have it say the emails locally. What I want to avoid is being forced to change registration email with EVERY vendor I have anything to do with. Making things worse is many vendors now use an email address as the username, instead of a unique username that is not tied directly to the email account. In essence, more and more, we become our email, not a username like before.