Office 365 is a step backwards

[Highlandfling]

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?

[sedgbird]

In the vain hope that BT may actually read all these messages I would like to add my twopence worth. This is more than a step backward! My business has been totally disrupted by this fiasco. We rely on e-mail for communicating with overseas customers and for a lot of the time I am unable to send e-mails. I have had  to disable the Norton scan and am getting tons of spam and junk e-mail which never happened before. As for speed!!!!! BT don't know what that means! I have lost count of the number of times BT technicians have taken over my computer to check settings - even when I tell them this has happened countless times before - they have to go through the motions. We have e-mails supposedly arriving on three computers or devices - well - they do eventually. One computer will get e-mails that I had yesterday etc etc. I'm surprised the business press hasn't picked this up yet (such as Guardian Money). Perhaps we all ought to get together and start a joint action against BT for compensation and loss of business. Yeah - I know - we're all too busy trying to run our businesses and sort out BT's e-mail mess.

[garlangreeny]

Not to worry. I am sure BT have read all the complaints posted on this site. They might already be working on it.

[unigram]

What used to be a business class email service has become

     (a) driven by a need to cut a deal over users for microsoft in exchange for

     (b) BT shedding their cost/responsibilities within packages BT have agreed with users.

I have been on BT since the year dot and use business broadband in a rural area to get maximum 2 Mbit bandwidth. This broadband has started dropping the line after the exchange, probably because there are many other users (paying less) and the line is residential.

Simultaneously, this compulsory re-routing of email led to my puzzling out how to send as receive emails into Thunderbird. But now my Thunderbird is getting frozen all the time.

One has to ask what the change in specification is in the email service because I expect large file transfers as attachments may be affecting

One suspects that everything, including prompt delivery or anything could be affected. 

If BT wants a loyal customer base, then stop hassling users into what seems like a move convenient to BT business model and inconvenient to ours: not shared values. If the move is better then lay out why you chose to do it, in terms of cost benefit, and end this suspicion that you are merely milking the herd.

[valleyboy]

Thank god im not the only one, i look after an office of 24 users and since the upgrade email is easily 50% slower.

Before when you sent an email (regardless of size)  it was that fast to leave your outlook you didn't even see it in your OUTBOX..

After the upgrade even a simple text email hangs in the outbox for a minimum of 10 seconds... The whole internet connection has slowed, we were getting 5mb before now were only getting about 2mb!!

Also the login box asking for yoru password pops up now and again.

One thing that made me laugh and i think proves there was a big **bleep** up with the migration is the fact some of the migration must have been done manually... one of our users had the email E.G davebrown@btconnect.com alias (davebrown@ourcompany.co.uk) when the migration was complete i couldnt get his email to work, checked the settings, could not work it out at all. then i logged into my admin panel and noticed his email had changed to dave@btconnect.com (dave@ourcompany.co.uk) I didnt change it so somebody did??????

what ****** me off about this upgrade is that on the surface it seems just a fancy new front for remote outlook, we dont need it, we all use pop via outlook2010. so in effect ive had an upgrade imposed on me and its functionality we dont even use!!

[Blackheath]

Absolutely horrendous so far. Have received duplicate copies of every single email I've ever received for the past three years - four times. Cannot get it to sync properly with Outlook even the helpdesk couldn't. Was told by helpdesk my company is looking at a 48 hour wait. Had to send staff home because no one can work, losing money by the hour. The email send out rate isn't geared towards business at all, it's more suited for home use. The extra storage is a smoke screen. 

This is a major step backwards. Searched site for a way to access email on a browser, like navigating through a maze. 

Very let down and seriously worried. This glossy unneeded downgrade will have a detrimental effect on my business. Not so much unhappy as hurled into a state of emergency. About to begin the time-consuming task of evaluating alternatives to BT for the first time in twelve years of business. 

Exhausting day with no work done and loads of unhappy customers. 

[Highlandfling]

Can I offer a word or two as I had problems with duplicate emails as well.

I have managed to get it working with Outlook as follows:

I had my webmaster set up several email addresses on my domain.

I then set these up in Outlook as they work as standard POP accounts.

Next I logged into Office 365 as per BT instructions.

Go to account options in Office 365 and set mail that BT send from your @btconnect.com address to the Office 365 to be forwarded to a domain address.

This will avoid duplicates and it is like a flash to receive and send email as you will send via the domain but only receive through BT and Office 365. You will never have to log to Office 365 which takes ages to both access webmail and collect email from it via Outlook.

I am now gradually changing my email with all my contacts to the domain address so the BT email will eventually be redundant.

If you have several addresses as I do you can still use the powerful features of Outlook to send email to different folders and prioritise email. Back to normal but it took a while.

It is not good setting up forwarding via the BT controls at BT Office Home. If you set this way you will get a forwarded copy and another one that still goes to Office 365.

There seems to be no other way round this that I have found, but I have cut out duplicates and now my email is working faster than ever and bulk sending (no not spamming) works well, I used to get regualr knock backs for sending too many emails, not anymore. The other advantage there is no restirction for me on attachment sizes.

I know it sounds fiddly but once you get it set up it works. If you don't have a website, just buy a domain name and set the email up on that. Cheap, simple, works well.

[Furious]

Regrettably the header says it all. Despite the long lead in it has been difficult to get clear information. I have paid IT experts to re-connect to the new servers but the single problem remains of one account-one user name. A business with a registered domain name wants to receive mail to all the correct ( and slightly incorrectly addressed) mail. This is no problem but sending has become a nightmare. As I understand a seperate account for each user must be created e.g sales@xxx.co.uk and john.smith@xxx.co.uk and logged into individually to be able to SEND email from that person.

In addition I don't any longer seem able to send email from my original btconnect address, it all appears to come from my new business address.

I understand the need for increased security and applaud communality but the service I am receiving is a retrograde step and no better than hotmail or google mail ( and more expensive)

BT has made no effort to develop their service over the years and is now dropping us into the hands of Microsoft.

I have absolutely no interest in having my data in the cloud! I already resent having to use their products almost exclusively in the PC world and I'm damned if I'm going to be palmed off onto them with all the data and information I might have.

I am now moving the whole caboodle to another provider - not a huge loos, we're a small company, but BT will lose another £3000 in revenue.

I can only say serves them right.

Just as an extra and perhaps an illustration of the philosophy that now pervades this once good company I started today on their webite wanting to ask questions about how things could be done. A pop up appears and starts with , if I remember how can we help youi?, you type in a question, press continue and a series of options appear. You blindly follow the nearest and then the next screen seems to narrow it down. The next screen then starts to ask you about your browsing habits! and the next as well ! Its not a help screen- its a web survey! I closed the window.

Someone needs their rear end seriously kicked. Maybe the loss of customers will make this leviathian finally wake up before it dies. Maybe the headline Microsoft buys BT will be the next we hear!

[Blackheath]

Thanks for this Highlandfling. 

[donaplin]

I am having the same problems! Come on BT sort it out!