Telus Switching Email Customers Over to Gmail, Some Getting Migration Errors [u]

Telus gmail

Telus email customers were recently informed the company is migrating customers over to Google’s Gmail. The switch means the handling of email will be outsourced to Google’s Gsuite for enterprise, which offers email from Google and other services.

“Your Telus email is about to get a whole lot better,” reads the Telus email, shared by an iPhone in Canada reader.

Telus explains they will be transitioning Telus email accounts—including all email addresses—to be powered by Google to provide the “best possible email experience.”

The company reassures customers all Telus email address, including contacts and calendar events will be migrated. The switch to Gmail means storage will increase from 5GB to 15GB, while customers will also enjoy peace of mind with upgraded reliability and security. They’ll also be able to share calendars and access their email on any device.

Telus says if users don’t take action on the migration, email accounts will be automatically switched over on August 28, 2020. When this happens, users will not be able to choose their display name, their email sign in and how to be notified when their email has been migrated.

One iPhone in Canada reader part of this switch says they’re “very unhappy about this because I pay for an email only TELUS account for privacy and security reasons. I don’t want my email sitting on Google’s servers.”

The user continued, “They say, “At TELUS, we take strong measures to protect the privacy and security of your information.” But they do not provide how they are going to continue to maintain this privacy and security whilst using Google’s Gmail.”

Telus online forums also document email users who went through with the migration, but most detailed the transition was riddled with errors, unable to send or receive email.

Personal and business customers with Telus email were informed of the migration to Gmail back in March 2020.

The switch over to Google’s Gmail isn’t surprising, given the embarrassing outage related to Telus.net email last fall, when users were unable to access their email for nearly one week. The downtime was related to a “flawed repair” with vendor Dell EMC. While some may question Google’s privacy practices, Gmail is known for reliable uptime and trouble-free email for the most part.

We’ve reached out to Telus for comment on the email switch and will update this story accordingly.

Update June 30: A Telus spokesperson told iPhone in Canada in an emailed statement, “To provide customers with the best possible email experience, TELUS has started the process of transitioning all existing TELUS email accounts to a platform powered by Google.”

“At no extra cost to customers, TELUS email customers will benefit from increased reliability via a globally-available cloud-based platform, enhanced security, and triple their current storage space, now 15GB up from 5GB,” added the spokesperson.

Telus says the migration for email is happening in waves and customers will be notified with invites before migrations occur. “Customers can rest assured that they will retain all of their TELUS email addresses and that all emails, contacts and calendar events will be migrated to the new platform,” the spokesperson continued.

“The Google platform that customers are migrating to is the enterprise-grade G Suite, trusted by governments, universities, and leading businesses around the globe, including TELUS. Customers are not being migrated to the publicly-available Gmail product and data remains under the governance of TELUS’ stringent privacy protocols, in alignment with TELUS’ Privacy Management Program. For more details on our Privacy Management Program and privacy policy, see TELUS.com/privacy,” said the company.

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