New email policy

[jackmcd]

I was just notified of the new email policy. The way I read the notification, it appears that I have to log in to Verizon email regularly to keep my account active. I use my email daily but only that my safari mail. Am I going to be in danger of having my account deleted?

[Jwhk814]

Today I received an alert message that Verizon would delete our Verizon.net account if the email account was inactive for 180 days and could not be reactivated! 

Why we need to use Verizon's Internet services?

We better switch to other internet service provider! 

This is absurb!

[davidpeab]

I received the same threatening message. I need to know if I am still considered as using my Verizon.net email account when I am accessing it through Mac Mail. I have hundreds of contacts, personal, commercial, and professional that rely on my Verizon.net email. Will my use of Mac Mail be considered "Accessing my Verizon.net account" or do I have to log onto this ill designed, slow and spam filled site just to check my email, when I would rather simply check my email directly from my Mac, in order to keep the Verizon.net email account for which I am paying Verizon?

[ElizabethS]

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.

[FWEhr]

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@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.

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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.

[Nunzio2]

I find that the confusion about all this is completely in keeping with Verizon's lack of communication within it's own departments. The customer service people (including tech support) consider the email client access to be one that does NOT count as satisfying this recent emailing to (some of?) its customers. I say this as a result of two conversations with support only an hour ago.

I'd really like to know which of the points of view expressed here is the true one. Or are they all true? 🙂 In other words there is a policy, but it contradicts itself.

[SidR]

It's better to use gmail or outlook.com than Verizon.net

[SidR]

I sometimes login to my Verizon email though Yahoo email.  Am I considered to login to my Verizon.net account through Yahoo or do I have to specifically login to webmail.verizon.net?

[SidR]

I got the confusing email from Verizon below.  I don't understand whether it applies to accessing verizon.net with Outlook, or a smartphone.  I don't normally login to webmail.verizon.com.  There is no reason for me to do so.  However, I do use Outlook, and my smartphone to access my verizon.net email.  Is Verizon going to delete my verizon.net email account because I don't use webmail.verizon.com?  Way to go Verizon with confusing the hell out of your customers by sending a cryptic email!

Here's the text of the email:

We wanted to let you know that we changed our email policy.  With this change, if you haven’t accessed your verizon.net email account in over 180 days, your email account will be deleted and cannot be reactivated.   This change only impacts your verizon.net email account. Your access to myverizon.com will not be affected. If this change applies to you and you’d like to keep your email account active, simply log in towebmail.verizon.com from a computer and check your email within the next 30 days.   Any verizon.net email accounts that remain inactive after 30 days of this notice will be deleted, including the email address.  Please visit verizon.com/emailpolicy to review our updated policy. Thanks for being a loyal Verizon customer.

© 2015 Verizon. All Rights Reserved. Ensure Verizon emails reach your inbox by adding verizon-notification@verizon.com to your “safe” email list. Your email or Internet provider can provide instructions on how it works. This email has been sent from an auto-notification system that cannot accept incoming email.

[Justin46]

There is a link to their new policy in the email. If you go read what is there you will see very clearly that accessing a verizon.net email address using a client like Outlook will satisfy the access requirment.

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

[NJSports]

Yes, it was very confusing.  Thank you for posting your message.  I read somones reply, but I don't use Outlook, I use Window LIve Mail.   Does that count?   In addition, my husband has an account which he has never logged in with.  However, this account is needed.   So what if it is never logged into, we are still paying the bill for Verizon Internet.  If we stop paying, then delete it.  Good Grief.

[pfps]

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.

[Justin46]

OK, one last time....

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)

[pfps]

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.

[Donkster]

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!

[Justin46]

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@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!

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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)

[JiminMd]

> 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.

Very clearly stated.  And this would be the perfect way for Verizon to have said it.  Trouble is, Verizon's written policy does not say this clearly.-- neither the original, really vague and threatening-ish email, nor the website posting at verizon.com/emailpolicy, nor the followup email that I received from customer service.   

[pfps]

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@JiminMd wrote:

> 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.

Very clearly stated.  And this would be the perfect way for Verizon to have said it.  Trouble is, Verizon's written policy does not say this clearly.-- neither the original, really vague and threatening-ish email, nor the website posting at verizon.com/emailpolicy, nor the followup email that I received from customer service.   

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I have my doubts as to this actually being the case.  If sending Verizon email using SMTP counted, then the Verizon email policy should have been written differently.

[Nunzio2]

*DISCLAIMER: What follows is merely my opinion based on years of experience reading English, teaching English, writing English. I am not an attorney.

So here's a shortened version of what Verizon says about what it considers to be 3 options to prevent an email account from being removed without warning for inactivity. I've numbered what were their bullet points but not changed any of their words on their policy page: verizon.com/emailpolicy which I will here attempt to show is quite clear.

Email accounts without activity for 180 days will be considered inactive . . .

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:

In other words, their own policy states (below) which single thing of the three things they define a customer must do at least once every 180 days in order for a mailbox to be considered ACTIVE. In my dictionary, the word ACTIVE is the opposite of the word INACTIVE. They are telling us how to prevent the mailbox from being declared inactive. Apologies to those of you who feel that this is ridiculously repetitive. It is, but I'm trying really hard to reveal my thinking one step at a time.

1- Log into Verizon Webmail at http://webmail.verizon.com

2- Log into your POP Email client (such as Outlook Express)

3- Log into MyVerizon and (i) open or send at least one Email message or (ii) set up

automatic forwarding of your Email.

Note also that #2 merely requires a login via an email client to your account. This is something that you are likely to have been doing pretty much every day even before the crazy threatening email Verizon sent to you.

Therefore, I must conclude that the email sent as a warning, and the nonsense quoted by the customer reps or tech support people are contrary to their stated policy. I believe that the reps are essentially either reading something they've been given which is not legally binding compared to their publicly written policy.* see DISCLAIMER at the begining of my post or they have been prepped to tell the contrary story. Your guess as to why is as good as mine . . . or perhaps better.

[Victor30Stone]

That email address, http://webmail.verizon.com just kicks me back to the main Verizon page. I am not able to access that address. 

I am a Verizon-Yahoo customer and access my email via the Yahoo mail app on my tablet. Is that good enough? 

Another obtuse, confusing, and upsetting email announcing a new policy, with no way to ask clarifying questions or contact anyone at Verizon who knows anything about this. 

Another thing to have to stress over. Thanks for nothing, Verizon.

[Nunzio2]

Don't worry about that page. Just check out their policy: verizon.com/emailpolicy and you'll see that you only have to fetch your email in any of the ways that you already do.

If you don't fetch your email regularly, then they'll want o get rid of your un accessed account eventually.