We have had BT email addresses for decades but in recent years we have had to pay a small amount for these. When they put the price up to £7.50 per month, we decided to switch to BT broadband as this would incorporate our email costs. The broadband was fine, much faster than talktalk our previous provider. However, the day after we arrived in Sri Lanka for a 2 month trip my husband's email address was 'deactivated' - he could neither send or receive emails. This really is pretty inconvenient!!!! So he embarked on a series of phone calls with BT - we kept details of the times and the length of these conversations - and the costs of calling from Sri Lanka. The calls were both expensive and extremely agitating/depressing as nothing was resolved. They did not phone on the Sri Lankan number we provided or use the alternative email address that we provided. We had to firefight a number of issues that arise when email notifications are not received. We arrived back on 28th February and continued to seek a solution and after about a week the email was reactivated, but no emails were received for the period 4th January to 7th March - these will never be available we are told! BT has shown no inclination to pay for our phone calls or refund the costs of their 'services' for the period when we were receiving a reduced service, nor have they given any explanation for this lamentable failure. Is this customary? Can this possibly be acceptable?