BT customers across the UK have been left frustrated as thousands reported being unable to access their emails or connect to the internet on Saturday morning. The issues began around 5am, with over 5,000 complaints logged on the outage-tracking site Downdetector. According to Downdetector, 92% of the reported problems were related to email access, while 7% of users experienced broadband connectivity issues and 1% had trouble with the company’s website.
As of 10:52am, 4,411 customers were still reporting problems. Many disgruntled customers took to social media to express their concerns. One user wrote to BT, “Email servers are down and there is no response on your chat.
What is going on?” Another questioned, “Why is BT Mail down and nothing appearing on your website to acknowledge?”
Some users shared their frustrations with the lack of communication from BT. One customer commented, “90 minutes and nothing. Not good enough, BT.” Another described their experience, saying, “Got onto emails fine this morning, then got a message saying ‘please wait for the messages to load,’ then the DNS server error message.
BT customers experience widespread outages
Can’t find a way to sort it either. Deleted cookies, flushed DNS…
nothing is working.”
In response to the outage, BT issued an apology and suggested that customers use their mobile data to access emails instead of Wi-Fi while the company investigates the issue. A BT spokesperson stated, “We’re aware that some BT email customers are unable to access their email on webmail and via the app. We’re investigating the cause of this, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Alternatively, customers can switch off Wi-Fi and use mobile data to access their email. No other BT service is impacted.”
BT is actively working to resolve the issue and restore services for affected customers. The company has not provided an estimated time for when the problem will be fixed.
The outage comes as BT prepares to increase tariffs on its mobile and broadband services. Customers who started their contracts from April 10, 2024, will see their broadband bills go up by £3 per month on March 31st, while those on contracts from before April 10, 2024, will experience an inflation-linked 6.4% price rise.
