Screaming.net disappeared again

[tatianabeaverhausen]

Well, I'm not sure which forum to post this on, but as TalkTalk have now taken over Tiscali, I guess it's as good as any...

My screaming.net email has just stopped yet again. I pull my screaming.net emails via Virgin Media and I've had nothing since April 15. I still have an account on TalkTalk/Tiscali for webmail but there's nothing there either.

I've just sent my account an email from another account and asked for a read receipt and a delivery notification and had nothing back. Conversely, I've sent that account an email from my screaming.net address and that's arrived OK.

TalkTalk have just rebranded the horrible Tiscali site, the appalling rubbish with no proper search and contact facilities and dreadful navigation - nice to know you're on the ball, TalkTalk! I've submitted a complaint but I've no doubt it'll go nowhere.

They've also changed the Tiscali forums and my old login doesn't work - nice.

Anyone else having the same problems?!

[Ouzy]

Hi. Having the same problem here since Thursday evening with my worldonline.co.uk account not working, unless i send myself emails (in which case it does work).

Rang the technical support who gave me a premium tel no 0906 300 6633 (50pence per minute) to call. But i refused and the guy tried to help me but said he isn`t really allowed and as no idea why no emails are coming to that account.

Any news your end?

[screaminguserx]

I have the same problem but cannot register on the Talktalk forum as I have a Talktalk email address which is not acceptable.
Reading elsewhere the problem is emails in the format xxxx@username.screaming.net. The format username@screaming.net does work.
Anyone got any ideas on how to get Talktalk to look at the problem?

[tatianabeaverhausen]

Sorry, no joy here either. Someone has posted to the TalkTalk forum but like screaminguserx, I can't register with the forums either so I can't reply.

I can log into my account on the web site but I can't pull emails (any suggestions?!) either and that's using the username@screaming.net option.

Seems to me it's Tiscali all over again, just with another name. The web site isn't any improvement on Tiscali's, the so-called help desk is just a rip off at 50p a minute when they keep you waiting on hold for ages and then when you talk to some spotty herbert, you have to explain about screaming.net which takes them ages to understand and THEN tell you they can't fix it. I've posted a complaint, but if it goes to my screaming.net account, I won't get a reply and I wouldn't trust those morons to realise that there's no point in replying on what's effectively a dead account.

I suppose I should be grateful I've had such a long run with screaming.net and use one of my other email addresses from now on, but I've had it for years and loads of my online accounts, networking sites, etc. are all set up with it. Besides, when you take over companies, you have to accept there are legacy issues which you have to deal with and not just ignore. There can't be that many of us now!

Will keep you posted...

[tatianabeaverhausen]

Quick heads up on phone numbers - there are loads listed for TalkTalk on Say no to 0870 http://saynoto0870.com/search.php

The 0906 number alternative is 0845 077 4488 which will be cheaper - I may try it tomorrow evening if I am back home from work in time.

The contact numbers on the TalkTalk site are still coming up as Tiscali on Say no, so it's clear they've just rebranded and kept the same old cr@p.

Talk Talk have managed to get round letting you use the 0845 cheap option. I just called and you first get a recorded announcement, then you get 2 options "press 1 to discuss cancelling your account" or "press 2 for technical or customer services" - I pressed 2 and got a further recorded announcement teling me that to use this option I would need to call a dedicated number beginning (guess what) 0871!! Meanwhile I am still not receiving any emails to my screaming.net email account.

[Ouzy]

I know that you are all talking about screaming.net emails but also worldonline.co.uk emails are having the same problems. I have now received no emails since last Thursday. I have tried technical support who told me to call customer services but gave me the same number to try that I called to speak with technical support. They then gave me a 0906 number which I refuse to call at 50pence per minute. I tried to leave a message on the customer forum but whilst I can register it wont let me leave a reply because my account is still awaiting approval.

Does anyone have any ideas how we can get this problem dealt with? It must be affecting everyone and not just what 3/4 of us here.....

Regards

Mark

[Ouzy]

Hi. Well I have some news about the email problems. I gave up and called the 50pence per minute number due to finding no other way to get through to them.

I was informed that the problem is known about and has been escalated and will be resolved within the next 48 hours.

Dont blame the messenger

Good luck to everyone.

[ukspid]

Hi. Well I have some news about the email problems. I gave up and called the 50pence per minute number due to finding no other way to get through to them.

I was informed that the problem is known about and has been escalated and will be resolved within the next 48 hours.

Dont blame the messenger

Good luck to everyone.

Originally Posted by Ouzy

Thanks for taking the initiative on this one. I have just joined this forum having googled for the latest round of screaming.net problems. I would normally register with this sort of forum with an email address something like "thescream@<myscreamingaccount>.screaming.net" , but of course I would not have received the activation email given the problem.

I am no longer associated with screaming or any of its successor companies (Google Mail and Virgin Media for me now), but the screaming address is a great anti-spam device in view of the alias flexibility and being able to register with each institution with a tailored email address. I've caught out several institutions that clearly sell your email address to spammers this way; or that get their mailing lists hacked!

[mrsjbell@tiscali.co.uk]

i have also not had access to any screaming.net emails since 15 april 2010

has anyone managed to get any definite answers to this problem and any reason as to why this has happened again

[ukspid]

Email response I received today: ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. xxxx,

Thank you for contacting TalkTalk Customer Support.

I understand from your email that you are unable to receive emails on the email address xxx@screaming.net.

I realize that you have been greatly inconvenienced by this situation.In this case, I would like to inform you that we are experiencing issues with our webmail servers and our fault management team is investigating to resolve the issue at the earliest because nothing would please us more than satisfying our esteemed and valuable customer.In order to further diagnose the issue and reach a resolution, we would require you to give us the following details:

1. The intial email address provided during registration. For Example : (mark.smith@screaming.net)
2. When you are available (Monday to Friday) ?
3. Time when you are available (11am-1pm; 1pm-3pm; 3pm-5pm; 5pm-7pm and 7pm-9pm )?
4. Contact numbers (LandLine and Mobile) :
5. Alternate email address.

Please reply back to us with the above information, this will allow us to give your more precise and accurate resolution of the issue.Together we will resolve the issue.


Kind Regards,

TalkTalk Customer Relations.

TalkTalk Group Limited
Registered in England and Wales No. 6534112
Registered Address: 11 Evesham Street, London, W11 4AJ

[ukspid]

I sent a test message from my Google acocunt and got this error message. Doesn't help but at least senders should know there is an error

--------------------------------------------------------

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:

<xxx>@<account>.screaming.net

Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)

Technical details of temporary failure:
The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. Learn more at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/a...py?answer=7720
[mk-rewrite-3.mail.uk.tiscali.com. (10): Connection timed out]
[mk-rewrite-2.mail.uk.tiscali.com. (10): 421 mk-rewrite-2.mail.uk.tiscali.com: Too many concurrent SMTP connections; please try again later]

I rang tiscali/talktalk helpline. The guy tried to help but knew nothing (nordid his supervisor)!
He told me screaming.net was administered by pipex and gave me their phone number and an e mail address but of course pipex are a talktalk company. oh joy

My son tells me I shoudl cough up and get my own domain name which looks attractive as a long term bet if it hought i would have a reliable and constant address under my control rather than being sold to different providers over the years.

Of ocurse if I can't receive e mails I can't receive a bill does that mean I don't have to pay?

[gem]

I'd recommend that you get your own domain name and email a/c. I've had mine for many years now and so too have others on here. It saves all the hassle when changing ISP's and it's so cheap. Have a look around.

On billing, I take it that you are on Broadband as you pay for dial-up as part of the call charge. If you are on BB then, as they have not sent you a bill (since you cannot pick it up) then I don't see how they can bill you although I'm sure that they will find an excuse or ignore that point!
Can you access your account online?

Oh, and why not join us and sign up, it does not cost anything.

[tatianabeaverhausen]

I've just had a phone call from TalkTalk asking me if my screaming.net email address is working. The good-ish news is that the username@screaming.net works. However, my address is myname@username.screaming.net. All my accounts are set up with that address and I can neither send nor receive on that address still.

The TT person simply couldn't understand what I tried to tell them about how the address works and I don't have the technical know-how to explain. All I know is that you can substitute any name for the bit before the @ symbol and it will still come to me, because of the username bit. She kept on telling me there was only one account and said the server has been closed so no new accounts can be added. I've managed to persuade her that this is not the way it works so she's escalating it.

I did say this happened with Tiscali before and given that the whole set-up is just Tiscali rebranded, you would have thought there would be people there who knew how the disappearing screaming.net was sorted last time, the time before etc. etc. Either that or it would have been documented. Or perhaps I'm just horribly over-optimistic!

Anyway, it's still on-going. She did suggest I change all my accounts but as I have no idea how many I have using my screaming.net email AND I have personal cards set up with that address, I'm really unwilling to change it.

I'll keep you posted, but I think this one is going to run...

[Ouzy]

Hi All. I have now tested this problem on my email addresses as I have a screaming.net , worldonline.co.uk and tiscali.co.uk accounts that are all still in use. I can confirm that all of these email will work if u send to accountname@tiscali.co.uk however none of them work if you add a name eg myname@accountname.tiscali.co.uk. This makes the problem a major problem that must be affecting thousands. I am conversing with moderators on the talk talk help forums. I will keep you posted if they tell me any more news.

I suspect a lot of us have hung on to screaming because of the convenience of the infinite receive aliases, but no longer actually pay for it, like me. I am a VM customer so can only send through them (or gmail and the like), but have kept my screaming address for receiving email from hundreds of institutions that have registered with. e.g. I use uswitch@<username>.screaming.net for (you've guessed it) uswitch, edf@<username>.screaming.net etc etc.

If most of us operate this way without subscription then I guess that there is less incentive for TalkTalk to sort it out.

I am in the throes of trying to extract an HTC Desire from T-Mobile since April 6th and in trying to get a roofer to turn up since around the same date; so it's touch and go for me

a) whether I keep my sanity
and
b) who will get my vote for worst customer service of the month:

(i) Roofer
(ii) T-Mobile
(iii) Talk Talk


If my phone is not dispatched by tomorrow then it will be T-Mobile followed by TalkTalk.
The roofer? Well he's about to lose my business.

well it must be Saint George.
The test message I sent came in today and i have sent one today and that hs just returned.
So I've sent a few more carrier pigeons out and will see if they return.

Still thinking about having a domain name. i am still not convinced that someone else will screw it up in some way. If i have a domain name am i still dependent upon the place i first went to (eg free parking) or is the registration thing a separate entity which it is my right and privledge to screwup myself?
I can cope with that much better than someone else doing it for me.

I remain a pleasant peasant

[silver]

get a domain name,. most free parking will at the least let you redirect the email to another account - so ppl always have an address to contact you,. also domain email can be assigned to something like a gmail account and that is free and another option

the best thing about domains is you own the domain,. if you are hosting (or even free parking) and that begins to suck you can move it to another provider and whatever@yourdomain can be kept working and not ever have to change

well it must be Saint George.
The test message I sent came in today and i have sent one today and that hs just returned.
So I've sent a few more carrier pigeons out and will see if they return.

I remain a pleasant peasant

Originally Posted by up the garden

Yep. It's sprung into life backdated to 17th



uk_spid (also ukspid ...... I got confused!)

[Alphabetex]

screaming net ... those were the days..

My screaming net address seems to work...... in outlook express ... I haven't tried sending but then I always configure the smtp to whatever isp I'm with at the time which just happens to be talktalk .. I never realised they'd bought Tiscali .......... full circle since the fall of localtel.

Reading your comments ladies and gentlemen I see maybe you refer to the webmail;
just tried it now and .... user name XXX@screaming.net and password logs in successfully.
Now I do have a worldonline account similar ...... and will try that as soon as I get the password.

the guy whose format was xxx@xxx.screaming.net Have you tried sending to yourself from another email address but to xxx@xxx.screaming.net but re configuring your outlook to xxx@screaming.net ? Or perhaps checking it with the webmail logging in as xxx@screaming.net .............

As I say mine is working and I know I've had both formats in the past ....

Worth trying!

[Alphabetex]

just to let I tried my worldonline account in the format xxx@worldonline.co.uk and password at the talktalk webmail page and that works fine.

trying it in the format xxx@xxx.worldonline.co.uk doesn't work ...

However here's the twist my outlook express on my old computer is set up with xxx@xxx.worldonline.co.uk and that still works ....... go figure.

mind you it is smtp.talktalk.net and pop.tiscali.co.uk account name xxxx.worldonline.co.uk


I had wondered why there has been less spam recently, and I believe the motive for tiscali's tactic of heavy spamming was to drive away old unprofitable email account holders that weren't with them commercially to be the reason why we were spammed in 100s every day.

[gem]

Well, surprise surprise. My Screaming.net works in web mail but not worldonline all done in the format suggested by Alphabetex but my Screaming.net web site is still up!

[ukspid]

Has it died again?

[ukspid]

nope it's back

[lansupa]

Just for everyones information Pipex, tiscali and AOL are now owned by talktalk although at the moment they all work on different systems , hence tiscali problems are still dealt with the old tiscali workers, there are pland to amalgamate all the companies in one but talk talk are finding they are having problems due to the amount of work involved, i do not work for talk talk but do work on behalf of them so i do have to ring all these different tech departments, so trust me i know how annoying it really is

[snoozy]

Thought my spam had gone quiet. Looks like yyy@xxx.screaming.net has gone, whilst xxx@screaming.net remains.

Messages sent don't bounce though - they just disappear into the ether.

[ukspid]

Seems to have died again. No emails coming through; normally a flood each day!
Test emails lost in cycberspace!

[ukspid]

Looks like aliases such as yyy@xxx.screaming.net has gone, whilst xxx@screaming.net remains (again!!)

Messages sent don't bounce though - they just disappear into the ether.