topic Re: MS Office 365 upgrade in Archive

MS Office 365 upgrade

Nick101 — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:25:54 GMT

Some months ago I received an email from BT advising me that I would be upgraded to MS Office 365 on a specific date. A second email postponed this to a later date. A third email then told me the upgrade had been delayed due to "unprecedented demand" and I would receive further information. Since then I've heard nothing. Has anyone else had anything similar?

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

FSDSMAN — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:28:10 GMT

You are bloody lucky disaster has not struck yet. Yes and a complete mess.

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Nick101 — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:33:07 GMT

Thanks for this! I thought BT referring to it as "unprecedented demand" was probably code for "unmitigated disaster".

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Rank_Outsider — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 08:35:37 GMT

We've been in the same situation for months. I've been trying to get a definitive answer on whether email can continue to be accessed using IMAP on a Blackberry once the upgrade to Office 365 goes through. No one seems to know for sure and although there are server settings described here the Blackberry setup pages don't mention IMAP settings (but neither do they say it's not possible). This would be a big problem for us, so to be honest, the delay has suited us for the time being (although if we can use IMAP then we are currently paying more than we need as the Office 365 system is cheaper).

I don't see how it can be "unprecedented demand". I suppose the demand could technically be considered unprecedented, given that BT have not upgraded their servers to Office 365 before (obviously), but since this is a BT-driven process and they know how many customers they have to upgrade, surely the demand was not unexpected? I suspect the email should have said "unexpected problems" instead...

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

triciar — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 19:26:25 GMT

My email to tell me this was happening was sent AFTER it was changed. I thought emails had been a bit quiet on 12/9/12 then nothing 13/9/12. Decided to ring the help desk. Was told I had been upgraded & should have followed the email instructions I received on 12th! Not very helpful. When I explained I could not because by then email had been stopped on the old system & I had not received the changeover email, a very surly, miserable, non talkative, unhelpful young man spent 48 minutes trying to resolve the issue, said he could not resolve it, said 2nd line support would call me the next day as they only work 9-5. Guess what - no call of course! By this time it was 15th Sept and I was losing the will to live on the phone to the helpdesk again. Finally I got someone at the other end who knew what they were doing & fixed it on that call within 15 minutes. "Did I want to give a customer service feedback?" You bet I did. I know nothing will improve but it made me feel better! I STILL cant get email on my phone though. I think every upgrade should have come with a free bottle of wine and some valium to help smooth the way! As the saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Stephenc — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:46:29 GMT

Hi Rank_Outdier,

IMAP does work on the new platform, the server name can be found by logging into the webmail.

This can also be setup as exchange.

When the upgrade goes through you need to select the option to get a premium licence against your domain name as this currently cannot be added later.

If you are using a btconnect.com address, you would need to buy a domain name as IMAP will no longer be possible on btconnect.com addresses.

Thanks,

Steve

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Rank_Outsider — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:56:24 GMT

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the info. We have a domain name hosted by BT and plan to purchase one 'premium' Office 365 account and keep the rest as the basic/'lite' Office 365 accounts after the upgrade.

When you say that IMAP will work on the new platform, do you mean that it will work accessing email via a Blackberry? In either case, the help files on the topic need to be clarified.

When the backlog/problems with the upgrade are sorted out, will we get plenty of notice about a new upgrade date? I am concerned that it might happen when I am not around to change email settings etc, and then our other users will not be able to access email until I get back - as well as this thread, I remember reading at least one other account where the upgrade happened without apparent warning.

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Stephenc — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:51:33 GMT

Hi Rank_Outsider,

The pop accounts work on a blackberry, I've never tried it to be honest, but I can't imagine there would be any difficulty with that, the only issue with blackberry's is generally you need to misspell the address to enter settings manually.

You should get three emails about the upgrade, two a while in advance and one at the time the change happens, I have however seen in the last couple of weeks that the last email was corrupt and did not download, I believe this has been resolved.

If you login to your account at http://myoffice.bt.com and click manage services, and check in the email widget, there maybe an option for "upgrade centre" if you go in here, you should be able to see the date of migration and in most cases change this to a date that would be best for yourself.

Thanks,

Steve

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Rank_Outsider — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:33:27 GMT

Hi Steve,

Thank you. I am aware that POP will work, however it doesn't offer the functionality we need with the Blackberry (which is BIS). We were using POP with the current email system but switched to IMAP which is ideal in terms of 'synchronising' etc. I've been told by BT (after many calls) that it should work with IMAP but a definitive answer would be great - my boss won't be happy if he can't use his Blackberry properly after the upgrade!

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

robotics1uk — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:00:32 GMT

Glad to find a BT employee here. I did call but the guy did not answer my question. Basically all our emails are xx@strobotics.com and not btconnect. I do have some btconnect emails for emergencies but I assume they will stop working. I use Thunderbird not Outlook and the agent told me that it would no longer work. Basically all I want is an Internet connection able to relay my pop and smtp messages. I don't want to be tied in to Microsoft for anything and I like things under my control. I have not been able to find out what changes I can actually expect. Will we still be able to access our many pop/smtp email accounts through these two business broadband connections. Will I still be able to use Openzone? What will happen to gmail and yahoo accounts thru pop/smpt?

I'm sorry if the questions are asinine but honestly there is virtually no information about what Micorsoft 365 will actually mean other that we are going to get it whether we like it or not with scary mentions of Outlook 2010 which I would not touch with a bargepole.

I am sincerely worried that on day x all our emails will stop working and my business will freeze. I rely on email as the major communication with our customers and suppliers. I need to know if this is the outlook (pun intended).

David

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Nick101 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:17:28 GMT

David has hit the nail on the head as far I'm concerned. Posts on this forum by BT employees have gradually revealed more and more about this "upgrade" and the disadvantages - none of this information has been given out by BT formally before. I too use Thunderbird and have no intention of using an inferior Microsoft product. So please BT, come clean about what this migration means to your customers so that we can make an informed decision on whether we take our business elsewhere.

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Stephenc — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:01:49 GMT

Hi robotics1uk,

Thunderbird will still work, although the agent is correct we do not support the mail client, however we can provide all the settings you need.

I've also heard Mozilla no longer support / update this? Although I haven't really looked into it.

You can continue to use thunderbird if you are happy to configure it, if not there are free microsoft mailclients you can download that would not tie you into anything.

The changes needed are mainly to change the server names and the occasional usernames, we can provide this over the phone or there are some good help and support articles on this site.

The broadband lines will still allow pop / smtp sp will openzone, gmail and yahoo will be unaffected.

On day x you will get a final email that the upgrade has went through at this point the settings will need to be updated and all email will be received again.

Thanks,

Steve

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

kimmwood — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:43:36 GMT

Whilst I know this is not for complaints, where is. Thanks for an upgrade with no notice and sending my business up the spout for a day. No consideration for your customers and website instructions extemely poor. When I got through to the service desk they said the account hadnt been upgraded, and your email was spam. Any excuse eh.

Anyway how to I get this to work on a Nexus 7. Everytime i change the outgoing mail server to SSL security type the outgoing port is changed to 465 and it wont work what ever i do.

thanks very disappointed after 10 years good service!

Re: MS Office 365 upgrade

Rank_Outsider — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:37:24 GMT

Hi kimmwood,

Although I can't offer any help with regard to your Nexus 7 issue, I do know that there have been malicious emails circulating that take advantage of the problems that some of us users seem to be having with the service changes. I got one and it did initially look geniune - saying something like my account had been upgraded and there was a problem - I was so annoyed at the 'unannounced' upgrade that I almost clicked on the link, before the poor spelling in the email made me pause and check it out. It was a fake, and potentially I could have given someone else access to our company's email system.

This may not be the case for you and the service desk may have been just fishing for an excuse, but it's not an unlikely explanation. You should consider changing your password if you think there's a chance that your system may have been compromised.

I agree that the web site instructions could do with an overhaul - especially with regard to duplicated information and consistency. They need to be better at stating which systems/situatutions the article applies to, and have a last updated date so we can see how current the info is (that would also help with resolving conflicting information).