Infused with the spirit of Christmas, TalkTalk decides to extend cut-off deadline for Business email domain

Gawd bless us, every one!

TalkTalk Business customers (at least those using the talktalkbusiness.net email domain) opened the second door of their advent calendars this morning and were rewarded with... an extension to the switch-off date.

Originally scheduled for culling on 4 January 2021, the legacy email domain servers on the receiving end of @talktalkbusiness.net missives have been given a stay of execution to 31 January 2021, according to the company.

After our earlier story on the matter, a spokesperson got in touch to pass on the good news: "The phasing out of this legacy email domain is part of a long term strategy and will apply to a very small number of our existing customers. However, we completely understand that Christmas is a busy time for businesses and have extended the deadline for these changes to January 31st 2021. Any customers requiring further assistance are invited to contact a member of the TalkTalk customer service team via our dedicated helpline."

Christmas is indeed a busy time, and a December spent frantically going through an address book to alert customers to an impending change of address makes even the tedious task of wrapping presents and writing cards to relations you wouldn't have seen (even if 2020 hadn't happened) seem preferable.

TalkTalk's largesse will not completely solve the challenges faced by its customers. Those with clients that email them at certain times of the year could still be posed with difficulties. While a few more weeks is welcome, an extension measured in months would be even better to ensure that nobody dropped through the gaps of non-delivery.

"Changes have all been made now but it remains to be seen how long it will take to catch all the old and odd emails," remarked Register reader Rupert Walker, who is charged with supporting TalkTalk customers.

"Any extra time is welcome to get this sorted but TT [sic] have never been the best at customer service," he added. TalkTalk is, after all, not known to trouble the top of Ofcom's satisfaction charts.

Still, the company's change of heart is to be welcomed, even if that legacy domain remains very much the ghost of Christmas past as far as TalkTalk is concerned. ®