If you have an email account with TDS, you’ve already heard the news—the Google email platform we’ve been using is being discontinued (we weren’t happy about it either). Even though the move to a new platform should be fairly painless process, you still may have some questions.
Here are four new things about the email switch you might be interested to know:
1. We can’t tell you exactly when your email box will move, even though we’d like to. Why? We can move only a certain amount of email in a single day…and how much email our customers have changes by the second. As a result, we can’t know in advance which combination of customer email boxes will make up the correct total we need for that day’s move. Trust us—if we had a way to tell you ahead of time, we would!
2. We researched and investigated email platforms many months before deciding on the one we did. We did our best to find a replacement that duplicated your favorite features of the old email platform while also maintaining a similar look and feel. Our top priority is and was to make the transition as easy as possible.
3. You’ll know when it’s done. When your email has been moved, you’ll get one last email in your Gmail inbox telling you that the switch was successful. If you’re using an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird, or accessing your email on your mobile device, you’ll need to update your settings—the final email has links where you can find help. If you check your email from the web you’ll have to accept the user agreement the first time you log in and then you’ll be good to go.
4. You are not the only customers affected by Google’s decision to stop offering their partner email product. We won’t name names, but there are many, many other customers at other Internet service providers who are in the same boat. Misery loves company, right? 😉
Watch here for more updates and FAQs about the email switch.
I hope this change makes accessing e-mail better. I have to click on “send/receive” twice to open the e-mail page. I have worked with TDS tech support twice to remedy the problem, but it continues to come back the next day. TDS has been more concerned with charging me $4.95 to correct the problem than fixing it. TDS tech support I have worked with is now based in the country of Jamaica and the second time I worked with them it took more than 1 and 1/2 hours to fix the problem which came right back the next day. What ever happened to the old US based TDS tech support that could fix problems in 15 to 20 minutes??????????
I had to recreate our group lists and find that the amount of names on the list is limited, but there is no information as to how many names can be in any contact list. I too have tried to access tech help, but have been frustrated in not finding the right department to help me through this. I also keep getting messages that the server is not working. This is my business, so this needs to be addressed soon!
TDS ADDED 118 names to my group list. My email was bounced back as having too many names. It showed 278 names – many duplicates – others from another world. I had to manually delete the extra 118 names. One ditz at TDS told me it would only take 5 minutes. Idiot would not do it. Took 20X longer to make sure I wasn’t deleting a good contact. So far I haven’t had to send out a group mailing to my 160 people. I’m dreading this next task.
I too am also getting the “out to lunch” message. I frequently have to hit the “send error” message up to 10X.
NOT happy with TDS
How did you set up a group list – I’m so frustrated!! I list two for my church and can get any help from TDS. I wish I was never a customer…
IF I CAN FIND ANY OTHER WAY TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET , I WILL , THIS IS THE WORST SYSTEM I HAVE EVER SEEN . WHAT ”GENIUS” IN YOUR ORGANIZATION DREAMED THIS UP ? THE LAST TIME YOU DID ME A SIMILAR FAVOR IS WHEN YOU LOST ALL MY PICTURES AND A LOT OF INFORMATION WITH YOUR ”EXPERT”. IF YOU WANT A RECOMMENDATION , COUNT ON ME , I’LL BE HAPPY TO REWLATE MY EXPERIENCES .
Boy, it is hard to believe that there is any problem with this two bit system! That we had any other choice.
I must be amongst the thousands who have had similar problems. My going rate is $80/hour, so they owe me several months worth of “services.”
My email has not worked since Dec. 5th! What kind of service is this??? I can’t even get through to a tech anymore. AARGH!!
And the beat goes on!!!!
One of the worst systems that I’ve experienced. With everything that’s “out there” is this the best that’s available? I think you really need to re-examine your choices.
This is by far the worst transition I have ever experienced with any company as an user. I have not had access to my email in 2 1/2 weeks. When I log on to my email, it only redirects to my home page. When I call technical support, I am sure I am not speaking with anyone that has a technical background but a phone operator whom then reads from their script saying that “the technical team is aware and is working on the problem.” It’s unacceptable!
I haven’t been able to access my TDS email for 2 weeks. When I log on, I’m redirected back to the home page and I’ve tried a variety of browsers with no success. I’ve been told that there are technical problems and they are working on it, but no one has any information to offer beyond that, other than they may have lost all of my email. What exactly is the technical issue? Who is working on it and why is it taking so long? I keep checking, but there are no updates on the TDS web page. I’m wondering if a team working on this issue can’t fix it by now, will they ever? Extremely frustrated and discouraged! Two thumbs down to TDS and to Synacor. This is a terrible transition!
Cathy, I forwarded on your comment to our email conversion team and was told someone would be reaching out to you shortly.
I’ve got the exact same problem, with no help. What is it I have to do?
I can NOT log on to my email and can NOT get any one to answer the help line. It is like being lost and helpless
You cannot contact me by email , I can NOT get into my email
Martha, our repair team should be able to help you troubleshoot the problem. You can reach them at 1-888-225-5837, or chat with them at http://www.tdstelecom.com/chat, or you can place a trouble ticket on our website or our Facebook page and someone will get back to you.
I cannot access my TDS email account at all. I have had problems ever since the email conversion in the form of constant error messages that require me to exit my email account and then log in again.
Tom, have you tried reaching out to our repair team? We don’t offer customer support here on the blog, but you can call repair at 1-888-225-5837, or chat with them at http://www.tdstelecom.com/chat. If you’d prefer, you could also place a trouble ticket on our website or our Facebook page and someone will get back to you.
I guess I should feel lucky. Mine actually works, sorta. Not happy with all the lost emails from the last few years. New system does not seem to have a “spam” folder where I used to find legitimate emails. Wonder what I am missing.
I hate it!! If I could find another company I would do so! Tired of listening to music for long stretches of time to reach a real person and one who speaks english. I noticed this a couple of months ago..the service and non english speaking people in customer service have changed and it is terrible.
I have an old computer and this email conversion stinks. Keeps freezing up on me and times out. Awful conversion with terrible service!
The thugs at the FCC do not know what rural America is up against with these monopolies.
Hey folks – recommend you apply for a gmail account. They are free.
Yes, but you have to change your e-mail address and all that goes with it I believe?? Correct Fred?
I am unhappy that my mail is being filtered for SPAM without my review. I continue to miss legitimate emails.
I am having the same problem. Used to be able to look at spam folder, not now so it seems.
I,too, am unhappy with the change. I hate the look of it, but the problems are much worse than the look. After a little work, I finally can log in, but its a process. Some days, I can’t bring up any emails. Just get server/network notice or error report notices over & over. I have been slowly moving things to my gmail acct. that was originally just for business. Have unscubsribed to some things just to cut down on the annoyance of not opening their email anyway. I can’t believe this is the best “other” platform out there. Distressed to hear that support is no longer in the U.S.
TDS sucks sucks sucks!!!! Their internet service sucks. Their crap router/gateway has to be reset multiple times daily. They charge way to much for spotty slow service because they have a monopoly in my area. As soon as any other ISP becomes available in my area I will be gone and I will never look back. Most bandwidth I can get from them is 5MB/second. Are you serious TDS? And now to top it all off they have completely screwed up my email account. I can finally send and receive emails but all my contacts are gone. Oh and guess what. Gmail still works. So what was all this BS for? And my contacts missing is not because I’m on Gmail. I’m also on Blue Mail. Cant get them their either. They are just gone. Thanks TDS you are awesome…..Not!!!!
I just tried to add to my previous comment. Guess what, No Internet access. Had to reset my TDS Gateway yet again. But I should be happy. That’s only the first time today. Thanks TDS for your fine service.
I use Mail on my Mac, so have not had to deal with the same issues some of you have had to face. BUT…today, a week after the mail switchover for me, TDS suddenly dumped FIVE THOUSAND emails into my Inbox, dating back to August of 2010, when I got this computer. WOW! Just WOW! My modem also has to be reset every couple of days, and connection speed is super slow. Wish we had an alternative!
I can’t lot into my email! Been with TDS email almost 20 years with no problems! What kind of a system did TDS go to? Called the tech and they said it was my browser …then he gave me another 866 # to call? He told me it was my Google browser? an unhappy camper!
Phyllis, if you haven’t resolved this problem, please email your contact information to comments@tdstelecom.com I can have one of our support team reach out to you.
We have 3 email addresses. Husband got an email saying the conversion was complete. Accepted new terms and set up his new setting on the iMac. After having 4 yrs of emails dump on the computer and getting them cleaned out I went about setting up my email only to keep getting wrong password (yet I can log in online at tds.net) Called support and was told each email address would get an email saying my mailbox had moved. Is this true? Because if I not how do I get the other two accounts to send/receive mail?
Dianne, each email address is considered a unique account in the system. It sounds like your husband’s email has moved but yours hasn’t yet. You will receive one final email into your account/email address letting you know your email has been moved to the new system.
(Note: I am TDS customer as well as employee and this is exactly what happened with my email and my husband’s — mine moved first, his a few weeks later 🙂 )
Missy, did you loose most all your emails? I lost everything from 2013 and 2014, and just this weekend everything from 2015 up to that point. Great system!!
Gerry, I did not lose any emails.TDS did not delete any email from the system with the conversion—it is my understanding we actually made a copy of the email to migrate. If you lost email, there a number of things that could have happened and we’d like to be able to talk with you to troubleshoot this issue. If you send us your account information, including a number where we can reach you to comments@tdstelecom.com I’ll forward it on to our email team so they can follow up.
I tried getting my older emals, shows I have over 3000, but will only go back a few years…is this just GONE? I was told it would be there forever and I wouldn’t need to delete…so I wanted to keep some of these from people who are no longer alive…how do I get to them?
David, no email should have been deleted. If you can email your email address and contact information to comments@tdstelecom.com I’ll have someone from our tech support team reach out to you.
Thank you DeAnne, apparently I was too impatient, the rest of the emails did finally load.
what a God forsaken system!!!
Like to see the paychecks that the yahoo’s who figured this new “system” get!!
System always has to be rebooted!!
No messages are in the folders that were copied over!! THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM!!
This my alleged home page.???
God Bless us all!
Spam blocker??? none existent.
spam sent to a regular files as junk mail which it truly isn’t.
WHAT A NIGHMARE the entire system is any more.
THEN try to get get through to the “system” to report problems. This went from bad to worse to virtually non-existent??
We live in PA and where is the system being run out of??
I can’t find out as I just got a message that TDS is not responding!
We already know that!!!
I have called TDS technical service 4 times about emails being lost with their new system and was told each time that I am still in a transition. This has been going on since December 12. I finally had to open a gmail account and transitioned most of my emails to the new address. I just can’t understand how TDS can remain in this business with such lousy service. I guess it is because they have a monopoly in sections of Fannin County, Georgia and they really don’t care about service. I finally sent in a complaint email to TDS and haven’t had a response after 2 Days.
Michael, when we migrate an account we make a copy of the email from Google so none are lost. We have encountered issues where it looks like email is lost due to switching from POP to IMAP email delivery protocols. If you can send your contact information to comments@tdstelecom.com I’ll have someone reach out to you to see if we can figure out what’s going on.
Your new email system does not support Microsoft XL. I am down a desktop now. I can’t use the Google play store to download apps on my phone and tablet anymore. Now my tablet only can be used to read newspapers and my smart phone might as well be a flip top. I have been your customer for 10 years. I don’t believe you could be treating me any worse.
I will now enter my vote into this as i think it is the worst you could have done. My email has worked good for approx 10 years and now that you have changed, i have nothing but problems. i use office outlook for my email or rather I did. For the first month it kept on locking up my computer and outlook could not get through to tds to get my email. I called and your tech people informed me after an hour of playing around that I would have to contack Outlook to correct any problems. I had no problems until you changed your end. Could not understand why this is outlook problem. Now all of a sudden without me changing anything my connection with tds through outlook is working, but I cant download any pictures on outlook. I just get the old square with an X in it and your tech people again told me it was a microsoft issue and not theirs. Can we go back to the way it was? From the sound of this blog, I believe if you put it up for a vote most would say go back. I am looking for a way to change away from you. You have always been good, but this is a real headache.
Welcome to the pool. Bring a snorkle!
Where did my emails go? I have an email that is VERY important to me that is no longer in my In Box.
Your emails should be there, but you may not be able to see if them if you have changed your POP/IMAP settings (https://blog.tdstelecom.com/products/pop3-and-imap-what-are-they/). If that doesn’t work though, please reach out to our customer service team for assistance.
The new Synacor email system is a poor excuse for an email system in 2015. It has an unbelievably crude interface. It is “user abusive!”
My problem is that I only get intermittant support of email notification from my Google Calendar. It has worked with the new Synacor email system and then it didn’t, and then it did and then…..
What I found most irritating is that when I spoke with an email technical support person (in Jamaica), he assured me the problem was with Google’s Calendar system. I asked him how he knew that. He said it was because it didn’t work on the Synacor system. (Dumb!)
I asked to speak with a supervisor and he told me there wasn’t one “on the floor.” He didn’t offer any option for a callback. I asked him what his unique employee Id was so I could address this matter with specificity with someone who cares at TDS. He said he couldn’t give me one and he couldn’t give me his name. Isn’t that convenient….
After hanging up with him, I called and spoke to the “Add a Service” people at TDS. I spoke with a supervisor. I told her the specifics of my technical support encounter (i.e. no supervisor and no employee identification). It took her a while to understand I was trying to help out TDS by telling them how incredibly bad things are in their technical support area. She lightly said she report it to someone….. I didn’t get the feeling she was going to do anything about it.
At some point, all of us will die. Fortunately, most of us will be able to say we didn’t trade our life’s energy mistreating people just to get a paycheck..
I’ve posted here several times. The “help” Missy et al have suggested have essentially been no help at all. Modem drops out pretty often. Emails go missing. Suggestions listed here for “help” have pretty much been helpless. No problems solved. It would help it they spoke English as their native tongue.
I upgraded to a faster service a few weeks ago, marginally faster, but still can’t stream an entire movie, maybe 40-50 minutes. I did get a native English speaker (Sandy?) for help with the slow speeds and incompatibility with my iPhone.
I am not a fan of ATT, but did have two positive experiences with them. It helped that the person know what I and She were talking about and that she spoke real English.
If there were any other choice…
March 18
TDS has no idea when this problem will be fixed. I keep getting told we are working on it and are close to a fix. At first I was told the reason I could not access my tds email was because I closed my google account. Nothing like passing the buck but they didn”t mind raising my rates even without it working. Guess its time to switch to xfinity, I am totally fed up with this company.
This new Email system is the worst I have ever dealt with. Pure trash. Shame on you TDS for picking this horrid garbage. Although I did have the Google Email back for a day a couple of days ago it was a relief for one day. I think I will open a Gmail account and get Sat internet and kick TDS to the curb. I have a good slogan for your marketing department ” TDS has always been bad but now its even worse” when you call for help plan on being on hold for around two weeks.
I hate TDS. It’s time for a change.
before the email conversion, there was an option to “delete all” messages in the trash bin. There isn’t one now (that I;ve noticed) and it appears that you need to check each message individually and then hit delete.
Is this correct?
Email is decent though some emails “disappear” and then return. MY BIG GRIPE is that even though I upgraded (and pay $93/mo for a service that is advertised almost daily to “new” customers for $60/mo), I still cannot stream movies for more than about 20 minutes. (Why are they wanting to add more customers when they can’t even properly serve the ones they have?)
All I get when I talk to “service” reps is “We apologize. Apologies don’t cut it at almost $100/mo. If I lived anywhere else, I could get better service for about half that much.
I have called and called asking why I cannot receive e-mails from my husband . I can e-mail him he replies and I get no emails back. They of course say it is not them it is charter, funny he can email everyone else no problems.
I was happy with TDS for so many years but not anymore.
Brenda, we don’t offer support over the blog, but, I did reach out to someone on our email team just in case he had some ideas. He said it would helpful to see a copy of an email that isn’t going through. If your husband could forward a copy of a reply he sent (but you didn’t receive) to our comments@tdstelecom.com inbox I’ll have the team take a look. Thank you. –Missy
Thank you for contacting the email team, TDS called my IT person after I have tried to get someone to listen.
TDS is blocking e-mails from are Work Charter e-mail which includes many of are current customers. We can receive e-mails from them they just don’t receive any emails from us.
I am so upset because we are emailing invoices and statements and no TDS customers receive them .All my Customers are upset with me ,they feel I am not fixing the problem.
On friday they did unblock 2 emails and I could receive emails from two of are work emails,problem is it is only my email. We have 11 Charter emails that email TDS accounts.
My husband is still blocked so I will have him email and cc you.
Someone was going to call back Friday afternoon- but never did.
Thank you for looking into this, I have never went on a blog before to complain but when I would call I would be on the phone for a hour with no results.
Thank You!!!We are back up and e-mails are now working. Thanks Christopher for your fast action and understanding and Missy for getting attention to this. Once you talk to the right person things get fixed.
Almost daily I receive and insert in the newspaper from TDS offering “high speed internet”, the same package I pay over $90/month for $59.94/month. They keep trying to sell into a system that is already so overloaded (and dysfunctional) that it does not perform as advertised. I could feel better about the price I’m paying if it performed better. Too bad that they are a monopoly in this area.
Train wreck. Thats how I would describe the old Google partnership. SO glad its gone. Unfortunately its been replaced with shinier train wreck. BRAVO!
I wont bother to list my problem. They are the same as everyone else above. Like TONS of new CONTACTS added to my address book. Excellent! Now I can quickly email NoReply@ebookhelp.net SWEET!
I’d drop TDS in a heartbeat if i could. And dont let them fool you. Its all about money. This is 2015. And ive yet to see a large corp care about anything but the bottom line.
Outsourcing tech support will be seen years from now, as a nail in the coffin, of many once successful companies.
One of the biggest moronic things TDS does, is send me ads and junk mail (U.S. mail) for products I already use. Doesnt that seem intelligent? Normally im accustomed to getting junk mail from companies who want my business. OH NO, not TDS. You do business with them, and they will STILL send you crap in the mail. Dont worry about that cost TDS. We all pay for it in the end.
Im currently trying to configure Evolution 3.2.3 to work as my email client.
Well said, Adam. TDS=Totally Dysfunctional System
I am very dissatisfied with this change – have had nothing but problems this past week – now can’t even access my email account – when I try calling TDS – guess what? calls not going through…for as much as it costs per month, this is totally unacceptable. Bad thing-contract not up til August so stuck with this crap! TDS was much better when it was a small hometown business…now they just suck!
Been on the phone listening to elevator muzac and “tips” for half an hour this morning. Why not leave an explanation of the problem? Oh, that might take a month to explain!
They’ve completely gutted my DSL connection. On many days I can’t access e-mail, can’t access my favorite sports websites (because I’m a fan of sports), can’t even access a text only website sometimes. Some nights I’ve recorded speeds slower than actual dial-up.
Five-six years ago I used to get closer to the advertised speed, I used to be able to download 5-10 GBs of data within one night. Not anymore.
Now TDS manages to mess up arguably the most simple of features, e-mail. Basically for over twenty years people have used e-mail to great success. How can you screw up something that has been around for decades?
It’s taken me a long time to say it but I’ll say it now. This company sucks. Outsourcing to Jamaica is probably the worst decision they could of made. Yeah sure, people who worked in Customer Support got a lot of abuse, now you have to give people in another country a hard time because you are too cheap to deploy quality service and satisfaction.
Heck, TDS even does bait-n-switch tactics on their fiber service. Advertise it as being a good deal then pull the rug out.
If this gets any worse then I’ll just drop this sorry excuse of a phone company and go with dial-up and satellite, until I move out of my current home.
been like that here in etna maine for almost 2 years. starting around 5pm every night and all day on weekends speed drops from 5.5M to 56K speeds. if lucky I get 128K isdn speeds.
overloaded equipment.
Not only it is overloaded and dysfunctional, TDS will do nothing about it. Believe me I’ve tried. Several phone calls to their so-called support, open a ticket, and maybe if I’m lucky they will switch something on their end to make my internet “magically” better.
So how is it that I go from dial-up speeds to actual DSL speeds after one phone call sometimes? Because TDS owns a monopoly here in Clark County, WA. They just switch me over to a server or a line that isn’t overloaded.
So what I’ve done lately is go to Starbucks to get most of my downloads finished. The people at my Starbucks are fine with me checking e-mail and doing the casual activity. Hell, I get more done with my e-mail there than I can with ‘craptastic’ TDS DSL here at home.
I’ll be looking for an apartment with Xfinity internet. I hate Comcast but I need broadband internet, most importantly for job searching.
I wish TDS would stop convincing more people to join their overloaded networks and actually provide a ‘consistent’ connection. Ultra fast speeds aren’t what I really want, it’s good relations and rock steady consistency.
TRue! I get a flyer in my newspaper weekly offering all the hype at about the price I am currently paying. Again, adding to an already overloaded system is not going to “fix” the problem. I don’t have any other reasonable choice, either.
What’s funny is that I get the same thing through the monthly bill. I used to call up TDS support only to discover I cannot get faster service because I live too far away from the CO, and also because the network cannot handle the everyday afternoon traffic.
…and even if you live right in town that DOES offer you faster TDS DSL service, you will still see massive slowdowns. Believe me I’ve talked to people who have this problem.
So what is TDS doing about this? Trying to sell even more people so the system becomes even more overloaded. GREAT WAY TO DO BUSINESS, but with a virtual monopoly, why should they do it any other way? As much as their hype promotes, they have no heart.
This email fiasco continues to be a massive customer service ball drop. I am disgusted with the ho-hum attitude and lack of support. Yes, you can initially point a finger back at gmail as long as you’re also taking appropriate steps to figure out support solutions then move on with troubleshooting options and fixes. Adapt and overcome. This is what the rest of us have to do. Bad business. Shame on you.
Although totally frustrated at the change and definite challenges getting technical help, the system is finally working well for me. I have many less drops and I’ve figured the contact list requirements out so that I can actually email to that list without problems. Just wish they would have had a better system set up initially to answer all our questions. I won’t complain anymore if it keeps working.
All the more reasons to avoid TDS:
http://wsrl.org/tds1.htm
Looks like it’s time to give them up.
Is there a setting i can use so as not to log into mail each time i want to check it?
Richard, I reached out to our email team and they said: depending on which browser you use, you may be able to save the login info to have a smoother experience. However, it is a security timeout so you will have to re-enter your credentials somehow.
I am having a problem with the email refusing to log out. If I send a message, then logout, the screen blinks. I am using chrome browser. It works correctly on windows but does not work on a chromebook. Is there any solution?
Hmmmm. Have you spoken with one of our repair techs? The can probably help you troubleshoot (or maybe tell you what’s going on). You can give them a call at 1-888-225-5837. Thank you!