Hi, yes I thought of adding the 3rd parties in as staff. I think setting them all up by specific email address in advance is not practical for the. If it were though I think I this would solve the problem of any replies by BT etc as they would be auto-added as internal notes and not replies as is the osticket default behaviour I understand.However how would I correspond to BT privately if I used the staff method - any replies would be emailed to the user and I would not want BT to have to use the portal I want them to just email me - perhaps I could transfer the ticket but this probably only allows for the first message to them? very confusing.The only other idea I had was to change the owner of the ticket by editing it and then reply to the thread (the emails would then go to new owner?) and when corresponding with 3rd party had finished I could change owner back to real user (however this requires staff to always note email addresses of the initiators & stops them corresponding with staff in the meantime)Any other thoughts welcome, I take it this is an unusual request..?