Verizon Gets Rid of Email – Sends Verizon Email Users to AOL

verizon closing email down
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If you use Verizon for your email, receiving email at or sending it from a verizon.net email address, have we got some news for you: Verizon is retiring their email service. This means you have two options: switching to a new system entirely and losing your @verizon.net email address, or switching to AOL (where you will still be able to send/receive using your Verizon email address).

To add to the confusion, countless Verizon customers received an email from Verizon with the subject “Email Service Notice” which said, and we quote:

Effective null (sic, emphasis ours), we’ll no longer provide verizon.net email service. Other than this change, your Verizon service(s) won’t be affected.

We have two options for you to consider. Please review both options and take action today to avoid losing access to your email.

Choosing an option is easy.

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1. Go here to sign into your verizon.net email account

2. Select ‘Keep verizon.net email address’ or ‘Try any other email provider’ to complete the setup.

Option 1. Keep your current email address with AOL Mail.

By choosing this option you will:

– Keep your current verizon.net email address
– Migrate to AOL Mail
– Retain email, contacts and calendars automatically

Option 2. Try any other email provider.

By choosing this option, you will:

– No longer be able to use your current verizon.net email address
– Establish an account with a mail provider of your choosing like Outlook.com or Gmail
– Manually move your email, contacts and calendar(s)

To confirm this message is valid, visit verizon.com and select ‘Announcements’ under the ‘Tools’ section at the bottom of the page.

Have questions? More information can be found at verizon.com/Email.

Take action by null (sic, our emphasis) or you’ll lose access to your verizon.net email account.

Don’t wait, act now.

Of course, the rather shocking error of the email displaying the term ‘null’, instead of a date, is worse than unhelpful, as it is creating stress in users who don’t know when the deadline is.

(Users reading email through the web found “$LASTDATE” where the last date should have been, instead of the word ‘null’.)

In their FAQ regarding why Verizon is retiring email, in answer to the question “Why is Verizon leaving the email business?”, they explain:

We have decided to close down our email business. Over the years we’ve realized that there are more capable email platforms out there. As a result, we’ve made a decision to get out of the email business, which will allow us to focus our energies in providing you with the best in Internet and TV experiences.

That’s marketfuscation speak for “it isn’t profitable, and is a money sink.”

Also note that they seem to be trying to dissuade you from moving to another provider, making it as easy as possible to migrate to AOL.

The reason that one can do this with AOL is because Verizon has made an agreement with AOL under which AOL will maintain the verizon.net domain for email. This means that you don’t have to change your email address at all.

Verizon has made a point of saying that it will cost their users nothing “to move to AOL”, rather than saying that the email at AOL will also be free. That said, AOL does offer a free email service, so there is no reason to imagine that AOL will be charging incoming Verizon email users, at least for basic email services.

Still, we would advise that if you are still using a verizon.net email address, now is the time to get rid of it. You can’t be sure that AOL will continue maintaining the verizon.net domain (why would they?), and you certainly don’t want to end up with an AOL email address (if you don’t know why, read Do You Suffer from Email Domain Shame? Many AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo and Other Users Do).

Moving to somewhere else, such as, say, Gmail, does not have to be much more painful than migrating your Verizon email account to AOL.

Worried about your Verizon calendar? Go ahead and set up that free verizon.net email account at AOL, and get your calendar set up at AOL. Then, assuming you are moving to Gmail, use these instructions to sync your new Google calendar with the AOL calendar. ;-)

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7 thoughts on “Verizon Gets Rid of Email – Sends Verizon Email Users to AOL

  1. This is super frustrating. All of my accounts are set up to my Verizon email. I forget passwords from time to time and fall back on to the fact that I can get a reset sent to my email. So now what do I do? Try to remember every single thing I have ever signed up for using my Verizon email and switch it to my Gmail?? Thanks for screwing me over, once again Verizon. Should I mention the irony of having to add my Verizon email address just to post this comment? ?

  2. I switched my verizon.net email account to AOL about three weeks ago and all seemed OK. Then about noon on Sunday, April 30, I noticed my emails stopped coming in to my Windows Live Mail client. I have several domains on 1and1.com and I had set up email forwarding so *@example.com is sent to @verizon.net. I could still get emails sent directly to my verizon account (now AOL), but the forwarding did not work. Finally I was able to add a second forwarding address to my @gmail.com account, and the mail was successfully forwarded there. Then, I set up my gmail to forward to @verizon.net, and that works. I don’t know what the problem is, and tech support at Verizon and 1and1 were unable to resolve the issue. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the migration to AOL, and I think the deadline was April 30. Now I am going to try Xfinity to see if that works. I will also be able to enjoy paying only about $120/mo rather than $190/mo. Win-win?

  3. Verizon owns AOL, so Verizon is NOT getting out of the e-mail business. AOL has a MUCH looser, ‘hence’ more profitable, privacy agreement with their users. Which means you will be pegged with spam from your own provider, along with other annoyances.

    It was time for me to move off Verizon anyway.

  4. If I already pick up my email on AOL and I will have my verizon.net email address, do I still need to do something? Or am I OK with what I did a few months ago?

  5. Verizon bought aol in 2015 for 4.4 billion and yahoo in 2016 4.8 billion so why do they say there getting out the business.

    with aol if you want better service, there is 3 plans you can by.

  6. I’ve been able to use the AOL mail for my old GTE.net, and it’s alias Verizon.net, for quite a while now.

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