topic Re: Office 365 is a step backwards in Archive

Office 365 is a step backwards

Highlandfling — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:47:51 GMT

For those of us who have slow broadband working online is not practical. Therefore for email we work offline reading and composing email then send it in one go.

365 is so slow to upload and download email it is costing me money wasting time for it to happen. I have caluclated that sending email is now takes over 100% more time.

This leads to less efficiency in a small business.

The other matter of some concern is that the ports used are not covered by most security software such as Norton. Therefore on the fly live scanning of incoming and outgoing email is not possible. If something comes attacxhed to an email it gets to the computer and then the security software finds it. Before it never even got that far before being quarantined. I have spoken to Norton about this, they say they did not make the decision to migrate to 365 and are unlikely to change their product. I won't be renewing my subscription in that case.

I also note that some others are reporting increased spam since being moved to 365. I would concur with this, and once again my security software cannot identify it before it gets to me.

I know I could set Outlook to filter it, but why should I spend my time doing extra work because BT made a bad decision?

Common BT tell us why you did this and when you are going to get MS to speed things up?

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

tetrapackage — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:18:51 GMT

I also suddenly encountered some changes on speed. Maybe their are just doing some maintenance, but if this problem stays for a few days, then they should do something about it.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Highlandfling — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:52:33 GMT

Well the lack of speed has not changed for a couple of weeks now since they moved me over to 365. It is pathetically slow. I have contacted support a couple of times and registered a complaint, but I am not expecting anything to be done. In due course I will probably vote with my feet so to speak.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

FSDSMAN — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:17:52 GMT

In my opinion this "upgrade" that BT decided to FORCE upon it's business account holders is the biggest mistake they could ever make. It has caused untold problems in domain registration, maintenance and email settings. It has dramatically affected existing email accounts and connectivity. The migration is complex for existing accounts and is causing a great deal of problems.

I ask this question - was any business customer consulted regarding this?

Will they pay or compensate to business customers for lost business because of the migration errors and time spent to resolve this?

Does this mean that as terms and conditions of the original account have changed and service levels changed they cannot force the contracted period so we can all change providers and get the service we signed up for?

This whole scheme is being "sold" as an upgrade when in fact it is a cost cutting method to reduce service levels to customers and hide the fact that cloud may work for some but is NOT THE CHOICE of any provider for email servers, radius servers, web servers unless you want a yahoo or other virtual account.

Give us what we signed up for or give us a MAC code to go to a provider that can provide what we signed up for.

Their own engineers and help desk support have admitted to me that the whole transformation and migration has been a complete **bleep**-up. I and all of my clients DO NOT WANT OFFICE 365. We want a physical mail server. WE DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO LOG ON 3 TIMES TO VIEW WEB MAIL. WE DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO RE-CONFIGURE 3000 EMAIL ACCOUNTS because some idiot in the board room had a brainwave to save money on hardware and licence fees. Give us back what we signed up for or give us compensation for the disruption and a MAC code so we can get what we require from another ISP.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Highlandfling — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:20:49 GMT

I could not agree more.

I was never consulted. I was told a couple of times it was going to happen, but I have to say I did not expect the step backwards and I do not quite understand going down this route for email for businesses.

The only answer I have is as you mentioned, cost cutting. In effect this has just passed the costs on to the consumer who has had to pick up the bill for sorting the problems out.

There is an old saying "If it ain't broke then don't fix it". Well BT you have just fixed something that worked well in the main and did not need fixing. Well done!!!!!

I was lucky in that the migration of mail seemed to go OK. My main issue is the massive slow down in speed of sending and receiving email and the increased exposure to security threats now Norton cannot scan incomeing and outgoing mail.

Since this move to Office 365 I have had an increase in spam, phishing email and also emails from Indian and Chinese servers that have a nasty link in them or a virus attached.

I am now using Mailwasher to scrutinise mail on the server and if I don't like the look of it I delete it from the server. Never had to do this before as Norton took care of it. So another job for me.

Hey BT, want to pay for my time? How about a reduction in my bill to make up for you reduction in standards.

I am now looking at another way of getting email, and I also have to consider terminating my contract with BT or at least not renewing it when the time comes.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

FSDSMAN — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:45:24 GMT

I am going to terminate around 35 accounts I manage even if they are still contact as this is not what was put in the original agreement and service levels paid for. It has caused many problems with domain management and domain email and some cannot even be set up because of the migration, domains not fully transferred in, accounts taking over 4 weeks to set up. It is a total shambles and the director who pushed this through should have his throat cut as it is strangling the small business that worked happily with what they had. Bring back mail servers and do not outsource it to China and India. Also the security with this cloud service is very poor. I wonder if any financial institutions who have accounts have thought of the consequences of this migration.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

buirnsideandy — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:41:57 GMT

Well if BT take the time to view these emails they may get the message but sadly I doubt it. My experience is that you'll have to write to the chairman to get any satisfaction!

It would appear BT have jumped in to bed in a big way with Microsoft. So they now give a more secure option for email clients and then expect us to login to Office 365 using http - very backward considering previously encrypted https was used! I'll just be using Gmail from now on which provides https web mail and secure email client IMAP options.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

1275rob — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 07:34:44 GMT

Sadly I concur with the comments made. I have had a good service with BT for many years but I also believe the change to Office 365 is a bad one. I am now receiving spam every day. Perhaps BT will only respond when this thread reaches 5000 replies so maybe it is time for a change?

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

bazzaboy — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 06:19:25 GMT

I totally agree with everything said in your message FSDMAN having just been downgraded to this idiotic Office 365 email system. No emails for over 24 hours now. Have reverted to Hotmail for anything important.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

DaveA — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:12:47 GMT

@bazzaboy wrote:

I totally agree with everything said in your message FSDMAN having just been downgraded to this idiotic Office 365 email system. No emails for over 24 hours now. Have reverted to Hotmail for anything important.

Hi,

Have you changed your settings so that they access the new platform? Also have you contacted the Helpdesk to check if there is anything wrong?

Dave A

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

firionicable — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:55:12 GMT

Are there any settings that we should use to have this worked out? There should be a couple of options possible.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Markgen — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:57:17 GMT

I to am having problems with Office 365 and have totally lost my email account. I had to change my login and was very careful with that and it worked ok for a couple of times and now it doesn't work at all and I am having a nightmare sorting it out so have at the moment totally lost my email account and they are telling me that my account has been locked out because of spamming from it - which is news to me. All was working perfectly until this so called upgrade. This has also affected my hotmail account which I am also now having problems logging into. I have logged a service call but it could be days before it gets sorted. When it comes to the time for re-newing my contract with BT they can whistle for it.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Stephenc — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 16:45:16 GMT

Hi Mark,

The email problems you're having with bt could not affect your hotmail issue. I'd doublecheck these settings with Microsoft.

In terms of your account being locked out, it is possible this is from spam, possibly sent by a trojan, but there maybe another reason. Depending on the reason for the lockout if its due to spam, you'd need to run various virus checks, if its not the account should be able to be activated quickly.

The account being locked out for spam / secuirty reasons is not linked to the upgrade, although if the system is locked on the new platform it is possible to reactivate this relatively quickly.

I would however look into your hotmail issue while BT investigate as they will not be able to assist with this.

Kind Regards,

Steve

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Markgen — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 08:46:20 GMT

Thanks for your reply Steve. Hotmail is now working ok but my bt account is still locked out.Nobody that I know has been receiving spam emails from me and I've reported it to them but they are in no hurry to resolve the problem. I am not impressed. I've done security scans on my system and there are no viruses. These problems only started happening with the upgrade, it was fine before that.

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Markgen — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:16:27 GMT

And still no reply and day 6 without email - and they call this an upgrade!!

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Stephenc — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:45:43 GMT

Hi Mark,

Good to hear about the virus checks etc.

The upgraded product itslef is indeed a better product, however there have been some issues with the transition itself, in the long run it has to be done to provide a better service / keep up with competition etc

Can you PM me your email address and I'll see whats going on with the case?

Thanks,

Steve

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

cathy — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:54:59 GMT

This is by far the worst so called upgrade I have ever come across. Why have I got to now sign in twice to read emails and the format is a disgrace? My name is Alastair, who the hell is Cathy?

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Stephenc — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 12:44:56 GMT

Hi Alastair,

Currently you have to login twice as some customers are still on the old platform, as you can appreciate there are a lot of people being migrated, I'd imagine this will be changed in the future.

However you can access your emails with one login via http://login.microsoftonline.com

The format is essentially a replica of outlook as provided by microsoft, can you be more specific in terms of the format?

Have you considered using a mail client such as outlook? It could also be an issue with the way your broser renders the webpage.

In terms of who Cathy is, the profile you have logged into must have been created by yourself or someone with your logon details, infact you would need to type cathy in to successfully logon to this form.

If you did not someone who uses the same machine must have saved the details in your browser.

I'm sorry you've had these issues, however the product itself is an upgrade, there have been some issues migrating people to the new platform, however the platform itself has better security and storage amongst other facilities.

Steve

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

Highlandfling — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 16:54:25 GMT

I really have difficulty seeing this an an upgrade to the service.

Most businesses will use an email client and resort to webmail occassionally when out of office, although I do not I still use Outlook.

I originally started this thread because I saw this change as a step backwards as it made it impossible for me to have my security software scan emails and also because it takes so long for Outlook to collect the email. As a busy SOHO biusiness I do not have time to wait every time I want to collect and send email and with the levels of spam flying about these days I cannot afford to have rubbish and potential threats get as far as my computer because I cannot scan email on its way to me and stop it.

I have now moved my email away from BT and tied it directly to my website, cost me a few pence to get my web people to sort it out but now I collect and send email in a flash and my security scans outbound and inbound mail.

Also the new system does not take into account that the majority of users still have a slow broadband connection. I am on the limits of service and people I know just a mile away cannot get broadband yet or have to take up a satellite service.

Clients and others are gradually updating their systems to use my new email addresses and in the meantime the old BT addresses are forwarding to another quick address in the background.

Sorry BT but this is a step backwards. Unless you are out here in SOHO land you will not have a clue!

Re: Office 365 is a step backwards

kp1 — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:00:28 GMT

Hi, just thought I'd add my twopenny worth.

I agree with most of what's been said, this 'upgrade' has been a total fiasco from start to finish.

I can not get Thunderbird 14 to work with Office 365. No amount of tweaking account settings can resolve this issue, Thunderbird either times out (one lot of settings) or keeps telling me my password is invalid, enter new password. BT's response? 'we don't support Thunderbird, download Windows Live Mail' As it was Microsoft software that caused this problem, I'm not downloading more. I have only been able to send from Thunderbird if I use the old BT connect servers - these are due to be switched off once the migration is complete. As no e-mails are now going to the old servers, I cannot receive new e-mails into Thunderbird.

The version of 365 I have seems to be some 'lite' version, the Microsoft help pages and forums do not relate to the stripped down product, often referring to features that are not in the 'lite' version to resolve issues. The MS forums seem to be moderated by MS engineers who speak Pidgin English at best and complete gobbledegook at worst.

Log ins - I have to physically enter the full e-mail address every time I change accounts - they are never saved - I have seven e-mail addresses to check, so imagine the frustration here.

E-mails have been getting lost since the migration was announced, both inbound and outbound. My main business e-mail is receiving a fraction of the traffic it used to.

I have e-mails which said they were sent, now showing as unsent - when I check with the recipient - they never received them.

I cannot find a way of resetting my passwords in the lite version, as none of the management functions seem to be enabled. As far as I can work out, the only way I can do this is by getting either BT or MS technicians to do it for me - which is ridiculous. I tried to reset one password and was told that an e-mail with instructions would be sent to my 'alternative e-mail account' which I would, apparently, have set up. As I can find no facility/option to set up an 'alternative account', needless to say no e-mail has been received and the password has not been reset.

This has been a complete dog's breakfast and has taken up days of my time with no resolution, BT have stopped talking to me because I refuse to download Windows Live Mail.

As far as I'm concerned, BT are in breach of contract, as they have failed to provide me with a reliable E-mail service or adequate support to resolve the problems. Even if they resolve the connection issues, I find Office 365 'lite' such a mess of a program, I will still want to move away from BT.

I want a full apology, compensation for wasted time and a MAC code so I can switch to a decent service provider who doesn't want to be Microsoft's poodle.

I am currently actively seeking an alternative ISP as a result of this 'upgrade' I have been with BT Connect for at least 10 years.