Re: Confusing email from Verizon
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3

I too was confused by the message.

All that was needed to make the message clear was some indication that if you read mail via POP to verizon.net then your account was not inactive.  Of course, if you read this message, then your account was not inactive.  So anyone who read the message did not have to do anything, maybe.

So who needs to do anything and also received the message so that they know to do something?  Noone?  I don't think so.  Users who have their Verizon email forwarded may need to interact directly with Verizon email. Or at least that appears to be the case.  Maybe. What is the real situation?  Verizon, as usual, isn't telling.

By the way, the Email Inactivity Policy is certainly incorrect.  Just logging into my POP email client  cannot be adequate.  I might have it set to only contact Verizon when I tell it to.  I might even not access Verizon email through my POP email client at all.  What counts has to be logging into Verizon email from my POP email client.

The Email Retention Policy is also messed up.  All Email will be retained indefinitely.  All trash Email and spam Email will be deleted quickly.  Are these exceptions to the general policy?  Yes, I expect so, but it would have been much clearer to make these be explicitly so marked.

You have to wonder who Verizon gets to write these documents.  Perhaps Google could get away with this.  After all most gmail users don't pay Google anything.  However, most Verizon email customers are paying Verizon quite a bit of money for a service that includes Verizon email.  Some of that money could be put towards decent communication with us.

Re: Confusing email from Verizon
Justin46
Legend

OK, one last time.... Smiley Happy

Go read the web page linked in the email. It very clearly says if you use an email client at least once every 180 days (6 months!) your email account will not be deleted. Using any email client will satisfy the requirement; some computer email clients: MS Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Outlook Express (usable on Windows/XP only, does anybody really still use Windows/XP?), Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc., etc., etc. The net is, any program that you run on your computer, tablet, or phone that sends and/or receives email from your verizon.net account(s) satisfies the requirement, as long as the account is accessed at least once each 6 months. Plus of course if you visit the webmail page, you have accessed your email account.

Why is Verizon doing this? I don't know for sure, but I bet it is to recover a hugh amount of "dead" hard drive space and account definition space on their email servers. If you are like me, you have multiple verizon.net email accounts - I have 3 for myself and one for my wife. We do check each of my email accounts every day, but I suspect many people with multiple accounts don't, and I think Verizon is trying to remove the unused ones from their systems. An example might be a family with multiple accounts for the parents and the kids, then when the kids leave home they may get their own accounts (with Verizon or someone else) and those original emails are never used again, just deadweight sitting on the Verizon email servers.

Once again, go read the web page linked from the email you received, especially the bullets at the end.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV: Extreme HD, Internet: 50/50, Digital Voice
VMS Enhanced Service: 1 server, 2 clients
Keller, TX 76248 (VHO 1)

Re: Confusing email from Verizon
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3

From verizon.com/emailpolicy:

For the purposes of this policy, a mailbox will be considered "active" if you do any of the following at least once every 180 days:
- Log into Verizon Webmail at http://webmail.verizon.com
- Log into your POP Email client (such as Outlook Express)
- Log into MyVerizon and (i) open or send at least one Email message or (ii) set up automatic forwarding of your Email.

It is the second of these that is wrong.  You need to use your email client to log into your verizon.net email account using POP, not just log into your POP Email client, or at least that is what I expect is meant here instead of the obviously incorrect statement.

The document is also confusing as to what is being made active.  I expect that it is the particular mailbox that is being made active, not your verizon account.  If you have multiple Verizon mailboxes you have to activate each of them separately, which is not explicitly stated in the policy.

0 Likes
Re: Confusing email from Verizon
Donkster
Enthusiast - Level 2

I just got an email saying my email account will be deleted if I don't log in for 180 days. I never log in... I use the Thunderbird email client to fetch my Verizon mail. I use it many times "every" day. So don't you dare delete my email account!

0 Likes
Re: Alert message from Verizon that Verizon.net email will be deleted if inactive for 180 days
FWEhr
Contributor - Level 1

@ElizabethS wrote:

This is something only Verizon can answer.  Please visit our Support page for a variety of ways to contact Verizon, including “Ask Verizon,” our virtual chat agent, and customer support phone numbers.


Thanks to another poster, here is the info that Verizon could have included in their email, but thought we should go searching for (my emphasis added):

"Email Inactivity Policy
Email accounts without activity for 180 days will be considered inactive. Inactive Email accounts will be permanently deleted in their entirety, without notice, including Email addresses, all Email, and personal Email folders. Inactive Email accounts may not be reactivated and you will NOT be able to recover Email addresses, deleted Emails or personal Email folders.
For the purposes of this policy, a mailbox will be considered "active" if you do any of the following at least once every 180 days:
 Log into Verizon Webmail at http://webmail.verizon.com
Log into your POP Email client (such as Outlook Express)
 Log into MyVerizon and (i) open or send at least one Email message or (ii) set up automatic forwarding of your Email."

Sorry Elizabeth (who may be Verizon or doesn't want to admit) - I suspect I'm not the only one reluctant to wait on interminable hold, passed from person to person to find the one sentient being who can answer my question. The good news is, the link in the original email does confirm that I don't need to go to your email to keep my account alive.

Re: Confusing email from Verizon
Justin46
Legend

@Donkster wrote:

I just got an email saying my email account will be deleted if I don't log in for 180 days. I never log in... I use the Thunderbird email client to fetch my Verizon mail. I use it many times "every" day. So don't you dare delete my email account!


Have you bothered to read ANY of the previous posts in this thread? If not, I suggest you do so, especially the one two entries before yours where I specifically listed Thunderbird (and yes, you are logging in when you use Thunderbird, or any email client, that is why you must specify your user name and password to the client when you define the account to the client, SO IT CAN LOG IN TO RETRIEVE OR SEND YOUR EMAILS). Or did you bother to click on the link in the email from Verizon and read the policy on their website? If not, I suggest you do so.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV: Extreme HD, Internet: 50/50, Digital Voice
VMS Enhanced Service: 1 server, 2 clients
Keller, TX 76248 (VHO 1)

0 Likes
Re: New email policy
Nunzio2
Enthusiast - Level 3

I've gotten the same ambiguous, and threatening email from Verizon. I say threatening because the consequence stated is the loss of the email address.

It's not clear what they mean. Does accessing email via Mac Mail suffice? Or is Verizon saying that if you don't use their website directly, you will lose your address(s) with them? And what about aliases?

What are they up to if not to drive more business to their site?

0 Likes
Re: New email policy
somegirl
Champion - Level 3

Read. Yes, accessing with a POP3 client counts. This is stated multiple times in this thread and also in the Email Policy linked from the original email.

Re: New email policy
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3

"accessing with a POP3 client" is not stated in the Verizon email policy.

What is stated in the Verizon email policy is "Log into your POP Email
client (such as Outlook Express)". This is subtly different, as some
people, such as myself, don't have our POP email clients set to
automatically access our Verizon email accounts, but yet we do something
that can be considered to be signing in to the client.

In my case, it is obvious to those of us who understand what is going on
with email clients and servers that just using my email client doesn't
count. It may not be obvious to those who do not completely understand the
distinction between email clients and servers.

For users who only read their Verizon email after it has been forwarded to
some other email server, it will be harder to see the difference between
signing in to their email client and accessing Verizon email. These users
may be unpleasantly surprised when their account is deleted, even though
they have been happily reading their Verizon email and even sending email
using their Verizon account.

Re: New email policy
Nunzio2
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thank you for your response. Yes I understand the difference between email client software and the server level of email. I also understand that Verizon has instructed its customer service reps to state that the portal must be accessed every 30 days. Then upon further questioniong, they will tell you that it's 180 days. Obviously Verizon is attempting to drive more business to its horrid portal. You know the one I mean, the one that can barely filter SPAM compared to a client like say Mac Mail for example. Why on earth would anyone prefer their portal for normal business on a desktop device?

I any event, accessing the portal, as far as I can tell, is merely signing in. This means that one needs to merely sign in one every 180 days and then sign out. Done!

I'm wondering if Verizon also intends to warn customers when they are dangerously close to having email accounts terminated for non-portal access??? If the answer is 'yes' to this, then it will be an even easier matter to deal with.

0 Likes