How can I recover old email address?

[Morse98]

When we moved a couple of weeks ago France Telecom informed us that as we were changing departments and I had an old Wanadoo email address that it would have to be changed to an Orange address. We now have an Orange email address however can not seem to retrieve my old email address(have tried via the autre utiliser on the home page of Orange,however it still won't work) and have now lost all my old emails and all my contact list.
Anyone know how to rectify this problem PLEASE? Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks

[AnOther]

What sort of madness is that, why on earth should moving house be cause for you to have to change your email address [:-))]

I'm sorry I can't actually help you though other than tell you to try www.mail2web.com to at least retrieve some of your Wanado emails, possibly !

I learnt a long time ago that using a web based email such as Yahoo or Gmail is the only way to go because you are then totally independant of any ISP.

Also, by avoiding using Outlook or Outlook Express where mail is normally stored on your HD, in the event of a PC crash, you won't lose you all your messages.

 

EDIT:

This might help you  http://tinyurl.com/3827h5

[UlsterRugby1999]

I agree with ErnieY that this rationale from FT was rubbish. The actual rationale is more to do with the new ISP set up within Wanadoo and the new look Orange set up I believe.

I do not agree with the online mail facility though as you need to be online to access your email unlike Outlook which is a management tool apart from a mail client, and a very good one too. Also, if you do, as we all should do, a back up of your messages and contacts and so on, then you have them on a separate file usually saved in My Documents. They are saved as PST files and can be exported to another PC, so if you have a network at home, or in the office, you can have them stored, or simply access them, on any number of systems.

However, I suspect that if you have not already tried it, you might still be able to access your old account by going into Wanadoo (or Orange as it is now) and inputting your old logon data. If you havent triued this then do so and let us know what happens. If you have and it failed, let us know also.

[Tim]

I agree - I use both systems - that way I've got a copy of all my e-mail addresses in more than one place. You can, by the way, use the Wanadoo/Orange as a webmail service anyway. I did from the UK before I moved to France, and I now use my UK e-mail address with BT from here - as a webmail system. In fact it's a very good one as they've had a decent spam filter for years.

The main criteria here is, I think, as you say, back everything up and make sure you keep all your login details safe - where you can find them, preferably!!

Tim

[Morse98]

I actually also think it is ridiculous and think it was more due to the fact that they want everyone in line and have the orange email address rather than the old wanadoo!

ErnieY,

Thanks for those links I will give them a try.

 

UlsterRugby1999

[quote user="UlsterRugby1999"]

However, I suspect that if you have not already tried it, you might still be able to access your old account by going into Wanadoo (or Orange as it is now) and inputting your old logon data. If you havent triued this then do so and let us know what happens. If you have and it failed, let us know also.

[/quote]

Thanks for that, however I had already tried doing this and unfortunately it still won't let me access my old email address.

 

ErnieY,

Have just tried the mail2web and it still won't let me pick up old email address it just keeps coming up as error:Login fialure which is exactly what I keep getting with flippin Orange when I try that![8-)]

[AnOther]

Morse98: It does look as if Wanadoo have actually killed your old email which is outrageous.

UR1999:

You refer to Outlook however I doubt that many ordinary home users will be using this (or even have it as it's not a Windows core application but part of the MS Office Suite) but will be running Outlook Express instead so using Outlook as a reason not to use web base email is a bit off base I'm afraid. Besides, backups or not, if the worst befalls you and your PC dies it could be days before you're back in business whereas with web based email you only have to find Internet access, be it via a friend, neighbour or an Internet cafe etc., to get at your mail instantly so i make no apologies for recommending web based services.

Regarding backups, sadly, however much you evangelise, cajole or rant about it the vast majority of people simply don't, and even if they do then recovery will only be as good as the last backup, and which emails do you usually want the most - the recent ones of course, which in all probability weren't backed up yet.

If you absolutely must have your mail saved locally on the PC then you can use Thunderbird to download from multiple accounts whilst leaving a copy on the server (NOT Thundebirds default BTW...!).   

[Tim]

I think you may have posted this same question on another forum. My suggestion there may not be exactly what you want to do, but it may get you out of trouble - for the time being anyway.

Do you use Outlook Express? If you do you can set up OE to interrogate another e-mail address - IF you still have your password. Follow the instructions on this

http://www.orange.fr/bin/frame.cgi?u=http%3A//assistance.orange.fr/home_messagerie.php%3Fdub%3D1

Click on the  Configurer mes boites aux lettres then click on Configrurer un nouveau compte de messagerie dans Outlook Express.

This tells you how to use OE for this.

I do this for a couple of e-mail addresses still in the UK and it works fine. At least you will be able to get your e-mails going to your other (old ) address and the e-mail addresses from those e-mails. This would then give you more time to sort out getting webmail access to your old e-mail address.

Tim

[Morse98]

ErnieY;

Yep! it sure does look like they have killed off my old email address, however they never informed me that was what they were going to do!

 

Timco;

Unfortunately I do not use Outlook express, and therefore it looks like I won't be able to access the old email address via this.

Thanks to those of you that have tried to help so far, still hoping that there is someone out there that is such a whizz that they will know a way how to retrieve it.

[Tim]

As a temporary measure, do you at least have OE on your machine, or are using something completely different?

Tim

[UlsterRugby1999]

ErnieY - I agree with many aspects of what you say but in this particular example there, IMHO, appears to be a magnitude of reasons why you should use your own desktop based mail client. You are in control and not subject some outrageous whimsical ISP as Wanadoo/Orange have shown themselves to be. That’s personal a view, of course, and your views equally have solid merit.

I rather suspect that Morse98 is going to have to go through hoops and loops with Wanadoo/Orange to try to regain access to the lost data. I would have thought they would continue, for some period of time, the data on their servers but I may be wrong here.

Morse98 - have you tried to call their Help Line and see where that gets you. Surely if you have saved data on their server, via your contract with them they must hold this information still.

[Ron Avery]

Lets get some perspective here, if you change departments you have to change phone numbers but you do not have to change your internet address,  Wanadoo and orange addresses are running in parallel and will do so for some time to come, even if you upgrade to ADSL you do not change your E mail address, but what may have changed is the password access if you have been given a new address but I really cannot see why you would have been.

Even if the OP could access the old E mail file, he would not be able to access the Address book, there isn't one.  Wanadoo only recorded contacts from sent messages and the message boxes would be empty as Wanadoo never keeps sent messages unless told to, it is/was little better than Hotmail in that respect, plus any messages viewed in OE for example dissapear from the Wanadoo inbox.

 Best bet as Tim says is to get onto the Orange Helpline as little of this makes any sense, if language is a problem they do have some English speakers but you may have to take a chance on that, there is no dedicated English speaking helpline as such.

[Tim]

Ron, you are correct of course about the address book. The reason I suggested the OP try with Outlook Express is that  if he managed to get into his old account this way he would acheive the following:-

He would get his missing e-mails - along with the addresses on those e-mails - so at least he would have something.

Moreover, if he did manage to do this he would prove that the account is still active and not closed down.

There is, incidentally the option in Outlook, and it's variations, to leave the message on the server - in this case Wanadoo. I use this function as I have more than one computer and it's useful to be able to pick them up on both. All that's required, occasionally, is to do a little housekeeping and delete your messages from the server from time to time - which you have to do is using the webmail system anyway.

By the way, you are also completely correct about the address and it being cancelled - I must admit to finding it difficult understand if this is the reason given.

Tim

[AnOther]

[quote user="UlsterRugby1999"]

ErnieY - I agree with many aspects of what you say but in this particular example there, IMHO, appears to be a magnitude of reasons why you should use your own desktop based mail client. You are in control and not subject some outrageous whimsical ISP as Wanadoo/Orange have shown themselves to be.[/quote]I'm not sure about "a magnitude of reasons" however I do understand the point you're making but think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one [;-)]

[Ron Avery]

Tim

Its not a good idea to keep E mails on the Wanadoo server unless you don't get many, unless the size of the box has changed.  I subscribe to a Yahoo group that publishes transport pictures and did this whilst away for a  week, however it did not take long for the box to be full and all messages after that were bounced until I cleared them from the Wanadoo inbox and opened up OE on my PC.  A lot of messages that week were lost.

[Morse98]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

Lets get some perspective here, if you change departments you have to change phone numbers but you do not have to change your internet address,  Wanadoo and orange addresses are running in parallel and will do so for some time to come, even if you upgrade to ADSL you do not change your E mail address, but what may have changed is the password access if you have been given a new address but I really cannot see why you would have been.

[/quote]

Ron,

As you have stated although you have to change your phone number when changing departments but you do not have to change your internet address. However I can categorically state that they have made me change!!! I even received a letter on Saturday giving me the new details! They did not explain that I would no longer be able to access my old email address though.  I am going to try and contact them today to see if there is anything that can be done and why they have done this, so fingers crossed.

[Ron Avery]

" I even received a letter on Saturday giving me the new details!"

But are you sure that they understood that you have an existing wanadoo account?   Seems to me that they have treated you as a new customer, which if you told them you have an existing E mail address makes no sense at all, be interested what the Help line says.

[Will]

My own experience with Wanadoo/Orange in France is that their software seems designed to be intrusive and to try and force you to only use their services. If you still have outlook express on your machine look under the File (Fichier) menu for Identity (sorry, not in front of the French computer at present so don't know what that is in French). What has happened twice with us is that Orange will set up a new identity for you, but your old messages and address book will still be there, under your old identity.

When we got Orange broadband we got all new details, despite having existing Wanadoo accounts.

I would also advise against using French web mail, as the space allocated to each user on the server is so limited (British ISPs are much more generous). I found when using standard French e-mail for work, the mailbox could be saturated by a single message if it contained graphics, as many of my work messages did. The only solution then was to subscribe to Tiscali's 'Supermail' which was, I think, about ten times the capacity.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Will"]My own experience with Wanadoo/Orange in France is that their software seems designed to be intrusive and to try and force you to only use their services[/quote]

This harks back to the early days of Freeserve (now Wanadoo) in the UK when you got a free CD which stomped all over IE, much to the annoyance of many.

The irony was that you didn't need the CD all because as long as you could get onto the website, perhaps through a friend already connected, you could sign up with Freeserve online.

I rest my case for avoiding any ISP's own email and sticking with a recognised web based service [;-)]

[Tim]

I never, if at all possible,use any CD that's supplied by an ISP fo the same reasons others have explained here.

As far as leaving things on the server is concerned, I understand your problem but it works fine for me. My French e-mail address does not suffer (so far anyway) with being bonbarded with rubbish - in addition, Orange have recently increased the mail box to 500 meg, so I would have to 'go some' to fill that up!

Tim

[Morse98]

Well folks just to update you.

Spoke to the dreaded France Telecom and apparently someone in their infinate wisdom cancelled our old account and set up a new one!!!!!!
Not only did this change my email address it changed everything and just after my last post on here I lost my internet connection! So once again I rang them only to be told that I would now have to wait for the new connection to be set up. To say I was slightly Miffed is an understatement anyway here I am again back online. Hubby seems to think it happened because when he changed our details(House move) they asked him if he wanted to upgrade our account(more expense) he refused and informed them that we were quite happy with everything as it was. Due to him refusing these extra services he feels that the person on the other end of the line was slightly fed up with him as perhaps it's like the UK where they earn bonuses for extras they sell!! Therefore wanted to pay us back!

Perhaps too cynical however you just never know when you are talking to someone on the other end of the line and they hold all the cards,so to speak.

Anyway the downshot is I am unble to retrieve my old account and therefore have lost all my old emails and contacts. So if there is anyone that doesn't hear from me directly "Sorry ,but I've lost your email address"

Thanks for the help you all tried to give me and I will now be trying to sort out something else so I won't have the same problem ever again.

[AnOther]

Really sorry to hear that Morse98 and an apalling way to treat a customer. I trust you'll be departing FT's clutches at the earliest opportunity.

Judging by the current showing it probably wouldn't get you anywhere but have FT got some sort of complaints procedure. Depending on how far you wanted to take is there not some sort of rugulator or ombusman you could approach ?

The clearest possible case I can imagine for using web based email service and an ideal opportunity to sign up for one now when you're effectively starting from scratch [;-)]

[sid]

I'm sorry to hear about the disastrous deletion of your email account.

It'd be a good time to reconsider your security methods, by which I don't mean just virus protection, but basic back-up and recovery methods.

Contrary to an earlier posting, in my opinion the best thing in future would be to use a conventional email application, like Outlook (there are others if you're not a Microsoft fan) and to download all of your email onto your own pc. This way you are in control of what happens to it and you can make back-ups as often as you wish. All of your emails, contacts etc would be stored locally on your own harddrive. If there's one thing I've learnt in 35 years in IT it's never to rely soley on someone else for your security.

I hope you're taking security of your other files seriously;  important documents, photographs etc. I can't think how upset I'd be if I lost the last 10 years worth of digital images of the family and so on. I keep several copies of these, on a USB drive (they're relatively cheap now), and on CD/DVD copies.

With a web-based service you ARE at the mercy of the provider, not the ISP, but the webmail provider. If they decide to delete something, intentionally or accidentally, it's still gone for good!

Regards

Sid

[Morse98]

Hello again,

Well I'm now using OE and also backing up the emails that I want to keep along with all my contacts.

As to anything else, documents and photo's etc I have always backed them up so no problems there,well I hope not anyway!

France Telecom remind me of BT in the old days when they had total control, oopsssssssssss! Showing my age now!

Will be looking at other ISP's to see if I can change as just so fed up with FT. Hopefully my tale of woe will just let others know this sort of thing can hppen and therefore they will not end up in the position.

[sid]

Hello again Morse98

I'm glad you've got it sorted. Sometimes it takes a disaster to make you look at how you could do things better. I lost my harddrive this year and even though I had secure copies it was still a pain getting everything back together.

We don't have much choice of phone service supplier here, just FT and Tiscali. I'm with FT but I see that Tiscali are offering an inclusive ADSL/free phonecall package. FT have been pretty reliable; we rarely get any interruptions to the service. The devil you know ...?

Regards

Sid

[briwy]

      

I use Outlook for email all the time but also have a Googlemail web account and a web account from my ISP both of which can be accessed from anywhere there is internet access.

Outlook, and presumably Outlook Express, can be set up to recieve your web based Google/Hotmail/any web based account as well.

This seems to me to give the best of both worlds, control of your emails on your PC and access to web mail anyhere else as well if you cant use your own PC.

Ive been using this for about 12 months without any problems.

Also, as mentioned elswhere, the Outlook file can easily be backed up to DVD/external hard drive etc as a fall back in case of catastrophe.

Brian