Review rated by 16 Ciao members on average: helpful
This review received a counterstatement by a party concernedRead Comment
In my experience, support from Talk21 is very poor. Depsite being a part of BT, no-one at BT seems to know anything about Talk21 despite their adverts being plastered all over the Talk21 website.
Support guys seem to just trot out standard paragraphs, hardly appearing to have actually read the problem. When my account was 'broken' it took 2 weeks for me to get it sorted out. Not acceptable!
Support used to promise a response within two days. This is now 5 and it's a target they consistently fail to achieve in my experience.
They've switched off SMS. There's no autoforward. Filtering items sends them to Trash rather than permanently deleting stuff so your (almost) 5Mb quota gets smaller and smaller...
They are now charging for POP3 access. This was supposed to happen in the end of Feb 2004, it appears to have happened at the end of March.
I hate the layout and HTML (Rich Text) emails completely fox it. Instead I use www.beeb.net - much better in my opinion and you can read HTML based emails instantly.
In short, Talk21 was great when it 1st came out but has been left behind (and deteriorated) since then. Go elsewhere...
====== additional info 8/4/04 ========== I wrote to BTINTERNET about TALK21 and got a reply from a Talk21 support guy!This is what he said:-
"Once the changes take place in February 2004 you will no longer be able to access your e-mail through an e-mail client such as Outlook Express without upgrading to the Premium Service.
In addition to maintaining POP3 access to your e-mails you will also receive the following benefits.
* The ability to add 4 Sub accounts for free. * Increased inbox size to a 50mb limit with an individual e-mail limit of 10mb * Mail forwarding * Mail archiving * Virus protection * Enhanced Antispam * Vacation Response * E-mail Signature * Stationary to personalise your e-mails * A full featured calendar to organise your life and more.
We believe that these enhancements to Talk21 provide a product that will exceed your expectations and yet is great value for money.
If you do not require these services then the Basic service will allow you to send and receive e-mails from the Talk21.com website." __
Well, it's April and the loss of POP3 hasn't happened yet so I guess his response was a 'cut-and-paste' job.
Also, most of the features they offer to paying users are offered elsewhere. For example, any PC user worth their salt will have a decent Virus Checker so no advantage there. Mail forwarding? Why would you do that if you're paying Talk21 for their service? Mail Archiving, signature, stationery? All present in Outlook Express. Most ISPs offer all these services to their subscribers so, unless you live in an Internet Cafe and don't want a Yahoo or Hotmail account, then steer clear of Talk21...
01.04.2004 11:44
Good honest review, thanks for the info :-)
01.04.2004 11:12
Like many, I think I'll give it a miss also. Thanks. Steve
01.04.2004 11:00
I'll give this a miss then... thanks for the warning. Wayne